bedandbreakfast.com and Kayak marketing

[egoodell]

I just found this from a Google Alert. Interesting, and annoying.Here I pay to be on bedandbreakfast.com but do not use them for booking. We know they all work with the big guys like Kayak.
http://www.kayak.com/charlottesville-hotels.arcady-vineyard-bed-&-breakfast-and-wine-tours.209190.ksp
So, curious, I go to the link to see what Kayak has on my inn.
I see the blurb which at the bottom shows it's from bedandbreakfast.com
When I click on the link to the left which looks like where you go to book my inn, it states that I will be listed first on the inns that will appear.
Of course, since I don't use the booking program with bedandbreakfast.com, I don't appear.
Common bait and switch. I suppose this is not illegal, but it sure steams me. At least I assume that the person knows enough to google me to find me.
But here I am paying a pretty penny to bedandbreakfast.com to be on the directory, and they are using me to market other inns.
Is this happening to anyone else?
Riki

 

[Morticia]

I'm on bandb.com and my place doesn't show up on kayak. And I'm kind of glad it doesn't as the header for the 'hotels' page is 'cheap hotels'.

 

[egoodell]

Also interesting. There is a link to "edit" the listing. I tried to go in as the owner to note that I must be contacted directly for booking, and my B&B is not "listed" so I cannot edit the listing that is there but not there.
I think I'm not re-upping with Bedandbreakfast.com next year.
Riki

 

[egoodell]

I'm on bandb.com and my place doesn't show up on kayak. And I'm kind of glad it doesn't as the header for the 'hotels' page is 'cheap hotels'..

But that's my point. If you seach on Kayak I don't show up either. But the google alert shows this link so it's out there somewhere.
Riki

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

It is not going to show any rooms available to book, doesn't matter if you have it set up for weberv on BandB,com and in fact on my listing it added a "U" to my url so it goes to nowhere land. And there was no information like on yours (description). I guess I will sing up "for free" to at least get some info changed.
Oh yeah no wifi it says, but hey it shows we have P for parking.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Kind of odd is says 2.8 miles on our listing. From What? We are two blocks from the courthouse. It then shows a motel out on the highway like 8 miles from town and it shows it is 1.5 miles.

 

[swirt]

That looks like a description that was picked up and used by a lot of sources (~120).
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Recommended+by+Frommer%27s+Virginia+2006+travel+guide+as+%22The+Best+Way+to+Visit+the+Surrounding+Wine+Country%22&hl=en&filter=0
Is it ideal marketing for you without your url in it? No.

Is it better than a news item picked up by 0 outlets? Absolutely.

 

[JBanczak]

That listing was not provided by BedandBreakfast.com. Kayak purchased a list of hotels a number of years ago. The listings we provide are accurate. Unfortunately at this time they do not take listings from us unless those listings are bookable and they can earn a commission similar to all of the bookable properties they list. They have recently begun to focus on consumer reviews, and we will be feeding them reviews similar to the way we do to Google, Uptake, Vast, Away and others, and that is why I suspect you see a non-functioning link there.
Kayak has been a great partner - they list B&B's on an equal footing to hotels, and both they and Sidestep have long been interested in featuring B&B's. Clearly they need to make money like any business though, so they really only feature and focus on properties that enable them to do so.

 

[Copperhead]

Mine is on there but does not reference anything from bandb.com even though I do have a listing with them (don't use their booking system). I do use a reservation service that places my B&B on 'most' of theses reservation sites. I had edited my information with them before, and it seems to have corrected all the data.
Bree - I didn't see the reference to 'cheap hotels' as you did..where was that?
I have had guests that found us using Kayak then called to book instead of booking online. This has been the norm regarding these booking sites. They see the listings then call to book rather than online. (Better for me, I same the commission and still get the booking because of my listing.)

 

[Morticia]

Mine is on there but does not reference anything from bandb.com even though I do have a listing with them (don't use their booking system). I do use a reservation service that places my B&B on 'most' of theses reservation sites. I had edited my information with them before, and it seems to have corrected all the data.
Bree - I didn't see the reference to 'cheap hotels' as you did..where was that?
I have had guests that found us using Kayak then called to book instead of booking online. This has been the norm regarding these booking sites. They see the listings then call to book rather than online. (Better for me, I same the commission and still get the booking because of my listing.).

Bree - I didn't see the reference to 'cheap hotels' as you did..where was that?

You get different pages depending on how you search. What I did was use the link above and then in the link string, I clicked United States and then found my state and my town. That gave me a list of 'cheap hotel reviews'.
If I searched from the home page for 'hotels' in my town, I got a much longer list that did not say anything about 'cheap hotels' or 'reviews'.
If I search on my address, it shows the place next door is .3 miles away from the address I put in, which means the mapper doesn't work. (Which JBJ found.)

 

[Copperhead]

Mine is on there but does not reference anything from bandb.com even though I do have a listing with them (don't use their booking system). I do use a reservation service that places my B&B on 'most' of theses reservation sites. I had edited my information with them before, and it seems to have corrected all the data.
Bree - I didn't see the reference to 'cheap hotels' as you did..where was that?
I have had guests that found us using Kayak then called to book instead of booking online. This has been the norm regarding these booking sites. They see the listings then call to book rather than online. (Better for me, I same the commission and still get the booking because of my listing.).

Bree - I didn't see the reference to 'cheap hotels' as you did..where was that?

You get different pages depending on how you search. What I did was use the link above and then in the link string, I clicked United States and then found my state and my town. That gave me a list of 'cheap hotel reviews'.
If I searched from the home page for 'hotels' in my town, I got a much longer list that did not say anything about 'cheap hotels' or 'reviews'.
If I search on my address, it shows the place next door is .3 miles away from the address I put in, which means the mapper doesn't work. (Which JBJ found.)
.

Thanks.
I also have noticed the mapper errors. I wish there was a standard when it comes to that.
There is this problem on some directories too. The ones that give me a pain are the ones on directories that list you on neighboring cities if you are within X distance from the city, you are listed...but they calculate the distance by AIR... I noticed this when seeing other B&B's that are by far much further than we are to the 'big' city listed and we were not. When I called, I was told that the distance was by air, well that is fine if you are a bird, but since we are limited to ground travel, that large lake with only a few bridges makes a huge difference.

 

[gillumhouse]

I have no problems with bandb.com. I am no longer listed there.