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Another update. With 1/2 my money and 1/2 bb.com's money, I have been bidding up the featured property cities. The trend continues. They keep going up from my bid. At the moment, they are spending $483.56 per month if the impression on bb.com are accurate. It's insane!.
I would not pay that for a YEAR! That is when I told the 800 lb gorilla goodbye. They say the silver listing will bring what? 45 bookings a year? I would have been happy with 10 or 12. Looks at my web site do not count. And I know it could not be the web site because the new one was up before we said goodbye.
.
Sheesh! 45 bookings? We'd be crazy to complain about their pricing if we got 45 bookings! I wish!!!
.
Last year, by this time, I had made my money back on them 10-fold. This year? Barely paid for the listing at this point. But, it was not 45 reservations, it was multi-night stays.
 
Just thought I'd comment that bids for the inn of the month in my town stand at $25 right now and no one has made a single bid. The last time I did this, I paid $25.
Also noticed that 1/3 of the inns listed on my page are not even in my town. Some of them are 45 minutes away.
 
Just thought I'd comment that bids for the inn of the month in my town stand at $25 right now and no one has made a single bid. The last time I did this, I paid $25.
Also noticed that 1/3 of the inns listed on my page are not even in my town. Some of them are 45 minutes away..
Morticia said:
Just thought I'd comment that bids for the inn of the month in my town stand at $25 right now and no one has made a single bid. The last time I did this, I paid $25.
Also noticed that 1/3 of the inns listed on my page are not even in my town. Some of them are 45 minutes away.
In the larger town south of me, there are two listings that are not even located in the region and probably half of the listings are not in the town's immediate area. Our region is coast, and these properties are located about an hour inland. It's really misleading and the losers are the travelers from out of state. At what point do they realize they made a reservation in an entirely different region.
There's got to be some middle ground somewhere between the iron hand I've been dealing with at TA regarding my location, and bb.com's anything goes for the listing $ mentality.
 
Just thought I'd comment that bids for the inn of the month in my town stand at $25 right now and no one has made a single bid. The last time I did this, I paid $25.
Also noticed that 1/3 of the inns listed on my page are not even in my town. Some of them are 45 minutes away..
Morticia said:
Just thought I'd comment that bids for the inn of the month in my town stand at $25 right now and no one has made a single bid. The last time I did this, I paid $25.
Also noticed that 1/3 of the inns listed on my page are not even in my town. Some of them are 45 minutes away.
In the larger town south of me, there are two listings that are not even located in the region and probably half of the listings are not in the town's immediate area. Our region is coast, and these properties are located about an hour inland. It's really misleading and the losers are the travelers from out of state. At what point do they realize they made a reservation in an entirely different region.
There's got to be some middle ground somewhere between the iron hand I've been dealing with at TA regarding my location, and bb.com's anything goes for the listing $ mentality.
.
I'm going to continue to track this over the summer. If trends continue that more and more 'platinum' properties from out of town take over my town's page and I continue to see the deep decline in traffic to my site because of that, I'll consider dropping them. (Not that it will make a hill of beans difference to anyone but me! It just leaves more space on the page for the out of towners!)
 
I see what you all mean - if you go to Charlottesville the first 7 inns listed are all an 45 minutes to hour from town except for one which is about 25 minutes away and not near any restaurants, driving down a long windy dark road. And that one is not in Charlottesville but uses a Charlottesville post office box for the address.
RIki
 
I'm going to consider dropping if they continue this as well. I just checked Google Analytics and I have 1374 visits from my tour website, and 74 visits from bbonine and 60 from my state association's website. So for the money, it's not impressive.
I get most of the hits on my tour website from FREE listings - websites of the state and my convention and visitors bureau, followed by bbonline which is much less costly than bbonline and googlemaps.
RIki
 
I see what you all mean - if you go to Charlottesville the first 7 inns listed are all an 45 minutes to hour from town except for one which is about 25 minutes away and not near any restaurants, driving down a long windy dark road. And that one is not in Charlottesville but uses a Charlottesville post office box for the address.
RIki.
egoodell said:
I see what you all mean - if you go to Charlottesville the first 7 inns listed are all an 45 minutes to hour from town except for one which is about 25 minutes away and not near any restaurants, driving down a long windy dark road. And that one is not in Charlottesville but uses a Charlottesville post office box for the address.
RIki
I can tell you from a B&B who has guests often in C'Ville and complaints that the inns were nowhere near C'Ville it is a problem.
I just looked, now why do they have the NEARBY CITIES section below the C'Ville Inns when many of them in the main listing are not in C'Ville. See to me this is simply DECEITFUL AND WRONG. Staunton is in C'Ville? Orange? That is like 25 miles away.
 
