Question which level of bandb.com would you choose?

[Baygirl]

Getting ready to renew my bandb.com membership and was thinking of going with the bronze membership instead of the silver.
Has anyone else done this and if so have you seen any changes? I really don't use all the things the silver has to offer and from what I compare I'm only losing out on a few options.
Would love some input..
Karen

 

[Morticia]

This is going to sound so completely not me, but here goes...how many other B&B's in your area are on bandb.com? With the silver membership do you find yourself consistently at the bottom of a long page of listings? If yes to the above, why not trade UP instead of down? It could be your position is what is causing you to not get referrals.
Also, do a search as if you were a guest looking for places to stay in your town. Does bandb.com show up at all? In the top 10? Does your site outrank it? Those are indicators that your area may not be a priority and you may be better off with your own site and a lower listing level.
Another thing to check- how good are your photos and write up on the directory? Good enough that someone wants more or are the pix lacking emotion?
The other thing is to take advantage of the level you have and use as much as you can. Post more pix, up to the limit. Post recipes. Whatever there is that you can throw at the site, do it. If you don't want to spend anymore money on getting the video footage, don't, but make sure you use whatever else you can.
Edited to add- I don't know who you or where you are are so those questions and scenarios work for anyone.

 

[Baygirl]

This is going to sound so completely not me, but here goes...how many other B&B's in your area are on bandb.com? With the silver membership do you find yourself consistently at the bottom of a long page of listings? If yes to the above, why not trade UP instead of down? It could be your position is what is causing you to not get referrals.
Also, do a search as if you were a guest looking for places to stay in your town. Does bandb.com show up at all? In the top 10? Does your site outrank it? Those are indicators that your area may not be a priority and you may be better off with your own site and a lower listing level.
Another thing to check- how good are your photos and write up on the directory? Good enough that someone wants more or are the pix lacking emotion?
The other thing is to take advantage of the level you have and use as much as you can. Post more pix, up to the limit. Post recipes. Whatever there is that you can throw at the site, do it. If you don't want to spend anymore money on getting the video footage, don't, but make sure you use whatever else you can.
Edited to add- I don't know who you or where you are are so those questions and scenarios work for anyone..

Hi,
thanks for the input. I'm the only one in my town that has a bed and breakfast. Most all others are 30 -60 mins away.
That's why I'm thinking of maybe going down from the silver to the bronze.
you did raise a good point and I questioned myself as to why I'm not using all the other options the silver has to offer. I should have and guess I just got lazy with the site...I do get referrals from bandb.com and even get the guests that have their gift cards.
I guess since I have been lax on taking FULL advantage of the silver is why I was thinking of the lesser level.

 

[Morticia]

This is going to sound so completely not me, but here goes...how many other B&B's in your area are on bandb.com? With the silver membership do you find yourself consistently at the bottom of a long page of listings? If yes to the above, why not trade UP instead of down? It could be your position is what is causing you to not get referrals.
Also, do a search as if you were a guest looking for places to stay in your town. Does bandb.com show up at all? In the top 10? Does your site outrank it? Those are indicators that your area may not be a priority and you may be better off with your own site and a lower listing level.
Another thing to check- how good are your photos and write up on the directory? Good enough that someone wants more or are the pix lacking emotion?
The other thing is to take advantage of the level you have and use as much as you can. Post more pix, up to the limit. Post recipes. Whatever there is that you can throw at the site, do it. If you don't want to spend anymore money on getting the video footage, don't, but make sure you use whatever else you can.
Edited to add- I don't know who you or where you are are so those questions and scenarios work for anyone..

Hi,
thanks for the input. I'm the only one in my town that has a bed and breakfast. Most all others are 30 -60 mins away.
That's why I'm thinking of maybe going down from the silver to the bronze.
you did raise a good point and I questioned myself as to why I'm not using all the other options the silver has to offer. I should have and guess I just got lazy with the site...I do get referrals from bandb.com and even get the guests that have their gift cards.
I guess since I have been lax on taking FULL advantage of the silver is why I was thinking of the lesser level.
.

How does your town do in a search? Does bandb.com come up at all? 'My town, state B&B' is usually what we use on the forum to see how well each of our locations stack up against the others.
How long do you have before you re up? If you have a month, go add some content and see what happens in that month.

