The Accommodation Award for September goes to...

Bavarian Lodge Backpackers

The amount of effort and attention to detail that has gone into this website is astounding. The site design is attractive with good use of colour and fonts. Tables too, are used to good effect, especially for the ferry timetable and prices. In fact, it was a smart idea to include the timetables considering the lodge is located in Picton. The excellent map and directions would make finding the establishment a breeze, not that you would need them since there's a shuttle to pick you up from the ferry anyway. There's even a picture of the shuttle so you will recognise it when you see it. Other features of the lodge are promoted to good effect such as "free baggage storage" and "free mountain bikes". Also the fact that the hostel can arrange most activities and car hire etc. As far as we can see, practically everything you would need to know has been covered within the site. Where it hasn't, for instance information on flights to Picton, links to external sites provide the means to find out more. One serious flaw in the opinion of our judges was the use of an "insecure" form to accept credit card details. As we've said before, we believe tourism operators have an obligation to offer their site visitors a secure means of providing this information or, at least, point out that the form is not secure and offer a more traditional alternative, such as fax or phone. Since few operators seem to be getting this message, it may in the future become a prerequisite for entry into the WETA awards. Other than that, there is very little to fault on this site. The web address appears to be a "free with your account" website, but this may be of little relevance if you plan for most of your site traffic to come from search engine "hits". More importantly the content and presentation of the site is excellent and creates a great first impression of Bavarian Lodge Backpackers.

© 1999 Discover New Zealand Magazine