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Bigbid

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I posted before that I would give an update on my Booking and Expedia experience. I started using booking.com around last October through the Reservationkey program. I was not set up on Expedia and Airbnb until about 4 months ago. That is part of the reason for the big difference in reservations.
I had a total of 180 individual reservations (273 room nights) through these 3 companies and here is the breakdown of actual room nights.
Booking.com – 205
Expedia – 43
AirBNB – 25
My take after commission is a little over 40,000. Some might have found my site without these companies but I am getting a lot more foreigners. I am extremely glad I did it. It has added over 20% additional income so far this year.
Side note: I know there is some controversy with AirBNB but we have really enjoyed the people who have stayed with us after booking with them…
 
Good info!
How many rooms do you list as available on each?
We rarely get foreign travelers from booking. We usually get folks from Virginia or in state, which I find weird.
We list 2 rooms as we have found booking guests do not like stairs. We only list the rooms with easy access.
Since last October we've gotten maybe 15 room nights from booking so not anywhere near your results.
 
Thanks so much for sharing and it seems that it greatly helped your revenue so that's wonderful. We are toying with the idea of using booking to fill midweek rooms and in the slower season. Did you have any issues with the data or credit card info for the booking guests? Did you give weekend nights or just use it sparingly?
Have you also looked at TripConnect if you have a business listing? This is another avenue we're looking at to direct them to our site rather than booking. I'm wondering what others have experienced with TripConnect?
 
Here in Spain we use book in.com, trip conn, and of course our own website. We get between 75-80% of our reservations through book in.com, tripconnect is so cheap it is almost silly not to use it, they click straight through to your website on a ppc basis, one booking via tripconnect and it has normally paid for itself for a few months. We use TA to promote our own website via the special offers link. We are running at above 80% occupancy have only been open 4 months.
 
I've been using trip con nect for a few months and haven't really gotten anything from it. I think it all depends on your location. One of the problems is that in ResKey, if you have a 2 night minimum, even if you program ResKey to open it up a few days ahead of time, TC doesn't see that. It will still show you don't have a room open for a single night. That's not much help for us when we have a last minute opening on a weekend.
 
Thanks so much for sharing and it seems that it greatly helped your revenue so that's wonderful. We are toying with the idea of using booking to fill midweek rooms and in the slower season. Did you have any issues with the data or credit card info for the booking guests? Did you give weekend nights or just use it sparingly?
Have you also looked at TripConnect if you have a business listing? This is another avenue we're looking at to direct them to our site rather than booking. I'm wondering what others have experienced with TripConnect?.
I have not had issues with credit card or data info. I can run my one night deposit with booking but i cannot with expedia. Also, setting up a B&B on these sites is a little frustrating because you do not write your own text descriptions of rooms. You check boxes and the sites write the text for you. It is more suited for a hotel that has 80 rooms with the same amenities. All of our rooms are different so each one is added as a separate unit. To book on my website, guests must enter an approximate check-in time but that is not an option on these third party sites. I have reskey set up to send an automatic email right after booking giving them some info on the area and restaurants and asking for them to give me an approximate check-in time. About 50% respond.
I have also noticed that most these third party guests tend to check in later than my own website guests...
 
Here in Spain we use book in.com, trip conn, and of course our own website. We get between 75-80% of our reservations through book in.com, tripconnect is so cheap it is almost silly not to use it, they click straight through to your website on a ppc basis, one booking via tripconnect and it has normally paid for itself for a few months. We use TA to promote our own website via the special offers link. We are running at above 80% occupancy have only been open 4 months..
Hi Stu- I have heard the opposite about the TR Conn cost. Is it based on location? I would like to consider it since it will show us when people put in dates. Our ranking is top notch, so I thought it might we a waste of money if it cost a lot per month.
BTW- that is great that you are hitting such a high occupancy right out of the gate. Congratulations!
 
