Name of your website?The Sardinia Villa Collection
Your name?
Sarena Harvey
Please give us a short summary of your website?
A small but perfectly formed portfolio of the best villas Sardinia has to offer. Some are grand, luxurious properties, some are refreshingly simple but all are highly recommended as great places to stay
What inspired you to launch your own website?
After several years in the luxury travel industry I fell in love with Sardinia and wanted to make it more accessible to foreign holiday makers
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
In late 2008 I launched The Sardinia Holiday Concierge http://www.thesardiniaholidayconcierge.com, the sister company to The Sardinia Villa Collection to offer all those little extras thet make holidays perfect
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I wanted something simple, classy and to the point... what better than The Sardinia Villa Collection to describe what we do?
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
We reject more villas than we take on in an effort to only showcase the best properties around. No floral nylon bedspreads, bobbly sheets and kitchens from hell for us! We present themin a slick, classy and easily accessible format and make sure all the information you need is right there. Simple, but strangely nobody else in Sardinia seems to do the same thing!
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To grow the brand and site and become the benchmark for quality holidays in Sardinia
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
We're small but growing. It takes a lot of work to launch a business, but I have faith that both financially and personally it will be more than worth it.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Not a lot actually; I think we have a product that is as good if not better than a lot of the really big budget firms out there
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Of course... we love hard work and as Sales Director for a massive luxury villa rental company I have plenty of experience with juggling the needs of large companies
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
The villa site took much longer than expected to get exactly right which has been a real worry
What has been your biggest challenge?
Finding enough quality properties on island to showcase on our website
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Facebook has been just amazing
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It hasn't really... It has all worked pretty much according to plan
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
It went up in early March, and we will keep going until we become known as THE villa rental company in Sardinia
Are you proud of all your hard work so far?
Totally, competely and utterly... the answer is a resounding YES
What is your website address?
The Sardinia Villa Collection
