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egoodell

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Hi all,
I see that I love inns has been mentioned in Travel and Leisure http://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/the-best-iphone-apps-for-travelers/10
It's because of their Iphone app.
So I went and checked to see that the other inns here are on it, and they are starting to show up on a couple of searches for Charlottesville B&B and Charlottesville bed and breakfast.
Has anyone else gotten business from this? I think I'll have to join just for the iphone crowd. About 1/3 of our tours use them while touring so there is a large market that are addicted to using them. The university is having problems with students texting during class and surgery demonstrations. Makes me nervous that these kids will be treating us. Will they text during surgery too???
RIki
 
No business thus far and in fact iloveinns sends me virtually no guests if any at all. They are on my do not renew list this year.
 
I did not renew either...for the first time since we opened six years ago.
 
if you like those 8PM last minute check-ins, then it may be good for that. I think that may be where all those have been coming from.
 
No business thus far and in fact iloveinns sends me virtually no guests if any at all. They are on my do not renew list this year..
I understand that they have not given you bookings in the past, but this iphone thing is really being used by the 20 - 40 somethings. We've had them glued to them while wine tasting. I sent one couple their photos the night of their tour and they had already checked them and thanked me for them before they went to dinner that night!!
I'm just trying to see if I want to join the wave of iphone users. I get lost of responses to my tour bookings from people's Blackberries this past year. I'm wondering if I'm not staying "modern" by not giving it a go since they just got written up.
I've also noticed that Lanier is suddenly appearing on the first Google page, and people have told me her site gives no bookings either. Has anyone noticed any action from her site?
Looks like they are all learning SEO...
RIki
 
My renewal date came and went...and thought I would not renew this year. Then I got a call from my iloveinns rep. and talked to her for awhile..told her I would think on it...a week later, she calls tells me that they will do a monthly billing (like B&B.com).
I decided to go ahead and give them 1 more year due to the iphone appl. - I had gotten a few hits to my site from it before my year ran out. Now lets see what it does.
SweetiePie, while i think that what you say may be part of the issue with iphones, many people are using them just like their PC but with the convenience of having it when stuck in a traffic jam, during long boring meetings or as EG stated - during boring classes.
 
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone. We keep going back and forth about whether we should do an iphone app, or a mobile website.
I finally broke down and got an iphone myself (hacked to work on tmobile as i just couldn't switch back to att just yet), and my own personal experience is that I use the browser all the time, although there are some apps (like Shazam which is a music app that works so well it is spooky) that I keep going back to.
 
My renewal date came and went...and thought I would not renew this year. Then I got a call from my iloveinns rep. and talked to her for awhile..told her I would think on it...a week later, she calls tells me that they will do a monthly billing (like B&B.com).
I decided to go ahead and give them 1 more year due to the iphone appl. - I had gotten a few hits to my site from it before my year ran out. Now lets see what it does.
SweetiePie, while i think that what you say may be part of the issue with iphones, many people are using them just like their PC but with the convenience of having it when stuck in a traffic jam, during long boring meetings or as EG stated - during boring classes..
Copperhead said:
SweetiePie, while i think that what you say may be part of the issue with iphones, many people are using them just like their PC but with the convenience of having it when stuck in a traffic jam, during long boring meetings or as EG stated - during boring classes.
I'm also looking at it more for my wine tours which half book in advance, half at the last minute. I can see people iphoning on the way down here from DC (because they have emailed me on the way down) and booking a wine tour to fill my van's empty seats.
Note - they are not texting during boring classes, that's why it is a problem and being discussed here at the upper level. They are texting when IMPORTANT "what would you do if" excersises are being done when they are not in the "hot seat" for SURGERY classes and others. It's becoming a real problem. I hope none of these kids ever operate on me...
Riki
 
if you like those 8PM last minute check-ins, then it may be good for that. I think that may be where all those have been coming from..
SweetiePie said:
if you like those 8PM last minute check-ins, then it may be good for that. I think that may be where all those have been coming from.
I had a call at 10pm for a room with two beds last night. Yeah right on, from a bar or some place really noisy. To quote an inn-mate on the forum "Nothing good comes from a phone call after 10pm"
 
