Directories - Are there any WORTHWHILE ones left?

I have reviewed a number of posts about the problems and reasons to leave directories.
That said, are there any WORTHWHILE directories, either free or paid?

NO not really. I am now retired and never used any. Others will have more to say than me. The only place I check these days is Tripadvisor.

I use one Directory for the be out there to the world (meaning not just niche market). The one I use also does PR and has placed me in some articles, AND the one I use is owned by a person, not a conglomerate looking only at the bottom line (theirs) and a person who knows about B & B. But on the whole, no they are not because with the Internet, one only needs to know the one computer word Himself knows - Goo gle.

We just completed a one year test of the last remaining viable directory and it failed in our market miserably. Even if you went by the click-throughs and used 1% conversion, it barely paid for itself. We pulled out all the stops and entered at the highest level. It's done. It's over.

I have been back and forth regarding this question. I have paid for listings in several directories, left them all for a time and now am listed with one.
Is it worthwhile? Well it constantly ranks in the top 3 referrers to my site via Google Analytics (GA). BUT I need to be doing more reports with GA to know for sure.
I listened to 2 webinars this week, both had some very interesting comments about marketing. Both stated that GA was an ideal way to find conversion stats on each way you market online. Of course the upgraded version goes deeper in detail, each speaker stated the basic version would give independent small properties enough info to know whether something is pulling its weight.
Other things to consider here is:

1. is your B&B established or are you a start up
2. Is your website ranking well (top 5 in searches) for ALL your keywords
3. Where you are located... tourist town / small town / greater area near tourist town
4. demographics of your ideal guest

From BedandBreakfast.com - our YTD stats... Mind you we live in a tiny town, located near a much larger town, 100 x our size. No way could our tiny town generate 1900 of these hits in 23 days.
Details Your property Increase exposure
City page visits 4,731 Buy a Second City Listing
Property page visits 100 Upgrade membership
Website click through 40 Bid on Inn of the Month
Inquiries 1 Bid on Featured Property
Online booking NA Sign up
Availability calendar 0 Add calendar

One other thing that should help you decide- Does anyone mention them when they stay with you. Not once in a year in our case. compare that with the dozens of people who have made it a point to say they found us on TA. At almost three times the price of TA, that large chunk of change is going somewhere else where it will make a difference.
Mind you, it is possible that other markets do much much better with it.

TripAdvisor, Booking.com, AirBnB, and so on seem to be the new and current "directories." Not sure what is on the horizon to supplant them, but you can be sure that something will eventually come along to which travelers will migrate. How best to be found seems always to be a moving target.

Harborfields said:

TripAdvisor, Booking.com, AirBnB, and so on seem to be the new and current "directories." Not sure what is on the horizon to supplant them, but you can be sure that something will eventually come along to which travelers will migrate. How best to be found seems always to be a moving target..

Click to expand...

Call me crazy HB, but I think that next thing is not that far away and it's the organic social media web that we create. Heck, I don't even know what that really means, but I might as well start sounding like I know all about it before it rolls over me like a Bullwinkle Snowball.

happykeeper said:

Harborfields said:

TripAdvisor, Booking.com, AirBnB, and so on seem to be the new and current "directories." Not sure what is on the horizon to supplant them, but you can be sure that something will eventually come along to which travelers will migrate. How best to be found seems always to be a moving target..

Click to expand...

Call me crazy HB, but I think that next thing is not that far away and it's the organic social media web that we create. Heck, I don't even know what that really means, but I might as well start sounding like I know all about it before it rolls over me like a Bullwinkle Snowball.
.

Click to expand...

happykeeper said:

Call me crazy HB, but I think that next thing is not that far away and it's the organic social media web that we create. Heck, I don't even know what that really means, but I might as well start sounding like I know all about it before it rolls over me like a Bullwinkle Snowball.

Click to expand...

As we are in a "destination" local directories still work well for us. We have two covering us, one for the whole area including local city which consistently comes to the top of our "came from" website list.
The other is a more local site, the group that runs this fell into stagnation for a while but has recently re-emerged anew and is about to launch a brand new website (which I'm involved in setting up). Before the hiatus this website was also consistently in our top 3 "came from" sites.

years ago - we had to be listed on a b&b website for anyone to find us. the internet and the way folks search has changed and now i'm told people find my old place online by searching for the little harbor village by name -- so they cancelled their listings.