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toddburme

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We have a B&B a few towns over that is for sale. Not sure if this is part of it or not but they are literally everywhere. I have not found one directory, social network, etc that they are not on there. And then they also are the highest level they could find, gold platinum plated with diamonds. They have to be burning tons of cash. I seriously am just shocked at how they seem to have paid out thousands just for the 2nd, 3rd and never heard of by anyone directories.
They are on the list of this top B&B in MN or the country etc. Literally anything and everything I run into. Now the good side of it is they rank very well in Google and maybe that is the payoff?
 
There was a B&B around here like that when I moved here. It was everywhere. They had PPC ads. They had everything. And they were busy. I couldn't keep up with what they were paying to be on!
 
We have one like that as well, and I chuckled to see that they had ponied up for the "Diamond Collection" from B&B.com. It's a nice place but it is definitely NOT luxury, so I wonder how that program's been working out for them. They are very busy and very popular so obviously it is working for them but I can't imagine what their advertising budget is.
 
There was a B&B around here like that when I moved here. It was everywhere. They had PPC ads. They had everything. And they were busy. I couldn't keep up with what they were paying to be on!.
Yeah we have a place like that as well...and All of their properties have been up for sale for several years and bankruptcy rumored :-( Things can change quickly when management changes.
 
We have one like that as well, and I chuckled to see that they had ponied up for the "Diamond Collection" from B&B.com. It's a nice place but it is definitely NOT luxury, so I wonder how that program's been working out for them. They are very busy and very popular so obviously it is working for them but I can't imagine what their advertising budget is..
I have to say that almost all of the places we looked at were very generous in sharing info with us. Including one place that told us he spent $20,000/year to get the inn name out there. Basically, 10% of revenue. When I ad up all we fork over to be listed here and there, I bet it comes close to 10%.
 
This poses an interesting question. What percentage of your income do you devote to advertising. For us it's around 10%, but I would consider going a bit higher if it meant a lot more exposure.
 
In the conferences I've been to, they state that your advertising should be between 6-10%. We're about 8% at this point. I've eliminated the non-producing directories, try something new each year, but at this point unless I had a huge budget, there's nothing left I can think of that I'm not already doing. Also, we have one of those big b&bs in our area with the huge budget, diamond collection, etc., that if there is any bidding involved with ALWAYS outbid, so I've stopped any bidding campaign.
 
Not sure what they are making but with a million dollar price tag it must be a lot more then us. I think they do events or something too. Their site is down all the time and that has to be hurting them. It is down now.
I was looking at what they are doing and following a bit. Lets say I list in 10 more directories but it moves me to the first page on Google for some good stuff then the 1k invested is more then worth it.
 
There is at least one 17 room inn in the neigboring big city that is everywhere! Not sure they can justify being on eveything as far as revenue but with the large number of B&B's in that city, they have to do their best to keep at the top of the heap.
I, on the other hand, stay listed on the top directories (not the big $ listings), keep the website up to stay on top for my area and we do run PPC on Google.
 
It's very odd, but we have a B&B in town (okay, legally it's two, since we have a legal five room limit) that seems to bid up the Inn of the Month on BB.COM all summer long. For me, it's just too damn late by that time... I'm already half booked for May, June and July already. But I have an idea of how much he paying for Inn of the Month and it would cover my advertising budget for year for Google! (And my Google is so targetted to limit my budget.)
 
It's very odd, but we have a B&B in town (okay, legally it's two, since we have a legal five room limit) that seems to bid up the Inn of the Month on BB.COM all summer long. For me, it's just too damn late by that time... I'm already half booked for May, June and July already. But I have an idea of how much he paying for Inn of the Month and it would cover my advertising budget for year for Google! (And my Google is so targetted to limit my budget.).
THere is no reason to waste money on GOogle ADS. Everyone knows that they are paid ads and most people I think research showed in the past went with organic listings first because we all know these people are paying to show up first. I never click on the paid ones.
 
Sorry CL, gotta disagree with you on this one. WE know that they are paid ads, but the typical searcher is not as educated, especially when it comes to the first few listings at the top of the page (not the side).
With a carefully crafted Adwords campaign, you can be successful at capturing people who would not be doing a typical search for a bed and breakfast. It's certainly not as effective as it was a few years ago, but it's still valuable.
 
It's very odd, but we have a B&B in town (okay, legally it's two, since we have a legal five room limit) that seems to bid up the Inn of the Month on BB.COM all summer long. For me, it's just too damn late by that time... I'm already half booked for May, June and July already. But I have an idea of how much he paying for Inn of the Month and it would cover my advertising budget for year for Google! (And my Google is so targetted to limit my budget.).
THere is no reason to waste money on GOogle ADS. Everyone knows that they are paid ads and most people I think research showed in the past went with organic listings first because we all know these people are paying to show up first. I never click on the paid ones.
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Those who don't click, don't cost me a penny. But in any case, they do work, if you are very crafty with how you do them and where they show up. In fact, I have tried different ads and very different conditions and some work well... some don't work at all. And I'm very careful to watch bounce rates for keywords too. My list of negative keywords is longer than my list of keywords.
 
It's very odd, but we have a B&B in town (okay, legally it's two, since we have a legal five room limit) that seems to bid up the Inn of the Month on BB.COM all summer long. For me, it's just too damn late by that time... I'm already half booked for May, June and July already. But I have an idea of how much he paying for Inn of the Month and it would cover my advertising budget for year for Google! (And my Google is so targetted to limit my budget.).
THere is no reason to waste money on GOogle ADS. Everyone knows that they are paid ads and most people I think research showed in the past went with organic listings first because we all know these people are paying to show up first. I never click on the paid ones.
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I agree with BD and GB on this one. It depends on the target market and keywords used but it does bring me business. I don't need to use it if people are looking for a B&B in my area, I come up first, but if they used hotel as the keyword, I need the ad to get their attention. If they do not click, so be it as it costs me nothing.
 
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