Generic
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2011
- Messages
- 7,728
- Reaction score
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I always thought that what we really need is a new type of association. One that is meant to be a support and marketing association and not specifically about "education" and certainly not about "profit" for the association.
From my standpoint, what I want is an association that markets B&Bs by B&Bs and for B&Bs. That negotiates deals with suppliers for us who want our favour. We are small, but there are many of us, so that mobile companies, linen companies, insurance companies and the such are interested in our business and should be able to offer members discounts (just like the AARP or CARP). And finally, that helps us fill niches that we can't currently fill... for example, there is a large supplier of frozen ready-to-bake products that we can use, but is often requiring too big an order for us to purchase, so finding a way with a producer to service our market in a way that makes our product better and fills the missing vertical market. And finally stands up to organizations that use and abuse us, for example TA, who doesn't seem to understand our value and many of our particular cases has allowed fake reviews, violations of their own ToS and even dilution of our TM without our permission. Not to mention the fact that we are charge so much more per room than large establishments that don't send nearly as much traffic per room.
That is what I want from an association.
From my standpoint, what I want is an association that markets B&Bs by B&Bs and for B&Bs. That negotiates deals with suppliers for us who want our favour. We are small, but there are many of us, so that mobile companies, linen companies, insurance companies and the such are interested in our business and should be able to offer members discounts (just like the AARP or CARP). And finally, that helps us fill niches that we can't currently fill... for example, there is a large supplier of frozen ready-to-bake products that we can use, but is often requiring too big an order for us to purchase, so finding a way with a producer to service our market in a way that makes our product better and fills the missing vertical market. And finally stands up to organizations that use and abuse us, for example TA, who doesn't seem to understand our value and many of our particular cases has allowed fake reviews, violations of their own ToS and even dilution of our TM without our permission. Not to mention the fact that we are charge so much more per room than large establishments that don't send nearly as much traffic per room.
That is what I want from an association.
