New Mexico Bed and Breakfast Association

Visit the website>>> Inspected B&B's of New Mexico

We just launched a new website last month and we are really pleased. It is a very cool data base site that enables us to administer it all ourselves. Inns can manage their own listings. Feed back from guests and innkeepers has been great. There were very few bugs to work out before and after the launch. State monies help fund this endeavor with a cooperative grant we were awarded. We welcome all NM inns to apply for Membership, and also encourage aspiring innkeepers and vendors to apply for Associate Membership. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact us. I am this years marketing chair and you can find me and the rest of our Leadership on the website. This membership is a great value and our website is the best directory for lodging in NM, bar none.

submitted by: aieechihuahua

Comment wisely on this resource if you must.
(Companies can be touchy about their reputations, don't go getting yourself sued)

This comment (36683) was in reply to the Original Topic on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 10:25pm

#1 TOP

swirt

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05/17/2008

Hi Adobenido. Welcome to Innspiring.com

Your new website looks very nice. A couple things I noticed that you may want to look into while the ink is still damp on the contract.

the map - The map is a nice feature, but I find it annoying to take the two clicks into it to get to a town and then another click reveals there is no listing for the town, so I hit back to get out of it and I have to start all over with the map again which resets to the entire state, not the region I was searching. I get no suggestions for nearby towns that might have B&B's or other response that might help me as a traveler. Just a dead end.

Links to member websites - The links to member inns are not direct links. They are redirects from a click tracker page. The redirect is done as a 302 (moved temporarilly) as opposed to 301 (moved permanently). A 301 would be better for the member inns, but actually a direct link would be the best for your members. Your designer is probably going to backpedal and say something about how the click tracker redirect is needed so you can track how many people are clicking on who. The reality is that is just not true (outdated info leading to an outdated excuse) There are other ways to do this that can accurate data about where people are going and still give "link love" to the member inns.

This comment (36693) was in reply to comment 36683 on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 11:38pm

#2 TOP

aieechihuahua

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05/29/2009

Thanks for your comments, swirt.

I am a beekeeper, and I have learned that in a room full of 30 beekeepers, there are most likely 35 opinions and every one of them is right. Always. So it goes with the internet, so I have a group of web geeks that I will defer to when I need an answer. I do this because recently I found myself torn by 2 different web companies who did not agree on anything and being in between was a very uncomfortable place to be. My local friends give me a fresh look and opinion. My own inn site is my continual work in progress and I am learning as I go with opinions coming from all directions. Most importantly I am having fun with it and I'm not doing half bad.

I will look into the redirects. I just had someone tell me they weren't that important, then another said they were. Neither were you or my web peeps...and so it goes.

As for the map...with so many different ways to search for an inn on this site, so I'm not going to stress that. In fact, (here we go with the opinions again), I based this map on what I didn't like about other maps I've tried, and I found it annoying to take two or more clicks to get back to the full state map. If you want to, you may search by region, map, city, ammenity and more. I can't please everyone, eh? As our inns update their info, more of them will show up as nearby inns in the towns that do not have inns if they are close enough. Not all towns will have inns. We are a very rural state.

This site offers so much to users and members. I will no doubt be making changes as time goes on, For the most part the feedback I've recieved from users is that it is attractive and easy to use. Web designers, well that's a whole 'nuther thing.

This comment (36698) was in reply to comment 36693 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 2:44pm

#3 TOP

catlady

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deleted

This comment (36713) was in reply to comment 36698 on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 6:09pm

#4 TOP

Tim_Toad_HLB

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05/08/2009

looks great to me.

This comment (36719) was in reply to comment 36713 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 11:05am

#5 TOP

catlady

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05/22/2008

Why would a state give anyone gratitude???? Our state gives us NOTHING!

We are a non profit assocation and get no state funds. We do however work with our state tourism division closely and have had several successful marketing campaigns with them.

Associations are only as good as their membership. The more.. the better.. and the more talent to make the association something people want to join. It takes time to develop and it can only be done when everyone works together. We have 200 members, but know there are probably 500 inns in our state. However, saying that...we don't want all of them because many do not meet our expected standards.

I am sure Kathleen would like to chime in here sometime. As she is a staunch supporter of state associations.

