Do you find TA business listing effective?

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Emeo2004

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My partner and i have been running our Guest house in puerto rico for the last 7 years. We had taken advantage of TA since the beginning. For the first 5 years, it was mostly a love relationship 'cos we were the no. 1. Then competition came along and with increased tireness, now we have sunk into the abyss of being no.5. So the last 2 years has mosly been denial/hate relationship. : ( In Sep, a TA rep called me numerous times to entice us joining the business listing. I held him off 'cos we find $500+ a year is quite costly and we are not sure how many click through we will be getting. For other innkeeping fellows who had paid for the business listing, did you find a significant increase in number of leads generated? Now i am thinking, this is the only info they did not reveal in their promo material. Mmm. Curious... Indeed. I will appreciate any input.
 
No we did not find it helpful and at that cost, you have so many other options to spend that money in advertising.
One thing I noticed on TA for Puerto Rico is that they lump the entire island together, not breaking it down into cities or areas which would be disappointing to any business listed as you are competing for the #1 spot for the entire island. Those familiar with the island will be looking at the entire list as they will be seeing this as well.
Just keep up the good work, keep getting positive reviews to keep the listing current and stay as close to the top as possible. And remember, TA is not the only place people look, with many realizing that the reviews can be tainted. The most important thing is to keep your Google placement at the top of the list. Put your energies and money there and all else will fall into place.
 
No we did not find it helpful and at that cost, you have so many other options to spend that money in advertising.
One thing I noticed on TA for Puerto Rico is that they lump the entire island together, not breaking it down into cities or areas which would be disappointing to any business listed as you are competing for the #1 spot for the entire island. Those familiar with the island will be looking at the entire list as they will be seeing this as well.
Just keep up the good work, keep getting positive reviews to keep the listing current and stay as close to the top as possible. And remember, TA is not the only place people look, with many realizing that the reviews can be tainted. The most important thing is to keep your Google placement at the top of the list. Put your energies and money there and all else will fall into place..
I saw that San Juan was seperate than the rest of PR. 137 B&Bs in PR but only 22 in SJ.
 
If you aren't on the GDS, don't bother. People will look you up on Google. If you are on the GDS, you may want to, because it will steer people your way, instead of trying to book via the GDS links that TA seems to put on your listing.
 
No we have not found it to be helpful. We paid for a 6 month listing last year and did not renew because we did not generate much in the way of traffic to our site from the link. People did check out our reviews on TA but did not necessarily find us because we had a link there. They found us on other sites or word of mouth and Go ogled us.
On the other hand, an innkeeper friend who soared to the top of TA popularity during 2011 in the region and country swears by her former TA business listing. She attracted a lot of TA users and was totally stressed by the pressure of having everyone review the B+B. She has recently sold the B+B and never wants to see another guest!
So a business listing appears to be a double edge sword: If it is wildly popular with travelers, you can count on most of them reviewing you.
 
We haven't found that it has gotten us any new business. We did not spend $500 either. I think we got the link for $300.
 
We took advantage of a half price offer, but canceled in 3 months. Maybe a couple of click throughs. Not worth it for us.
 
We have managed to maintain a top 3 position in recent times, so we took out a business listing 2 years ago.
It cost £180 for the year (which for a small B&B is a large amount). We had a fraction of the click throughs we get from similarly priced websites so cancelled after the year. I see the price is now £225.
I really can't understand why it doesn't work, but it doesn't.
 
We have managed to maintain a top 3 position in recent times, so we took out a business listing 2 years ago.
It cost £180 for the year (which for a small B&B is a large amount). We had a fraction of the click throughs we get from similarly priced websites so cancelled after the year. I see the price is now £225.
I really can't understand why it doesn't work, but it doesn't..
Highlands John said:
We have managed to maintain a top 3 position in recent times, so we took out a business listing 2 years ago.
It cost £180 for the year (which for a small B&B is a large amount). We had a fraction of the click throughs we get from similarly priced websites so cancelled after the year. I see the price is now £225.
I really can't understand why it doesn't work, but it doesn't.
I think it does not work because people will google "B&B town" to find the B&Bs. Once they decide on a place, THEN they go to TripAdvisor and see what the evals are. They don't think to go to TA to look for the B&Bs.
RIki
 
