Another Example of bb.com greed

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Breakfast Diva

Well-known member
Joined
May 27, 2009
Messages
5,911
Reaction score
29
As you know, I've recently switched from webervations to reservation key. EVERY lodging directory we use that has an availability link has made this change with no problem and no charge. In keeping with their business practice of overcharging and not caring about innkeepers, bb.com wants $113.89 per year EACH AND EVERY YEAR for a link to a reservation system that's not webervations. This is an outragous amount! I'm already spending almost $600 per year for my listing (I have 1 secondary city listing) and they want more than a hundred dollars to have what every other directory offers free.
Do you think I will lose bookings without this link? Do most guests click the link to the website? I'm afraid a lot of times guests think they are actually on our website when they are really on the directory site.
I do get a good amount of bookings from them....enough to put up with the high cost of the listing, but this just seems abusive. What would you do??
 
I just dropped them. If your in a small town ,I found I was lost in the shuffle but bbonline with its rotation system gets me more clicks. I am small so have to put my money where it counts. Had bb.com for 3 yrs but am now joining a state assoc. I will not regret this move. Being a small B&B creates different needs than a large B&B. Mary in Bwater
 
With their recent changes I think they are making themselves obsolete for smaller inns. As an inngoer I used to use that directory exclusively, but now when you look there is so much GARBAGE and obvious over-selling of the high end properties that it's no longer relevant to the kinds of places I'd like to stay.
 
I have a different problem along the same lines. Other b&bs in my city use the “Book it Now” feature on BB.com which is a big green button that takes guests to bb.com’s own booking engine which they take 30% for their service. Understand that. You have paid around $600 a year to be on the site and the guest has found you because you paid that. Now cough up another 30% for them to book. That is by far the most expensive reservation of any booking engine. I refuse to pay 30% so I have to pay the over $100 link fee so my add shows “make reservation” that links to my site and it is not a big green easy to read button. This is free almost everywhere else. I got a lot more reservations through them years ago before the promoted themselves more than pushing people to large hotel booking sites where they get a split. I am right to the adios point with them.
 
I used to pay $99 for the link to my reservation program. Then they told me they wouldn't link to anything that wasn't Webervations and gave me my money back. They are losing money if you're using someone else, this is how they make some of it back.
Most B&B's in my town don't have the link from bb.com to their rez program and the ones who do still complain about the cost of the listing compared to the number of reservations they get from it.
Another peeve- I just went to verify what I was saying and a pop up for Hotwire came up. So, don't even bother with a B&B, here's a list of cheap hotels in that same city!
 
I would not pay for the booking function from that directory, just the link to your website, which is so valuable. I mean, we have talked about this for years and years and that our ultimate goal is to have the guest GET THE HECKOUTA DODGE and get on OUR WEBSITE. Where we can razzle dazzle them and take their booking.
I wouldn't pay the blackmail.
 
The FIRST time I dumped them was when I realized there were ads for Mon ster .com and Visit Tahiti $1500 off! ads on MY PAGE. The ads went away (I saw a post on the PAII Forum that said the banner ads are back - they were 1/3 page of my page when I quit) so I went back. They had done what we on the Forum had asked. (We bruised Eric a bit over it.) THEN they raised the price on the lowest level with a link to my own web page - without that link is comparable to the old name & address with no phone number.
Then they changed the lowest level to include the link and raised that price. They got me back with an offer of "no strings" 3 months free so I said OK, planning to go with the lowest level at the end of the three months and expecting the robo-generated e-mail "Your listing is about to expire" at which time I would sign up for the lowest level. What I GOT was an e-mail recepit for the charge they posted to my credit card at the end of the 3 months (1 month charge). As everyone knows, I am such a quiet, mild-mannered person, I exploded! I have not looked back. Have I lost business? Perhaps, but not enough to justify a $400 a year fee for ONE directory. 3 rooms in Podunk does not have high-traffic to start with - and even WITH that directory, did not have a lot of traffic. In fact, if I had had as many room nights as they "claim" listing with them will generate, I would have been rolling in revenue!
 
I have a listing with the link to my site, the webervations availability link, as well as the book it now link.
What I get from this site from interested parties:
  • most click through to my website
  • very few go directly to webervations to either send me an inquiry or book (note that B&B.com is part of the subject of the email)
  • in the year and 1/2 (there about) I have had 1 booking using the book it now link
Based on my current results, if I were to leave Webervations I would not bother to pay their fee to add my new booking feature. As JB put it, the goal is to get them on YOUR website so they can be swooned. So just make use of the space on B&B.com to have them take the bate and click thru to your site so you can reel them in from there.
 
