Web Solutions - Websites & Microsites - Greene King
Greene King Inns
Greene King Inns are independent businesses operating within tenancy or lease agreements from Greene King. The underlying requirement was to provide a decentralised content-managed site to enable and empower non-technical users to create their own customised offering to the consumer audience while maintaining Greene King Inns branding.
Each house has its own database-driven microsite, with up to eight pages of relevant information updated by the individual Inn.
Booking online is delivered through the Active Hotels booking engine, which we have integrated within the site requirements.
Importantly, each house can promote particular events and functions, from Valentine's Days to Steak Nights. Through administration panels, managers can select from a menu of events. Alternatively, they can create their own, set automatic timings to determine when details should appear or be removed, and include details of events in, and links to, the local area.
The site is constantly growing, with new entrants, and those already participating have seen significant increases in their business activity.
CMS
The web content system we created for Greene King Inns had to be decentralised and more personalised, and had to meet a complex time-sensitive content. In fact, the Greene King Inns site is a portal linking to a large number of microsites, and although these microsites had to stay strictly within the brand identity, each site contains its own individual content and promotions that are managed by the licensee.
This includes menus, local information and attractions, and a range of promotions, from a Valentine's Night to a Quiz. All this can be updated by the licensee via a password-protected administration page. The user audience has typically little computer confidence and, given this, we provided an offline, step-by-step explanatory brochure (also available online as a PDF) to facilitate understanding and to be retained as a reference source. A telephone helpline provides further support, if required.