Over the last several weeks, VisitComfort.us has gone through one of its largest expansions since we first launched in 2020.
We have added and improved a large number of business and service pages because we believe a useful visitor guide should include much more than just a handful of restaurants, shops and places to stay.
Visitors need more than tourism recommendations.
Someone visiting Comfort might get hurt, forget important medication, need help with a pet, have car trouble, need a contractor, look for a church, need a bank or suddenly need another service they never expected to use while traveling.
Our goal is simple: if someone is in Comfort and needs something, we want VisitComfort.us to give them a good place to start.
More Than Dining, Shopping and Lodging
Dining, shopping and lodging will always be important parts of a tourism website, but they are only part of the picture.
We have expanded our directory to include many of the services people may need while visiting Comfort, along with businesses and organizations that are part of everyday life in our community.
This has not been a simple copy-and-paste project.
We have spent considerable time organizing categories, planning individual pages, improving the information visitors see and creating a structure that can continue growing over time.
We are proud of what VisitComfort.us has become since the website first started in 2020, and we are especially proud that it continues to be built around the town itself.
Everyone Should Have the Same Opportunity
One principle behind VisitComfort.us is especially important to us: local businesses should have an equal opportunity to be discovered.
No Membership Tiers. No Preferred Businesses.
We do not have paid membership tiers that give one business better placement than another simply because it paid more.
As we continue developing the website, our goal is to make sure businesses that fit within a category have the same opportunity to appear and be discovered by visitors.
That philosophy will also be part of the tools we are developing for the future.
For example, we are planning a custom trip-planning system that will eventually allow visitors to select how long they plan to stay in Comfort and receive suggestions for places to stay, eat, shop and visit.
Just like the search tools in our new event calendar, the system will be designed to help visitors discover their options rather than promote a small group of preferred businesses.
There will be no favorites or preferred listings built into the system. We believe every qualifying business in Comfort deserves the same opportunity to be found.
What Comes Next?
We are not finished.
There are still two major categories we want to improve, and we will continue adding businesses and organizations as we find them.
We will continue adding businesses, organizations and useful local services that belong in the guide.
We will replace placeholders with our own photographs as we visit businesses throughout Comfort.
We are planning a refreshed homepage experience that makes exploring Comfort easier.
Visitors will eventually be able to choose the length of their stay and discover options for lodging, dining, shopping and activities.
Next Up: A Photo Safari Around Comfort
Once the current directory work is complete, the next phase will be much more visual.
Why We Use Our Own Photography
Many of our new pages currently use placeholders because VisitComfort.us only uses photographs we own or have created ourselves.
We take copyright seriously and want to maintain clear ownership and control of the images used throughout the website. Because of that, simply sending us photographs generally will not work for these pages.
Instead, we plan to visit businesses and photograph as many locations as possible ourselves.
Want New Photos of Your Business?
VisitComfort.us does not currently generate revenue, so our photography trips have to fit around our own schedule.
If you would like us to visit your business and create photographs for your Visit Comfort listing, we are happy to work with you, but we need some flexibility.
Weekends generally work best, and visits will need to fit into our available schedule.
Working with us also makes it easier to photograph more than just the outside of a business. When possible, we would like to show visitors what they can expect before they arrive, including storefronts, interiors, products, dining areas, lodging spaces and other useful details.
More Improvements Are Already Planned
The directory expansion is only one part of what we are working on.
We are also planning a new feel for the Visit Comfort homepage, improvements to how visitors move between different parts of the website, and the custom trip planner mentioned above.
Our new event calendar has already shown us how useful search and filtering tools can be. Over time, we want to bring that same idea into more parts of VisitComfort.us.
A visitor planning a day trip should be able to find options that work for a few hours.
Someone staying for a weekend should be able to discover lodging, meals, shopping, events and other activities without having to search through dozens of unrelated websites.
The goal is to make visiting Comfort easier while giving local businesses more opportunities to be discovered.
We Are Open to Working With Others
VisitComfort.us has always been open to partnerships and collaboration, and that has not changed.
If another local organization, business or community group wants to work with us in a way that benefits Comfort, our door remains open.
This website has never been about competing for ownership of the town. It is about helping people discover Comfort and giving the businesses, organizations and people who make this community special another place to be seen.
Is Something Missing From Your Page?
If you own or manage a business listed on VisitComfort.us and notice information that should be corrected, expanded or improved, send us a message. We want the information throughout the website to be useful and accurate.
Contact Visit ComfortStay Tuned
There is a lot more coming.
More businesses. More photographs. Better navigation. New visitor tools. A redesigned front-page experience. And eventually, a trip planner built specifically around Comfort.
We are planning for the long term.
VisitComfort.us has been here since 2020, and we intend to continue growing alongside the community and helping more people discover everything Comfort, Texas has to offer.
Stay tuned. We are just getting started.