looking for your thoughts on bedandbreakfast.com

have been talking to bedandbreakfast.com looking for your thoughts on them this is what they are offering us what do you think
We can definitely make you online bookable only on BedandBreakfast.com but just so you are aware, it would be an 18% commission for Expedia through us AND that would include that we take and process the traveler credit card. Once the guest checks in, the money is deposited within 3-6 business days via direct deposit to your bank. Let me know if you decide to consolidate your online booking sites with us.
and this
property management software (including a website booking tool) is www.rezovation.com

I have used this website for three months, but only to advertise my B&B and my website, I don't use their online booking system so can't comment on that. So far I've had nobody phone or email asking for room info or bookings from it. I paid a yearly fee of about $130 but probably won't bother next year.

I dropped bandbdotcom several years ago. They did nothing for me here in Podunk. Perhaps if I were in a big tourist area - but then why would I need them if I worked my website and marketing?

You can list on there without paying them a commission to take reservations for you. How many other inns are in your town? You can get a silver or bronze listing. Get one with a direct link to your website.
Get online booking thru your own website. Reservation Key is an inexpensive booking engine.
Then, go directly to Expedia or booking.com and set up an account for less than 18% commission if you need to be on an OTA.
It seems you have no money but you keep wanting to throw it at all these other businesses. You have to start protecting your income.

BB dot com was useful for a few years, but incoming traffic from them has dropped way off. We do get a few of their gift card customers (costs us 20%). They do help with a second city listing which is important to us, and may help SEO, but we will probably drop them next year if bookings don't improve.
Stay away form their booking engine RezO. If I were starting up today, I would use ResKey as has been recommended by others here.
Follow Mort's advice: go slow on $$ outlay commitments. Get a good web site and keep control of your booking. If you sign up with a directory, start with the least expensive option, make them deliver customers before you pay more.
Marketing is important, but the whole B&B approach to marketing is changing rapidly. Google, Air, TA, maybe Book dot com dominate the travel scene. Other directories are becoming meaningless. My guess: BB dot com is going that way.

Most innkeepers I know have only listed with them at the lowest level with a link. Don't use their re reservation system. All they do is spend your money advertising on wheel of fortune
as others have said don't throw your money away so easily they will talk you out of it. Remember they aren't out to help you, they are out to make money for themselves bottom line ..theirs not yours.
Have you done any google searches on your town+bed and breakfast or similar? Who comes up first page? That is where to begin
i see air, hotels .com, local sites where I see 8 or so B&Bs but none are you.
fix that asap

EmptyNest said:

Most innkeepers I know have only listed with them at the lowest level with a link. Don't use their re reservation system. All they do is spend your money advertising on wheel of fortune
as others have said don't throw your money away so easily they will talk you out of it. Remember they aren't out to help you, they are out to make money for themselves bottom line ..theirs not yours.
Have you done any google searches on your town+bed and breakfast or similar? Who comes up first page? That is where to begin
i see air, hotels .com, local sites where I see 8 or so B&Bs but none are you.
fix that asap.

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So i typed in Nashville Indiana bed and breakfast and we showed up first. We have been in touch with The convention center and they are going to list us for free. Where else should I be looking? I typed Brown County hotels and we are listed there.

As Tom says, use the cheapest that has a link to your website.
I am using BnBFinder @ $199 per year as my "shotgun" (where it lands who knows but it is there for general search purposes). The reason I list with them over any of the other is: 1- they do not badger me to sell me any other services 2 - (and this is THE most important) I said yes, send me your PR e-mails - I get a daily pitch search e-mail of what writers are looking for. IF I even remotely have something that fits, I am on it with a pitch.
They got me on blogs or articles (not sure which - does not matter, it brought people to my website) on solo traveling, coffee, tea, a quote from me about my stove that functioned for 60 years...... These are just in the last year. I think there were others that I cannot remember now.
I have great motorcycle roads. For a while I joined the Gold Wing Road Riders Association - things got tight so I dropped membership BUT I developed a relationship with the ad sales dept. I have submitted - and been printed - in their magazine 3 times with articles I wrote about West Virginia roads - and they also used my photos. I have also been in a few of their "blurbs" about motorcycle friendly, military friendly features.
I can get good prices on co-op ads if anyone wants to partner with me in that magazine. It took years to develop but I share. Motorcycles are one of my "target" markets for several reasons, one of which is that I have the great roads and created routes of those roads.

jamesandjill said:

EmptyNest said:

Most innkeepers I know have only listed with them at the lowest level with a link. Don't use their re reservation system. All they do is spend your money advertising on wheel of fortune
as others have said don't throw your money away so easily they will talk you out of it. Remember they aren't out to help you, they are out to make money for themselves bottom line ..theirs not yours.
Have you done any google searches on your town+bed and breakfast or similar? Who comes up first page? That is where to begin
i see air, hotels .com, local sites where I see 8 or so B&Bs but none are you.
fix that asap.