Good info!
How many rooms do you list as available on each?
We rarely get foreign travelers from booking. We usually get folks from Virginia or in state, which I find weird.
We list 2 rooms as we have found booking guests do not like stairs. We only list the rooms with easy access.
Since last October we've gotten maybe 15 room nights from booking so not anywhere near your results..
I have 2 Inns. One has 12 rooms and the other 8. I decided to list all of them and in my off season it is the majority of my bookings. In my busy season, most of my rooms are already booked but they have filled in my straggling rooms quite nicely. I have noticed that most of these third party bookings are 2 days to 3 weeks out.
 
I've been using trip con nect for a few months and haven't really gotten anything from it. I think it all depends on your location. One of the problems is that in ResKey, if you have a 2 night minimum, even if you program ResKey to open it up a few days ahead of time, TC doesn't see that. It will still show you don't have a room open for a single night. That's not much help for us when we have a last minute opening on a weekend..
Hi BD I would love to hear more about how the location affects it. Have you found it be inexpensive? Does it catch minimum stays when you add them? That would be a big problem for us if we added a minimum stay in Re Key and it didn't pick it up. Oh - the headaches, and possible lost revenue, that would cause.
 
Thanks so much for sharing and it seems that it greatly helped your revenue so that's wonderful. We are toying with the idea of using booking to fill midweek rooms and in the slower season. Did you have any issues with the data or credit card info for the booking guests? Did you give weekend nights or just use it sparingly?
Have you also looked at TripConnect if you have a business listing? This is another avenue we're looking at to direct them to our site rather than booking. I'm wondering what others have experienced with TripConnect?.
I have not had issues with credit card or data info. I can run my one night deposit with booking but i cannot with expedia. Also, setting up a B&B on these sites is a little frustrating because you do not write your own text descriptions of rooms. You check boxes and the sites write the text for you. It is more suited for a hotel that has 80 rooms with the same amenities. All of our rooms are different so each one is added as a separate unit. To book on my website, guests must enter an approximate check-in time but that is not an option on these third party sites. I have reskey set up to send an automatic email right after booking giving them some info on the area and restaurants and asking for them to give me an approximate check-in time. About 50% respond.
I have also noticed that most these third party guests tend to check in later than my own website guests...
.
I've recently added to my confirmation email to third party guests that this building has stairs and no elevator. Bellhop availability is minimal.
Hoping guests plan accordingly and do not expect me to haul 50 lb suitcases up the stairs for them.
 
I've been using trip con nect for a few months and haven't really gotten anything from it. I think it all depends on your location. One of the problems is that in ResKey, if you have a 2 night minimum, even if you program ResKey to open it up a few days ahead of time, TC doesn't see that. It will still show you don't have a room open for a single night. That's not much help for us when we have a last minute opening on a weekend..
Hi BD I would love to hear more about how the location affects it. Have you found it be inexpensive? Does it catch minimum stays when you add them? That would be a big problem for us if we added a minimum stay in Re Key and it didn't pick it up. Oh - the headaches, and possible lost revenue, that would cause.
.
happykeeper said:
Hi BD I would love to hear more about how the location affects it. Have you found it be inexpensive? Does it catch minimum stays when you add them? That would be a big problem for us if we added a minimum stay in Re Key and it didn't pick it up. Oh - the headaches, and possible lost revenue, that would cause.
Well, it's really cheap for me because no one is clicking on it! You can set up your maximum $ of clicks per day with a minimum of $10 per day.
It does work with minimums on ResKey, but as far as I can tell, it's just when you lift the minimum it doesn't register. I'll have to test it out again.
This is my test year for a TA biz listing. I have gotten a couple reservation from it...enough to pay the annual fee, but if they double the fee when my listing in October is up, I will not pay it. The good thing about having TC is that your official website is what shows when people put dates in the calendar. If you have expedia, book.com, etc, it will be listed along with them. The best part though is if you do not use OTAs, it allows you to have your listing only for your available dates on your TA page.
For me, it's just as I thought it would be. It seems like people find my website first, THEN go to TA to look at reviews. TA is not generating bookings for me. It's because of my rural location and we don't show up on the bigger cities near us very often.
 
