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Hillbilly

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Joined
Oct 22, 2011
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I just got off the phone with Bed and B . com I am so upset. Here is a list of "Did you knows."
1) You can list your property if you have 40 rooms or less. (condos, motels, hotels, travel trailer, what ever you like.)
2) You do not have to be a Bed and Breakfast. You can offer a breakfast voucher to a local restaurants.
This is just a few of the things I didn't already know. I'm so upset at this. In my town I now have 3 properties that are condos above me.
what a bunch of crap!
 
Those properties don't even have to offer vouchers! I've called them on a couple properties over the past 5 years (both previous and new owners of site) and complained. They won't remove their listing.
I had no idea about condos.
The only reason I stay with them is that the ROI is still good for me. I have gotten away from any and all other products they sell.
 
Three years without them. Haven't looked back. I'm sorry for those that depend on them. I despise them and their business practices.
 
It's not so surprising, really. Since they are owned by Homeaway, it stands to reason the company will homogenize its offerings - full house rentals are often condos or apartments without breakfast service. They're thinking of airbnb as their competition now, not the bed and breakfast directories.
 
We've gotten almost nothing from them. With b oo king you get exactly what you pay for. Commission is the way to go.
 
And, they don't even have to be in your town. Some places on my page are an hour away.
There are so many reasons they are not right for a lot of people. As they push more and more toward becoming Expedia, smaller places will drop out, which is the whole idea. We cost way too much support time for the money they get.
We still only have the cheapest listing with a link and we are still getting 10x return. According to the ad they have running in one of the side panels on the forum you can make $17,000 with your listing with them. We don't get that but we get enough.
Obviously, if you can rent a whole house for $160/ night no one will choose a b&b room so they will become less cost effective for us and eventually we'll drop them.
 
Full disclosure, I own stock, but I own stock in a lot of these companies, because I figure I might as well get something back for all the damn money that I give them.
They recently changed their policy on reviews, if you ask me, it violates our laws, so I can't participate. Irony, I have the most reviews for my city.
A lot of these companies forget why they were in business and go off on tangents and then lose focus as to what they were doing in the first place. By that time it's too late to go back and they have lost their market which is what brought them traffic in the first place. Or end up doing stupid things that lawyers have told them are fine, but they forget they are in an international marketplace.
Even on TA, you don't have to serve breakfast to be listed in the B&B category, just not having a 24 hour front desk is enough to move you out of hotel listings...
 
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