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sandynn

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I think I know why my buisness has picked up this year alot. It has to be the reveiws. When I ask or even sometimes when I don't guests will say they came because first they loved my site and next they read the reveiws. It seems to me that everyone now days are reading the reviews more that ever. I even do this myself for everthing.
I really am supprised when 95% of guests say the rely on reviews. This is so important to us to have them. At first I didn't want to ask but now I do becasue I really work hard at this and I need more reviews to keep us going. Believe it or not their faces light up when I say to them if you loved your stay please give us a quick review. Every one seems happy to do it. I would say that a fair amount will do it after they say they will and that is great.
We are slow this week because parents are getting kids back in school. It is this way ever year. Is this the same for everyone? All in all we have had a great year.
 
I agree.
It is a simple step for anyone to check reviews. It is prudent. You can weed out the loonies from the real guests.
Don't forget everyone to add more images to your TA listing, it is FREE. Make sure your main listing photo is high resolution so it is the best photo they will see. Make sure it is landscape so it fills out the whole area (vs portrait). You can designate WHICH PHOTO you want to be your main photo. Just go into your owner/mgmt center on TA and tick the box on the main photo. I recently changed ours as our big sugar maple is no longer there, so I made a room photo the main photo. Was not sure if I wanted to do this, but went ahead as hotels don't have nice rooms! They have cookie cutter stale rooms. :)
Great to hear this as even moreso for you Sandynn, once they see how amazing your place is, they won't want to leave! Besides the wonderful hosts who make them feel so welcome. Isn't it funny how there are hosts who do NOT make guests feel welcome? I hear this all the time from our guests and have experienced it myself.
PS here is a review that is one bubble and yet a great review. Perhaps the reviewer clicked the wrong bubbles? If the owners paid attention to this they might inquiry and get this changed, so they are not #5 of the B&B's there, with all high marks.
 
sandynn said:
We are slow this week because parents are getting kids back in school. It is this way ever year. Is this the same for everyone? All in all we have had a great year.
We call it the 'pre-Labor-Day' slump. Sometimes it happens after Labor Day, tho!
 
Something I just got...why guests think they've already paid...because more people buy things online now, they asuume that entering their cc info means they are being charged right then and there. No matter what we have said to them or what we have on the website.
I get the reverse, too- We wanted to pay cash (or use someone else's cc), we didn't know you already charged our card!
 
I agree.
It is a simple step for anyone to check reviews. It is prudent. You can weed out the loonies from the real guests.
Don't forget everyone to add more images to your TA listing, it is FREE. Make sure your main listing photo is high resolution so it is the best photo they will see. Make sure it is landscape so it fills out the whole area (vs portrait). You can designate WHICH PHOTO you want to be your main photo. Just go into your owner/mgmt center on TA and tick the box on the main photo. I recently changed ours as our big sugar maple is no longer there, so I made a room photo the main photo. Was not sure if I wanted to do this, but went ahead as hotels don't have nice rooms! They have cookie cutter stale rooms. :)
Great to hear this as even moreso for you Sandynn, once they see how amazing your place is, they won't want to leave! Besides the wonderful hosts who make them feel so welcome. Isn't it funny how there are hosts who do NOT make guests feel welcome? I hear this all the time from our guests and have experienced it myself.
PS here is a review that is one bubble and yet a great review. Perhaps the reviewer clicked the wrong bubbles? If the owners paid attention to this they might inquiry and get this changed, so they are not #5 of the B&B's there, with all high marks..
Perhaps the reviewer clicked the wrong bubbles? If the owners paid attention to this they might inquiry and get this changed, so they are not #5 of the B&B's there, with all high marks.
Looks like the case JB, the other review they did was also glowing yet 1 bubble. I would contact TA as well. Clearly they think 1 is better than 5!
 
Just had a caller mention our reviews. I told her that we are fortunate as we have wonderful guests, very few bad ones. They were planning to go to Outer Banks, NC and Irene has changed all that. Not sure what we will have open as we have a couple form Charleston SC and Williamsburg VA which I gave the option to rechedule if they need to stay there.
 
