InnRewards.com?

Hi guys! I have been working really hard to get this rewards program going. I was able to buy this domain name. It was a premium name but I felt it was worth the money. If we are going to do this and have it work, the name needed to be good. I need any and all ideas to make this work. How should we set it up? Charge the inns/customers to be listed or sign up? Maybe let all list for a year to get things going? Everyone gives the same rewards or owners choice? I will need some inns soon to list so I can have the company that I'm working with build out the site. Thank you all for your help!

An important ingredient would be to have the inns who list also reciprocate the link (with logo) on their website.
I would say owner's choice of rewards would be best, or you won't have a consensus agreement on what the reward should be.
Example: a nearby CVB inns/hotels post specials and my special is "Stay Two Nights Midweek and Get the third Free", another inn gives a complimentary bouquet of flowers in the room. It could be a LATE CHECK OUT for one inn.
I always name my specials to make them more attractive, but I have not even had anyone take me up on this one, so maybe I am not doing it right!
Will you have them sort by state? I am ready to sign up when you say so.

PS I would ask those who sign up to submit a high resolution image (or two) that you can use at your whim, with photo credit to the inn, so you can have some "stock" images to use for the webdesign/headers. It is an advantage to any inn who shares high rez images with you.

Joey Bloggs said:

An important ingredient would be to have the inns who list also reciprocate the link (with logo) on their website.
I would say owner's choice of rewards would be best, or you won't have a consensus agreement on what the reward should be.
Example: a nearby CVB inns/hotels post specials and my special is "Stay Two Nights Midweek and Get the third Free", another inn gives a complimentary bouquet of flowers in the room. It could be a LATE CHECK OUT for one inn.
I always name my specials to make them more attractive, but I have not even had anyone take me up on this one, so maybe I am not doing it right!
Will you have them sort by state? I am ready to sign up when you say so..

Click to expand...

Joey Bloggs said:

An important ingredient would be to have the inns who list also reciprocate the link (with logo) on their website.
I would say owner's choice of rewards would be best, or you won't have a consensus agreement on what the reward should be.
Example: a nearby CVB inns/hotels post specials and my special is "Stay Two Nights Midweek and Get the third Free", another inn gives a complimentary bouquet of flowers in the room. It could be a LATE CHECK OUT for one inn.
I always name my specials to make them more attractive, but I have not even had anyone take me up on this one, so maybe I am not doing it right!
Will you have them sort by state? I am ready to sign up when you say so.

Click to expand...

That's kinda what I was thinking about the rewards. I also think it would be fun as a customer to be able to sort out what they would be. If an inn needs more heads in beds they might be willing to give a bigger reward for choosing them! The logo idea is great! I think this would really help! Yes, you will be able to search by State. If we get enough we can start doing a break down of the state. If anyone is good at logos and a site logo please help! Thanks JB! If you think of anything else please let me know!

Joey Bloggs said:

PS I would ask those who sign up to submit a high resolution image (or two) that you can use at your whim, with photo credit to the inn, so you can have some "stock" images to use for the webdesign/headers. It is an advantage to any inn who shares high rez images with you..

Click to expand...

Great idea! Each listing will have a pic of the inn with a discription of the reward and their property. Then a direct link to the owners site. I will need pics. I also need some pics for the home page. I will set up a Dropbox account and we can start that.

You will also have an owners portal to your listing. This way you can change your info and rewards any time!

Also important is to have each inn who participates write a blog article (with the logo) and links about the program.
Sharing on all social media, such as Facebook, G+, Twitter, Linkedin etc. Not to get your started on more work, but you asked for suggestion...a facebook page would be good, then when you send out new announcements of added inns, or added rewards, everyone involved could "Share" - this page could be a group or a public page.
I would volunteer but I am admin for our state parks FB page and have a hard enough time switching back and forth with that and innteractiveinns and our B&B FB page.
But maybe someone here who is FB savvy would like to create and admin that?

Joey Bloggs said:

Also important is to have each inn who participates write a blog article (with the logo) and links about the program.
Sharing on all social media, such as Facebook, G+, Twitter, Linkedin etc. Not to get your started on more work, but you asked for suggestion...a facebook page would be good, then when you send out new announcements of added inns, or added rewards, everyone involved could "Share" - this page could be a group or a public page.
I would volunteer but I am admin for our state parks FB page and have a hard enough time switching back and forth with that and innteractiveinns and our B&B FB page.
But maybe someone here who is FB savvy would like to create and admin that?.

Click to expand...

Keep um coming! What about forming a fb page that several of us can post on? JB you write some great stuff and I understand your time can not allow you to add anymore. But maybe a few of us could write stuff. Anyone good at setting up a fb
Page?