I see what you all mean - if you go to Charlottesville the first 7 inns listed are all an 45 minutes to hour from town except for one which is about 25 minutes away and not near any restaurants, driving down a long windy dark road. And that one is not in Charlottesville but uses a Charlottesville post office box for the address.
RIki.
egoodell said:
I see what you all mean - if you go to Charlottesville the first 7 inns listed are all an 45 minutes to hour from town except for one which is about 25 minutes away and not near any restaurants, driving down a long windy dark road. And that one is not in Charlottesville but uses a Charlottesville post office box for the address.
RIki
I can tell you from a B&B who has guests often in C'Ville and complaints that the inns were nowhere near C'Ville it is a problem.
I just looked, now why do they have the NEARBY CITIES section below the C'Ville Inns when many of them in the main listing are not in C'Ville. See to me this is simply DECEITFUL AND WRONG. Staunton is in C'Ville? Orange? That is like 25 miles away.
.
I fought this tooth and nail when I was BBAV pres. It is like lying to the guests but I could not make them see this. We fought many battles over this very thing with our listings on the now year old "new" association site. I think they finally came to some sort of compromise...folks can now pick a second city I belive. BUt yes I got complaints all the time from guests irate that some inn was 25 miles from C'ville and not in the city itself. :-(
 
I battle this often where we are, as we are in the mountains, but no our b&B is not right along the Blue Ridge Parkway, it is something I have to explain clearly on all marketing, our county goes right up onto the BRP, these are mountain folk who live in this community. We are talking walking the winding hilly roads barefoot to learn to read. The movie Song Catcher? Well we have a school for mountain children - and in fact guests yesterday were discussing this, the copperheads along the road when their grandparents used to walk to school. We have two 'mountain' lakes.
But alas, when you have flatlanders from say Florida, a 10 minute drive to them is like a 45 minute to another. We deal with this with restaurants as well, driving 30-50 minutes to go to a neat restaurant is normal here, but not to them.
Maybe I should start a new thread on this topic...
 
Just thought I'd comment that bids for the inn of the month in my town stand at $25 right now and no one has made a single bid. The last time I did this, I paid $25.
Also noticed that 1/3 of the inns listed on my page are not even in my town. Some of them are 45 minutes away..
Morticia said:
Just thought I'd comment that bids for the inn of the month in my town stand at $25 right now and no one has made a single bid. The last time I did this, I paid $25.
Also noticed that 1/3 of the inns listed on my page are not even in my town. Some of them are 45 minutes away.
In the larger town south of me, there are two listings that are not even located in the region and probably half of the listings are not in the town's immediate area. Our region is coast, and these properties are located about an hour inland. It's really misleading and the losers are the travelers from out of state. At what point do they realize they made a reservation in an entirely different region.
There's got to be some middle ground somewhere between the iron hand I've been dealing with at TA regarding my location, and bb.com's anything goes for the listing $ mentality.
.
I'm going to continue to track this over the summer. If trends continue that more and more 'platinum' properties from out of town take over my town's page and I continue to see the deep decline in traffic to my site because of that, I'll consider dropping them. (Not that it will make a hill of beans difference to anyone but me! It just leaves more space on the page for the out of towners!)
.
Morticia said:
If trends continue that more and more 'platinum' properties from out of town take over my town's page and I continue to see the deep decline in traffic to my site because of that, I'll consider dropping them. (Not that it will make a hill of beans difference to anyone but me! It just leaves more space on the page for the out of towners!)
If lots of innkeepers get frustrated and drop out, that will make a big impact. The big guys are only interested in booking there because of the traffic that is generated by the sheer number of small inns.
These guys are killing the goose that laid the golden egg by driving off the B&Bs. It will make a very big difference as more and more innkeepers realize they're being treated like a number.
 