I agree.
It is a simple step for anyone to check reviews. It is prudent. You can weed out the loonies from the real guests.
Don't forget everyone to add more images to your TA listing, it is FREE. Make sure your main listing photo is high resolution so it is the best photo they will see. Make sure it is landscape so it fills out the whole area (vs portrait). You can designate WHICH PHOTO you want to be your main photo. Just go into your owner/mgmt center on TA and tick the box on the main photo. I recently changed ours as our big sugar maple is no longer there, so I made a room photo the main photo. Was not sure if I wanted to do this, but went ahead as hotels don't have nice rooms! They have cookie cutter stale rooms. :)
Great to hear this as even moreso for you Sandynn, once they see how amazing your place is, they won't want to leave! Besides the wonderful hosts who make them feel so welcome. Isn't it funny how there are hosts who do NOT make guests feel welcome? I hear this all the time from our guests and have experienced it myself.
PS here is a review that is one bubble and yet a great review. Perhaps the reviewer clicked the wrong bubbles? If the owners paid attention to this they might inquiry and get this changed, so they are not #5 of the B&B's there, with all high marks..
You are too sweet.
I have pictures on TA. I am just about to make my final about which camera. I am a thinker so I have to think everything to death so for those who heard I am going to buy a camera and take classes I really am. I want to do bed and breakfast photography. I think being an innkeeper for so long I have a feel for what people want to see. So that is my next passion and no I am not going to give us the bed and breakfast for this, not right now at least.
 
I'm quite thankful for TA. I know it's the '500-pound gorilla' lurking in the corner to most of us, but it's those reviews that people look to when making a decision about where to stay.
And why not? As the owner of a B&B, I can instruct my webmaster to put up all the pretty pictures and adjective-laiden room descriptions that I can muster. But, it's the experiences of the people who have stayed here that speak so much louder to any other potential guests.
What is the atmosphere like? Is the innkeeper grumpy or helpful? Does brekkie really look like those pictures on the website, and more importantly, how does it taste? Is there noise from traffic, or smells around from the fields? Is there anything important that the website is NOT telling us?
This is all information that the potential guest seeks, but is not necessarily provided by the website. These are deal-breakers. Especially in a tight economy! Our potential guests have limited resources (time and money) and those who are prudent are going to do their homework to decide where the best place is to use those resources.
Embrace TA!! Use it for your advantage! It's certainly here to stay. Yes, our bookings are up, too and I also attribute it to the fact that we're currently #1 in our city and #4 in the county.
 
I'm quite thankful for TA. I know it's the '500-pound gorilla' lurking in the corner to most of us, but it's those reviews that people look to when making a decision about where to stay.
And why not? As the owner of a B&B, I can instruct my webmaster to put up all the pretty pictures and adjective-laiden room descriptions that I can muster. But, it's the experiences of the people who have stayed here that speak so much louder to any other potential guests.
What is the atmosphere like? Is the innkeeper grumpy or helpful? Does brekkie really look like those pictures on the website, and more importantly, how does it taste? Is there noise from traffic, or smells around from the fields? Is there anything important that the website is NOT telling us?
This is all information that the potential guest seeks, but is not necessarily provided by the website. These are deal-breakers. Especially in a tight economy! Our potential guests have limited resources (time and money) and those who are prudent are going to do their homework to decide where the best place is to use those resources.
Embrace TA!! Use it for your advantage! It's certainly here to stay. Yes, our bookings are up, too and I also attribute it to the fact that we're currently #1 in our city and #4 in the county..
I work on the principle of if you can't beat them join them. Trip advise r et al aint going away any time soon so we just have to learn to work the system.
 
How many on this forum actually hate TA? I will do a poll. I think we might be surprised, most who like TA do not vocalize as such.
 
