This week my wife and I had a short get-away. There are so many great spots to visit on Vancouver Island, and most are within a two or three hour drive of where we live. For this get-away we chose to go to Port Hardy at the north end of Vancouver Island. And, based largely on their website, we chose to stay at the the Glen Lyon Inn.

Unfortunately, we didn’t book ahead, and they were full by the time we got there.

We May Have Dodged A Bullet

We went back to the Glen Lyon Inn for dinner. The photo of their restaurant http://www.glenlyoninn.com/dining.html) on the website showed a relatively ‘up scale’ restaurant, with fine china and men in suites and women in dresses. We were concerned there may have been a dress code, but it was our anniversary and we wanted something a little special, so we decided to try it. We needn’t have worried!!

The restaurant was nothing like the picture

No table cloths, no high back chairs, no fine china, and nothing on the menu that came close to the meal depicted in their picture. Certainly, no dress code. In fact, the image is from Getty Images and appears on a number of websites. ( I wonder if they paid to use the image? )

Marketing Take Away

• While it is OK to show your business in its best light on your website. Don’t be misleading.

  In the age of Yelp, TriAdvisor and Facebook you will be found out. By trying to deceive me with there restaurant picture, they have gotten a bad review on Yelp (one of two bad reviews), Google and Trip Advisor, plus this blog post.

  Show your business in its best light – but don’t cross the line and try and deceive your potential customers.

• Never piss off a web designer – especially on his anniversary

BTW: A “shout out” to Tiny Eye for finding the copies of the image online.