Just thought I'd comment that bids for the inn of the month in my town stand at $25 right now and no one has made a single bid. The last time I did this, I paid $25.
Also noticed that 1/3 of the inns listed on my page are not even in my town. Some of them are 45 minutes away..
Morticia said:
Just thought I'd comment that bids for the inn of the month in my town stand at $25 right now and no one has made a single bid. The last time I did this, I paid $25.
Also noticed that 1/3 of the inns listed on my page are not even in my town. Some of them are 45 minutes away.
In the larger town south of me, there are two listings that are not even located in the region and probably half of the listings are not in the town's immediate area. Our region is coast, and these properties are located about an hour inland. It's really misleading and the losers are the travelers from out of state. At what point do they realize they made a reservation in an entirely different region.
There's got to be some middle ground somewhere between the iron hand I've been dealing with at TA regarding my location, and bb.com's anything goes for the listing $ mentality.
.
I'm going to continue to track this over the summer. If trends continue that more and more 'platinum' properties from out of town take over my town's page and I continue to see the deep decline in traffic to my site because of that, I'll consider dropping them. (Not that it will make a hill of beans difference to anyone but me! It just leaves more space on the page for the out of towners!)
.
Morticia said:
If trends continue that more and more 'platinum' properties from out of town take over my town's page and I continue to see the deep decline in traffic to my site because of that, I'll consider dropping them. (Not that it will make a hill of beans difference to anyone but me! It just leaves more space on the page for the out of towners!)
If lots of innkeepers get frustrated and drop out, that will make a big impact. The big guys are only interested in booking there because of the traffic that is generated by the sheer number of small inns.
These guys are killing the goose that laid the golden egg by driving off the B&Bs. It will make a very big difference as more and more innkeepers realize they're being treated like a number.
.
My perspective on this is that they have already put into place mechanisms to brunt the loss of the smaller inns. ie- the Diamond Collection. They have realized that guests are using a lot of different avenues to find their lodging and the money is in, as the gecko says, 'Exclusivity, mate.'
They're not killing the golden goose, they are inventing a new one. The old geese are ready to be put out to pasture. It is so much easier to deal with fewer inns at a higher price.
And I don't think we really know what the new mgmt has in mind.
 
Just thought I'd comment that bids for the inn of the month in my town stand at $25 right now and no one has made a single bid. The last time I did this, I paid $25.
Also noticed that 1/3 of the inns listed on my page are not even in my town. Some of them are 45 minutes away..
Morticia said:
Just thought I'd comment that bids for the inn of the month in my town stand at $25 right now and no one has made a single bid. The last time I did this, I paid $25.
Also noticed that 1/3 of the inns listed on my page are not even in my town. Some of them are 45 minutes away.
In the larger town south of me, there are two listings that are not even located in the region and probably half of the listings are not in the town's immediate area. Our region is coast, and these properties are located about an hour inland. It's really misleading and the losers are the travelers from out of state. At what point do they realize they made a reservation in an entirely different region.
There's got to be some middle ground somewhere between the iron hand I've been dealing with at TA regarding my location, and bb.com's anything goes for the listing $ mentality.
.
I'm going to continue to track this over the summer. If trends continue that more and more 'platinum' properties from out of town take over my town's page and I continue to see the deep decline in traffic to my site because of that, I'll consider dropping them. (Not that it will make a hill of beans difference to anyone but me! It just leaves more space on the page for the out of towners!)
.
Morticia said:
If trends continue that more and more 'platinum' properties from out of town take over my town's page and I continue to see the deep decline in traffic to my site because of that, I'll consider dropping them. (Not that it will make a hill of beans difference to anyone but me! It just leaves more space on the page for the out of towners!)
If lots of innkeepers get frustrated and drop out, that will make a big impact. The big guys are only interested in booking there because of the traffic that is generated by the sheer number of small inns.
These guys are killing the goose that laid the golden egg by driving off the B&Bs. It will make a very big difference as more and more innkeepers realize they're being treated like a number.
.
My perspective on this is that they have already put into place mechanisms to brunt the loss of the smaller inns. ie- the Diamond Collection. They have realized that guests are using a lot of different avenues to find their lodging and the money is in, as the gecko says, 'Exclusivity, mate.'
They're not killing the golden goose, they are inventing a new one. The old geese are ready to be put out to pasture. It is so much easier to deal with fewer inns at a higher price.
And I don't think we really know what the new mgmt has in mind.
.
Morticia said:
They're not killing the golden goose, they are inventing a new one. The old geese are ready to be put out to pasture. It is so much easier to deal with fewer inns at a higher price.
And I don't think we really know what the new mgmt has in mind.
I think their plan is to invent a new goose, with the larger inns who are willing/able to pay more than the small inns. That plan's pretty clear to see.
But I think that as small inns realize they are not cherished in that scenario, they will leave. Little by little, that impact will be felt.
The prospective guests are going to a site where they expect to find B&Bs. If all they find, eventually, are mid-size boutique hotels (and if they're in the wrong geographic), they'll quit going to the site.
I'd like to think the new management would spend some of their advertising budget on promoting small inns. But if their site continuously gives greater benefit to the folks with the biggest individual budgets, there's no question small B&Bs will lose out.
That, in the long run, will indeed kill the goose. She'll just take her measly little dollars elsewhere.
 