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone. We keep going back and forth about whether we should do an iphone app, or a mobile website.
I finally broke down and got an iphone myself (hacked to work on tmobile as i just couldn't switch back to att just yet), and my own personal experience is that I use the browser all the time, although there are some apps (like Shazam which is a music app that works so well it is spooky) that I keep going back to..
JBanczak said:
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone. We keep going back and forth about whether we should do an iphone app, or a mobile website.
That's what I'm trying to figure out. I have purchased some goo iphone domaines and have a mobi domaine and now I have to figure out what to do with them. But I bought them specifially for Virginia Wine Tours before someone else does.
Riki
 
My renewal date came and went...and thought I would not renew this year. Then I got a call from my iloveinns rep. and talked to her for awhile..told her I would think on it...a week later, she calls tells me that they will do a monthly billing (like B&B.com).
I decided to go ahead and give them 1 more year due to the iphone appl. - I had gotten a few hits to my site from it before my year ran out. Now lets see what it does.
SweetiePie, while i think that what you say may be part of the issue with iphones, many people are using them just like their PC but with the convenience of having it when stuck in a traffic jam, during long boring meetings or as EG stated - during boring classes..
Interesting...I sent them an email prior to my renewal date (I've paid for their highest level for six years), explaining why I was disappointed with my listing and wanting to talk to someone about it. Never heard back from them, so did not renew.
 
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone. We keep going back and forth about whether we should do an iphone app, or a mobile website.
I finally broke down and got an iphone myself (hacked to work on tmobile as i just couldn't switch back to att just yet), and my own personal experience is that I use the browser all the time, although there are some apps (like Shazam which is a music app that works so well it is spooky) that I keep going back to..
PLEEEEAAASSEEE do an iPhone app!! I am begging you!! I will be happy to promote your software to every B&B/Inn in Charlottetown (there are over 20 that I am good friends with) if you develop it!!!
Even a simple webapp that is tailored for mobile safari that can sync with Rez GT's portal....I would be in heaven!!!
I'm sure Jaylee, Patrick, Nathan, Drew and Chris (did I miss anyone?) would LOVE* to provide the technical support for that too (*sarcasm) PS: Your tech support is the best in this industry IMHO.
Speaking of Shazam...have you tried "MiDoMi?"
Cheers
 
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone. We keep going back and forth about whether we should do an iphone app, or a mobile website.
I finally broke down and got an iphone myself (hacked to work on tmobile as i just couldn't switch back to att just yet), and my own personal experience is that I use the browser all the time, although there are some apps (like Shazam which is a music app that works so well it is spooky) that I keep going back to..
PLEEEEAAASSEEE do an iPhone app!! I am begging you!! I will be happy to promote your software to every B&B/Inn in Charlottetown (there are over 20 that I am good friends with) if you develop it!!!
Even a simple webapp that is tailored for mobile safari that can sync with Rez GT's portal....I would be in heaven!!!
I'm sure Jaylee, Patrick, Nathan, Drew and Chris (did I miss anyone?) would LOVE* to provide the technical support for that too (*sarcasm) PS: Your tech support is the best in this industry IMHO.
Speaking of Shazam...have you tried "MiDoMi?"
Cheers
.
sonatainn said:
PLEEEEAAASSEEE do an iPhone app!! I am begging you!! I will be happy to promote your software to every B&B/Inn in Charlottetown (there are over 20 that I am good friends with) if you develop it!!!
Even a simple webapp that is tailored for mobile safari that can sync with Rez GT's portal....I would be in heaven!!!
I'm sure Jaylee, Patrick, Nathan, Drew and Chris (did I miss anyone?) would LOVE* to provide the technical support for that too (*sarcasm) PS: Your tech support is the best in this industry IMHO.
Speaking of Shazam...have you tried "MiDoMi?"
Cheers
No, what is MiDoMi? I'll check it out. Thanks for the nice comments about our support team - greatly appreciated.
We have it in the schedule to do some mobile work for GT. Slimmed-down booking engine is already scoped-out. In that we are planning on enabling you to click on any booking in the calendar to pull up details of the reservation itself (name, rate, etc.).
But we've been talking about an extended portal sync as well - the question is where do we draw the line on it... What exactly would you want to be able to see in there? List of guests arriving?
 
