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I have the most sidetracking comment ever Skamokawa. I clicked your link and then said "where are the twins?" I don't see them, and I waited patiently for your header slider images to play out. I don't see them anywhere, and because of the name I wanted to see them. Just an fyi, call me fruit loops if you want to.
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If the winter photo is still up you can see them, if not, well, not, because it's too difficult to get a good shot from the street or highway. Sorry to hear you have to wait patiently for sliders :( that's not good!
Our chamber even sent a photographer last fall to anyone who wanted some photos of their biz, since the opportunity was gratis, I said 'come on down', but when I got the images, well, mine are better.
Just really difficult to get a good 'from the street/parking area' shot of the house. :(
oops, replied before I read 'nest's <blush>
The winter shot was taken and shared on the forum m a n y years ago. It was a difficult one also, had to photoshop out a huge green pipe piling that was in the foreground. That took hours. I no longer have those kind of hours all at one time!
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Skamokawa said:
...had to photoshop out a huge green pipe piling that was in the foreground. That took hours. I no longer have those kind of hours all at one time!
I spent time studying and can't find where you photoshopped, so good job! But hours? OK, whatever it takes. It's important!
You sure have a lot of roof ventilators. They'd be easy to photoshop and I don't think anybody would fault you. Took me about 4 minutes...
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Never thought of losing the roof vents. Good idea!
I used to have a job where I could spend up to 25 minutes at a time, maybe 4 times in a shift, on my own projects. I used those hours to study for classes I was taking at the time, learn to blog, plan B&B, digitally edit photos and other things I thought would be handy in the future. Now I actually have to work when I'm at work
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Just saw a lengthy Booking commercial on TV. Maybe they've been running the a long time but this is the first one I've seen. Showed a couple finding all these amazingly wonderful places to stay.
Always good to make people want to travel!
 
Just saw a lengthy Booking commercial on TV. Maybe they've been running the a long time but this is the first one I've seen. Showed a couple finding all these amazingly wonderful places to stay.
Always good to make people want to travel!.
Must be working. Just got two from Booking in the last five hours. Drat!
 
Country Girl said:
For those of you who are listed on booking.com can you please give me the pros and cons. I'm not sure I want to pay a commission but they do seem to be at the top of every search list. Thanks.
So, what did you decide... We're all curious!
 
Just saw a lengthy Booking commercial on TV. Maybe they've been running the a long time but this is the first one I've seen. Showed a couple finding all these amazingly wonderful places to stay.
Always good to make people want to travel!.
I worry about those ads. They show guests being overwhelmed by the wonderfulness of their booking rooms.
 
This was just posted on the UK Forum - this is not just one or 2 B & Bs. There is a long list of people dealing with this same issue right now. Some discovered it a week ago. I sympathize with the innkeeper a few weeks ago on another Forum on FB who said she gets 80 to 90% of her business from b.con.
I spent a frustrating 2 hours on the phone to b.com yesterday regarding the changes to my listing, including terms and conditions.
B.com told me that they changed (standardised) everyone's terms and conditions on the 15th December, Without notifying me/ anyone. In my case my whole listing appears to have been reloaded as at over a year ago and included a photo which was taken down last year, of a facility I don't have now, my check in times were changed. My Tc&Cs were changed to free cancellation up to 7 days before arrival, from non refundable deposit of first night whole balance payable 30 days prior to arrival.
They informed me that a team were going to deal with the 14 bookings + ( 4 that have already cancelled ) taken since then. How ? I asked !
I repeatedly asked to speak to someone more senior, but was told they could not put me through or give me a direct line number.
I am on hour 3 now of trying to retrieve correct photos and up load to booking .com

Good job they didn't do this in the middle of the summer grrrrrr ........
 