This has always aggravated me about this directory...everything they do just shouts "I am in this solely for the money". And we all (me included) keep forking it on over because (we have to face it) they are the biggest producer (or the top 2) for most of us.
There is a helpful fix (but not fix all) for the distance issue if they would add it and that is to have a drop down seach feature for "distance from" the city being viewed. They currently have a drop down for Detail level, Inn Name and Bookable...why not have one for distance?
One of the issues I have regarding distance on the site is that it is 'as the crow flies' but not all individuals see this and it also makes for some unhappy guests. I have had several calls from people that have booked a B&B in a neighboring town because they thought they would be closer to the big tourist city staying there and only found out after arriving that they had to drive 1 - 1/2 hours, while we are only 30 - 40 min. Sometimes it does make a huge difference if it is listed 'as the crow flies' and in this case it does!
 
This has always aggravated me about this directory...everything they do just shouts "I am in this solely for the money". And we all (me included) keep forking it on over because (we have to face it) they are the biggest producer (or the top 2) for most of us.
There is a helpful fix (but not fix all) for the distance issue if they would add it and that is to have a drop down seach feature for "distance from" the city being viewed. They currently have a drop down for Detail level, Inn Name and Bookable...why not have one for distance?
One of the issues I have regarding distance on the site is that it is 'as the crow flies' but not all individuals see this and it also makes for some unhappy guests. I have had several calls from people that have booked a B&B in a neighboring town because they thought they would be closer to the big tourist city staying there and only found out after arriving that they had to drive 1 - 1/2 hours, while we are only 30 - 40 min. Sometimes it does make a huge difference if it is listed 'as the crow flies' and in this case it does!.
CH you mean the fix wasn't "Come on everybody, go platinum!" ?
 
This has always aggravated me about this directory...everything they do just shouts "I am in this solely for the money". And we all (me included) keep forking it on over because (we have to face it) they are the biggest producer (or the top 2) for most of us.
There is a helpful fix (but not fix all) for the distance issue if they would add it and that is to have a drop down seach feature for "distance from" the city being viewed. They currently have a drop down for Detail level, Inn Name and Bookable...why not have one for distance?
One of the issues I have regarding distance on the site is that it is 'as the crow flies' but not all individuals see this and it also makes for some unhappy guests. I have had several calls from people that have booked a B&B in a neighboring town because they thought they would be closer to the big tourist city staying there and only found out after arriving that they had to drive 1 - 1/2 hours, while we are only 30 - 40 min. Sometimes it does make a huge difference if it is listed 'as the crow flies' and in this case it does!.
copperhead said:
There is a helpful fix (but not fix all) for the distance issue if they would add it and that is to have a drop down seach feature for "distance from" the city being viewed.
In fact, they have exactly that feature in their 'inns for sale' section. They already have the technology.
 
This has always aggravated me about this directory...everything they do just shouts "I am in this solely for the money". And we all (me included) keep forking it on over because (we have to face it) they are the biggest producer (or the top 2) for most of us.
There is a helpful fix (but not fix all) for the distance issue if they would add it and that is to have a drop down seach feature for "distance from" the city being viewed. They currently have a drop down for Detail level, Inn Name and Bookable...why not have one for distance?
One of the issues I have regarding distance on the site is that it is 'as the crow flies' but not all individuals see this and it also makes for some unhappy guests. I have had several calls from people that have booked a B&B in a neighboring town because they thought they would be closer to the big tourist city staying there and only found out after arriving that they had to drive 1 - 1/2 hours, while we are only 30 - 40 min. Sometimes it does make a huge difference if it is listed 'as the crow flies' and in this case it does!.
CH you mean the fix wasn't "Come on everybody, go platinum!" ?
.
Now it's go diamond. They are offering some special trial periods (which still cost you $600) and a chance to win a free diamond membership to about 200 B&Bs - mostly, I suspect, Select Registry ones who haven't got on board yet.
 