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone. We keep going back and forth about whether we should do an iphone app, or a mobile website.
I finally broke down and got an iphone myself (hacked to work on tmobile as i just couldn't switch back to att just yet), and my own personal experience is that I use the browser all the time, although there are some apps (like Shazam which is a music app that works so well it is spooky) that I keep going back to..
JBanczak said:
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone.
Tracking iPhone application referrals, such as those from InnTouch are virtually impossible because it is not a website, and does not run Google Analytics. However, we do have tracking that is reported back to our servers, such as calls made, searches performed, emails sent, etc.
iLoveInns has a mobile website of our own that automatically loads when browsing our site from a mobile device. We support just about every device with a decent web browser. Clicks from the mobile version of iLoveInns to your real website or mobile website are tracked normally.
Little Blue said:
Interesting...I sent them an email prior to my renewal date (I've paid for their highest level for six years), explaining why I was disappointed with my listing and wanting to talk to someone about it. Never heard back from them, so did not renew.
I am very sorry you did not hear back from us regarding this matter. Our intention is to answer every question that is asked. We used to load B&B websites in a FRAME - which is a page branded with our logo while the user browses your site. About a year ago Google Analytics upgraded their code that was used to track clicks, and something broke at that point. According to Google, running two instances of Google Analytics, especially two different versions produced undesirable results. A few months ago we got rid of our frames, so this issue is resolved going forward. You can usually see the clicks that were sent to you in the past by breaking the Google Analytics reports down month by month instead of a full year.
We have also taken our SEO back in house and it's been steadily climbing.
 
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone. We keep going back and forth about whether we should do an iphone app, or a mobile website.
I finally broke down and got an iphone myself (hacked to work on tmobile as i just couldn't switch back to att just yet), and my own personal experience is that I use the browser all the time, although there are some apps (like Shazam which is a music app that works so well it is spooky) that I keep going back to..
JBanczak said:
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone.
Tracking iPhone application referrals, such as those from InnTouch are virtually impossible because it is not a website, and does not run Google Analytics. However, we do have tracking that is reported back to our servers, such as calls made, searches performed, emails sent, etc.
iLoveInns has a mobile website of our own that automatically loads when browsing our site from a mobile device. We support just about every device with a decent web browser. Clicks from the mobile version of iLoveInns to your real website or mobile website are tracked normally.
Little Blue said:
Interesting...I sent them an email prior to my renewal date (I've paid for their highest level for six years), explaining why I was disappointed with my listing and wanting to talk to someone about it. Never heard back from them, so did not renew.
I am very sorry you did not hear back from us regarding this matter. Our intention is to answer every question that is asked. We used to load B&B websites in a FRAME - which is a page branded with our logo while the user browses your site. About a year ago Google Analytics upgraded their code that was used to track clicks, and something broke at that point. According to Google, running two instances of Google Analytics, especially two different versions produced undesirable results. A few months ago we got rid of our frames, so this issue is resolved going forward. You can usually see the clicks that were sent to you in the past by breaking the Google Analytics reports down month by month instead of a full year.
We have also taken our SEO back in house and it's been steadily climbing.
.
And so you're saying that the 63 hits to my website in my last twelve months from Iloveinns.com is incorrect as tracked by my opentracker program because of the frames issue??? Those hits did not come all at once, they were scattered throughout the year...how do you explain that?
 
I think the a lot of people are using iphones or other browser phones, but of the crowd I work with I don't see a lot of them loatding up on apps. They pick a few that make their life easier on daily basis (meaning an app they use every day).
I don't see them loading up on apps they may only use once a month or less (like a app for finding B&B's). For those kind of things I think the browser is the primary app. Simply search, then go.
 
