Hi,
Is this a US accreditation system? Is it voluntary or mandatory.
We use to be part of the UK system but like a very high percentage of small UK accommodation providers have become disillusioned with it all and pulled out (it is voluntary in the UK). We just found it more and more difficult to understand what value they provided and in the end decided to save the money.
Has it affected our bookings at all? Not in the least..
BBAV is a state association so only applies to that state. We don't have a national accreditation system that isn't owned by a directory. Several directories will inspect your property, for a fee, and put you on their site, for a bigger fee.
It would be interesting to see someone try a government run national inspected inns sort of thing. But we don't believe in promoting tourism on a national level. The closest thing anyone might consider is AAA. But that's not a gov't program.
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Morticia said:
It would be interesting to see someone try a government run national inspected inns sort of thing. But we don't believe in promoting tourism on a national level. The closest thing anyone might consider is AAA. But that's not a gov't program.
The near extinction of the UK small family run B&B (6 bed spaces or less) is down to loads of reasons but to me one of the reasons has to be the way the UK accreditation system was run. They had a brief many many years ago to bring the UK accommodation stock up to a better standard. A very laudable goal. However, the Centralised Tourist Board (or whoever they were called in those days) that ran the accreditation system seem to have interpreted this as raise the star rating of the UK accommodation stock. The last time I saw any figures, over 80% of small B&Bs were rated either 4 Star or 5 Star. This was total madness as obviously not everyone wants this level of service, standard of accommodation and accompanying price tag.
This has left a gaping hole in the market that the Travel Lodge, Premier Inn hotel chains have rushed in (very successfully) to fill. I am not sure you have these chains of hotels in the USA but they are a very much a basic hotel with minimum levels of service but good quality (although identical) rooms and beds and clean. Basically they do what they say on the tin at a reasonable price (especially if you book in advance) and reasonable terms and conditions. Of course the other business that has rushed in to fill this void is AirB&B.
As I said above there are loads of reasons for the demise of the small B&B but the accreditation system has to take some of the blame for it.
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