InsideOut Solutions

Hacienda Vargas moves to WordPress

September 22nd, 2010 by

Hacienda Vargas Bed and Breakfast in Algodones New Mexico

Hacienda Vargas Bed and Breakfast in Algodones New Mexico

We love the flexibility of WordPress and so do our clients.  We recently upgraded the Hacienda Vargas website of Algodones to a fully managed WordPress site.

Now Cynthia and Richard can do the following with in their site.
  • Easily create new pages and edit all of their sites copy.
  • Easily add images to pages and blog posts.
  • Create photo galleries and albums, embed on any page or post.
  • Have better Search Engine Optimization control.
  • Manage their entire website from a single login.
  • A very friendly user interace. (Have you seen how easy WordPress is!)
  • Access to InsideOuts stock images for use on their site.
  • Access to InsideOut custom WordPress plug-ins for showing photos, recipes and specials.
  • And of course being able to make quality blog posts with the #1 blogging platform.
We are busy moving more of our clients sites over to WordPress so they can also have the same flexibility for editing their website.  Would you like to have your site converted?  If so give us a call at 1-800-500-8401.

Leave a Comment

Azalea Inn gets an Elegant new site!

September 2nd, 2010 by

InsideOut is proud to showcase one of our latest website designs: Azalea Inn. This glorious 19th century, colonial style bed and breakfast is located in the heart of the historic district of Savanna Georgia, located near Forsyth Park and the Savannah heritage garden.

Our design team worked closely with innkeeper Teresa Jacobson to produce a website that works to capture and showcase the romance and southern charm her bed and breakfast has to offer guests. Since the site’s redesign several weeks ago, there has been a significant increase in online reservations.

Features of the website include: beautiful photography, a custom Google map of the innkeeper’s recommended attractions in the surrounding area, such as good restaurants, and nearby shopping, parks, gardens etc. The website is built in WordPress, which allows the innkeepers full access to add photos, videos and edit the content throughout the entire website at a moment’s notice. Also included is a blog for the innkeepers to post recent news, inn specials and packages, and area events; all content that will serve to increase traffic to the website.

Congratulations to Teresa and Micheal on the success of your new website, and for running such a lovely Bed and Breakfast in Savannah Georgia!

Leave a Comment

Choosing a print format: rack card, bifold or trifold brochure

October 21st, 2009 by

New business cards and postcards set the tone for a brochure redesign.

New business cards and postcards set the tone for a brochure redesign.

Lookout Point Lakeside Inn was down to their last box of brochures. Co-owner Kristie Rosset decided this was the perfect time to update the design of the piece. InsideOut had recently established a new look for her postcards and business cards. Now we had the opportunity to brand the brochure.

Kristie was happy with the current format–an 8″ x 9″ piece which folded in half to 4″ x 9″–but she was also open to other options. Staying with a finished size of 4″ x 9″ made the most sense since it would fit both standard display racks and business envelopes. But which format would work for Lookout Point? Rack card, trifold or bifold?

Rack cards: small but mighty

A 2-sided 4″ x 9″ rack card was the most economical option. Although on the small side, a rack card still has enough room for good photos, a map and short-but-sweet text. For most small inns, a rack card is the best choice.

Keep reading →

Leave a Comment

Hudson, New York inn's new rack card

September 25th, 2009 by

New rack card design for The Croff House in Hudson, NY.

New rack card design for The Croff House in Hudson, NY.

The Croff House is a Victorian home with a beautiful and comfortable updated decor. Owners Duncan Calhoun and Russell Gibson worked with InsideOut to create a great web site that captures the contemporary feel of the inn and showcases its luxurious amenities. With the web site completed, it was time to create a print piece that could do the same job in a much smaller space. Again, they turned to InsideOut — this time, for the design of their 4″ x 9″ rack card.

Strong branding with matching marketing pieces:
Print designer Jennifer Lozada transferred the logo, colors, fonts and layout of the web site to the much smaller 4″ x 9″ print format. Rather than cramming the space with text, she let the photos do most of the talking. Open spaces (“white space”) in the layout draw the eye to the most important information. White space is key if you want to convey elegance and sophistication. Even with the “blank” space, text and photos, there was still room for a helpful locator map. Good feedback from the owners helped refine the map, text and photo selections.

