hospitality ventures management group

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES -- The Shores Resort & Spa has received two awards this month for its recently launched website.

The site, www.ShoresResort.com, was launched in November and received the Best Website award from the 15th annual international WebAward 2011 Competition from the Web Marketing Association. It also received the bronze award in the website division of Visit Florida's 2011 Flagler Awards, awards given out at the Florida Governor's Conference on Tourism each year.

For the WebAward, the Shores Resort & Spa received a score of 68 out of 70 total points, with ratings in seven criteria: design, ease of use, copy writing, interactivity, use of technology, innovation and content.

Susan Keaveny, the resort's marketing manager, said online reservations have gone up 28 percent since the site launched.

"As an independent hotel, your website is really your brand," she said. "So we wanted to make sure we had the most visually compelling, and not just a beautiful website but also a functional website."

-- Hilary Lehman