This project
How each part works
For each item: the problem today, what it is worth, how we implement the first project, then Version 1 vs Version 2 — what it can do, what you still do by hand, what Version 2 changes at the pub, time in the build, and price. Jump to one, or read them in order.
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01
The site guests see, and the page you update what’s on
French first. Private editor. Forms. Drafts in your voice.
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02
Newsletter and a stamp card
A list you own. Draft from what’s already on the site; you approve. A quiet-night perk you set.
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03
Slides on the TVs
When there is no match: tonight, the rooms, the food.
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04
Facebook and Instagram drafts
A week in one go, from the site. You approve. Then it posts.
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05
The upstairs rooms
A product people can find. Hire on quiet nights. No online booking.
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+
The control centre
The version we would run. Version 1 already works on its own.
01
The site guests see, and the page you update what’s on
Guests get a real public site. Managers get a private page to keep it true — and to start the drafts — without coding, and without calling us each time the nights change.
The problem today
There is no working commercial website. Google still sends people to connemara-pub.com, which looks like 2004. The page you have been using as a “site” is an English-only Adobe brochure. Hours do not agree: Google and that brochure say Monday closed; Instagram still says Monday open. Other English pubs in town already have real sites with menus and calendars.
Facebook (~11,000 people) and Google reviews (4.4 from more than 2,500) are strong. They cannot replace a page that tells the truth in French and English — hours, menu, allergens, what’s on, how to phone, how to ask about a room. ChatGPT and similar tools cannot reliably cite you, so they guess or they cite a rival.
Why this is worth it
You stop leaking people you already earned the right to have: the tourist who searched “irish pub Bordeaux”, the group who asked ChatGPT where to watch rugby, the birthday that never found the upstairs rooms because nobody advertised them. It is the public site, the private editor, the forms, and the nights that feed the rest of the project. Facebook stays the noticeboard. This is the page you own.
How we implement it
We build it. We do not squeeze it into Squarespace or Wix. Those look fine on day one and then fight bilingual legal pages, a calendar of nights that a manager can edit, forms that must not mix a room enquiry with a newsletter signup, and the extra marks Google and ChatGPT need. You get a private editor a manager can use from a phone: change the hours, the Saturday band, a dish, a photo — without coding, without a hosting login, and without calling us. What’s on is typed once. It is what guests see, and it is the brief for the newsletter draft, the Facebook/Instagram drafts, and the TV slides.
Pages, in both languages, French first:
- Home — what it is, where, tonight’s useful fact
- Menu as real text (not a PDF phones cannot read), plus the 14 allergens the law wants in writing
- What’s on — quiz, trad, open stage, bands, comedy
- Sports — Irish pub, rugby and football, multiple screens, Bordeaux (a page-per-match factory can wait)
- The two upstairs rooms (piece 05)
- Frequent questions, contact (map, 05 56 52 82 57), and the legal pages France requires
Cookies: Accept and Reject are equal. The newsletter box starts empty; sending a room enquiry is not a signup. If a happy hour names alcohol, the same deal exists for a soft drink. We put on the site whatever you confirm for Monday — we will not guess.
This is not a booking website and not a shop. Dinner stays walk-in. Lunch stays on the phone.
Expected results
We do not promise a ranking or a number of covers. We do expect the site to do the jobs the pub cannot do with Facebook alone:
- Someone who searches Google — or asks ChatGPT — for an Irish pub, a quiz, a match or a room in Bordeaux gets you, not the 2004 leftover and not a rival.
- Hours, address and phone are written once, in French first and in English. Google is pointed at this site, not at 2004. What’s on the page matches what’s in the room.
- The menu is readable on a phone, with the 14 allergens in writing — not a PDF that does not open on the tram.
- The newsletter has a public door: people who want the list can join without living on Facebook.
- The upstairs rooms become a page people can find and enquire about, instead of something they discover by walking upstairs.
- Instagram and Facebook have a real page to land on. Staff can say “it’s on the site” and mean it.
Version 1 and Version 2
Version 1 · first project
What it can do
Private editor for hours, the Saturday band, a dish, a photo. Save, and the public site updates. Those nights are the brief for mail, posts and slides. One tap starts those drafts.
What you still do by hand
Open the mailbox (Brevo), the calendar (Buffer) and the TV player (Yodeck) to send, approve and swap the chalkboard. Rooms still arrive as mail.
What a manager does
Open the private page. Type what’s on (~10 minutes). Guests see it. Then the other tools.