The result: The web site and rack card are a match, conveying a consistent message. The owners decided on a quantity of 5,000 cards. InsideOut managed the printing to ensure quality, affordable cost and speed of delivery.

“It’s perfect!!!!” – Duncan

“The rack card looks great.” – Russ

Leave a Comment

The Travel Promotion Act

September 18th, 2009 by

We here at InsideOut just got an exciting email from Jay Karen, the president of PAII, announcing he has been working as a lobbyist for our industry in DC.

He has been speaking with lawmakers about House Resolution 2935, a.k.a. the Travel Promotion Act. The goal of the bill is to create America’s first “destination marketing organization”. This group would be a non-profit organization called the “Corporation for Travel Promotion”, and would manage the tourism promotion of the United States to international travelers.

Learn about the Travel Promotion Act

Learn about the Travel Promotion Act

If you didn’t know, international travel to the United States is down significantly in the last 8 years. We have fewer tourists today than in 2001. As far as keeping up with the competition, we are the only nation in our “competitive set” that does not have a budget for promoting our nation as a travel destination. It seems, with all of our breathtaking National parks and natural beauty, we would encourage an income that allowed us to keep these spaces open and wild. Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are just some of the wonders of our continent that have drawn visitors for years, and can continue to do so.  The average international tourist spends $4500 during a visit to the US. These are important numbers to a struggling economy.

The bill is also set-up to allow the Corporation to pay for itself. It includes a $10 entry fee for visitors that would fund the Corporations’ efforts.

There are things you can do to support this bill, and help to bolster travel from our neighbors and friends abroad. Contact your House of Representatives Official via the US Travel Association. Let them know that this bill effects you. After all, we know how much international visitors enjoy the bed and breakfast experience!

Leave a Comment

Facebook Marketing Presentation at Mississippi-Louisiana Conference

August 5th, 2009 by

Dunleith Inn, a historic Natchez Bed and Breakfast

Dunleith Inn, a historic Natchez Bed and Breakfast

Our very own Steven Dunston took a solo flight into the deep South for the Mississippi/Louisiana Bed and Breakfast Association Conference last week. After a quick visit to New Orleans over the weekend, he headed upriver to Natchez Mississippi where the function was being held at the Natchez Conference Center. The conference included a tour of the area’s extraordinary historical sites and antebellum mansions, many of which are bed and breakfasts.

Steven gave a presentation on Facebook Marketing, where he shared some of the insights and techniques for developing an effective marketing scheme on the ever popular social networking site Facebook. Many of the innkeepers Steven met expressed that their main sources for reservations were international clientele and word of mouth. Interestingly enough, these are the same qualities that make Facebook advertising so appealing.

Keep reading →

Leave a Comment

New Web Site for Richmond Bed and Breakfast

July 15th, 2009 by

The William Miller House is an elegant property in the historic Fan District of Richmond Virginia. A small Inn in Downtown Richmond Virginia, the innkeepers were looking to invest in a website that was going to be a great tool for them for years to come. With two guestrooms, they are extremely committed to customer service and providing dedicated & intimate care to their guests.

New Site Desgin for the William Miller House

New Site Design for the William Miller House

Beth Logan, our award winning lead designer, maintained the color scheme of their old site while modernizing the look and internal structure. Of course, all website designs at InsideOut are made with Cascading Style Sheets, and optimized for Search Engine Placement.

They have a different style of photo gallery, one that allows them to include descriptions of the photos. When a visitor clicks on the photo, it is pulled into a lightbox for better viewing. Try this feature on the breakfast page and click on the smaller inlay photos to view them larger.

The innkeepers of this Richmond lodging are active bloggers, and we made the RSS feed from their blog a prominent section of their footer.

The site is also loading very quickly as we work to improve some of our internal mechanics for even faster service of web sites. This means storing common Javascript and CSS files on a super fast server.

Mike has already told us the website has improved his business. How can we help you? Give us a call at 1-800-500-8401 or fill out our online contact form.

Leave a Comment

← Older Posts

  • Archives

» google-plus vimeo rss