Weblio is a studio in Basel building websites for hosts, wine estates, retail and trades in Colmar and the surrounding area. In French, German and English.
Fixed price from CHF 499, no hourly billing
It is ten minutes on foot from the station into the old town, and then you are standing in lanes that turn up on every second travel list in Europe. From late November to early January people arrive by the coachload; in February half the lane is shut. But Colmar does not live on visitors alone: construction machinery is built on the edge of town, the plain holds the suppliers that go with it, and west of the town the wine villages begin, where selling at the estate is part of the trade.
People booking here largely come from abroad, and far from all of them read French. So the site has to answer early what otherwise arrives by email: what the room actually costs, whether the tourist tax comes on top, how to get there without a car, from what time you can check in, and whether you are even open in February.
The bottle sells in the cellar, but the route there is decided beforehand on a screen. So the sites and vintages in words someone outside the trade can follow, the opening hours of the tasting room, and an answer to the shipping question. And if you do ship, the legal side has to follow properly.
Between the crush in December and the quiet in February sit two different businesses. The site has to carry both without anyone rebuilding it twice: opening hours that change, an honest note about the annual closure, and a booking that works even when nobody in the shop picks up the phone.
Nobody reads here because of the half-timbered houses, but because an enquiry is coming. What they want then is references in photographs, a service area stated plainly, which work you do yourself and which you subcontract, and a number someone answers on a Friday afternoon too.
In Colmar a large share of enquiries arrives through portals, and with every booking a cut leaves that never comes back. Your own site does not replace the portal, but it wins part of it back. Three things follow, and they sit in the offer rather than in a promise.
The enquiry should reach you
A site where people reach you directly costs no commission, and it keeps your guest's address with you rather than with the portal. That is why the enquiry sits at the centre: reachable from any page, without registration, without a detour through a form with twelve fields. What happens to that data afterwards is your decision and nobody else's.
Three languages are the norm here, not a luxury
Your guests come from Alsace, from Baden, from Switzerland and from further afield. French, German and English side by side are therefore not an optional extra. Each version gets its own address with its own text, so search engines find them separately. We tell you in advance what each additional language costs.
A price that still works in February
When a year's revenue happens in a few weeks, an annual fee is the wrong model. The build has a price that is fixed beforehand. After that the hosting stays, billed monthly and cancellable to the end of the month, and maintenance is optional. Nobody ties you to a year because your season lasts two months.
Direct trains run several times a day, the journey takes a good forty minutes, and for a meeting at your premises no travel appears on the invoice. Day to day the distance hardly matters anyway: progress sits in the dashboard, questions go through the ticket system, WhatsApp or a short video call. What really counts starts the moment someone books or orders on your site.
Onepager from CHF 499, Starter from CHF 699, Business from CHF 1'099. After a short call the number is in writing, together with the list of what is not included. Billing follows scope, not hours spent, and every additional language carries its own price.
You get an invoice in euros without French VAT, citing the autoliquidation under Article 283-2 of the Code général des impôts. As a business with an intra-community number you declare the tax yourself and deduct it in the same step, where you are entitled to. If you fall under the franchise en base of French VAT, say so beforehand and it will appear correctly on the quote.
If you sell to consumers through the site, you need terms and conditions, prices stated including taxes and extras, and information about the statutory right of withdrawal under the Code de la consommation. For a night's stay on a fixed date that right does not apply; for a case of wine you ship, it does. We build in the places for it; the texts themselves deserve a read by someone who knows your business.
Advertising for alcoholic drinks is tightly regulated in France, the health warning is part of that, and selling to minors is prohibited, which means an age check before purchase. On top of that come shipping rules that differ by destination country, particularly into Switzerland. Tell us in the first call where you ship: what belongs on the site gets settled beforehand rather than afterwards.
In Colmar a whole year of turnover happens in a handful of weeks. So we tie you to no yearly contract and bill the hosting month by month.
How we work
If your question is missing, write to us. The legal and tax notes on this page come from practice and do not replace professional advice.
What does a business in Colmar pay, and what stays afterwards?
Three fixed-price packages: Onepager from CHF 499, Starter with up to three pages from CHF 699, Business with up to five pages from CHF 1'099. Booking, a shop, a second and third language, a members area or a newsletter are add-ons with their own price, and you get the list before you commit. What stays afterwards is the hosting, billed monthly and cancellable to the end of the month. Maintenance is optional; if you take it, it runs for at least six months.
Our year hangs on a few weeks. Is it even worth it?
That is exactly why the price is fixed beforehand and tied to no annual contract. The build is paid once, the hosting runs monthly and can be cancelled to the end of the month, maintenance is optional. If your season is in December, you know by September what falls due before then, and in February you pay nothing for services nobody needs. What is worth it is still your call: we tell you in advance which of the three tiers covers your case, even when that is the smallest one.
How many languages do we actually need?
For a wine estate selling at the door and for a guesthouse in the old town, French, German and English are the standard, because guests come from Alsace, from Baden, from Switzerland and from further away. For a trades business out on the plain, French is often enough, with German a sensible addition if part of the work comes from across the Rhine. Each version gets its own address with its own text, not a machine translation laid over the French page. Every additional language carries its own price, known in advance.
We also ship wine. What does that change about the site?
Quite a lot, and most of it is legal. You need terms and conditions, prices with taxes and shipping, information about the right of withdrawal, and an age check, since selling to minors is prohibited. For alcoholic drinks France additionally regulates advertising tightly, health warning included. Shipping into Switzerland adds import rules that are not the same as within the EU. We build in the places for all of that and tell you which texts to have checked by someone who knows your business. We do not write them for you.
Our business is not in Colmar itself. Is that a problem?
No. The area covered runs across the agglomeration and the wine villages on the slope. Horbourg-Wihr, Wintzenheim, Ingersheim, Turckheim, Wettolsheim, Herrlisheim-près-Colmar, Sainte-Croix-en-Plaine, Andolsheim, Sundhoffen, Houssen, Jebsheim, Bischwihr, Muntzenheim, Fortschwihr, Wickerschwihr, Walbach, Zimmerbach, Niedermorschwihr and Katzenthal are part of it, as are Eguisheim, Ammerschwihr and Kaysersberg. Where you sit changes nothing about the price, and there is no travel surcharge.
Why not an agency from Colmar?
If you need someone to organise a photo shoot in the vineyard, run a campaign across several channels or sit at your table regularly, take an agency from here. That is not our work. Ours is a fixed price, one contact person and a quote you can set line by line against any other. For a meeting we come over without any travel appearing on the invoice; from Basel the journey takes a good forty minutes.
A short video call, in French, German or English. Afterwards a fixed-price quote in euros lands with you. No obligation, and we settle the language question in the same call.
