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The Coniston Hotel in Skipton
Introduction
Help with a new website boosted this Dales hotel's sales by 25%
- New staff taken on to cope with increased business
- Postage and printing costs reduced as more people view online
- Wedding booking increased by 50% in just 1 year
Summary
A new interactive website, sourced with help from Business Link Yorkshire and funded by a grant from Yorkshire Forward, has helped the Coniston Hotel in the Yorkshire Dales to revolutionise the way it does business, to increase sales, and to employ more people.
The family-run, independently owned hotel is set on a private country estate and offers leisure breaks, weddings and corporate events.
“We had a very basic website, which didn’t really sell our services adequately and didn’t allow content to be changed easily. We needed a better website, linked to a customer database, so we could better respond to sales enquiries.”
With help from Business Link Yorkshire, a new website was sourced, and a grant from Yorkshire Forward made the whole process even easier. The new website better reflects the hotel’s image, with lots of photography and a 360-degree tour feature. Special offers can be uploaded and changed easily, and the site has been optimised to feature high up in search-engine results.
“Since the new website went live and we employed a marketing manager, sales have increased by 25% and we’ve taken on two additional staff to cope with increased business. It’s reduced how many brochures we send out by post—saving time, postage and printing costs.”
A recent survey showed that 17% of bookings originated via the new website. 2008’s wedding bookings were up 50% on 2007, thanks in no small part to the website.
“We can now monitor which people download our brochure, and make follow-up calls to ask if people would like to come in for a look round. It gives us a database of clients we can invite back for a return stay when we have a weekend-break package on offer, or an event coming up—the new site has really changed the way we do business,” says Tracey.
