Renewal BBonline vs Bedandbreakfast

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egoodell

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Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast. All the rest were 20 from Friends, 10 from prior wine tours, 4 repeats and all the rest were from Search Engines.
I went to look at BBonline, and for the same amount of money as bedandbreakfast, I can be one of the "featured inns". There are four featured inns right now, only one of them in Charlottesville. The other three are all 20 minutes to 40 minutes away.
I think this means that I should renew BBonline as a Featured Inn, and if I keep bedandbreakfast just do theirs in bronze. I think someone said they give you a link now for bronze - I looked and where it says "link" it says 0 in one place, and 5 in another if you use Webervations which I do.
What does the "5" in the link option mean there? 5 links? I can't imagine them being that generous for the bronze level. they didn't used to offer a link at all until I think recently.
riki
 
we have gone to the bronze level on bandb.com; it is just one link, I think but you can check our listing if you want to.
Your plan sounds like the right way to go to me.
 
I think the link was for Bronze if you also use Webervations. Not sure about the "5" If you drop the link for where you saw "5" someone might be able to make sense of it.
Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast.
How were these numbers gathered? In other words, were they self-reported (person selected from a list of options) or tracked electronically?
 
For us, Bedandbreakfast.com far outperforms bbonline.com,,but they are numbers 1 and 2 in both web traffic and reservations where paid directories are concerned. Bnbfinder.com was number 3.
As a result, I dropped iloveinns.com, theinnkeeper.com and lanierbb.com and went to the highest levels of membership for my top three, and it has proven to be the right way to go. Occupany, revenue and web hits are way up, marketing expenses went down overall.
I'm a firm believer in going to the very top of your top referrer. I think you would also notice a difference if you went to the top of bb.com...not knowing how many city pages you appear on, or how many Inns in your area, I can only speak from my own experience (of course)!
 
R, I have from day one said bbonline is my #1 referrer next to google. BandB.com with everything they do is not up there on the list, especially for Virginia.
After so much belly-aching we (I believe this forum group of innkeepers, and John can confirm this) were able to persuade BandB.com to give us a link to our website on the lowest level listing - bronze.
Now bronze is not as cheap as it used to be either...but that is correct, IF YOU HAVE webervations then you can have the bronze listing with a link and ONE photo. Works for me.
I checked my referral report just today after seeing P&P on here and sure enough bbonline is still #1 by a LONG SHOT for us, here, in this location. :) I would have gone bronze years ago but there was no link. No link=no point.
 
One thing I don't like about BBonline is that you cannot make you're own changes. I like that with bedandbreakfast I can post new pictures anytime and change copy. I know that we get referrals from both but don't have the breakdown readily at hand. They are the only two pay directories that we are listed with.
 
One thing I don't like about BBonline is that you cannot make you're own changes. I like that with bedandbreakfast I can post new pictures anytime and change copy. I know that we get referrals from both but don't have the breakdown readily at hand. They are the only two pay directories that we are listed with..
It seems like BBONLINE would wise up and change this. It is a big conglomerate, and they have pretty much kept it operating as the previous owner aside from some sprucing up of the site.
 
How do you get a link with bronze level? I have bronze level but no link to my webpage. Just a link to online reservations with bedandbreakfast.com which I don't use anymore.
 
One thing I don't like about BBonline is that you cannot make you're own changes. I like that with bedandbreakfast I can post new pictures anytime and change copy. I know that we get referrals from both but don't have the breakdown readily at hand. They are the only two pay directories that we are listed with..
JeannineIrish said:
One thing I don't like about BBonline is that you cannot make you're own changes. I like that with bedandbreakfast I can post new pictures anytime and change copy. I know that we get referrals from both but don't have the breakdown readily at hand. They are the only two pay directories that we are listed with.
Well yes, but they do the changes for me usually the same day. When I see the business that bbonline brings me, I really don't care about changes or design. They perform, so I'm happy.
I just notice that three of the four in the top category are not in town so I bet I'd get more business being up there for the money, since I come up so low on the page on their listing. I'll keep BandB as all the others are on it and it does come up on the first page but the numbers only justify a bronze level now for me so I think that's what I'll do.
RIki
 