This was just posted on the UK Forum - this is not just one or 2 B & Bs. There is a long list of people dealing with this same issue right now. Some discovered it a week ago. I sympathize with the innkeeper a few weeks ago on another Forum on FB who said she gets 80 to 90% of her business from b.con.
I spent a frustrating 2 hours on the phone to b.com yesterday regarding the changes to my listing, including terms and conditions.
B.com told me that they changed (standardised) everyone's terms and conditions on the 15th December, Without notifying me/ anyone. In my case my whole listing appears to have been reloaded as at over a year ago and included a photo which was taken down last year, of a facility I don't have now, my check in times were changed. My Tc&Cs were changed to free cancellation up to 7 days before arrival, from non refundable deposit of first night whole balance payable 30 days prior to arrival.
They informed me that a team were going to deal with the 14 bookings + ( 4 that have already cancelled ) taken since then. How ? I asked !
I repeatedly asked to speak to someone more senior, but was told they could not put me through or give me a direct line number.
I am on hour 3 now of trying to retrieve correct photos and up load to booking .com

Good job they didn't do this in the middle of the summer grrrrrr .........
So far, my policies haven't been changed, but they do just change anything they want, wherever they want and without notification. Maybe they started in Europe and will do the same here.
 
This was just posted on the UK Forum - this is not just one or 2 B & Bs. There is a long list of people dealing with this same issue right now. Some discovered it a week ago. I sympathize with the innkeeper a few weeks ago on another Forum on FB who said she gets 80 to 90% of her business from b.con.
I spent a frustrating 2 hours on the phone to b.com yesterday regarding the changes to my listing, including terms and conditions.
B.com told me that they changed (standardised) everyone's terms and conditions on the 15th December, Without notifying me/ anyone. In my case my whole listing appears to have been reloaded as at over a year ago and included a photo which was taken down last year, of a facility I don't have now, my check in times were changed. My Tc&Cs were changed to free cancellation up to 7 days before arrival, from non refundable deposit of first night whole balance payable 30 days prior to arrival.
They informed me that a team were going to deal with the 14 bookings + ( 4 that have already cancelled ) taken since then. How ? I asked !
I repeatedly asked to speak to someone more senior, but was told they could not put me through or give me a direct line number.
I am on hour 3 now of trying to retrieve correct photos and up load to booking .com

Good job they didn't do this in the middle of the summer grrrrrr .........
So far, my policies haven't been changed, but they do just change anything they want, wherever they want and without notification. Maybe they started in Europe and will do the same here.
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Thought those here using them should be forewarned. Keep an eye on your listings.
 
Given that we intended to dramatically increase our efforts to leverage OTAs as part of our marketing plan, we simply raised our rates an average of 20% year-round. Of course, we are also increasing our services and accouterments delivery as well--but the rise in rates offsets any "loss" through higher percentages of reservations where we will have to pay commissions.
Speaking of rate increases, how does it make sense for a B&B with 100% occupancy for four months every year to "not" raise its rates or build more rooms? Now you know one of the key factors in our choice of the B&B we bought. :)
 
Given that we intended to dramatically increase our efforts to leverage OTAs as part of our marketing plan, we simply raised our rates an average of 20% year-round. Of course, we are also increasing our services and accouterments delivery as well--but the rise in rates offsets any "loss" through higher percentages of reservations where we will have to pay commissions.
Speaking of rate increases, how does it make sense for a B&B with 100% occupancy for four months every year to "not" raise its rates or build more rooms? Now you know one of the key factors in our choice of the B&B we bought. :).
More rooms? God help us! 6 is plenty!
:)
 
Given that we intended to dramatically increase our efforts to leverage OTAs as part of our marketing plan, we simply raised our rates an average of 20% year-round. Of course, we are also increasing our services and accouterments delivery as well--but the rise in rates offsets any "loss" through higher percentages of reservations where we will have to pay commissions.
Speaking of rate increases, how does it make sense for a B&B with 100% occupancy for four months every year to "not" raise its rates or build more rooms? Now you know one of the key factors in our choice of the B&B we bought. :).
100% occupancy is bad... that's a sign to raise rates. But build more rooms? For 4 months a year? That's a lot of maintenance for empty rooms for the other 8 months.
 