I've been using trip con nect for a few months and haven't really gotten anything from it. I think it all depends on your location. One of the problems is that in ResKey, if you have a 2 night minimum, even if you program ResKey to open it up a few days ahead of time, TC doesn't see that. It will still show you don't have a room open for a single night. That's not much help for us when we have a last minute opening on a weekend..
Hi BD I would love to hear more about how the location affects it. Have you found it be inexpensive? Does it catch minimum stays when you add them? That would be a big problem for us if we added a minimum stay in Re Key and it didn't pick it up. Oh - the headaches, and possible lost revenue, that would cause.
.
happykeeper said:
Hi BD I would love to hear more about how the location affects it. Have you found it be inexpensive? Does it catch minimum stays when you add them? That would be a big problem for us if we added a minimum stay in Re Key and it didn't pick it up. Oh - the headaches, and possible lost revenue, that would cause.
Well, it's really cheap for me because no one is clicking on it! You can set up your maximum $ of clicks per day with a minimum of $10 per day.
It does work with minimums on ResKey, but as far as I can tell, it's just when you lift the minimum it doesn't register. I'll have to test it out again.
This is my test year for a TA biz listing. I have gotten a couple reservation from it...enough to pay the annual fee, but if they double the fee when my listing in October is up, I will not pay it. The good thing about having TC is that your official website is what shows when people put dates in the calendar. If you have expedia, book.com, etc, it will be listed along with them. The best part though is if you do not use OTAs, it allows you to have your listing only for your available dates on your TA page.
For me, it's just as I thought it would be. It seems like people find my website first, THEN go to TA to look at reviews. TA is not generating bookings for me. It's because of my rural location and we don't show up on the bigger cities near us very often.
.
I get what you mean now. I saw the $10 minimum and I thought that would be a big spend if we got all those clicks. Maybe I will have to try it out. Our biz listing generates a fair amount of referral, we appear in a more generic state search, and I just thought TOO many people would just be curious clickers. WE would have it all to ourselves, which was the big selling point. That we would only appear for dates we have is something I am not sure is good yet because we like the waiting list feature people use on Res Key. We can sometimes turn those into something. So ....under the current set up they just go to our website. I guess they would still do that if we had TC but no availability. HMM...thanks for the fill-ins. It has me thinking.
 
I've been using trip con nect for a few months and haven't really gotten anything from it. I think it all depends on your location. One of the problems is that in ResKey, if you have a 2 night minimum, even if you program ResKey to open it up a few days ahead of time, TC doesn't see that. It will still show you don't have a room open for a single night. That's not much help for us when we have a last minute opening on a weekend..
Hi BD I would love to hear more about how the location affects it. Have you found it be inexpensive? Does it catch minimum stays when you add them? That would be a big problem for us if we added a minimum stay in Re Key and it didn't pick it up. Oh - the headaches, and possible lost revenue, that would cause.
.
happykeeper said:
Hi BD I would love to hear more about how the location affects it. Have you found it be inexpensive? Does it catch minimum stays when you add them? That would be a big problem for us if we added a minimum stay in Re Key and it didn't pick it up. Oh - the headaches, and possible lost revenue, that would cause.
Well, it's really cheap for me because no one is clicking on it! You can set up your maximum $ of clicks per day with a minimum of $10 per day.
It does work with minimums on ResKey, but as far as I can tell, it's just when you lift the minimum it doesn't register. I'll have to test it out again.
This is my test year for a TA biz listing. I have gotten a couple reservation from it...enough to pay the annual fee, but if they double the fee when my listing in October is up, I will not pay it. The good thing about having TC is that your official website is what shows when people put dates in the calendar. If you have expedia, book.com, etc, it will be listed along with them. The best part though is if you do not use OTAs, it allows you to have your listing only for your available dates on your TA page.
For me, it's just as I thought it would be. It seems like people find my website first, THEN go to TA to look at reviews. TA is not generating bookings for me. It's because of my rural location and we don't show up on the bigger cities near us very often.
.
I get what you mean now. I saw the $10 minimum and I thought that would be a big spend if we got all those clicks. Maybe I will have to try it out. Our biz listing generates a fair amount of referral, we appear in a more generic state search, and I just thought TOO many people would just be curious clickers. WE would have it all to ourselves, which was the big selling point. That we would only appear for dates we have is something I am not sure is good yet because we like the waiting list feature people use on Res Key. We can sometimes turn those into something. So ....under the current set up they just go to our website. I guess they would still do that if we had TC but no availability. HMM...thanks for the fill-ins. It has me thinking.
.
You're welcome! I think it could really be a benefit for some properties. Yours might work really well with this.
 