In the build
Most of the 1.5–2 months. The rest of the project hangs on those nights existing on the site.
Price
4,000–8,000 € once — public site, editor, forms, search extras, legal — plus 0–40 € / month hosting. The 4,500–9,500 € band also includes the voice work (500–1,000 €) and the first TV pack.
Version 2 · control centre
What it can do
Same public site. Same nights. The editor sits on the fuller private page, next to rooms, mail, posts and the TV pack.
What this changes at the pub
A manager types what’s on once and stays on that page. They do not hop to a second editor, then three other logins, to finish a normal update.
What a manager does
Type what’s on. Then rooms, mail, posts and the TV export are already next to it.
In the build
No second website. The “what’s on” fields move onto the control centre in the extra 3–5 weeks.
Price
This line does not rise. The add-on is “same editor, one page.”
02
A newsletter, and a simple stamp card
People who asked get a useful email — drafted from what’s already on the site, sent only when a manager says yes. Regulars who come back on quiet nights get a stamp card on their phone — for example “10 visits, one on us,” or a similar perk you prefer.
The problem today
Facebook does not reach everyone, and it does not belong to you. There is no email list we could find, and no simple reason to come back on a dead Tuesday instead of “we’ll see.” Asking a manager to write a newsletter from a blank page every week would fight the second goal of this project: it would add work, not cut it.
Why this is worth it
The list is yours. When Ireland is on Saturday, you can tell people who already like you — not hope they saw a story. That mail is not a new writing job: the facts are already on the website. A manager glances, edits if needed, and says yes. The stamp card fills the nights that are not already full. Together they keep regulars as a habit, without a “club app” and without another Sunday at the kitchen table.
How we implement it
Newsletter. A box on the new website, wired to Brevo (a French email tool — the post office for marketing mail). We do not build a mail system. Those fail, and then nobody can leave the list. French law: the box starts unchecked; you keep proof they said yes; one click and they are out. Asking for lunch or a room is not permission to mail them.
What’s on the website is the brief. Someone already types the nights: Top 14 Friday 21:00, a mojito all week, the food special — the same lines guests see on the site. The AI-powered writer (how we use AI) receives that week, the task “write this week’s mail,” the locked voice guide (tone and bans — see piece 04), and a small set of mail templates (the coming nights, optional rooms line). A large language model — OpenAI or similar — returns one short draft. Optional extra lines (a promo that is not on the public page) can sit next to what’s on; we do not ask for a second “newsletter form.” The draft waits in the mailbox (Brevo). A manager reads it, changes a time or a name, and taps send. If nobody approves, nothing goes out. Same rule as social. We do not auto-send because it is raining or because a match is on — that can wait until the list is trusted.
Stamp card. Before we buy anything, we look at the till. If it already does stamps or points, we use that — one system at the bar. If it does not: a small French wallet card (Apple Wallet / Google Wallet). The manager taps or scans once. A typical rule is ten off-peak visits, then a pint or a dish — or a similar perk you set (a soft drink, a dessert, a different count). We do not stamp sold-out Ireland nights or a packed UBB Saturday. The manager can always say no. We do not start WhatsApp newsletters.
How you use it
A guest ticks the box on the site. They get a mail when there is something real — not a mail just because the calendar turned. A regular at the bar opens their phone; someone stamps; that is it. Now and then, a manager opens the draft that already exists, glances, and says yes. They do not start from a blank page.
Version 1 and Version 2
Version 1 · first project
What it can do
Signup on the site. AI writer fills a mail template from what’s on and the voice guide. Draft waits in the mailbox (Brevo). Human send. Stamp card at the bar (or the till, if it already stamps).
What you still do by hand
Open Brevo, glance, edit a time, send. Nothing leaves without that tap.
What a manager does
The draft is already there. One extra login to send it.
In the build
Templates and the first draft land in the second month, with the voice work.
Price
Drafting sits in the 500–1,000 € voice line (shared with social). Brevo starts free, then about 9 $ / month on Starter. Stamps 0–29 € / month only if the till cannot.
Version 2 · control centre
What it can do
Same templates, same list in Brevo. You preview, edit, schedule or send from the private page. No second writing job.
What this changes at the pub
A manager does not open a second mailbox to send nights they already typed. Glance, send — next to what’s on.
What a manager does
The mail sits next to what’s on. You do not open Brevo for a normal update.
