The Kitley House Hotel
Andrew Huckerby took over the Kitley House Hotel about four years ago now, and has since built up its business successfully, so much so that occupancy levels are now about 80% all year round. The hotel is an historic luxury country house hotel in Devon, near Plymouth. The
Kitley Estate has been in existence since the Domesday Book and
the house for over half that time.
Translated web pages make it easy for customers
Since he took over the hotel Andrew has welcomed many international visitors from all over the world, on both business and leisure. As well as being a popular countryside retreat, it also caters for conferences and weddings all year round.
Andrew says he uses the internet as one way of advertising the hotel both in the UK and overseas, and receives on average 150 visits to it every day. With this in mind, and the number of international clients already being received from Germany, the Netherlands and France, when he was approached by a local translation agency offering a competitive price to translate his main web pages into three different languages, he seized the opportunity with both hands.
'You've got to start somewhere' says Andrew
'I feel that in using foreign languages you are giving the information to your client in such a way that they can understand the product effortlessly - here's the information and it's presented to you in your language too.' He adds, 'the more specific your information is to the customer, the more likely they are to buy it.'
Andrew is no stranger to working with international clients, and used to make frequent business trips to France in a previous role, 'I used to work closely with the French market, and went to business French classes to improve my language knowledge - as with everything it's about learning the right tools for the job, if I have to learn Microsoft Access I'll learn it, it's the same with French - I just used the appropriate training to do it'
Andrew says that he doesn't use the translated web pages for international marketing purposes as such, but just as an information provider. Therefore when foreign clients visit his page there is no extra effort involved on their part to be able to understand the unique experience that Kitley House Hotel has to offer them, it is there in black and white; in German, Dutch and French!
When asked how Andrew felt about other South West businesses addressing the issue of language barriers, he added 'you've got to start somewhere!'
Visit the Kitley House Hotel website at www.kitleyhousehotel.com