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone. We keep going back and forth about whether we should do an iphone app, or a mobile website.
I finally broke down and got an iphone myself (hacked to work on tmobile as i just couldn't switch back to att just yet), and my own personal experience is that I use the browser all the time, although there are some apps (like Shazam which is a music app that works so well it is spooky) that I keep going back to..
PLEEEEAAASSEEE do an iPhone app!! I am begging you!! I will be happy to promote your software to every B&B/Inn in Charlottetown (there are over 20 that I am good friends with) if you develop it!!!
Even a simple webapp that is tailored for mobile safari that can sync with Rez GT's portal....I would be in heaven!!!
I'm sure Jaylee, Patrick, Nathan, Drew and Chris (did I miss anyone?) would LOVE* to provide the technical support for that too (*sarcasm) PS: Your tech support is the best in this industry IMHO.
Speaking of Shazam...have you tried "MiDoMi?"
Cheers
.
sonatainn said:
PLEEEEAAASSEEE do an iPhone app!! I am begging you!! I will be happy to promote your software to every B&B/Inn in Charlottetown (there are over 20 that I am good friends with) if you develop it!!!
Even a simple webapp that is tailored for mobile safari that can sync with Rez GT's portal....I would be in heaven!!!
I'm sure Jaylee, Patrick, Nathan, Drew and Chris (did I miss anyone?) would LOVE* to provide the technical support for that too (*sarcasm) PS: Your tech support is the best in this industry IMHO.
Speaking of Shazam...have you tried "MiDoMi?"
Cheers
No, what is MiDoMi? I'll check it out. Thanks for the nice comments about our support team - greatly appreciated.
We have it in the schedule to do some mobile work for GT. Slimmed-down booking engine is already scoped-out. In that we are planning on enabling you to click on any booking in the calendar to pull up details of the reservation itself (name, rate, etc.).
But we've been talking about an extended portal sync as well - the question is where do we draw the line on it... What exactly would you want to be able to see in there? List of guests arriving?
.
Midomi is like shazam, but tad more powerful...You can hum or sing a song, and it will match it up...it's pretty accurate with pop songs....older pieces have a little trouble sometimes.
I think for the mobile engine, I would rate these features in order of imporatance
Viewing the Occupancy Map
Viewing a reservation
Placing a reservation
Modifying reservations
For reports...like a list of guests arriving, is not as important to me, because that would be information on the home server anyways....but that's a great start....personally, I think reports should be on the back burner for an iPhone app.
Speaking of reports....have you guys considered making an occupancy report based on # of room nights taken by people of various prov/states/countries? In PEI, we are required to fill out a report every month, so that the province can see where the tourists are coming from, so they can adjust their marketing. If a guest from England stays 3 nights, that 3 counts to England....if a guest stays 7 nights from Michigan, that's 7 counts to Michigan.
Seems like a fairly straightforward report, I was surprised that it was not an option among the various other powerful reports you have by default. Let me know if this is a possibility in a future update.
 
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone. We keep going back and forth about whether we should do an iphone app, or a mobile website.
I finally broke down and got an iphone myself (hacked to work on tmobile as i just couldn't switch back to att just yet), and my own personal experience is that I use the browser all the time, although there are some apps (like Shazam which is a music app that works so well it is spooky) that I keep going back to..
PLEEEEAAASSEEE do an iPhone app!! I am begging you!! I will be happy to promote your software to every B&B/Inn in Charlottetown (there are over 20 that I am good friends with) if you develop it!!!
Even a simple webapp that is tailored for mobile safari that can sync with Rez GT's portal....I would be in heaven!!!
I'm sure Jaylee, Patrick, Nathan, Drew and Chris (did I miss anyone?) would LOVE* to provide the technical support for that too (*sarcasm) PS: Your tech support is the best in this industry IMHO.
Speaking of Shazam...have you tried "MiDoMi?"
Cheers
.
sonatainn said:
PLEEEEAAASSEEE do an iPhone app!! I am begging you!! I will be happy to promote your software to every B&B/Inn in Charlottetown (there are over 20 that I am good friends with) if you develop it!!!
Even a simple webapp that is tailored for mobile safari that can sync with Rez GT's portal....I would be in heaven!!!
I'm sure Jaylee, Patrick, Nathan, Drew and Chris (did I miss anyone?) would LOVE* to provide the technical support for that too (*sarcasm) PS: Your tech support is the best in this industry IMHO.
Speaking of Shazam...have you tried "MiDoMi?"
Cheers
No, what is MiDoMi? I'll check it out. Thanks for the nice comments about our support team - greatly appreciated.
We have it in the schedule to do some mobile work for GT. Slimmed-down booking engine is already scoped-out. In that we are planning on enabling you to click on any booking in the calendar to pull up details of the reservation itself (name, rate, etc.).
But we've been talking about an extended portal sync as well - the question is where do we draw the line on it... What exactly would you want to be able to see in there? List of guests arriving?
.
Midomi is like shazam, but tad more powerful...You can hum or sing a song, and it will match it up...it's pretty accurate with pop songs....older pieces have a little trouble sometimes.
I think for the mobile engine, I would rate these features in order of imporatance
Viewing the Occupancy Map
Viewing a reservation
Placing a reservation
Modifying reservations
For reports...like a list of guests arriving, is not as important to me, because that would be information on the home server anyways....but that's a great start....personally, I think reports should be on the back burner for an iPhone app.
Speaking of reports....have you guys considered making an occupancy report based on # of room nights taken by people of various prov/states/countries? In PEI, we are required to fill out a report every month, so that the province can see where the tourists are coming from, so they can adjust their marketing. If a guest from England stays 3 nights, that 3 counts to England....if a guest stays 7 nights from Michigan, that's 7 counts to Michigan.
Seems like a fairly straightforward report, I was surprised that it was not an option among the various other powerful reports you have by default. Let me know if this is a possibility in a future update.
.
I have tracked where my guests come from for years. I know what states I had how many room nights from by month and by year. I just keep Excel spreadsheets for my reports.
 