There are several past president's of state associations active on this forum as well as others who are active in their associations. We all feel strongly about ours and helping them succeed. I put in 6 years and worked my heart out to try and make it the best I could. I just truly believe that if you call yourself a "professional innkeeper" you belong to, assist and support your state association as well as other professional organizations.

So...just what is it that you expect your state association to do for you???? Get you guests?? Sorry...that is not their job.

As far as I am concerned...their job is to market bed and breakfasts in the state. Have an attractive on line presence which will attract visitors to the site, educate guests about what to expect from a B & B stay, set up standards for members to uphold so that guests enjoy a satisfactory stay, provide training and information for innkeepers, and a way for state innkeepers to interact with one another as co workers, not competitors.

State assocations can only provide a place to direct visitors to member web sites, but after that, it is up to the innkeeper.

When I had innkeepers complain to me they didn't have any guests, I would tell them in more politically correct than I am stating here: " If someone is in the middle of nowhere, why would someone choose them?,You can't FORCE guests to choose an inn. If the inn has a crappy looking, out of date website, why would someone choose them?"

Our task as an association is to educate and assist our members in learning what works and what doesn't and hoping they get it

This comment (36737) was in reply to comment 36719 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 1:20pm

#6 TOP

speedbaker

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05/30/2009

I'm confused, I thought marketing is 'getting you guests'. I'm thrilled that your experience with an association continues to be positive even without funding from the state.

I consider myself an extremely professional innkeeper, and my guests feel the same; that is what matters.

I chose to not renew the association membership after close analysis of what I was getting in return for my dues. Unfortunately, the competitor scenario outnumbered the co-worker ones. In fact, one prominent member continues to use very sketchy tactics to ensure high ratings on trip advisor, which is not only tacky, but unfair to the rest of us. The pressure to pay additional for ads was intensified with a very negative approach, that I was 'stupid' if I didn't cough up additional money aside from dues. There was never any mention of training or support. I was also expected to pay additional to get the semi annual inspection.

And the final clincher is that all my tracking told me that I was getting very little traffic through the association website.

Those who choose to serve on association boards often do so without thanks and put in alot of time. I salute that. But as in my case, it seems that it caused some stagnancy that was hard to just write a check for. I am unable to serve in any capacity except as a member, but I really expected more.

Since the non associated members pay the same state and county lodgers tax as those who are, I understand the frustration of seeing that money go in that direction.

There are many good people running B&Bs in our area. Some belong to the association and some do not. I just would like to acknowledge that many are doing a fine professional job without belonging to an association for many reasons.

This comment (36752) was in reply to comment 36737 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 2:16pm

#7 TOP

catlady

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05/22/2008

Yes, your Marketing is about getting you guests..but you can't depend on a state association to do that for you. There is a mix of things an innkeeper MUST do to market their inns effectively.

The association can't be responsible for you getting guests, it is only one piece of the markting pie. Every association is different and some are really better than others. But no one can promise you that you are going to get traffic from their web site. We do our best to promote ours and have alot of different marketing strategies to get the site name out to the public but again we can only do so much. Our bank accounts are limited as well.

Lodging taxes are different in every location. They have nothing to do with a state B & B association.And neither do state sales tax. I will say the majority of state associations are non profit and get absolutely no funding from state governments.They were started as grass roots efforts and without them I don't think B & B's would be known as well as they are.

Yes, many innkeepers truly do run their inns as professionals and for reasons I understand..cannot join an association. Many are working on shoestring budgets and cannot afford it. But for me personally no matter what my profession was in the past and will continue to be, I will always be part of a supportive association in some way.

As a state President, I always invited non members to our events and shared with them as well as our membership. I think Jay from PAII the other day mentioned a possiblitiy of non paying membership in the future for PAII in order to attract more members. I would say...that would be very welcomed. However, non payers could give something in other ways to help an organization.

This comment (36761) was in reply to comment 36752 on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 6:10pm

#8 TOP

Tim_Toad_HLB

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05/08/2009

looks great to me.

