New Look for BnB.com

[Madeleine]

Yep if you put in my town of Charlottesville you don't see a Charlottesville inn until #5. The #1 , #2 iand #3 inns are all 20-30 minute drive away and #4 is even further away
I didn't renew since I didn't have the money at the time so will see if I can do fine wtihout - hope so.
I went into "inns for sale" and put in virginia to search and get errors. They need to check their work!
RIki.

I didn't renew since I didn't have the money at the time so will see if I can do fine wtihout - hope so

We didn't renew last year in July. They were a big source of traffic to our website but we found that other sources just replaced them, and we had just as many visits to our website. Our revenue was up a bit at the end of the year as well. They sent us a significantly discounted offer for a bronze listing at $99, so we have just renewed, but I don't think I would renew again at the old price. Especially not with the redesign.
And don't even talk to me about Webervations. I am bound and determined to switch online booking systems this year.
.

I renewed but will not this coming year as there are too many other inns ahead of me now and I won't upgrade. And the ads are horrific. Should have been paying better attention to this earlier in the year.
The ad for Toyota not only is a moving ad it's also bigger than the listings for the B&B's. And cable TV, do you need that while you're searching for a place to stay? 'Hey, honey, do we need cable TV or a place to stay?'
Oh, yeah, that belly fat ad was bad. And then Weight Watchers shows up. C'mon, people, the guests are not gonna book if they're bombarded with fat ads and we serve them a gourmet breakfast! And, at the top of my page is an ad from the American Lung Association saying that my state is being polluted by emissions from far off energy plants. Thank you very much. JUST what the guest is looking to see.
And if you click the link for 'Top cities in state' you get Hotwire cheap hotels.
My guess is that anyone who finds a B&B thru this site already knew what city and state they wanted and went directly to that page. And, having all those cheesy ads reflects poorly on US because you know there are still quite a number of people who think that page is MY website.

 

[EmptyNest]

Yep if you put in my town of Charlottesville you don't see a Charlottesville inn until #5. The #1 , #2 iand #3 inns are all 20-30 minute drive away and #4 is even further away
I didn't renew since I didn't have the money at the time so will see if I can do fine wtihout - hope so.
I went into "inns for sale" and put in virginia to search and get errors. They need to check their work!
RIki.

I didn't renew since I didn't have the money at the time so will see if I can do fine wtihout - hope so

We didn't renew last year in July. They were a big source of traffic to our website but we found that other sources just replaced them, and we had just as many visits to our website. Our revenue was up a bit at the end of the year as well. They sent us a significantly discounted offer for a bronze listing at $99, so we have just renewed, but I don't think I would renew again at the old price. Especially not with the redesign.
And don't even talk to me about Webervations. I am bound and determined to switch online booking systems this year.
.

I renewed but will not this coming year as there are too many other inns ahead of me now and I won't upgrade. And the ads are horrific. Should have been paying better attention to this earlier in the year.
The ad for Toyota not only is a moving ad it's also bigger than the listings for the B&B's. And cable TV, do you need that while you're searching for a place to stay? 'Hey, honey, do we need cable TV or a place to stay?'
Oh, yeah, that belly fat ad was bad. And then Weight Watchers shows up. C'mon, people, the guests are not gonna book if they're bombarded with fat ads and we serve them a gourmet breakfast! And, at the top of my page is an ad from the American Lung Association saying that my state is being polluted by emissions from far off energy plants. Thank you very much. JUST what the guest is looking to see.
And if you click the link for 'Top cities in state' you get Hotwire cheap hotels.
My guess is that anyone who finds a B&B thru this site already knew what city and state they wanted and went directly to that page. And, having all those cheesy ads reflects poorly on US because you know there are still quite a number of people who think that page is MY website.
.

I got a pop up to rate the site. Did the rest of you? I rated it poor! There is also a feedback link on the side of some pages. I sent them a message that I thought the site was terrible and tacky with all those crappy ads. Why are they promoting hotel stays when they are supposed to be representing B & B's???? I think they will be losing inns.

 

[gillumhouse]

CL - you hit the nail on the head when you said: These folks are out to make money...bottom line.
Boring! And so white, it hurts my eyes - but that is just cosmetic, here are some real issues to discuss -

• Rotational listings gone - as brought up by Maddie. They removed the listing catagories (silver, gold etc) So if you want a chance to be seen you better pay up. (no wonder they were pushing the Inn of the Month and Featured Listings)
• Map Search - less visible on home page. No map and the 'Search by Map' is secondary and not as noticable in the search box. So if you live in Small Town USA you are less likely to be seen in a search, that is unless you pay up by paying for a Secondary listing in neighboring well known City.
• Expanded Search - they use to have a expand search to 30 miles, 40 miles etc. That is gone, replaced by the google interactive map.
• Filtered Search of list: Did any notice this? Filter listings by classification- these were listed under a neighboring city: 'Bed and Breakfast', 'Homestay bed and breakfast', 'Private Home bed and breakfast', 'Country Inn', 'Guest cottage', 'Working Ranch', 'Urban Inn'
• Banner ads on MY listing page - the banner ad was for a HOTEL. (First, I PAID for that page, there should be NO ads on that page. PERIOD! But if they do I should get the click money that comes from any other ad on that page, and they should be filtering out any ads that are competitive to our business.)

So IMMHO these folks (owners) are taking the ease of use away from those that use the site to find lodging in a effort to coax members to upgrade their listings, purchase 2ndary listing and to force more bidding (for more profit) on Inn of the Month or Featured in order to be seen.
In the city near me (5 miles away) there are no B&B's so the Big city B&B's 30 miles away come up before my listing as they pay for platinum. Our listing now is #44 on the list (I pay silver). My city has me, then another section below that says 'Nearby Inns within 30 Miles'.
They have added a map once you get to a city page, that helps you know the distance covered in the listings, but it only becomes interactive when the box (under map) is checked. Then additional B&B's will be added or you can span out or narrow in. Now here is another kicker: If you check the box, it may bring up more listing when doing your search but they are again in the order of the paid membership status not distance from town center.
All this to say that I do not think the average user will spend this much time tweaking this site to get the results they want. For big cities, the B&B's that pay the piper and are lucky enough to get top tier will get results, the ones that don't will not get the results they want.
With the old site I was getting enough business to make the listing worthwhile (not what good marketing #s should be though). I am not so sure it will continue to do so given the search results I am seeing now. I will be watching this very closely..

• Banner ads on MY listing page - the banner ad was for a HOTEL. (First, I PAID for that page, there should be NO ads on that page. PERIOD! But if they do I should get the click money that comes from any other ad on that page, and they should be filtering out any ads that are competitive to our business.)

We had that particular battle with Eric several years ago and he saw the light - he removed the ads. This one does not give a sh**! All they want is MONEY - BIG MONEY. I have not regreted dropping them. Google sends me web traffic and when I check the search terms used (the logocal ones BTW) I am usually on the first page and sometimes 2 or 3 times. Same with Yahoo search. I am now only on bnbf inder and several horse oriented sites. Even being closed all of June and Memorial Day weekend, 2011 beat 2010 revenues (thanks to the roof, not by as much as I had expected).