Who will pony up for the rewards?.
gillumhouse said:
Who will pony up for the rewards?
The way I would envision this is a 'B&B' rewards card. To participate (as a B&B, not as a guest) you'd have to opt in to provide a certain level of upgrading or discounting or rewards to a guest who was a member AFTER they reached a certain level of spending. The guest would say they are a member, give their member number and we'd be able to look them up somehow to see what level they were at.
Could be a $10 or 10% discount. Could be an upgraded room (as available, same as the hotels do). Could be some extra service like a gift basket.
Of course this means someone is going to be the first place they arrive at with their full points and that person 'gets' to give them something for attaining that level. A lot of B&B's do this now for their own repeats. Essentially what we would be doing is offering perks to 'repeat B&B goers' who may never have set foot in our place before.
It is no doubt a scary thing and why it has never been done. Everyone is going to be thinking they'll be the one giving things away. 'Oh sure, they paid full price at the other 10 B&B's and they saved ME up for when they get the discount!' (There, now everyone knows how I think!)
It's going to take an organization with some funding to start this. Or, someone with some spare time and a secure server who wants to do this for a fee from participating B&B's. But I wouldn't want to see it started by a directory that demands you pay a bazillion dollars to join and then requires you use their booking system. I think most of us can add questions to our booking system so I could add a line that asks for the 'B&B Rewards Card Number____________________'. If there were questions about this from guests then we could answer those and sign the guest up.
Those inns that participate could also sign guests up on the spot for some sort of consideration. ($1 toward their membership dues or some such.)
I really think it would work after the kinks were ironed out. But it can't cost us a fortune. Altho I understand that whoever runs the db needs to be paid.
The whole purpose is to encourage people to go to B&B's the way the glom onto hotels because of the perceived perks of 'belonging'. Sure, at first you get people who are going to go to a B&B anyway. But, with the right marketing, you start to get guests who are newbies who loved their stay with you and now want to try other places and here they have a 'rewards' card to encourage them.
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