I have had a few BOGO's over the past 2-3 years we have been listed on i love inns but mostly the calls I get WANT to use the BOGO at times that our listing says are not valid. I think I have had only 1-2 guests that see my book (we did the cover thing) and say they use one when they travel.
(Side note: Most people only buy the book because we are on the cover and want to show others, otherwise they are not an easy sell - well, here anyway.
I Love Inns and Lanier are both VERY low on referrals to our site and less on calls. They both are well behind our own website, bbonline and bandb when searching 'bed and breakfast my town'. The hesitancy I have about not renewing is the fact of the 'unknown'....all these people who say they found us searching google or yahoo. I have had many calls that say they are on MY website yet do not see this or that so I know they are on a directory listing somewhere. Sometimes I think and ask what it says at top of their monitor www? before I say type myplace dot com to see more room pics.
My thinging is that over the next few years directories may, for the most part, fade away. Just look at the phone book, how many times do you really look a number up in the phone book, you go to the computer. Now for a while I went to yellowpages dot com to search, now I just search for the business straight from Google. I only revert back to the bound book when I come up dry which is becoming more and more rare. So the yellow pages listing is also on my non-renewal list which will save me a whopping $40 p mth..
It doesn't cost me anything to be listed in the AT & T yellow pages. Are you paying for that scam where they send you a renewal notice to be listed? I was really confused on that at first. I think it is called yellowpages.com. I get a renewal notice about every few months for them and it costs a lot of money!
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oceans said:
It doesn't cost me anything to be listed in the AT & T yellow pages. Are you paying for that scam where they send you a renewal notice to be listed? I was really confused on that at first. I think it is called yellowpages.com. I get a renewal notice about every few months for them and it costs a lot of money!
NO I have not fallen into one of those yellow book scams I am referring to Ma Bell! You must have a business phone # as they tack that in with the rate you pay....and it is just a basic listing in the YP of the book to have your listing stand out you pay extra for bold or extra fluff. I use my residential # for my B&B and then have a toll free that rings on that same line through the service I use for my long distance. So I have been paying for a listing in the YP - a 1/2" box with 4 lines including website, address & #...that has gone up to $40mthy this next round - they want $37.50 a mth for a basic listing.
The issue is WHO is using this any more? Not many according to my stats....since this is a phone book, interested parties will more than likely call before using the web or they would have done so 1st! I ALWAYs ask - how did ya find us...the # of replies & then bookings from those saying Ma Bell's YP, do not begin to pay for my listing let alone any profit - so scratch that!
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Back in the days when we were traveling with the beasts, we would get a handful of dines (so long ago you could make a call for a dime), open the YP and start calling for availability when we decided to stop for the night. Back in those day, I would not have considered failing to be on the YP. Fast forward to today - travelers today are smarter and know you need reservations and they look on the Internet, GPS (if it is a last minute decision not YP), iPhones, etc. They do not HAVE the YP for my area!
Heck, the landline phone companies are having a problem as more and more people dump them for the cell phone.
We are a residence and had a phone as a residence (which we still have and use totally) and financially it would have been very stupid to get a business phone. Here it would have been $70 per month plus taxes plus 10 cents (this I do not remember if it was per call or per minute) for each call whether incoming or outgoing - per a friend who had a business line. I am, as a residence, paying not much more than that per month for my 2 lines (one is dedicated to the dial-up, fax, and cc machine - they share a modem).
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