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I am working on it!!!Right after I typed the "lazy innkeeper" reference, I thought to myself that this aspect of things in our industry could be attributed to your surveys findings. But as I do in many things about life, I still find a contradiction in the "better tehcnology and more bells and whistles will cure everything" I feel is being promoted."Yes - hard to book. Half the BB's still don't have online bookings - so you have to call, or email, and wait."What will keep me from booking at a B&B is location, (not close enought to what I am going to see), or price - $150 is my max, ususally. I will search high and low all over the internet to find one that fits my needs. I rely heavily on association web sites first, then TA and then b&b directories.
I find it very curious that the B&B owners that were mentioned said that B&Bs were too hard to book, don't you? Maybe too hard to find at the last minute, but hard to book? Hmmm.Yes - hard to book. Half the BB's still don't have online bookings - so you have to call, or email, and wait. Then most only have reservation requests - and we've seen in our surveys that 1/4th of people refuse to do a request, and another 1/4 strongly dislike it. Then there is the issue of a booking engine being really confusing (i won't name competitors), or not having photos next to the descriptions of rooms, or when you get to the credit card pages, having no visible hacker protection or credit card security.aieechihuahua said:What will keep me from booking at a B&B is location, (not close enought to what I am going to see), or price - $150 is my max, ususally. I will search high and low all over the internet to find one that fits my needs. I rely heavily on association web sites first, then TA and then b&b directories.
I find it very curious that the B&B owners that were mentioned said that B&Bs were too hard to book, don't you? Maybe too hard to find at the last minute, but hard to book? Hmmm
Think if you went to Amazon and you were going to buy an item, and you saw no picture, you couldn't see if it was in stock - you had to email and ask them... In order to request it you had to put your credit card info onto a page with no hacker or credit card seal? And to make matters worse, when you got to the final page, they asked you to hand enter your requested product in again...
That is the experience that most BB's are still giving to guests - there is no wonder why folks are wary of the final product.
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Wait for what? We check our emails during waking hours more than once an hour, right before bed, right after waking and send an email confirmation within hours of receiving it even when we're on vacation. We've never had a confirmation take more than 24 hours to go out, ever. We carry our cordless phone with us every waking moment we're on property and check phone messages regularly if not on property for even more than an hour.
I'm sure most innkeepers carry cellphones, PDAs, laptops, etc. wherever they go and are not out of communication capability for more than a few hours at a time, ever. The bigger ones with staff, probably have trained them to answer the phone or check emails if the owner is out running errands also. So where is this lack of communication ability occurring?
Lazy innkeepers who don't respond quickly to inquiries? If thats the case, they don't deserve the bookings and will quickly find themselves run over by their more dedicated, efficient and professional competition.
"Then most only have reservation requests - and we've seen in our surveys that 1/4th of people refuse to do a request, and another 1/4 strongly dislike it."
Well, of course you'd respond like that. You are in the business of selling a reservation system to innkeepers.
I don't mind that, but unless you are prepared to share the actual data from all these "surveys" your company does, I'll reserve the right to not fully trust it given the potential conflict of interest in using such data to make a point.
We've never had one guest express discomfort with a "request" sytem over anything including old-fashioned phone calls, emails, etc.
"That is the experience that most BB's are still giving to guests - there is no wonder why folks are wary of the final product."
Excuse my high school math education and bluntness, but "MOST" means more than 50% to me and in your first sentence you stated only 50% of B&Bs still don't offer online reservations. Can you provide some sourcing for making that claim?
I hate to hold you to a higher degree of scrutiny than anyone else here, but you have a vested financial interest in providing certain kinds of information to innkeepers here and it seems fair to do so on my part.
Espcecially if I'm considering purchasing more of your company's products than I already subscribe to.
.Like I said, most innkeepers on this forum are ahead of the pack, but in your own words you take up to 24hrs - there is the problem. And one lazy innkeeper in ten who doesn't respond makes the entire industry look bad. All it takes as a consumer is to wait 24hrs once at a small property, and they won't wait again. What do they do in that time period? Send 10 more emails? Book another property? It is frustrating.Tim_Toad_HLB said:...We've never had a confirmation take more than 24 hours to go out, ever. We carry our cordless phone with us every waking moment we're on property and check phone messages regularly if not on property for even more than an hour.