Also with the Facebook page - individual inn's could post ie the reward for XYZ inn this week is a box of chocolates etc
Also I would definately make it innkeepers choice as what if say a free bottle of wine was the choice that month - what would dry states do?

[email protected] said:

Also with the Facebook page - individual inn's could post ie the reward for XYZ inn this week is a box of chocolates etc
Also I would definately make it innkeepers choice as what if say a free bottle of wine was the choice that month - what would dry states do?.

Click to expand...

[email protected] said:

Also with the Facebook page - individual inn's could post ie the reward for XYZ inn this week is a box of chocolates etc
Also I would definately make it innkeepers choice as what if say a free bottle of wine was the choice that month - what would dry states do?

Click to expand...

I agree! I'm thinking innkeepers choice is the way to go. I'm not sure what other reservation software offers with a way to accept specials. I do know for reskey users this will be easy! You can post any code you want and the customer can type that code in and you will know what the reward is. This way if you change your reward anytime you won't have to keep track of who gets what. You will also know where your bookings came from. I'm hopeful that other booking software has the same kind of set up.

I set up a folder named Innrewards.com in Dropbox. Anyone who would like their Inn on the Home page just send me a few pics. It must be high res. I will also need a quick email from you giving me permission to use it on Innrewards.com site and newsletters only. Also if you guys have any suggestions or examples of directory sites that you like, let me know. It will help with the final build out.

Bob said:

[email protected] said:

Also with the Facebook page - individual inn's could post ie the reward for XYZ inn this week is a box of chocolates etc
Also I would definately make it innkeepers choice as what if say a free bottle of wine was the choice that month - what would dry states do?.

Click to expand...

[email protected] said:

Also with the Facebook page - individual inn's could post ie the reward for XYZ inn this week is a box of chocolates etc
Also I would definately make it innkeepers choice as what if say a free bottle of wine was the choice that month - what would dry states do?

Click to expand...

I agree! I'm thinking innkeepers choice is the way to go. I'm not sure what other reservation software offers with a way to accept specials. I do know for reskey users this will be easy! You can post any code you want and the customer can type that code in and you will know what the reward is. This way if you change your reward anytime you won't have to keep track of who gets what. You will also know where your bookings came from. I'm hopeful that other booking software has the same kind of set up.
.

Click to expand...

facebook page is now in operation = www.facebook.com/InnRewards - if anyone would like to be an admin let me know and I will hook you up - also if people could like the page that would be very helpful.

Good morning everyone. The company I have that is working on this site needs pics today for the home page. So I need some ASAP!! I have yet to receive any. If you are not interested in doing that, it's ok. I can buy a few stock photos. If you have any suggestions on the look of the site let me know. I'm spending a ton of money and I want it to be good! I will need to find a way to pay for it sometime so suggestions on that would be helpful as well. Who to charge customer/innkeeper? But for now I want it to be used, so I'm not going to worry to much about that. Maybe away to do paid advertising or something. I'm not looking to make money, just pay for my costs and time. Thank you to the ones who have stepped up to help out. You will receive extra benefits on this site.

Bob, did you get the photos I sent? Do not have time to learn dropbox.

gillumhouse said:

Bob, did you get the photos I sent? Do not have time to learn dropbox..

Click to expand...

gillumhouse said:

Bob, did you get the photos I sent? Do not have time to learn dropbox.

Click to expand...

Yes, thank you. I am trying to find out if they will work. Sending from email will be low res. thank you for sending! I'm working on writing a game plan for this site. So everyone will understand a little better and then we can go from there.

Bob said:

I set up a folder named Innrewards.com in Dropbox. Anyone who would like their Inn on the Home page just send me a few pics. It must be high res. I will also need a quick email from you giving me permission to use it on Innrewards.com site and newsletters only. Also if you guys have any suggestions or examples of directory sites that you like, let me know. It will help with the final build out..

Click to expand...

Bob said:

I set up a folder named Innrewards.com in Dropbox. Anyone who would like their Inn on the Home page just send me a few pics. It must be high res. I will also need a quick email from you giving me permission to use it on Innrewards.com site and newsletters only. Also if you guys have any suggestions or examples of directory sites that you like, let me know. It will help with the final build out.

Click to expand...

Pls set up a LINK to the dropbox so we can get to it, thanks!

If this were my inn i would be all over this-the owner is reluctant to even do facebook or any other social media which i think is really determental to the Inn. I don't understand why-but its her Inn not mine and no matter what we say that wont change it. I wish some owners knew what it was to be an innkeeper-owning an Inn does not make you an innkeeper unless you own and operate it.
Truthfully if there are owners out there I would chanlenge them to work with their Innkeepers for an entire week from breakfast-check ins to laundry to other stuff-it would change every owners (who is not running their inn) perspective on what we do...

Bob- I have not had time to really look over your idea here. Will give it a look later on. Looks like you're doing a lot of good work here.