Click to expand...

So i typed in Nashville Indiana bed and breakfast and we showed up first. We have been in touch with The convention center and they are going to list us for free. Where else should I be looking? I typed Brown County hotels and we are listed there.
.

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What's with the $106 rate on that? I do believe that is leftover from previous name. Which I changed for you on the google map a good thing but...
The price is probably coming as a result of previous oTA listing. Hope you don't honor that one.
you need to find all of the listings of the old name and change to yours though some will probably want paid so you may have to forget them
convention and visitor center, chamber of commerce, county lodging site and all those others listed below what you saw

stevewitharoom said:

I have used this website for three months, but only to advertise my B&B and my website, I don't use their online booking system so can't comment on that. So far I've had nobody phone or email asking for room info or bookings from it. I paid a yearly fee of about $130 but probably won't bother next year..

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stevewitharoom said:

I have used this website for three months, but only to advertise my B&B and my website, I don't use their online booking system so can't comment on that. So far I've had nobody phone or email asking for room info or bookings from it. I paid a yearly fee of about $130 but probably won't bother next year.

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Sorry, there are no listings on that site for $130 a year. You have to provide them with your contact info to get their rates but on the page to do so it states "Memberships start at just $35.78 per month"

As Mort says, you can list without using their booking system. There are quite a few booking systems less expensive such as Reservation Key.
I have been with them for many, many years but this may be the end. My stats with them have almost bottomed out since their addition of the Diamond collection and all the secondary city listings that provides. (I did search for Nashville, IN and currently the list there is small)
I recently had a face to face meeting with one of their reps. about the lack of performance. Well, the rep told me she would look into my issue - still nothing. Maybe they know there is nothing they can do!
The last few years of membership have been strictly for link love, but I can get that from several other directories for a fraction of the cost.

Copperhead said:

stevewitharoom said:

I have used this website for three months, but only to advertise my B&B and my website, I don't use their online booking system so can't comment on that. So far I've had nobody phone or email asking for room info or bookings from it. I paid a yearly fee of about $130 but probably won't bother next year..

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stevewitharoom said:

I have used this website for three months, but only to advertise my B&B and my website, I don't use their online booking system so can't comment on that. So far I've had nobody phone or email asking for room info or bookings from it. I paid a yearly fee of about $130 but probably won't bother next year.

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Sorry, there are no listings on that site for $130 a year. You have to provide them with your contact info to get their rates but on the page to do so it states "Memberships start at just $35.78 per month"
.

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When I dumped them, the cheapest listing to have your website even listed went to $469 per year - and that was at least 5 years ago or more.

Google the places near you, are they on that directory?Do they use it for reservations?
If so then you may consider it.
It is big bucks, and it seems that you don't feel confident in what the experts on this panel have said and wish to continue to hand everything over to an OTA of some sort.
So go for it, give them your % of room rates and see how many overbooking, double bookings and general snafu's you will encounter. It will take a full time person to keep track of it all, that is my warning. I am against the grain of many here. But I want to run this business and not have the business run me (which is not easy).

Copperhead said:

As Mort says, you can list without using their booking system. There are quite a few booking systems less expensive such as Reservation Key.
I have been with them for many, many years but this may be the end. My stats with them have almost bottomed out since their addition of the Diamond collection and all the secondary city listings that provides. (I did search for Nashville, IN and currently the list there is small)
I recently had a face to face meeting with one of their reps. about the lack of performance. Well, the rep told me she would look into my issue - still nothing. Maybe they know there is nothing they can do!
The last few years of membership have been strictly for link love, but I can get that from several other directories for a fraction of the cost..

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So here are the stats I got this AM - 25,000 city views. 1300 page views. 1200 visits to my site. What I take away from this is that after going to the city list, 95% of the viewers look at a different property than mine. But, 92% who look at my listing go on to look at my site. And they spend over 3 minutes there according to GA. (Still cannot link GA to my booking engine.)
Are those 1200 visits (not necessarily 1200 separate guests) worth $600/year (the lowest rate for a link)? Perhaps for one more year.
If I want more leads to my website the obvious answer is to pay them more to move my place up the list. At present, I'm below all the diamond properties and inns that pay to be on my city page.