I'm quite thankful for TA. I know it's the '500-pound gorilla' lurking in the corner to most of us, but it's those reviews that people look to when making a decision about where to stay.
And why not? As the owner of a B&B, I can instruct my webmaster to put up all the pretty pictures and adjective-laiden room descriptions that I can muster. But, it's the experiences of the people who have stayed here that speak so much louder to any other potential guests.
What is the atmosphere like? Is the innkeeper grumpy or helpful? Does brekkie really look like those pictures on the website, and more importantly, how does it taste? Is there noise from traffic, or smells around from the fields? Is there anything important that the website is NOT telling us?
This is all information that the potential guest seeks, but is not necessarily provided by the website. These are deal-breakers. Especially in a tight economy! Our potential guests have limited resources (time and money) and those who are prudent are going to do their homework to decide where the best place is to use those resources.
Embrace TA!! Use it for your advantage! It's certainly here to stay. Yes, our bookings are up, too and I also attribute it to the fact that we're currently #1 in our city and #4 in the county..
I work on the principle of if you can't beat them join them. Trip advise r et al aint going away any time soon so we just have to learn to work the system.
.
I work on the principle of if you can't beat them join them. Trip advise r et al aint going away any time soon so we just have to learn to work the system.
I agree. I don't see why their FlipKey customers get to approve a review before it's posted, and we on TripAdvisor are not given the same courtesy. FlipKey is their vacation rental division. And I don't want to hear they don't have enough personnel to accommodate us. They are affecting so many businesses they should jolly well hire more employees. They profess to be out to assist the traveling public when they just are after the almighty dollar.
But I have to play the game, as everyone does read the reviews. They are helping my wine tour business as there are so many crooks like the Salahis touting wine tours and taking people's money and not delivering, so the reviews do give my guests confidence in booking me. So I have a love/hate relationship with TA.
RIki
 
In marketing on the web, the number one thing is confidence. Do they trust you to deliver as promised? The web is a lot less scary then it used to be but we still have to gain trust with our customer. This is just one way to do it.
 
How many on this forum actually hate TA? I will do a poll. I think we might be surprised, most who like TA do not vocalize as such..
I think most would agree with me that it is not the concept of tri p ad viser we disagree with but the particular way in which they do what they do. I see no reason why it should be annonomyous. If you are giving your opinion on your stay at a place you should have to say when you stayed (at the very least month and year) and your name. It would weed out all th slander mongers!
 
How many on this forum actually hate TA? I will do a poll. I think we might be surprised, most who like TA do not vocalize as such..
Joey Bloggs said:
How many on this forum actually hate TA? I will do a poll. I think we might be surprised, most who like TA do not vocalize as such.
I do not hate T A but I do consider it the 1000 lb gorilla. You have to respect it for its power but do not have to like it. I do not like the cavilier treatment of B &Bs - the way people have to HUNT to find B & B listings, the posting of bad reviews before good ones, the delay in management responses being posted, we all know how it operates. Do I now ask my guests for reviews - you betcha! The Thank you for choosing Gillum House e-mail letter contains the link if they care to use it. Do I live in dread of a bad review? NO! I run my business. I may tweek something due to a review, but I will not be blackmailed by the threat of a bad or good, for that matter, review.
 
I think TA has treated B&B's just fine. I am so not on the same page as some on this forum (a few)
They allow a free listing, they allow me to add photos, to reply to reviews. Not speaking to anything a PERSON has done, like a bad guest who slanders an inn, that is not TA, that is the bad guest/person. I dont have to hunt for a B&B listing, at all.
I guess majority here, although we have been called fear mongerers, just do what we do, I don't know any innmate who lives in fear of TA, not a one. Maybe others are out there, but none I am friends or associate with. You all work hard and do your best to make guests happy and enjoy their stay.
I kind of feel like we are defending something that doesn;t need defending. I kind of feel like one or two people insert this hype about TA and then we are all fall into the same basket, which we don't.
I had the worst guest of all time 2 weeks ago, I was ready for a TA review to hit, but not in fear of it IN THE LEAST. Everyone knows there are nut jobs out there. Some a little nuttier than others.
 
I did pay for the link last year, but mid year they moved my listing when they added my podunk town to their list. Since people do not know to search for my small town, my listing was almost off the face of the earth and I had then paid for NOTHING.
I do think that they are doing a better job with B&B presence now, much better than before. And they also have improved the presence of the map feature, so I can be seen from the larger town, if people do a little wider search. Of course I will not pay for a link now, it is not THAT much better for me.
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