Here in Spain we use book in.com, trip conn, and of course our own website. We get between 75-80% of our reservations through book in.com, tripconnect is so cheap it is almost silly not to use it, they click straight through to your website on a ppc basis, one booking via tripconnect and it has normally paid for itself for a few months. We use TA to promote our own website via the special offers link. We are running at above 80% occupancy have only been open 4 months..
Hi Stu- I have heard the opposite about the TR Conn cost. Is it based on location? I would like to consider it since it will show us when people put in dates. Our ranking is top notch, so I thought it might we a waste of money if it cost a lot per month.
BTW- that is great that you are hitting such a high occupancy right out of the gate. Congratulations!
.
Hi Happy Keeper. Our TC campaign is showing we have had bookings of €262 since April 2014 and our costs to TC have been €40. (I suspect a few of those clicks were from ourselves). You basically bid for 1st position against the likes of book-in.com and expda per click. i think our CPC is on average about 30-40c PC. As long as you are in the top 3 you will show up fine. For us TC is worth it more for the special announcements and special offers, I think we get quite a few bookings through our website from there!
Thanks for the congatulations, it has certainly been a roller coaster ride opening this place. We never expected to be so busy. But we both love running our own business and love the B&B life soooooo much.
 
Bigbid said:
I had a total of 180 individual reservations (273 room nights) through these 3 companies and here is the breakdown of actual room nights.
Booking.com – 205
Expedia – 43
AirBNB – 25
Does this mean that Expedia is loosing it to Booking just as they did in many European countries ?
 
Here in Spain we use book in.com, trip conn, and of course our own website. We get between 75-80% of our reservations through book in.com, tripconnect is so cheap it is almost silly not to use it, they click straight through to your website on a ppc basis, one booking via tripconnect and it has normally paid for itself for a few months. We use TA to promote our own website via the special offers link. We are running at above 80% occupancy have only been open 4 months..
Hi Stu- I have heard the opposite about the TR Conn cost. Is it based on location? I would like to consider it since it will show us when people put in dates. Our ranking is top notch, so I thought it might we a waste of money if it cost a lot per month.
BTW- that is great that you are hitting such a high occupancy right out of the gate. Congratulations!
.
Hi Happy Keeper. Our TC campaign is showing we have had bookings of €262 since April 2014 and our costs to TC have been €40. (I suspect a few of those clicks were from ourselves). You basically bid for 1st position against the likes of book-in.com and expda per click. i think our CPC is on average about 30-40c PC. As long as you are in the top 3 you will show up fine. For us TC is worth it more for the special announcements and special offers, I think we get quite a few bookings through our website from there!
Thanks for the congatulations, it has certainly been a roller coaster ride opening this place. We never expected to be so busy. But we both love running our own business and love the B&B life soooooo much.
.
And you are in a great market... we tried to find a BNB in southern spain ( hope that is close to the right location) in several stops,,, and they were all booked solid for weeks. Made us think what a great place to open our retirement BNB LOL
teeth_smile.gif

 
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