In the build
Send-from-page is part of the extra 3–5 weeks. Not a new mailbox.
Price
Inside the 4,500 € add-on — not a second newsletter fee. Monthly Brevo unchanged.
03
Slides on the TVs
The screens are for sport first. When there is no match, they can sell tonight, the rooms, and the food to people already in the building.
The problem today
You already paid for the hardware. Guests already look up. When football is off, the screens are often wasted: a logo, a mute menu, or nothing. The upstairs rooms have no place in the room except a conversation at the bar — which is how most people find them today, by chance.
Why this is worth it
This is the cheapest audience you have: people who already walked in. A slide that says “Friday trad, 21:00” or “two rooms upstairs — ask when the pub is quieter” does the pitch before anyone has time. Guests who would hire a room on a dead Tuesday learn it exists without stumbling upstairs. You use dead air on screens you already own. Sport always wins — we will not cover a match.
How we implement it
We rent a TV player (PosterBooking or Yodeck — why we rent this) and put a small stick or box on one to three screens that can be promo-only — entrance, behind the bar, upstairs landing. You tell us which. We do not hang a second computer on every match feed. That is how you lose the rugby.
We design the first slide set from the same facts as the website, so the Saturday band cannot be wrong on the TV and right on the site. One slide looks like the chalkboard you already write by hand — the nights that change. The others are presets for nights that rarely change (quiz, open stage, trad, rooms, food). Six to ten seconds each. You change that chalkboard slide in Yodeck (or PosterBooking). We do not push files to the sticks from the website. French drinks rules: no lifestyle “party pints” video. Safer slides are the night, the food, the rooms, a match listing, a happy hour that also names a soft drink.
A half-time takeover on a sport TV is a later physical HDMI button, if you want it — one press, not a login during service. Not in the first install unless you ask.
How you use it
A guest walking in sees tonight before anyone pitches. When the nights change, a manager replaces the chalkboard slide in Yodeck. Fixed-night presets stay put. Staff do not open an app in the crush. If you later add the half-time button, they press it, slides run, the match comes back.
Version 1 and Version 2
Version 1 · first project
What it can do
We design the first pack: chalkboard (the nights that change) plus presets (quiz, open stage, trad, rooms, food). Playback in Yodeck or PosterBooking on 1–3 promo screens. You edit the changing slide in that tool.
What you still do by hand
If the band or the match changed, open Yodeck and swap the chalkboard slide. Fixed nights stay put.
What a manager does
One extra login when the chalkboard slide is wrong. Staff do not open an app in the crush.
In the build
First pack and sticks in the second month, once what’s on the site is true.
Price
100–250 € hardware once + 0–24 $ / month for the player. Design of the first pack is in Version 1.
Version 2 · control centre
What it can do
Fill the chalkboard slide and the presets from what’s on. Export a pack (images / PDF). Drop it into Yodeck. See what is playing. We do not rebuild their designer, and we do not push to the sticks.
What this changes at the pub
The nights you typed already fill the chalkboard. A manager exports a file instead of rebuilding that slide from memory in Yodeck.
What a manager does
Export if the chalkboard slide changed, then one upload in Yodeck. Not a live pipe to the TVs.
In the build
The export helper is part of the extra 3–5 weeks.
Price
Inside the 4,500 € add-on. Player rent unchanged.
04
Facebook and Instagram — drafts you approve
What’s on is already on the website. We turn it into one pack of drafts — Facebook and Instagram together. A manager glances and says yes. Posts stay drafts until then.
The problem today
Facebook is the big channel (~11,000). Instagram is smaller (~3,000) and still useful. The voice already works: bilingual, human, not a tourist brochure. The pain is time — sitting down to write, remember the drinks-ad rules, find a photo, post at a decent hour. Then nine days go by and the page looks asleep even when the room was full.
Why this is worth it
You keep the voice that already built that audience. You stop the hole where nobody posted. You never wake up to a machine that published the wrong hours or a drink ad a lawyer would hate. Fifteen minutes, once a week — not a second writing job, and not a Sunday night at the kitchen table.
How we implement it
Two things, not one. The voice work is ours. We analyse posts you already published — wording, rhythm, jokes you make, words you never use — then lock precise guidelines: tone, bans, French and English, drinks-ad rules, no stock clovers, no “party pints” lifestyle. A language model helps with that first pass; a human locks the guide. Drafts follow it so they stay as close as possible to posts you would write, not a tourist brochure. The same guide writes the newsletter draft (piece 02).
