the decision

How families choose a care home

Of all the trades we build for, this is the one where the buyer arrives frightened. It changes what a website has to do.

who

Usually a relative.

Sometimes the person moving in, often an adult son or daughter doing it around a job, and almost always someone who has never done it before.

when

After a crisis.

The CMA found these decisions are typically triggered by a fall or a hospital discharge, and made under real time pressure rather than at leisure.

how fast

Often days.

carehome.co.uk say 34% of the people searching their site need a place within a week. That is their own platform data, not independent research, so treat it as theirs.

against whom

Three homes.

She shortlists online and visits a handful. Whoever answers her questions in the shortlist stage gets the show-round.

Sources: CMA Care Homes Market Study and its Ipsos consumer research; the seven-day figure is carehome.co.uk's own platform data, so treat it as theirs. There are no time-saved figures on this page because we haven't found credible ones for this sector.

the site

What a good care home website includes

This is Wrenmore House, a care home concept we built to show the standard. Hover it and it walks through itself. It opens on the fees.

Fees published, per care type and room
The CMA expects indicative weekly ranges no more than one click from the homepage.
The manager's name and face
Families choose the person. A named registered manager with a direct line tells them more than copy about values.
A show-round with real slots on it
Real offered slots beat "we'll be in touch", especially at nine on a Sunday evening when there's nobody at the desk.
Your CQC rating, wired in
Your rating and the date it was given, fed from CQC's own published data and checked as part of looking after your site, so the page never sits on last year's inspection.

See the full Wrenmore House concept Get a price for a care home website

Wrenmore House is a concept, not a real home. Yours gets built on your fees, your rooms, your team and your CQC report.

CONCEPT · CARE HOMEWrenmore Househover to view it live →

live preview

example plan

An example automation plan for care homes

Four jobs a review usually finds for a business like yours, in the order we'd do them. Each is a small build. Yours will differ, which is what the review is for.

The enquiry that lands at nine on a Sunday

Job 1 · today

It arrives by phone, by the website form, and through the directories, into a shared inbox or a message pad, and gets picked up when the manager is next at a desk. Meanwhile she's ringing the other two homes on her list.

What we'd build

Show-round booking with real slots instead of a "we'll be in touch" form, an instant acknowledgement that names who will ring and when, out-of-hours capture, and an automatic message back after a missed call on your main number.

Ask about out-of-hours enquiries

"How much is it?"

Job 2 · today

The fee question gets deflected to a phone call. That costs you the families who won't ring, and it spends your afternoon showing round families you were never going to be affordable for. Meanwhile the CMA expects indicative ranges one click from your homepage.

What we'd build

A fees page built to the shape the CMA asks for: genuine ranges by care type and room type, what's included, what you charge separately, and the funding routes explained. Plus a picker that lands on a realistic range.

Ask about a fees page

Enquiries arriving in three places that don't talk

Job 3 · today

The website form goes to email, the phone goes to a pad, and carehome.co.uk goes somewhere else again. Could anyone tell you how many enquiries you had last month, or how long each one waited?

What we'd build

One place where every enquiry lands, whatever the source. carehome.co.uk publish a documented enquiry API with webhooks, so depending on your directory plan, those enquiries, your website forms and tracked calls can be joined and deduped into whatever you already run, even a spreadsheet.

Ask about joining up enquiries

A careers page that's an email address

Job 4 · today

Since July 2025 the Skilled Worker route has been shut to new overseas care worker applications, so new hires now come from the domestic pool. And the Joseph Rowntree Foundation put the median cost of one care worker hire at £7,870 once you count cover and absorbed staff time.

What we'd build

A proper careers funnel on your own domain: real staff, a clear "why work here", a three-field application that works one-handed on a phone, automatic interview slots and reference chasing.

Ask about a careers page

Software we don't build for care homes

Care planning, eMAR, rotas, invoicing and occupancy CRM are all done properly already, by specialist software, at a few pounds a bed. We work on everything that happens before the enquiry becomes an admission.

Care planning
eMAR
Rotas & T&A
Invoicing
Occupancy CRM
Family portals for current residents

Cost-per-hire figure: Joseph Rowntree Foundation with Cordis Bright, sector-wide adult social care. Visa route closure: Home Office, 22 July 2025. Occupancy: Knight Frank Care Homes Trading Performance Review 2025, sample 100,000+ beds. Time-saved figures stay off this page until we can point at a named home's real number.

not sure where to start

If none of these is obviously first, the automation review is £395: 90 minutes with Chris and a written plan of the jobs worth automating, in order. Go ahead with a build within 60 days and the £395 comes off it.

Read about the automation review

moving to us

How moving to us works

Four steps, and the only one that costs you real time is the first.

Thirty minutes on the phone

Chris looks at your current site and how enquiries reach you, then tells you where there's a quick win and where there isn't. If your site only needs tidying, he'll say so.

A demo before you commit

You see a real, clickable version on your home's name, your rooms and your fees, before you have committed to anything.

We photograph the place properly

One morning with a camera, and a drone pass if the building deserves one. Good photos matter on a care home site.

Looked after every month

It's all in the monthly price. Your CQC rating gets checked against the register, and fees get changed when you change them, in April, without an extra invoice.

what it costs

Prices for care homes

Paying monthly keeps the site in your running costs, so it doesn't need a capital decision. One monthly price covers everything your site needs: hosting, security, backups and small changes.

Starter

from £79/mo

Nothing upfront · priced to your build

One page, done properly. Enough to look real, be reachable, and come up when someone searches your name. Hosting, changes and care are in it, same as every other tier.

Get a Starter website price

Standard

from £149/mo

Nothing upfront · priced to your build

The care home site done properly. Published fees, a named manager, a bookable show-round, your CQC rating wired in, hosting, changes and care, bundled.

Get a Standard website price

Most complete

Pro

from £249/mo

Nothing upfront · priced to your build

The site plus the enquiry handling. Out-of-hours capture, one place for every enquiry whatever the source, and the careers funnel: the jobs above, built in. We agree the exact mix on the call.

Get a Pro website price

Rather pay once? Builds start at £595. The full ladder is on the pricing page, and we'll tell you if the smaller option fits. Charities and not-for-profit homes: say so on the call and we'll talk about it.

Get in touch

Thirty minutes on the phone with Chris: he'll tell you what we'd build, what it costs, and whether it's worth doing at all. Ask about fees pages, CQC display rules, or which software already does a job better than we could.

Book a call about your website → Get a price for a care home website

07548 072 498 [email protected]

Where we work

We work with care homes across the UK from our base in Quorn, Leicestershire. There's a page for each of the towns nearest us, with distances from our door.

Loughborough 3 miles Leicester 10 miles Nottingham 18 miles