I'm sure most innkeepers carry cellphones, PDAs, laptops, etc. wherever they go and are not out of communication capability for more than a few hours at a time, ever. The bigger ones with staff, probably have trained them to answer the phone or check emails if the owner is out running errands also. So where is this lack of communication ability occurring?
Lazy innkeepers who don't respond quickly to inquiries? If thats the case, they don't deserve the bookings and will quickly find themselves run over by their more dedicated, efficient and professional competition.
"Then most only have reservation requests - and we've seen in our surveys that 1/4th of people refuse to do a request, and another 1/4 strongly dislike it."
Well, of course you'd respond like that. You are in the business of selling a reservation system to innkeepers.
I don't mind that, but unless you are prepared to share the actual data from all these "surveys" your company does, I'll reserve the right to not fully trust it given the potential conflict of interest in using such data to make a point.
We've never had one guest express discomfort with a "request" sytem over anything including old-fashioned phone calls, emails, etc.
"That is the experience that most BB's are still giving to guests - there is no wonder why folks are wary of the final product."
Excuse my high school math education and bluntness, but "MOST" means more than 50% to me and in your first sentence you stated only 50% of B&Bs still don't offer online reservations. Can you provide some sourcing for making that claim?
I hate to hold you to a higher degree of scrutiny than anyone else here, but you have a vested financial interest in providing certain kinds of information to innkeepers here and it seems fair to do so on my part.
Espcecially if I'm considering purchasing more of your company's products than I already subscribe to.
Case in point - I went to Carmel for a wedding last fall. I booked online at one of our B&B's. It was my 3rd choice due to location. Requested rez from the other two. One didn't responde, the other didn't have the room I needed to handle my kids. It was a hassle compared to booking the Hilton up the street (which I didn't do).
In any case, we did a survey last summer that 4,000 consumers took - I'm quoting those results. We also have the luxury of owning both a request based system, and a fully confirmed system, and we've had innkeepers tell us their reservations doubled the day they switched from Webervations to RezOvation...
But getting back to my main point - this is what innkeepers themselves told us in Napa - and that is the irony of it all... that they didn't have the time to wait to see if their requests came back.
Utlimately, there is no doubt that booking a B&B overall (as an industry) is harder than booking hotels or motels - period. This is easy to change - so I for one want to change it.
There are a lot of good companies out there doing it as well. Whether it is Rezo, Weber, Resnexus, Superinn - these are companies all providing a great product and service at a great price, with people dedicated to this industry.
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Thanks for confirming my hunch and adding background to the survey you mentioned.
It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that many of the same B&Bs not buying into trying to mimic coprorate hotel operations do so because they are perfectly happy to run their places the way they do and not out of resistance to technology or maximizing bookings. Even with the evolution of our industry, of that large number of old-school B&Bs being frowned upon, many could be part-timers, hobbyists not in need of maximizing income to survive and maybe even some folks who like things just the way they've done them forever. No crime in that I hope.
We have very well respected collegues who don't have any technological tools in place, would be considered very old school by most, but by all measures are very successful, actually turn away guests regularly and seem to be very contented doing things the way they've chosen to do them.
I think B&B size, style and owner commitment level dictates much of how far people take their approach to trying to compete against hotels even in the abstract, and many of us choose not to and carve out a comfortable niche that feels right an serves us and our guest's needs. There's no crime in that I hope.
You will get no argument from me as to your dedication to improving the availability, exposure level and professionalism of our industry.
We have been loyal partners since we opened our doors. We subscribe to as high of listing as we can afford, offer rooms via the system, offer hot deals almost every week, try to sell gift cards, we accept gift certificates, keep our lisitng up to date, alert you all to any incorrect information being published by Expedia/Hotels.com on our listing, etc.
.That is a very good point to make, and you are absolutely correct. I've met a lot of B&B owners - one just recently at our open house - who have more business then they know what to do with, and they can really do whatever they want. No online reservations, only list on one site, etc.Tim_Toad_HLB said:It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that many of the same B&Bs not buying into trying to mimic coprorate hotel operations do so because they are perfectly happy to run their places the way they do and not out of resistance to technology or maximizing bookings. Even with the evolution of our industry, of that large number of old-school B&Bs being frowned upon, many could be part-timers, hobbyists not in need of maximizing income to survive and maybe even some folks who like things just the way they've done them forever. No crime in that I hope.
All of my comments assume that folks want/need more business/revenue, and that as a whole, a goal of our industry is to take the 4% of the traveling public who stays at B&B's up to some higher number. 6% would already be a huge success!
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