The writer is AI-powered (how we use AI). One tap sends what’s on, the task (Facebook, Instagram, optional Google), and the locked guide to a large language model — OpenAI or similar. It returns the pack: three or four posts, both networks together (same idea, caption fitted to each) — quiz, trad, a dish, a match you are really showing, and the upstairs rooms. Hire is advertised in the feed, not only if someone asks. We can also put a short line on Google, so Maps is not a leftover from last year.
The calendar is a rented tool called Buffer (why we rent this). It talks to Facebook, Instagram, and if you want, Google. It does not invent the Connemara voice. On Version 1 one tap parks the drafts in Buffer; photos, the time on the card, and the yes stay in Buffer. Preview-and-schedule on our page is Version 2 — same plan, our page does the yes. We do not use Buffer’s built-in caption bot.
Posts stay drafts until a manager says yes. Then they go out at the time on the card. Buffer’s free plan is only for testing (10 waiting posts per channel — too tight for a live Facebook + Instagram week). A working week uses Essentials (~10–12 € / month for Facebook and Instagram; about 15–18 € with Google). We do not build a private Facebook-posting robot. Those robots break when Meta changes the rules.
Live stories on a full night still go out by hand. Stories with stickers or polls are the same: the phone, not the calendar. Safer posts under French rules: the gig, the food, the rooms, the listing.
How you use it
Once a week, about fifteen minutes: glance the pack on our page, then open Buffer. The drafts are already waiting. Attach a photo, check the time, tap yes. Facebook and Instagram go together. If something is wrong, skip. The tool does not argue. You do not start from a blank page.
Try the demo — a clickable mock of both versions. The mock does not call the writer; captions are canned from what you type. No Buffer login.
Version 1 and Version 2
Version 1 · first project
What it can do
The AI writer + voice guide writes the pack and parks it in Buffer (Facebook + Instagram, optional Google). Photos, crop, time, skip or yes happen in Buffer. Live sticker stories stay on the phone.
What you still do by hand
Open Buffer (~15 minutes): attach a photo, check the time, yes or skip. The drafts are already waiting.
What a manager does
Tap once on the private page. Then one extra login to approve.
In the build
Voice analysis, the guide, and the first pack in the second month.
Price
500–1,000 € once (shared with newsletter drafts) + ~10–12 € / month Buffer Essentials. Free is only for testing.
Version 2 · control centre
What it can do
Preview captions, attach photos, set times (including Buffer’s recommended / next-queue slot). Schedule here is the yes — that click writes the post through Buffer’s official pipe. Buffer still publishes. We do not rebuild their inbox or analytics.
What this changes at the pub
A manager does not leave our page to attach a photo and tap yes. They stay on the nights they already typed. The caption they approved is the caption that goes out — they do not type it again.
What a manager does
Stay on the page. You should not need Buffer for a normal update. Crop or a later time-change can still happen there.
In the build
Preview-and-Schedule is part of the extra 3–5 weeks — not a private Facebook robot.
Price
Inside the 4,500 € add-on. Same Buffer plan as Version 1. Create the post, change a time, see what is already queued.
05
The upstairs rooms — a page and a form
Today people find the upstairs by chance. We turn the rooms into a product that is advertised and discoverable — hired on quieter nights, when a manager can say yes.
The problem today
Two rooms upstairs can be privatized. They are useful for an afterwork, a birthday, a small meeting, a stag. They are not advertised. People who would hire them usually find the opportunity by chance: they walk upstairs, or someone at the bar happens to mention it. There is no page to search, and phone-only “is the upstairs free?” dies in the Saturday crush.
That is likely the biggest commercial gap in this project. On busy events and big matches the rooms usually stay open to everyone, so a hire is more often refused — still a manager’s call. The money they can make is therefore quieter-night money — exactly when the till needs it — and it does not arrive if nobody knows the rooms exist.
Why this is worth it
You stop leaving hire to luck. A dedicated page, the site, the TVs and the odd social post turn the rooms into a product people can find. You keep the same judgement as today — yes or no — with fewer “I couldn’t get through,” and with enquiries that arrive on the nights you can actually take them.
How we implement it
Built into the website (piece 01). One page or one page per room: photos, roughly how many seated and standing, what the room is for. A short form: name, email, phone, date, how many heads, which room if they care, a message. It goes to an inbox a manager already reads. An automatic reply says we have the message and will get back — not a confirmation, not a hold.