 

[SweetiePie]

That sounds like a good strategy.

 

[Baygirl]

Like I said for us we only have hotels/motels to compete with. The only other b and b's are within a 30 min radius to us.
After reading the posts I think I will stick with the Silver for now. I will defintely ponder the options for upgrading and weighing out the difference of dropping a non performing listing cost and apply that fee to the upgrade.
Is anyone using the online reservations that they offer for expedia, etc...?
the 30% commission seems a little high and makes me feel like it's taking away from our image by offering these low rates. Am I the only one who feels this way? yes the exposure is great but ..................

 

[Morticia]

Like I said for us we only have hotels/motels to compete with. The only other b and b's are within a 30 min radius to us.
After reading the posts I think I will stick with the Silver for now. I will defintely ponder the options for upgrading and weighing out the difference of dropping a non performing listing cost and apply that fee to the upgrade.
Is anyone using the online reservations that they offer for expedia, etc...?
the 30% commission seems a little high and makes me feel like it's taking away from our image by offering these low rates. Am I the only one who feels this way? yes the exposure is great but ...................

Like I said for us we only have hotels/motels to compete with. The only other b and b's are within a 30 min radius to us.
After reading the posts I think I will stick with the Silver for now. I will defintely ponder the options for upgrading and weighing out the difference of dropping a non performing listing cost and apply that fee to the upgrade.
Is anyone using the online reservations that they offer for expedia, etc...?
the 30% commission seems a little high and makes me feel like it's taking away from our image by offering these low rates. Am I the only one who feels this way? yes the exposure is great but ..................

I don't think you are required to lower your rates to be on Expedia thru bandb.com. If you are required to offer low rates AND fork over 30% I'm not seeing where you can make any money IF someone books thru bandb.com. If they take the info and go to your site that's different, but they still won't pay higher prices on your site than they would on Expedia, which is why I think you get to put your real rates out there.

 

[JBanczak]

Hey guys - John here - been a little hectic so I haven't been able to post much lately. I hope that will change in the next two weeks as we get our Rezo release out the door this week, and have started to catch-up on GTO.
Eric actually just did a big blog post on the online rez program - it is pretty informative if you want to get some details. It is here: http://blog.bedandbreakfast.com/eric/default.aspx.
To be clear - we don't sell rates below your retail rates - we don't give the consumer a discount, we mark it back up so we have the same rate displayed as you do. I'm not sure if that is what you were asking in that question, but thought I'd comment on it.
Thanks for the nice comments on bb.com Little Blue - much appreciated!.

 

[Baygirl]

Like I said for us we only have hotels/motels to compete with. The only other b and b's are within a 30 min radius to us.
After reading the posts I think I will stick with the Silver for now. I will defintely ponder the options for upgrading and weighing out the difference of dropping a non performing listing cost and apply that fee to the upgrade.
Is anyone using the online reservations that they offer for expedia, etc...?
the 30% commission seems a little high and makes me feel like it's taking away from our image by offering these low rates. Am I the only one who feels this way? yes the exposure is great but ...................

Like I said for us we only have hotels/motels to compete with. The only other b and b's are within a 30 min radius to us.
After reading the posts I think I will stick with the Silver for now. I will defintely ponder the options for upgrading and weighing out the difference of dropping a non performing listing cost and apply that fee to the upgrade.
Is anyone using the online reservations that they offer for expedia, etc...?
the 30% commission seems a little high and makes me feel like it's taking away from our image by offering these low rates. Am I the only one who feels this way? yes the exposure is great but ..................

I don't think you are required to lower your rates to be on Expedia thru bandb.com. If you are required to offer low rates AND fork over 30% I'm not seeing where you can make any money IF someone books thru bandb.com. If they take the info and go to your site that's different, but they still won't pay higher prices on your site than they would on Expedia, which is why I think you get to put your real rates out there.
.

Ahhhhhh....I see now..My rates are posted as they actually are and then the 25 or 30 % comes off that rate. I guess I have to do a little more research about it on the bandb website. Thanks for the input. I really enjoy this website. Like I said there aren't any other b and b's around me so I have no one to bounce ideas off or hear what's working for them.
Thanks to all....