Thank you all for sharing these valuable info and honest opinions with me. I will definitely look into other ways to enhance our visibility and leads. : )
 
The idea of a business listing on TA strikes us as crazy. People who find our reviews on TA are certainly smart enough to find our website without us paying TA a fortune for a click-through.
And the whole thing of a site based on guest reviews getting in bed with the properties those guests are reviewing strikes us as bogus.
And, as I learned from the TA salesperson the last time they pestered me, a bogus review won't get more consideration from TA if we have a business listing.
In other words, if some cranky guest gives us a bogus review because we didn't give them something they weren't entitled to, we have no more leverage to get it removed if we have a TA business listing than if we don't.
Now, mind you, TA has been very good to us. We have excellent reviews and have gotten a lot of business because of our TA reputation.
However, bottom line: TA won't do a thing to help us manage that reputation if we get a libelous review.
No money, ever, to TA from this inn.
Tom
 
The idea of a business listing on TA strikes us as crazy. People who find our reviews on TA are certainly smart enough to find our website without us paying TA a fortune for a click-through.
And the whole thing of a site based on guest reviews getting in bed with the properties those guests are reviewing strikes us as bogus.
And, as I learned from the TA salesperson the last time they pestered me, a bogus review won't get more consideration from TA if we have a business listing.
In other words, if some cranky guest gives us a bogus review because we didn't give them something they weren't entitled to, we have no more leverage to get it removed if we have a TA business listing than if we don't.
Now, mind you, TA has been very good to us. We have excellent reviews and have gotten a lot of business because of our TA reputation.
However, bottom line: TA won't do a thing to help us manage that reputation if we get a libelous review.
No money, ever, to TA from this inn.
Tom.
If you have followed my comments on TR Ad v (and you may not have) we too have used T AD V to the fullest and have had great reviews, but we are convinced the business model won't have staying power, partly because of what you mention. The rub is that we do get a fair amount of hits from them because it is easier for people. I am tempted to drop them but we hear their name pop up enough to warrant the spend (me thinks) I think once Gogg le gets going, we'll dump them- cause we really dislike giving them money. Their customer service s--ks. Big time.
 
I tend to agree that people could google our property right after reading the reviews. But I can imagine that it would add convenience If people could directly jump into our website by clicking the link in our TA page. Fair enough not all click-throughs will automatically translate into bookings. For me, that is the catch.
The second variable is that we found $500+ yearly fee expensive. And after knowing the fact that rates varies for different properties kind of annoys me.
In their promo material, they summed up that we have about 1500 visitors monthly into our TA page. I wonder if the rates has any correlation to the amount of monthly fee.
So $500+ a year for convenience... A tough one to decide.
 
I tend to agree that people could google our property right after reading the reviews. But I can imagine that it would add convenience If people could directly jump into our website by clicking the link in our TA page. Fair enough not all click-throughs will automatically translate into bookings. For me, that is the catch.
The second variable is that we found $500+ yearly fee expensive. And after knowing the fact that rates varies for different properties kind of annoys me.
In their promo material, they summed up that we have about 1500 visitors monthly into our TA page. I wonder if the rates has any correlation to the amount of monthly fee.
So $500+ a year for convenience... A tough one to decide..
OK, I had a whole post written when my browser crashed...quick summary...
4% of our website traffic comes from TA. Bookings from TA cost us $9/reservation last year. Not cheap.
Hope that helps.
 
The idea of a business listing on TA strikes us as crazy. People who find our reviews on TA are certainly smart enough to find our website without us paying TA a fortune for a click-through.
And the whole thing of a site based on guest reviews getting in bed with the properties those guests are reviewing strikes us as bogus.
And, as I learned from the TA salesperson the last time they pestered me, a bogus review won't get more consideration from TA if we have a business listing.
In other words, if some cranky guest gives us a bogus review because we didn't give them something they weren't entitled to, we have no more leverage to get it removed if we have a TA business listing than if we don't.
Now, mind you, TA has been very good to us. We have excellent reviews and have gotten a lot of business because of our TA reputation.
However, bottom line: TA won't do a thing to help us manage that reputation if we get a libelous review.
No money, ever, to TA from this inn.
Tom.
HighMountainLodge said:
However, bottom line: TA won't do a thing to help us manage that reputation if we get a libelous review.
No money, ever, to TA from this inn.
Tom
Well said, Tom!
 
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