www.snowseasons.co.uk website brief
1. Overview and purpose of this document
This document sets out the fundamental requirements in the building of snowseasons.co.uk, the
CMS specifications, integration of online payment facility (through PayPal or similar third party) and
database management of customers.
2. Key project contacts
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Poppy Jennings – Managing Director
o poppy@qs.com
o 07886932747
3. Mission statement for snowseasons.co.uk
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To be the primary resource for young people deciding where, when and how to spend a
three month period carrying out a ‘season’ in a ski resort.
To be known amongst tour operators and travel agents as the site to refer people to when
looking for seasonal accommodation and long-term packages.
To be recognised as the provider of convenient and cost-effect seasonal package holidays.
Snowseasons Ltd. Offers a complete package of long-term accommodation (3 months), return travel,
lift pass and insurance to customers wishing to spend a season in a European ski resort.
4. Primary site objectives
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Provide information for potential customers on the accommodation and packages available.
Enable customers to book and pay for their package online (pay deposit and later return to
pay subsequent balance payments as required)
Customers can view their profile/payment schedule (what package they have booked, when
payment dates and amounts are due, contact details e.g. email address and telephone
number)
Encourage customer to join the facebook page for snowseasons and interact with other
customers/upload their own videos/photos and reviews of their season.
Provide information and advice on what to expect when doing a ski season, where to look
for jobs in resort, what to bring with you on your season etc…
Provide tips/tricks on skiing and snowboarding (via YouTube videos and tutorials)
5. Important information
Should be designed to appeal to a young and ‘action/adventure’ orientated audience. Tech savvy the
site must also be optimised for mobile browsing.
Other sites I have seen that I really like the look/feel of http://www.thebigsnowfestival.com/index_eng.html
http://www.peakleaders.com/
http://www.snowskool.co.uk/
http://www.isleofwightfestival.com/
http://gb.burton.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Burton_GB-Site/default
6. Audience breakdown
Primary audiences
All audiences/customers will be based in the UK (eventually I wish to establish a North American
customer base but this is some way off)
I predict a customer/audience split of approx. 75:25 M: F
Customers will be divided into three main groups:
Primary audience: Gap year students
Aged 18-20
Looking for budget accommodation and cheap as possible packages
60% of packages will be sold in this market segment
Secondary audience: Graduates/young professionals
Aged 20-25
Looking for cheaper accommodation deals
35% of packages will be sold in this market segment
Tertiary audience: Careers sabbaticals/professionals
Aged 25-40
Looking for superior class accommodation
5% of packages will be sold in this market segment
Other audiences:
Parents of gap year students
Aged 45+
Based in the UK
7. Key competitors
Direct Competitors:
www.seasonaires.com
 B2C site
 Offer very similar seasonal accommodation packages
 Have a 10 year head start on snowseasons.co.uk
 Wider product portfolio than snowseasons.co.uk (at present)
www.seasonalaccommodation.com
 B2C site
 Only offer long-term lets (no package/further customer care offered)
 Extensive product portfolio
Indirect Competitors:
Those that offer accommodation packages as part of a ski/snowboard instructor course
 http://www.peakleaders.com/
 http://www.snowskool.co.uk/
 http://www.icesi.org/index.asp
Tour operators that can offer a similar package in return for work carried out during the season e.g.
chalet hosts, hotel managers, resort reps etc…
8. Brand values
These are values which stand out as existing through our general practice, not words that we
pretend or aspire to be
We are with you all the way
 We would use this service ourselves – we know how much time, money and organisation it
takes to actually get out in resort and see how beneficial having someone else that already
knows the ropes take the hard-work out of doing just this.
 We support you throughout your stay, we are always on-hand to sort out any problems that
may get thrown up along the way and are here to help out. This doesn’t mean mothering
you but rather offering support and advice if you need us and allowing you to get on with
enjoying your season.
We are convenient and cost-effective
 We offer the easiest solution to those wishing to spend three months in a ski resort and wish
to spend their time on the slopes as opposed to chalet hosting/cheffing/cleaning!
 We offer a risk-free way to book your accommodation (as opposed to booking an apartment
yourself and finding other seasonaires to fill the bed spaces)
We are customer focused
 We will bend over backwards to make your season experience unforgettable (for all the right
reasons!)
 We take a pro-active approach that is detail orientated to ensure all aspects of your ski
season are accounted for and looked after.
 We will rectify any problems that may arise as quickly and effectively as possible with
minimal impact to the customer.
