Floor plans

[Margaret]

We have floorplans for our apartments on our website. These are much appreciated by our guests, as they feel they know exactly what they are booking. It is rarely possible to understand layouts from descriptions - especially enfuriating when you didn't know in advance that rooms lead off each other, for example.
We are thinking of offering this as a service to owners, professionally done, reasonably priced. Owners need to provide hand drawn sketches and probably some descriptions. In return, we could provide professional looking floor plans like the ones of our site.
Is anyone interested?

[Partridge]

Luckily, we have the original apt layout drawings from the developer, with lovely clear type and room sizes too. I always offer to send it to guests but am very rarely taken up on it, however maybe others also have slightly warey guests that want to know more information like this before they arrive. Good luck.

[tree-peony]

we've got floorplans too, although they're not TOTALLY correct as a 3rd ensuite bathroom was added but they're good enough I think

[vrooje]

This is definitely an important topic for rental owners, and there are some very old threads talking about it! The main one being viewtopic.php?t=261 .

I actually just spent this weekend implementing the floorplan-based virtual tour I've always talked about doing for our site. As my father is an architect, he spent some of our last visit measuring the house and creating the floor plans. I've already had a comment that they're a very useful feature.

Of course, if we hadn't had an architect at our disposal, it would be much harder to create accurate/professional-looking floor plans! So it could be a very useful service, I think. Will you require people to take measurements or just sketch things approximately?

[Margaret]

We are hoping to cope with completely non-technical input! We would always email the plans (MSWord files) for approval and then make any necessary corrections.

[Fraise]

Oh, only twice have I sent out a floor plan and once that was to dissuade someone from coming ( in fact, they came with a smaller group- perfect!). I just knocked it up myself, not difficult. Before I get shot down in flames- no, OK ,not professional BUT the house IS professional, well, in an upmarket sense- I aim for the boutique market - people like the friendly personal touch to the e-mails and maybe my floor plan !

[Martha]

I'm doing some floor plans at the moment and was interested to see yours, Margaret - but I couldn't find them on the site?

What beautiful houses! I especially loved the apartments in the Art Nouveau house - made me think of Waldzell in Herman Hesse's The Glass Bead Game

[KathyG]

I actually just spent this weekend implementing the floorplan-based virtual tour I've always talked about doing for our site. As my father is an architect, he spent some of our last visit measuring the house and creating the floor plans. I've already had a comment that they're a very useful feature.

Vrooje, just had a look at your virtual tour, very clever! Are they all new photos too, they all look much brighter than before, the whole place looks stunning!

[Marg]

Vrooje, fantastic website
I seem to remember a while back you muttering about your gardener cutting back the tree by your house - it seems to be growing back OK now!
As winter approaches, floorplans seem an ideal way to while away those dreary winter days!

[Giddy Goat]

"We are a uniquely situated gite" claims your website Brookie - you can say that again!! Wow! And the virtual tour is awesome. Well done, and maybe OH and I will have a go - we have some architects' plans to work from so that's a start ....

What am I saying, moi, the original technophobe! But two heads are better than one and he might think this was a change from the usual boring weekend chores!

[la vache!]

Brooke, I've just had a look too, the tour is fantastic and very tasteful. I'm not a great fan of video tours on websites and yours is a lovely alternative, which gives the detail in a very original and impressive way.

[vrooje]

Wow thanks for the compliments -- I'm blushing!

Kathy, yes, they are mostly new photos -- taken on this year's visit to the house. I would have put them up months ago, but editing them took a long time. It was especially time-consuming for the kitchen and upper bedroom shots, where we had to use a tripod and take multiple photos at each location with different exposure times, and then piece them together so that the photo reflects what you see when you're standing in the room: that the room is brightly lit and you can still see what's outside the windows. That's a trick I learned on this forum!

The tree is definitely coming back, thank goodness, but it will probably be at least another year before it unquestionably "drapes its branches gracefully over the water." That's okay, it just gives us a reason to visit the house every year -- to take new pictures!

In any case, if others want to try a floor plan-based virtual tour, I've posted instructions here and there's a forum topic where a member implemented the instructions here.

I'm so glad I posted those instructions a couple of years ago, because I used them to make my own tour!

Margaret, the method you're talking about using is what I did to make the tour for the other property. The owner sent me an initial sketch, I digitized it and sent it back, and we went back and forth with comments/results until he was satisfied that it was accurate. Once the first plan is created it doesn't take too much time to change it.

[KathyG]

Wow Vrooje, thank you for posting all that, incredibly generous of you! And you're saying don't be afraid of code..........!! It looks terrifying!

[Giddy Goat]

You are just amazing Brooke, to have achieved such beautiful results, (Burgundy and Paris) and to have gone to so much trouble to share your knowledge with the rest of us, as others have said.

I know now though that Ron would take one look and decide to go for the boring chores in preference, so this is scheduled to remain a pipe dream I suspect. I think you need to have reached a certain level of IT proficiency in order to have a go and he'll conclude that it's beyond his. Weekends are already too short and he recognises his limitations. That's not to say others can't achieve it though, and I will be so excited to view the finished products!

[KathyG]

Aww go on GG, bet you could do it! If you know what you're doing (and Vrooje has explained it extremely clearly) it's probably a bit like painting by numbers.........