I battle this often where we are, as we are in the mountains, but no our b&B is not right along the Blue Ridge Parkway, it is something I have to explain clearly on all marketing, our county goes right up onto the BRP, these are mountain folk who live in this community. We are talking walking the winding hilly roads barefoot to learn to read. The movie Song Catcher? Well we have a school for mountain children - and in fact guests yesterday were discussing this, the copperheads along the road when their grandparents used to walk to school. We have two 'mountain' lakes.
But alas, when you have flatlanders from say Florida, a 10 minute drive to them is like a 45 minute to another. We deal with this with restaurants as well, driving 30-50 minutes to go to a neat restaurant is normal here, but not to them.
Maybe I should start a new thread on this topic....
But alas, when you have flatlanders from say Florida, a 10 minute drive to them is like a 45 minute to another.
Where I am, the 6 miles to the Interstate is a 12 to 15 minute drive for locals - 20 to 25 minutes for non-locals in daylight and 30 to 40 minutes in the dark. And it is not hils! It is curves marked 25mph that locals will take at 40 but outsiders will do 15mph.
My first discussion with the 800 lb gorilla was over ads on "my" page - the Monst er. com and the Come to Ta hiti and save $1500 were the last straw and what finally made me realize the ads were there (and must have been for years). There ensued a heated discussion by members of this Forum - and the ads disappeared - we had out own pages as we should have (we did everywhere else). Then we brought up the lack of contact info on the basic bronze level - heated (very heated) discussion ensued on this Forum and the basic rate went up a bit, but it now had value because there was contact info. That was when EG sort of monitored what we said before the sale.
Directories MUST (IMO) give distance when listing inns not in the city itself. We had a new member of our association several years ago invite me to their grand opening reception and Marketing for the assoc. I said sure. Their address said they were a little over an hour from me and we figured we could make an appearance and scoot back in time for DH's doc appt. They were NOT in that city nor its outskirts - add an hour! There were 2 very unhappy people at that open house! (I was glad we went though because I discovered they really were not a B & B as we knew B & B)
 
I'm going to consider dropping if they continue this as well. I just checked Google Analytics and I have 1374 visits from my tour website, and 74 visits from bbonine and 60 from my state association's website. So for the money, it's not impressive.
I get most of the hits on my tour website from FREE listings - websites of the state and my convention and visitors bureau, followed by bbonline which is much less costly than bbonline and googlemaps.
RIki.
What is your tour site?
 
I see what you all mean - if you go to Charlottesville the first 7 inns listed are all an 45 minutes to hour from town except for one which is about 25 minutes away and not near any restaurants, driving down a long windy dark road. And that one is not in Charlottesville but uses a Charlottesville post office box for the address.
RIki.
egoodell said:
I see what you all mean - if you go to Charlottesville the first 7 inns listed are all an 45 minutes to hour from town except for one which is about 25 minutes away and not near any restaurants, driving down a long windy dark road. And that one is not in Charlottesville but uses a Charlottesville post office box for the address.
RIki
I can tell you from a B&B who has guests often in C'Ville and complaints that the inns were nowhere near C'Ville it is a problem.
I just looked, now why do they have the NEARBY CITIES section below the C'Ville Inns when many of them in the main listing are not in C'Ville. See to me this is simply DECEITFUL AND WRONG. Staunton is in C'Ville? Orange? That is like 25 miles away.
.
I fought this tooth and nail when I was BBAV pres. It is like lying to the guests but I could not make them see this. We fought many battles over this very thing with our listings on the now year old "new" association site. I think they finally came to some sort of compromise...folks can now pick a second city I belive. BUt yes I got complaints all the time from guests irate that some inn was 25 miles from C'ville and not in the city itself. :-(
.
catlady said:
I fought this tooth and nail when I was BBAV pres. It is like lying to the guests but I could not make them see this. We fought many battles over this very thing with our listings on the now year old "new" association site. I think they finally came to some sort of compromise...folks can now pick a second city I belive. BUt yes I got complaints all the time from guests irate that some inn was 25 miles from C'ville and not in the city itself. :-(
They did fix it. There are some inns that use their Charlottesville PO Box in other directories to be listed in Charlottesville, but on the Association site they are not. They let you select the town and 5 miles out, and then when it goes to 10 miles out these inns have to list as ABC Inn, XYZtown (Charlottesville)
Less misleading.
What makes it difficult for us is when their guests book our wine tours and argue to be picked up at the inn. We adveritise that we pick up in Charlottesville, and the website says the B&B is in Charlottesville. But we just don't have the time to drive 30 minutes out of town to pick up, especially when the other pickup is in town. We don't want to subject the others to the wait or long drive.
Riki
Riki
 
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