No online calendar, no deposit, no Stripe, no TheFork, no Calendly. Those are booking machines. They fight a walk-in pub. If you ever want deposits, that is a later, separate conversation.
How you use it
A guest finds “rooms” on the site or on Google — not by walking upstairs — and sends the form instead of hoping someone picks up at 14:00. A manager looks at the diary and replies from their mail. Same decision as today: yes when it works, no when the rooms need to stay public. Short approve / not-this-date replies live on the control centre if you add it.
Version 1 and Version 2
Version 1 · first project
What it can do
Dedicated page(s), photos, form. Auto-ack: we have the message — not a hold. Manager replies from the inbox they already read.
What you still do by hand
Open mail. Look at the diary. Write the reply. Same judgement as today.
When a mail arrives
The form did the finding. The yes or no is still a human in the inbox.
In the build
Page and form ship with the public site, in the first month.
Price
Inside the 4,000–8,000 € site line. No extra monthly tool.
Version 2 · control centre
What it can do
See who wrote, on the private page. Tap interested, not this date, or a custom line. They get a fuller mail (room, date, “we will call to fix details,” the pub number). Still no booking, no deposit.
What this changes at the pub
A room mail does not sit in a forgotten inbox. It sits next to what’s on. One tap sends a proper reply.
What a manager does
If one is waiting, it is already on the page. Not a reservation.
In the build
Inbox and templates are part of the extra 3–5 weeks.
Price
Inside the 4,500 € add-on. Still no booking engine.
Version 2 is the version we would run · Version 1 already works on its own
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The control centre
Version 1 already has a private page: update what’s on, tap once for drafts. The control centre is that same page with rooms, mail, posts and a TV export on it.
What it is
These parts are not five separate products. They already share one brief — what’s on. Version 1 gives you a private page to type those nights and start the drafts. After that, a manager still has several logins: the mailbox (Brevo), the calendar (Buffer), the TV player (Yodeck), the room mailbox. That is normal. None of those tools is designed to be the one place you look.
Version 2 — the control centre — is a password-protected page on your site. Phone-usable. Not a new till, not a sixth tool, not a copy of Facebook. The calendar is the same Buffer, on the same plan. Where we already own the data, you act here. Where a specialist tool is better, you open that tool in one tap.
The stamp card stays at the bar. Later we can deepen a pipe without throwing Version 1 away.
Why this is the version we would run
Version 1 already creates the drafts and the room form. Version 2 is where the weekly yes lives — next to the nights, not in four extra logins. A room mail is less likely to sit forgotten. A photo is more likely to get attached. Two managers see the same page. Version 1 does not depend on it; the habit does.
Version 1 and Version 2
Version 1 · included
What it can do
Private editor for what’s on. One tap writes the mail draft (into Brevo) and parks the social drafts in Buffer. No rooms inbox, no send button, no Schedule, no TV export.
What you still do by hand
Site → generate → then Brevo, Buffer, mail, Yodeck. About 15 minutes in Buffer with the drafts already waiting, plus the other tabs.
What a manager does
Type what’s on once. Finish elsewhere.
In the build
Inside the 1.5–2 months. It is the handoff: type what’s on once.
Price
In Version 1 (site line + 500–1,000 € voice work). Not a sixth invoice.
Version 2 · 4,500 €
What it can do
Same nights. Rooms: interested / not this date / custom. Newsletter: edit and send. Social: preview, photos, times, Schedule. TV: fill presets, export a pack for Yodeck. No push to the sticks. No fake Facebook.
What this changes at the pub
One page, about 15 minutes. Reply if a room is waiting. Send the mail if it is right. Schedule the posts. Export the chalkboard slide if it changed, then one drop into Yodeck.
What a manager does
Stay on the page. The rented tools still fire in the background.
In the build
Three to five weeks of work, in the last stretch, while Version 1 is already moving. Taken now, the calendar is about 2–2.5 months — not a second project after launch.
Price
4,500 € once, on top of Version 1, if you take it with this project. Later we lock a number then. Feel both versions.
How you choose
Take Version 2 now. That is the version we would run. We build the control centre in the last stretch, while the public site is already underway. 4,500 € once, on top of Version 1. About 2–2.5 months from the launch pack. A mock of both versions is here.
Stay on Version 1 if the budget is tighter or you want the public site sooner. The site, the editor, the forms and the drafts stand. You can order the fuller page later; we re-check the tools and lock a number then.