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Hello Karen!
You are in the same boat as I am. We are the only B&B and with silver going for more and more $ each and every year I did something completely different this year. BandB.com has NOT been a good referrer for us, at all. Like mentioned, we are not in a touristy trap of an area. What works for some doesn't work for others.
So being grateful that BandB.com listened to our belly-aching and added a LINK on the bronze level - I went bronze and added a second city. I have one LARGE photo there now and the whole point is to get them to OUR website anyway.
Now this other city is 20-30 minutes from us and a proper city. We are also listed in their Chamber and Visitor's center under neighboring B&B's.
When I looked at this city on BandB.com I found only ONE B&B listed there and it was FURTHER away than we are! So I jumped on it and we show up as the closest B&B to this city now!
I have had at least one room booked that walked in the door and said it was due to this listing. So we are off to a good start (just did this a few weeks ago).
All that to say, chekc your nearby cities and see if you want to divvy the listing up btwn your town and that city, it may be worth your while!
Welcome to the forum.

if we have not met before.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Like I said for us we only have hotels/motels to compete with. The only other b and b's are within a 30 min radius to us.
After reading the posts I think I will stick with the Silver for now. I will defintely ponder the options for upgrading and weighing out the difference of dropping a non performing listing cost and apply that fee to the upgrade.
Is anyone using the online reservations that they offer for expedia, etc...?
the 30% commission seems a little high and makes me feel like it's taking away from our image by offering these low rates. Am I the only one who feels this way? yes the exposure is great but ...................

Like I said for us we only have hotels/motels to compete with. The only other b and b's are within a 30 min radius to us.
After reading the posts I think I will stick with the Silver for now. I will defintely ponder the options for upgrading and weighing out the difference of dropping a non performing listing cost and apply that fee to the upgrade.
Is anyone using the online reservations that they offer for expedia, etc...?
the 30% commission seems a little high and makes me feel like it's taking away from our image by offering these low rates. Am I the only one who feels this way? yes the exposure is great but ..................

If you are "IT" why upgrade unless you are looking at the other options and features. Are you not getting many click thru's from BandB.com?
Some directories did not let you list on nearby cities unless your address was in that city - so this is a good add-on for many of us, as we are listed NEARBY. If what another mentioned, they are platinum in that city and are not actually in that city, then BandB.com is offering inaccurate listings.
Example - as someone who has their inn for sale to continue to see "POTENTIAL" B&B's listed on BandB.com and BBONLINE just sends blood spurting out my eyes! We pay big bucks to be on there and then have "potential" which is of course any house in the world, push our valid listings down, it is infuriating. (Sorry to side track, it is what I do, often)
For us in our small town, BBONLINE is king and some others regional listings. But google searches being #1 always.

 

[gillumhouse]

I dropped them because of rates. Glad Blue Inn can afford a Platinum listing with 3 rooms and is so busy (I do not want as much business as it would take for my 3 rooms to pay for a Platinum much less a profit). I however cannot afford the increase given with the Silver They did not have the link on Bronze when my renewal came up. I probably would have listed Bronze if the link had been there then. As it is, I have not noticed a huge drop in web site hits and I am having a good start of the season. The end of year figures will tell the story.

 

[mooseberry]

I am currently at the Gold, but since this is my first year with B&B.com, so I don't really have something to compare it to. I know that I get out there with B&B.com, but not too mant guests tell me that they found me there.
I also have the online rez service which since I signed up 3 month ago I have gottem a whole 3 bookings trough them. But since i only pay for that service when I have a booking I will stick with it.
The only think I really do not like about their online service is that I have almost no inforamtion on the guest who booked except name and phone number. Hopefully that will change someday.
Good luck with your listing

 

[Morticia]

Here's my scenario...I'm in a fairly, altho not heavily, touristy area with a lot of B&B's. I'm a silver member, which means my listing is below 'inn of the month,' the platinum and the gold levels. It also means that regularly my inn is at the very bottom of the list because no one is bronze. Because the folks at bandb.com think they have the best product on the market, I expect it to perform that much better than anyone else out there. MY target is 10x ROI. I got that metric 3 weeks ago. So, silver level is what? $379-$399? That means my membership has pulled in over $4k up to this point. That doesn't even pay my fuel bill, but still, it's better than a sharp stick in the eye. Everything now, including 3 more reservations coming up in this month, is gravy.
Today's booking was looking at the bandb.com website while she was talking to me. She said she doesn't normally use them. She also said she knew I was on bbonline, which means she looked there but made her decision while looking on bandb.com. So who wins that one?