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone. We keep going back and forth about whether we should do an iphone app, or a mobile website.
I finally broke down and got an iphone myself (hacked to work on tmobile as i just couldn't switch back to att just yet), and my own personal experience is that I use the browser all the time, although there are some apps (like Shazam which is a music app that works so well it is spooky) that I keep going back to..
JBanczak said:
Do you guys track your iphone referrals? If you are using Google Analytics - you can see exactly who is hitting you from an iphone.
Tracking iPhone application referrals, such as those from InnTouch are virtually impossible because it is not a website, and does not run Google Analytics. However, we do have tracking that is reported back to our servers, such as calls made, searches performed, emails sent, etc.
iLoveInns has a mobile website of our own that automatically loads when browsing our site from a mobile device. We support just about every device with a decent web browser. Clicks from the mobile version of iLoveInns to your real website or mobile website are tracked normally.
Little Blue said:
Interesting...I sent them an email prior to my renewal date (I've paid for their highest level for six years), explaining why I was disappointed with my listing and wanting to talk to someone about it. Never heard back from them, so did not renew.
I am very sorry you did not hear back from us regarding this matter. Our intention is to answer every question that is asked. We used to load B&B websites in a FRAME - which is a page branded with our logo while the user browses your site. About a year ago Google Analytics upgraded their code that was used to track clicks, and something broke at that point. According to Google, running two instances of Google Analytics, especially two different versions produced undesirable results. A few months ago we got rid of our frames, so this issue is resolved going forward. You can usually see the clicks that were sent to you in the past by breaking the Google Analytics reports down month by month instead of a full year.
We have also taken our SEO back in house and it's been steadily climbing.
.
cmonahan said:
Tracking iPhone application referrals, such as those from InnTouch are virtually impossible because it is not a website, and does not run Google Analytics. However, we do have tracking that is reported back to our servers, such as calls made, searches performed, emails sent, etc.
iLoveInns has a mobile website of our own that automatically loads when browsing our site from a mobile device. We support just about every device with a decent web browser. Clicks from the mobile version of iLoveInns to your real website or mobile website are tracked normally.
I believe a valid way for an innkeeper to track this though is to look and see how many folks are opening their website on an iphone. If a consumer clicks from your app to visit an innkeeper's website, then it would register the iphone browser/screen resolution to match. This would include all traffic from iphones, not just from your app, but would be an indicator if anyone is finding the property on an iphone.
I know that it used to show the number of downloads of every app, but now that data is private. I'm sure you guys still measure the number of downloads of the app, the usage, etc. What kind of numbers are you seeing? Is it being downloaded/used pretty extensively or are you seeing your mobile-optimized sites getting more business?
 
Just checked our stats on this. We are getting .69% of users coming from an iPhone over the past 60 days. Although it seems small, it is over 300/day - which is actually more individuals than I thought it would be.
 
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