My wife and I are new B&B owners, and just finished setting up Freetobook as our booking software. I am really really happy -- it is FREE. They do offer additional paid for services, but you don't need to use them. You can use them for credit card payments, but we are only accepting cash or check now. So, no charge, and we have a calendar and book now option on our website. Bedandbreakfast.com has been pushing us to use their booknow function, but I am reluctant to pay the commission. I would be interested in hearing if others have any experience with Freetobook. Hey, go to our website and check it out -- belltowerbandb.com -- I'd be curious to hear your take on us.

lazarus said:

My wife and I are new B&B owners, and just finished setting up Freetobook as our booking software. I am really really happy -- it is FREE. They do offer additional paid for services, but you don't need to use them. You can use them for credit card payments, but we are only accepting cash or check now. So, no charge, and we have a calendar and book now option on our website. Bedandbreakfast.com has been pushing us to use their booknow function, but I am reluctant to pay the commission. I would be interested in hearing if others have any experience with Freetobook. Hey, go to our website and check it out -- belltowerbandb.com -- I'd be curious to hear your take on us..

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Lots of UK inn owners use freetobook and love it. If you don't need any of the paid services I've heard it's an excellent option. Thanks for bringing it up for these folks who need free options!
Paying commissions irks me so I try to avoid using features that require payment to an outside source.
Especially as they use those commissions to pay for ad words to push them above our organic search results so you end up always paying. Or, they push guests to book at places with higher rates so they make more money.

lazarus said:

My wife and I are new B&B owners, and just finished setting up Freetobook as our booking software. I am really really happy -- it is FREE. They do offer additional paid for services, but you don't need to use them. You can use them for credit card payments, but we are only accepting cash or check now. So, no charge, and we have a calendar and book now option on our website. Bedandbreakfast.com has been pushing us to use their booknow function, but I am reluctant to pay the commission. I would be interested in hearing if others have any experience with Freetobook. Hey, go to our website and check it out -- belltowerbandb.com -- I'd be curious to hear your take on us..

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Just saying and its my experience not taking cards leaves you very vulnerable unless you expect everyone to pay in advance and don't take short notice bookings.

Jcam said:

lazarus said:

My wife and I are new B&B owners, and just finished setting up Freetobook as our booking software. I am really really happy -- it is FREE. They do offer additional paid for services, but you don't need to use them. You can use them for credit card payments, but we are only accepting cash or check now. So, no charge, and we have a calendar and book now option on our website. Bedandbreakfast.com has been pushing us to use their booknow function, but I am reluctant to pay the commission. I would be interested in hearing if others have any experience with Freetobook. Hey, go to our website and check it out -- belltowerbandb.com -- I'd be curious to hear your take on us..

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Just saying and its my experience not taking cards leaves you very vulnerable unless you expect everyone to pay in advance and don't take short notice bookings.
.

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Jcam said:

Just saying and its my experience not taking cards leaves you very vulnerable unless you expect everyone to pay in advance and don't take short notice bookings.

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Totally agree that not having a credit card on file opens you up to a lot of lookie lous who hold a room then don't show up because they have no skin in the game.
Our cancellations dropped from 10% to less than 1% once we started getting advance deposits on a credit card.

Jcam said:

lazarus said:

My wife and I are new B&B owners, and just finished setting up Freetobook as our booking software. I am really really happy -- it is FREE. They do offer additional paid for services, but you don't need to use them. You can use them for credit card payments, but we are only accepting cash or check now. So, no charge, and we have a calendar and book now option on our website. Bedandbreakfast.com has been pushing us to use their booknow function, but I am reluctant to pay the commission. I would be interested in hearing if others have any experience with Freetobook. Hey, go to our website and check it out -- belltowerbandb.com -- I'd be curious to hear your take on us..

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Just saying and its my experience not taking cards leaves you very vulnerable unless you expect everyone to pay in advance and don't take short notice bookings.
.

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Cash or check only. No I way! You must take credit card

jamesandjill said:

EmptyNest said:

Most innkeepers I know have only listed with them at the lowest level with a link. Don't use their re reservation system. All they do is spend your money advertising on wheel of fortune
as others have said don't throw your money away so easily they will talk you out of it. Remember they aren't out to help you, they are out to make money for themselves bottom line ..theirs not yours.
Have you done any google searches on your town+bed and breakfast or similar? Who comes up first page? That is where to begin
i see air, hotels .com, local sites where I see 8 or so B&Bs but none are you.
fix that asap.

Click to expand...

So i typed in Nashville Indiana bed and breakfast and we showed up first. We have been in touch with The convention center and they are going to list us for free. Where else should I be looking? I typed Brown County hotels and we are listed there.
.

Click to expand...

You should also contact your local Chamber of comerce. You may pay to join , but our first year the chamber gave out our name all the time. They would check to see if we had availability then then give out our name. Also visit local real estate offices. Ours can't rent for less than 2 weeks. They were thrilled to have a card to hand to clients who wanted a shorter stay. Good luck!