 

[wendydk]

As bb.com was my leading directory referrer, I upgraded to platinum last year when I dropped a couple of my non-performing directories. The cost of the upgrade was more than offset by the money I was no longer wasting. What a great decision!
Wahoo...one of the best decisions I ever made, and I will not hesitate to renew at the platinum level next month. The review credits help too. If I had the choice to be platinum on bb.com OR have an average listing on bnbfinder, iloveinns and lanier, I would take the platinum on bb.com without hesitation...that listing has brought more than three times the business and web clickthroughs as my bbonline listing, which is at the most expensive level (and they are my number two directory referrer, but number three overall). Plus, I notice that the other two more expensive Inns in my town have cheaper bb.com listings, but are constantly battling it out to be featured inn or inn of the month in those auctions, and I can't imagine what they're spending on that, but I bet it's more than I spend for just my platinum listing.
I'm just a small three room Inn surrounded by larger Inns that have been around longer, so I made the decision based on my own business. Of course, if your competition is weak to none, it may not be worth it for you.

 

[wendydk]

I am currently at the Gold, but since this is my first year with B&B.com, so I don't really have something to compare it to. I know that I get out there with B&B.com, but not too mant guests tell me that they found me there.
I also have the online rez service which since I signed up 3 month ago I have gottem a whole 3 bookings trough them. But since i only pay for that service when I have a booking I will stick with it.
The only think I really do not like about their online service is that I have almost no inforamtion on the guest who booked except name and phone number. Hopefully that will change someday.
Good luck with your listing .

The ones that come through with just guest name and phone number were those booked on expedia or hotels.com. The ones I get that come right from my bb.com listing has all guest info except, of course, credit card information.

 

[egoodell]

Getting ready to renew my bandb.com membership and was thinking of going with the bronze membership instead of the silver.
Has anyone else done this and if so have you seen any changes? I really don't use all the things the silver has to offer and from what I compare I'm only losing out on a few options.
Would love some input..
Karen

I am at silver only because when I joined bronze did not offer the link to my website.
If the listing is such that at bronze level my inn would be showing without having to scroll down, I'll drop to bronze. I don't get that many bookings to justify silver from what I can see at this time. And I'm in a pretty competative spot.
The only ones here who go to the top leve are those who are so far out of town that they have trouble booking. So when you see Charlottesville, the top B&B is actually in Nellysford, which is at least a half hour drive. It comes up as "inn of the month" and appears that it is in Charlottesville.
We had guests for graduation that had family meet in our living room before going out to dinner. Some of the family were upset about having reserved this inn as they were told that they were "minutes" from Charlottesville. Being the first on the page for Charlottesville and listed as "inn of the month" makes it look true.
Riki

 

[wendydk]

Getting ready to renew my bandb.com membership and was thinking of going with the bronze membership instead of the silver.
Has anyone else done this and if so have you seen any changes? I really don't use all the things the silver has to offer and from what I compare I'm only losing out on a few options.
Would love some input..
Karen

I am at silver only because when I joined bronze did not offer the link to my website.
If the listing is such that at bronze level my inn would be showing without having to scroll down, I'll drop to bronze. I don't get that many bookings to justify silver from what I can see at this time. And I'm in a pretty competative spot.
The only ones here who go to the top leve are those who are so far out of town that they have trouble booking. So when you see Charlottesville, the top B&B is actually in Nellysford, which is at least a half hour drive. It comes up as "inn of the month" and appears that it is in Charlottesville.
We had guests for graduation that had family meet in our living room before going out to dinner. Some of the family were upset about having reserved this inn as they were told that they were "minutes" from Charlottesville. Being the first on the page for Charlottesville and listed as "inn of the month" makes it look true.
Riki.