Given that we intended to dramatically increase our efforts to leverage OTAs as part of our marketing plan, we simply raised our rates an average of 20% year-round. Of course, we are also increasing our services and accouterments delivery as well--but the rise in rates offsets any "loss" through higher percentages of reservations where we will have to pay commissions.
Speaking of rate increases, how does it make sense for a B&B with 100% occupancy for four months every year to "not" raise its rates or build more rooms? Now you know one of the key factors in our choice of the B&B we bought. :).
100% occupancy is bad... that's a sign to raise rates. But build more rooms? For 4 months a year? That's a lot of maintenance for empty rooms for the other 8 months.
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Generic said:
100% occupancy is bad... that's a sign to raise rates. But build more rooms? For 4 months a year? That's a lot of maintenance for empty rooms for the other 8 months.
It's pretty standard here to shut down all or part of a building in the winter months. Yes, more maintenance, but that should be more than off set by the additional seasonal income.
Much easier to start with the rate increase to see how that goes. Could bring in enough income to forego building more rooms.
But, if the area can handle more rooms, it makes sense to add them.
 
Given that we intended to dramatically increase our efforts to leverage OTAs as part of our marketing plan, we simply raised our rates an average of 20% year-round. Of course, we are also increasing our services and accouterments delivery as well--but the rise in rates offsets any "loss" through higher percentages of reservations where we will have to pay commissions.
Speaking of rate increases, how does it make sense for a B&B with 100% occupancy for four months every year to "not" raise its rates or build more rooms? Now you know one of the key factors in our choice of the B&B we bought. :).
I wouldn't add more rooms unless you were planning on hiring housekeepers. By the time you do breakfast, clean up breakfast, the rooms you have, maintenance inside and outside, emergencies, and eat your breakfast & lunch. Believe me, you don't want more rooms to clean! (We have eight rooms in main house, a two bedroom apt, and we hire summer help.) If your place is by a beach that is more maintenance due to the salt in the air, hurricane threats, policing the parking to keep space open for your guests, beach goers littering, people disturbing your routine by knocking on your door wanting to use your bathroom, check your place out, etc…..
 
re: more rooms (or raising rates, or going with the OTAs...), it should be approached as any business decision -- will the projected revenue exceed the expected costs by a sufficient amount to make it worthwhile? BUT you have to be realistic about both the revenue and the cost projections. And of course, one of the costs to consider is the impact on you...
 
Given that we intended to dramatically increase our efforts to leverage OTAs as part of our marketing plan, we simply raised our rates an average of 20% year-round. Of course, we are also increasing our services and accouterments delivery as well--but the rise in rates offsets any "loss" through higher percentages of reservations where we will have to pay commissions.
Speaking of rate increases, how does it make sense for a B&B with 100% occupancy for four months every year to "not" raise its rates or build more rooms? Now you know one of the key factors in our choice of the B&B we bought. :).
More rooms? God help us! 6 is plenty!
:)
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you better not stay with us then lol - we are 11 and buying 16 more! Love a challenge
 
Given that we intended to dramatically increase our efforts to leverage OTAs as part of our marketing plan, we simply raised our rates an average of 20% year-round. Of course, we are also increasing our services and accouterments delivery as well--but the rise in rates offsets any "loss" through higher percentages of reservations where we will have to pay commissions.
Speaking of rate increases, how does it make sense for a B&B with 100% occupancy for four months every year to "not" raise its rates or build more rooms? Now you know one of the key factors in our choice of the B&B we bought. :).
More rooms? God help us! 6 is plenty!
:)
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you better not stay with us then lol - we are 11 and buying 16 more! Love a challenge
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Jcam said:
you better not stay with us then lol - we are 11 and buying 16 more! Love a challenge
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