A moment of your time, please.

[wayfaringwordhack]

 I have a friend in the south of France who has a bed and breakfast, and she would like to improve her google results to attract more tourists from around the world. She asked me how I would search for a place to stay on the net. While I know how I would search, I'm afraid I can't really give her unbiased feedback because I've lived in France since 2001.[Poll #1356551]<input ... >

If you (very kindly, I might add) answer the last question,  please don't use "le Manoir" in your search. I want to see if people can find my friend's site without knowing the name of her b&b.

Thanks so much!!! 

Comments

[frigg.livejournal.com]

With the search results, I searched and then typed in the first 5 hits. Had to delete the "www", because there wasn't space, but they're supposed to be there. :)

Other places I can think of in south of France: Bordeaux, Toulouse and Perpignan (the latter only because Petros is there, so that probably doesn't count, though)

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't list other sites or cities because those two (Cassis and Marseille) are closest to where she is. She'd never come up on the radar of anyone want to stay in Toulouse, etc.

Thanks for the vote

[navicat.livejournal.com]

Sorry to say I don't have a lot of experience booking anything like this, so don't know the names of online places and such :p

*is not helpful*

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

But I appreciate your vote! :D

[learningtoread.livejournal.com]

I don't know France well enough to book a trip without a lot of research about it well enough -- I'm definitely a Do-It-Yourselfer. If I had to be in one particular part of the country or one specific city, my initial search terms would be something like, "lodging 'south france'"

I swear by TripAdvisor, too. Like, I don't even mess around with online booking sites like Expedia. I find a hotel with the kind of user ratings and comments I want, and then book directly with the place of lodging. I do a hostel or guesthouse nearly every year, and this is the ONLY way for me to be comfortable. :-D

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't like Expedia, either. Being a DIYer myself, it was the only thing I could think of. But, d'oh, I've heard of TripAdvisor before. :P

Thanks.

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

but now I want to go stay in her B&B!

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

It's really nice! And she and her husband are very nice. I'd recommend it; I plan on staying there one of these days. :D

[alaskanmermaid.livejournal.com]

When I have searched for B&Bs before, I generally find a local B&B guild or some such and look off of that. I also just google my heart out. If I knew I wanted to stay in a B&B, I probably wouldn't use an online booking page like expedia, because I don't expect them to have little nice places - just big hotels. That said, I use a lot of search engines - expedia, travelocity, priceline, kayak come to mind. France is so small anyway, why be specific to just the south? (said the egotistic Alaska...*cough* LOL)

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Ah, "guild"! See, I knew I should have made that one of my options and only thought about it last night when I saw my friend. :P

France is so small anyway, why be specific to just the south? (said the egotistic Alaska...*cough* LOL)

But it's dense and so full of history. :P

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I wish I could be mroe specific, but I just tend to stumble around the Internet until I find what I want. I'd probably go through some sort of travel association for a B&B, though. like, I know Ireland has one where approved B&B's display a shamrock on their signs so you know they meet some sort of standard.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Kev. That's what I needed to know!

[pjthompson]

I used Orbitz to book my flights, then I used a combination of tourist information agencies and direct look-ups on the internet. Mostly tourist information agencies, though. I like those because the bookings are vetted in advance.

And I wasn't sure my search results came through, so:

For south of France:

www.bed-breakfast-france.com/

www.ownersdirect.co.uk/France-Provence-Alpes-Cote-DAzur-gh.htm

www.hoteldevigniamont.com/

www.leprincenoir.com/

www.creme-de-languedoc.com/findbb.php


For Cassis:

www.provenceweb.fr/e/bouches/cassis/location.htm

www.bed-breakfast-provence.com/bed-breakfast-cassis.htm

www.travel-library.com/b&b/europe/france/cassis/

www.homelidays.com/cassis/bedandbreakfast183386en1.htm

en.europa-bed-breakfast.com/html/cottage-bed-and-breakfast_villa-le-cedre_13_51.html

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Thanks, PJ. It did't come through in the box, so I'm glad you re-posted it. That info will help my friend.