I can see where that would be a problem, if the Inn does not make it clear exactly where they're at. For my Secondary city platinum listing, I put right in my listing that we are "just half an hour from XXXX". I've never had anyone arriving that didn't know exactly where we're located and how far it was to get to the "big city". Many of our guests get to us via the "Big City" CVB, of which we are a member, even though we're about 28 miles away.
Not being upfront about where you are is about the same as charging a different rate than quoted.

 

[Morticia]

Getting ready to renew my bandb.com membership and was thinking of going with the bronze membership instead of the silver.
Has anyone else done this and if so have you seen any changes? I really don't use all the things the silver has to offer and from what I compare I'm only losing out on a few options.
Would love some input..
Karen

I am at silver only because when I joined bronze did not offer the link to my website.
If the listing is such that at bronze level my inn would be showing without having to scroll down, I'll drop to bronze. I don't get that many bookings to justify silver from what I can see at this time. And I'm in a pretty competative spot.
The only ones here who go to the top leve are those who are so far out of town that they have trouble booking. So when you see Charlottesville, the top B&B is actually in Nellysford, which is at least a half hour drive. It comes up as "inn of the month" and appears that it is in Charlottesville.
We had guests for graduation that had family meet in our living room before going out to dinner. Some of the family were upset about having reserved this inn as they were told that they were "minutes" from Charlottesville. Being the first on the page for Charlottesville and listed as "inn of the month" makes it look true.
Riki.

I can see where that would be a problem, if the Inn does not make it clear exactly where they're at. For my Secondary city platinum listing, I put right in my listing that we are "just half an hour from XXXX". I've never had anyone arriving that didn't know exactly where we're located and how far it was to get to the "big city". Many of our guests get to us via the "Big City" CVB, of which we are a member, even though we're about 28 miles away.
Not being upfront about where you are is about the same as charging a different rate than quoted.
.

I agree that any inn listing on another town's page should clearly state they are located 'x minutes/miles' from the town. But right now there is an inn in the featured listing that is 45 minutes from here and one of the regular listings is 30 minutes from here. Both state what town they are in, but not how far you'll have to drive.

 

[wendydk]

Getting ready to renew my bandb.com membership and was thinking of going with the bronze membership instead of the silver.
Has anyone else done this and if so have you seen any changes? I really don't use all the things the silver has to offer and from what I compare I'm only losing out on a few options.
Would love some input..
Karen

I am at silver only because when I joined bronze did not offer the link to my website.
If the listing is such that at bronze level my inn would be showing without having to scroll down, I'll drop to bronze. I don't get that many bookings to justify silver from what I can see at this time. And I'm in a pretty competative spot.
The only ones here who go to the top leve are those who are so far out of town that they have trouble booking. So when you see Charlottesville, the top B&B is actually in Nellysford, which is at least a half hour drive. It comes up as "inn of the month" and appears that it is in Charlottesville.
We had guests for graduation that had family meet in our living room before going out to dinner. Some of the family were upset about having reserved this inn as they were told that they were "minutes" from Charlottesville. Being the first on the page for Charlottesville and listed as "inn of the month" makes it look true.
Riki.

I can see where that would be a problem, if the Inn does not make it clear exactly where they're at. For my Secondary city platinum listing, I put right in my listing that we are "just half an hour from XXXX". I've never had anyone arriving that didn't know exactly where we're located and how far it was to get to the "big city". Many of our guests get to us via the "Big City" CVB, of which we are a member, even though we're about 28 miles away.
Not being upfront about where you are is about the same as charging a different rate than quoted.
.

I agree that any inn listing on another town's page should clearly state they are located 'x minutes/miles' from the town. But right now there is an inn in the featured listing that is 45 minutes from here and one of the regular listings is 30 minutes from here. Both state what town they are in, but not how far you'll have to drive.
.

You know what...that EXACT same thing is part of the reason why I dropped my state's B&B Association. Not only did they not bring me any business, but they added a new higher "level" of membership with secondary cities and such. I complained that some cities had Inns from as far away as 63 and 68 miles appearing ABOVE the Inns that were actually in that city. There were also a few places using incorrect addresses to be on their favored page. Just some of the things that cheesed me off, and from what I can see, have not been rectified since I skated.
GRRRR