This comment (36755) was in reply to comment 36719 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 2:23pm

#9 TOP

aieechihuahua

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05/29/2009

Just so you all know - Tim and I are friends. I respect his choices and opinions. We don't have to agree on anything to be able to talk to each other - we need only respect. How boring life would be if I surrounded myself with like minded people. Heck - some of my best friends are staunch conservatives and I am certainly not. We agree to disagree and love each other very much. I am with Tim in that I am not always pleased with how our state spends our tax money. Isn't everybody?

I am a big joiner. I have been volunteering for years since my kids were in Girl Scouts. I love being a part of my association. I love getting money from the state. I love that our association members spent so much time in Santa Fe and online and phone with our legislators this session. We work hard for all B&Bs and tourism in general.

Our State's Tourism department only gives away $1,000,000 in co-operative grants every year. Last year we got $14,000 out of a possible $20,000. I love that we got that much. For this grant cycle - the most I can apply for it $15,000. 8^(

This comment (36762) was in reply to comment 36719 on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 2:21am

#10 TOP

Samster

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05/30/2008

I wish we had a State B&B association to join I am thinking about PAII though.

This comment (36778) was in reply to comment 36762 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 4:39pm

#11 TOP

muirford

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05/22/2008

I hope you saw Jay's thread about PAII?

http://www.innspiring.com/node/3361

This comment (36782) was in reply to comment 36778 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 4:49pm

#12 TOP

Samster

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05/30/2008

Yep, I'm all over that.

This comment (36817) was in reply to comment 36762 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 10:28pm

#13 TOP

aieechihuahua

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05/29/2009

Samster - I put it off for nine years. What a mistake. I joined this year and I highly reccommend it.

This comment (36818) was in reply to comment 36817 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 10:40pm

#14 TOP

Samster

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05/30/2008

I was a member of PAII as an aspiring in another State, along with being a member of the State association. Was waiting to get a few $$$s ahead to join.

to the forum!

This comment (36815) was in reply to comment 36713 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 9:56pm

#15 TOP

gillumhouse

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05/22/2008

Yes, they are very lucky to have the 300+ non-member B&Bs in the state helpiing to pay for such a beautiful website with our tax dollars, but get nothing in return from the state in gratitude

Gratitude? From my State? Excuse me, but I have gratitude FOR my State. They do a lot for us. Why? Because we return the favor! When my Tourism office needs something they know they can count on me and my Association.

Sorry it took so long for me to chime in. I have been cooking most of the day (Old Procrastinator did not make her manicotti when she should have and that was the entree tonight).

Now as for Associations. I get totally ticked with my member who think that once they send in their dues (which are QUITE low BTW) they are done until next time. A majority of my members are in the boonies, I am in Podunk. My Association has a cadre of workers - always has. We are fortunate that when one leaves for some reason - usually retirement - someone else steps up to the plate.

I was Marketing Chair from 1999 (I think) until 2008 when I was fortunate enough to find someone else - a new member - to take the position. In my estimation, the two most valuable positions in the Association are Web Master and Marketing.

What do I expect my Association to do? I expect them to give me the strength of numbers. Just as PAII is the only one with enough numbers to make TA deign to even listen, mu Association has enough clout to take on the Legislature. It was formed in the first place to keep us from having to have commercial kitchens - 6 rooms or less now, because of MABB are not required to have a commercial kitchen. In 2004, MABB took on the Fire Marshal. Everyone said we would get nowhere. We got half a loaf and made the majority of our members legal (we were prior to this either a hotel/motel needing everything a 100 room hotel must have or a rooming house permitted to have only 3 paying guests). My Association also maintains an excellent web site which does send hits to my web site - and my page on that site is good enough to use as MY site if I could not afford one.

Heads in my beds? That is MY responsibility. I have been strong in my association because I believe in it. Our former newsletter person had to move to Texas but kept her B & B here and she did the newsletter from Texas! She stopped due to a combo lack of material being sent to her via e-mail and her going back to school. Distance is no excuse now that we have computers. When I was President and during Muirford's term after me, Board meetings were done via a chat room. It worked well.

An association is only as good as its members and a State Tourism office cannot help you if you do not make yourself known to them.

Our hotel taxes do not go to any grant funding - it goes to fund the CVB and to the collecting agency (city or county) for tourism uses (uually parks & rec) 50/50. Our grant funds come from a pecentage of the Lottery and there are rules to follow to get it and Tourism bends over backwards to help you get the grants.