We excel
 We aim for the highest quality in all that we due to maximise the value to our customers
9. Brand requirements
Colours
 Primary
o #000
o #?????? (as per logo tbc)
Fonts
 Any accents should use the same font as the company logo (tbc)
Logo
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Will be finalised shortly
Other brand accessibility factors
 Site should provide easy access to:
o Other websites (10 maximum will be added in an ad-hoc manner)
o Social media portals
 Facebook
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Twitter
LinkedIn
Traffic
2012 targets
 1000 unique visitors
 2500 page views
 5 pages per visit
Predicted primary traffic sources
 PPC Google key-word advertising
 Social Media
o Facebook predominantly
 Referring sites
o Strategic partnerships with media companies to promote the website and company
11.
Site structure
The primary audience generator to the sites is through search engines
Key sections
Home page
- 2/3 paragraphs of information (great way to do a season skiing/boarding, spend your time on
the slopes rather than working in a chalet etc etc…)
- Company logo
- Who we work with e.g. logos of companies like Ski Club of Great Britain, Snowboard UK, Natives
etc…
- Tabs for each of the following pages: Home/Accommodation/Resorts/Packages/Who we
are/Prices & Booking/Contact us/Tips and tricks
- “Latest news” feed which can be easily updated/linked to Twitter
- Find us on facebook (for latest news, discounts, find travel buddies…)
Accommodation page
- Couple of paragraphs description of the accommodation plus an image gallery (10 pictures max)
Resort page
- Brief description of the ski resort, travel/transfer information, ski map, usual seasonaires in
resort.
Packages
- Table of what is included/not included
- Paragraph on why it’s of benefit to the customer to book through us
Who we are/Contact us
- Mission statement of company
- Postal address/phone number/email
- Company registration number
- ‘Contact us’ form (incl. Name/email/phone number and ‘Your question’ section)
Prices and booking
- 10 x package options for the different resort/accommodation options
- Linked to PayPal (or similar) where customers can click and pay their deposit (£300) towards
their holiday package
- Link to accept ‘Terms and conditions’ of booking
Terms and conditions
As a separate pop-up page (linked to prices and booking page)
Tips and Tricks
- Collection of the best videos from YouTube (or similar) providing instruction on skiing and
snowboarding plus other videos of the best skiing/boarding footage to while away idle
moments!
- Users/customers should be able to comment/reply to comments on videos
Customer log-in/database
Users/customers can ‘log-in’ to their own page where they can set up with their name/password so
they can see exactly what package they have purchased, what they have paid so far, when the next
payment instalment is due and the relevant buttons that they are able to pay the next instalment on
their holiday package.
In addition it is important that full contact details of each customer are provided here and it is
imperative that this data is easily exportable (in excel or CSV format)
 Name (as on passport)
 Telephone/Mobile number
 Address
 Next of kin contact details (full list requirements will be specified)
Want something similar to this (but that displays properly!)
http://www.seasonaires.com/Myseason/index.asp?msg=We+don%27t+have+any+record+of+the+us
ername+you+entered.%3Cbr%3EPlease+review+the+information+you+entered+or+Join+as+a+new+
user. (Please use username/password ‘demo’ ‘demo’ to view site.
Key requirements
 Website is key point of sale of product/service
 Ongoing user journey – want to direct user to facebook page and ‘like’ this to virally spread
the website to their peers
 Engagement
o We need to be able to update and easily manage content on the site to ensure the
experience for users remains fresh and inviting to encourage return visitors
(particularly in the tips and tricks section and the newsfeed on the home page)
 Advertising
o Standard banner sizes for the site will include:
 MPU (300px x 250px) – present on all pages except profiles
 Small banner (300px x 100px)
 Full horizontal (728px x 90px) - present on all pages
Please note - Adverts will not be used as a revenue generating device but as a method of offering
visibility to key media partners
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12.
User generated content
o User must be able to add comments to sections
 Site administrators must be able to choose which pages
Accessibility
Browser compatibility
The following desktop browsers should be considered primary targets for acceptance testing
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Internet Explorer 7,8,9
Safari 5+
Firefox (8+)
Chrome 14+
The following mobile operating system browsers should be able to show the content too.
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Android
Blackberry
iOS (Apple)
Technical integrations
Google Adwords
 Need to be able to ad conversion tags to any page
Facebook
 Require some elements of Facebook opengraph for events
 Potential to have facebook discussions at the bottom of content?
 Social share buttons required on all pages
Analytics
 Google Analytics