I have a listing with the link to my site, the webervations availability link, as well as the book it now link.
What I get from this site from interested parties:
  • most click through to my website
  • very few go directly to webervations to either send me an inquiry or book (note that B&B.com is part of the subject of the email)
  • in the year and 1/2 (there about) I have had 1 booking using the book it now link
Based on my current results, if I were to leave Webervations I would not bother to pay their fee to add my new booking feature. As JB put it, the goal is to get them on YOUR website so they can be swooned. So just make use of the space on B&B.com to have them take the bate and click thru to your site so you can reel them in from there..
copperhead said:
I have a listing with the link to my site, the webervations availability link, as well as the book it now link.
What I get from this site from interested parties:
  • most click through to my website
  • very few go directly to webervations to either send me an inquiry or book (note that B&B.com is part of the subject of the email)
  • in the year and 1/2 (there about) I have had 1 booking using the book it now link
Based on my current results, if I were to leave Webervations I would not bother to pay their fee to add my new booking feature. As JB put it, the goal is to get them on YOUR website so they can be swooned. So just make use of the space on B&B.com to have them take the bate and click thru to your site so you can reel them in from there.
Thank you so much CH for taking the time to do the stats. It validates my decision to not renew the link. I'll be returning their e-mail notifying them as such and you can bet I'm going to give them a piece of my mind. Not that they will care in the slightest, but it will make ME feel better! LOL
Thanks all for your input.
 
We are in a ski resort area where we have links to and participate in bargains from the resort's central reservation system. We pay a 13% booking fee from central res. It's a terrific bargain--especially when the resort runs early- and late-season specials where, if they book with us or another participating property for 2 nights, they get 2 lift tickets.
We use Webervations for our online booking and are happy with them. The interface is a bit klugey, but we've seen worse.
Regarding any "book it now" feature on any system, I am dubious. I'm resistant to clicking any link like that, for fear some computer bot is gonna commit me to something and suck money out of my account before I've had time to negotiate the transaction.
Maybe it's because we're Mac-based and so are immune from marketing based on the latest Microsoft whizz-bang.
 
"Book now" is standard for hotels, airlines, car rentals. The same as "purchase now" for books, electronics, food etc when purchased online
The "sale" is based on the user entering their cc number. If the user is stupid enough to enter their cc number and is not planning on a purchase, well that is pure and simple user stupidity as no one would go to a "brick and mortar" store and present their cc if they were not planning on making a purchase
 
Back to the original reason of my post, I wanted to give you an update. I wrote bb.com telling them to remove the link, and told them how unhappy I was and why. The response I got in return was "per your request, I have removed the link". That's it, nothing addressing the "problem", no Oh, we're so sorry....
Can you imagine what kind of reviews we would get if we treated our customers this way?
 
Back to the original reason of my post, I wanted to give you an update. I wrote bb.com telling them to remove the link, and told them how unhappy I was and why. The response I got in return was "per your request, I have removed the link". That's it, nothing addressing the "problem", no Oh, we're so sorry....
Can you imagine what kind of reviews we would get if we treated our customers this way?.
They are too large a company for personalization now...heck HOME AWAY had a commercial on the Super Bowl last night..and you know how expensive those are:-(
 
Once again I have to agree to disagree, I needed to reduce some features on my listing and bandb.com worked with me on the issue and went above and beyond, also suggesting some other ways I can improve my listing and hopefully get more bookings.
 
Once again I have to agree to disagree, I needed to reduce some features on my listing and bandb.com worked with me on the issue and went above and beyond, also suggesting some other ways I can improve my listing and hopefully get more bookings..
agoodman said:
Once again I have to agree to disagree, I needed to reduce some features on my listing and bandb.com worked with me on the issue and went above and beyond, also suggesting some other ways I can improve my listing and hopefully get more bookings.
I am so happy they are willing to work with someone, but frankly your results are more of the exception rather than the rule. Many here have told their story, mine is no different. Just recently I contacted them - not once but twice to ask for assitance with my listing, this NOT having anything to do with changing my level or features, there was NO response. They have, in general, gotten too large to care about 1 small property.
 
Back
Top