I understand some associations have dues that are more than a small inn can afford and some associations have standards of room numbers etc that do not work. Those are the ONLY reasons I can fathom for not belonging.

This comment (36852) was in reply to comment 36815 on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 9:09am

#16 TOP

happyjacks

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05/30/2008

Likewise, the strength of my provincial association is in working with the various gov't regulators on our behalf, particularly with fire safety regs, hot tub regs, and drinking water systems (for rural B&B's not on municipal water). That's not to say B&B's aren't regulated, just that the requirements of a B&B are not the same as a big box hotel.

I get very few referrals from the association, but that's fine for me because I don't think of them as a marketing venue. Their value comes in the $$$ they've saved me (and ALL B&B's in the province) in operational expenses that would cripple a B&B if certain hotel regulations were applied to us.

This comment (36708) was in reply to comment 36693 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 8:54am

#17 TOP

swirt

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05/17/2008

I understand about the beekeepers. Trying to get a website done by committee is a nightmare.

so I have a group of web geeks that I will defer to when I need an answer.... I will look into the redirects. I just had someone tell me they weren't that important, then another said they were.

Any web geek that tells you 302 redirects are fine, should be discarded and a new one drawn from the deck. (unless they freely admit that search engine issues are not their "thing")

My point about the map is that they could have produced it in a way that when you navigated into the North section, then to a town that came up empty, they could have made it so that when you click the back button, it remembered (by way of a cookie,flash cookie or a session variable) that you were looking in the North section. Navigating down dead ends is never a great user experience. As a traveler completely unfamiliar with the state I would be using the map as I have no prior knowledge of towns in relation to other towns.

This comment (36709) was in reply to comment 36708 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 9:05am

#18 TOP

catlady

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05/22/2008

On our site, if there are no B & B"s in the town, the city is not put on the map. Maybe whoever edited the map didn't realize there were no inns there and it should not have been placed on the FLASH MAP.

The admin for the site can pull off the cities from the database, but has no control over the flash map deletions or additions once done. That costs extra. Believe me I went round and round on our map for months trying to get it right before it went on line.

This comment (36750) was in reply to comment 36708 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 2:06pm

#19 TOP

aieechihuahua

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05/29/2009

Thanks so much!

We kept our committee small, just three of us. It was tough, but not a nightmare. I will take everything you have said and work on it, swirt. I only learned about 301 redirects recently and that was what I was referrfing to. 302s are new to me. I am learning. I just learned css, and about h1 headings, alt text on images - and there is so much more to learn. The internet is a living thing and keeping up with it is an awesome task.

I also have some fine tuning to do on my end as admin, but after working on it for 5 months, I needed a break as you can well imagine! I am definitely, officially on break.

I really see what you are saying about the dead end. Trouble is...while some towns are tourist attractions, there are no inns there. I will not mislead potential visitors by saying an inn is "nearby", when it is an hour or more away, so guess I will have to change the text to read " town closest to..." I had an inn that wanted to be listed in a town 90 miles away. That would really piss off a guest that didn't investigate thoroughly, and so many don't. Take a look at a map of NM. See how many roads there aren't? The terrain is difficult in many parts of the state. For example - look at Albuquerque to Silver City. Three routes to get there, and it doesn't look that far - but the trip is 5 hours plus no matter what.

I can see that there is a little heartburn going on here about the folks we chose to build our site, but I am still happy with my choice. I looked all over the internet at sites. I called many, many associations. We made our decision based on experiences and other things we saw. There is not one company out there that doesn't have someone pissed off at them, including me! (lol)

I see nothing wrong with a formula either, and I would expect each site they do will give more experience for the next. It does with me, and if they were not learning as they go people would Potty Mouth (auto filter) about that. Remember the saying about opinions? I have paid to have my own website done, and have more recently done it myself. I am happiest with myself, for all my inadequacies.

This comment (36751) was in reply to comment 36750 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 2:13pm

#20 TOP

muirford

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05/22/2008

adobenido wrote:

The same company did our state association website about 4 years ago now and we were happy with it. We have some of the same issues still on the mapping but it was a HUGE improvement from our former website. There are some caveats to dealing with them, which I have always shared when asked for a recommendation but there are some of those with everybody. And for us, it was reasonably priced. It also helped that they do most of the support work, as there are precious few people in our state association able or willing to do website administration on a large scale. It all depends on what you need at the time.

This comment (36754) was in reply to comment 36751 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 2:24pm

#21 TOP

catlady

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05/22/2008

Oh don't get me wrong. I am not "bad mouthing" the company. And I am not at all peeved. I was the one that pushed for them! I think they do some beautiful looking sites!

I am happy overall with the site, but there are things our committee decided..which I did not agree with...that were done and now they are regretting. So something has to be done to improve it in our phase 2. I personally told the new webmaster to look at your NM site because you have done some things I think might work for us.

And you are correct, they learn from every site they do and the next one that uses them is usually the one to benefit from it

This comment (36697) was in reply to comment 36683 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 2:43pm

#22 TOP

catlady

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05/22/2008

deleted

This comment (36701) was in reply to comment 36697 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 8:00am

#23 TOP

swirt

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05/17/2008

Well Swirt...GUESS who...did the NM website?

Yep, knew as soon as I saw it without even scrolling down to the credit line. They are following a formula

Not making the flash map tap into the database directly will keep them in follow-up business for a long time ;0

This comment (36703) was in reply to comment 36701 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 2:44pm

#24 TOP

catlady

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05/22/2008

deleted

This comment (36728) was in reply to comment 36703 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 12:09pm

#25 TOP

knkbnb

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12/11/2008

Our association just had a new website done

www.stayhawaii.com and after all the stuff I have learned from you guys, I sent some feedback on the final product. I thought there were some serious issues but it has been unaddressed. Obviously, someone in the pipeline has a vested interest that is blocking progress. There was a fair amount of volunteer work involved in working with the designer, which we are very grateful for. I put the responsibility on the designer and I am starting to get a feeling they are not willing to make changes without more money. I'm hoping for the best.

This comment (36757) was in reply to comment 36728 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 2:33pm

#26 TOP

aieechihuahua

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05/29/2009

Hi knk

Your association website is lovely. IMHO - Very user friendly and pretty too.

This comment (36779) was in reply to comment 36757 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 4:41pm

#27 TOP

knkbnb

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12/11/2008

It is a great improvement over what we had. Absolutely! It has a lot of good things about it. I have to hold back in case the guys who actually know about this stuff get on this, but it has a couple of issues.

This comment (36822) was in reply to comment 36779 on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 11:43pm

#28 TOP

seashanty

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06/02/2008

welcome, Adobenido

maybe i'm just tired, but a lot of what is being discussed in this thread is over my head.

so i won't comment on what i don't know about ... just wanted to say hello.

This comment (36824) was in reply to comment 36822 on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 12:14am

#29 TOP

aieechihuahua

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05/29/2009

Hello back seashanty! And thanks for the welcome.

I never intended for this to go so far. Whew! I feel like I opened the proverbial can of worms. It's probably time to shut thus one down. Do they ever do that?

This comment (36827) was in reply to comment 36824 on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 1:04am

#30 TOP

seashanty

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06/02/2008

... unless folks get into a really heated and personal argument, then swirt can choose to do that ... otherwise, the discussion just goes on until it winds itself down.

it is good to have a forum for open discussion. lots of members do not have identities that name their inns so they can freely vent without fear of offending state associations, business partners, or guests (past, present or future).

sometimes a new member will bring up some topic, touch a nerve, and ... after the responses ... worry that they should not have spoken up. it's just that the really active members of this forum are PASSIONATE about innkeeping and usually jump in.

we are all very different. as you read through the threads (in what spare time you might have?), you'll see the various personalities emerge.

don't worry ... it's all good.

This comment (36832) was in reply to comment 36827 on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 2:24am

#31 TOP

Samster

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05/30/2008

That's right...variety is the spice of life! Here in our forum discussions and with our guests

This comment (36856) was in reply to comment 36827 on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 9:56am

#32 TOP

swirt

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05/17/2008

Incredibly well said SeaShanty

New Mexico Bed and Breakfast Association

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