I think the link was for Bronze if you also use Webervations. Not sure about the "5" If you drop the link for where you saw "5" someone might be able to make sense of it.
Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast.
How were these numbers gathered? In other words, were they self-reported (person selected from a list of options) or tracked electronically?.
swirt said:
I think the link was for Bronze if you also use Webervations. Not sure about the "5" If you drop the link for where you saw "5" someone might be able to make sense of it.
Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast.
How were these numbers gathered? In other words, were they self-reported (person selected from a list of options) or tracked electronically?
I have all my guests fill out the webervations form to have proof they have read my cancellation policy. So I can run a guest report and the form they fill out has a drop down selection as to how they found me and the choices are internet engine, BBonline, Bedand Breakfast, and "other" and they all but three gave me answers. Not the most scientific, but good enough to give me an idea.
RIki
 
I think the link was for Bronze if you also use Webervations. Not sure about the "5" If you drop the link for where you saw "5" someone might be able to make sense of it.
Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast.
How were these numbers gathered? In other words, were they self-reported (person selected from a list of options) or tracked electronically?.
swirt said:
I think the link was for Bronze if you also use Webervations. Not sure about the "5" If you drop the link for where you saw "5" someone might be able to make sense of it.
Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast.
How were these numbers gathered? In other words, were they self-reported (person selected from a list of options) or tracked electronically?
I have all my guests fill out the webervations form to have proof they have read my cancellation policy. So I can run a guest report and the form they fill out has a drop down selection as to how they found me and the choices are internet engine, BBonline, Bedand Breakfast, and "other" and they all but three gave me answers. Not the most scientific, but good enough to give me an idea.
RIki
.
Yikes! Don't depend on what your guests tell you. After I started doing some sophisticated tracking of my webervation reservations, I found out that 90% of what the guests clicked was wrong! All of the directories sound alike to them.
I use SuperStatz, but many on here use google analytics to accurately determine how guests find you. Please don't make a decision on the effectiveness of directories without first using sophisticated tracking on your website.
I'm sure Swirt will also chime in about this, because that's where his question to you was leading.
 
I think the link was for Bronze if you also use Webervations. Not sure about the "5" If you drop the link for where you saw "5" someone might be able to make sense of it.
Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast.
How were these numbers gathered? In other words, were they self-reported (person selected from a list of options) or tracked electronically?.
swirt said:
I think the link was for Bronze if you also use Webervations. Not sure about the "5" If you drop the link for where you saw "5" someone might be able to make sense of it.
Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast.
How were these numbers gathered? In other words, were they self-reported (person selected from a list of options) or tracked electronically?
I have all my guests fill out the webervations form to have proof they have read my cancellation policy. So I can run a guest report and the form they fill out has a drop down selection as to how they found me and the choices are internet engine, BBonline, Bedand Breakfast, and "other" and they all but three gave me answers. Not the most scientific, but good enough to give me an idea.
RIki
.
Yikes! Don't depend on what your guests tell you. After I started doing some sophisticated tracking of my webervation reservations, I found out that 90% of what the guests clicked was wrong! All of the directories sound alike to them.
I use SuperStatz, but many on here use google analytics to accurately determine how guests find you. Please don't make a decision on the effectiveness of directories without first using sophisticated tracking on your website.
I'm sure Swirt will also chime in about this, because that's where his question to you was leading.
.
Webervations may give you some feel for your guest reservations, but you should be checking to see what the actual referrers to your site are. THe problem there is also, are those referrals actually booking. Guess you could actually ask your guests but as BD says, half of them don't have a clue where they found you...they say "on the Internet."
 
I am currently on the 3 month free trial to "bring you back" wih bandb. Not enough results to pay the fee. Not taking it. Looking at my stats thre is not enough traffic to justify even bronze. (I dropped totally and the numbers did not go down drastically nor did they go back up drastically after I started the free trial.)
 
I will say I trust what guests tell me 100% more than I did just a couple years ago. When we opened I really wanted to know where they found us, and "the internet" was always the answer. Now I get "BBONLINE" Or whatever it was, or "I just googled your area and found you...
Many guests want to tell me step by step how they booked with us (I already know but they think they are being helpful) and MANY tell me they saw me on a couple different places, then checked the reviews then booked.
So back to the old - be everywhere you can be, this might be a case of seeing you over and over being beneficial to your occupancy. A lot of times they think it is cool that we are all over the place, they say they looked and looked and there we were. So that is a good thing. I learned that from Bree a while ago.
Funny now I will find by chance a BnB and think, Where the heck did they come from? How long have they been open? Who are they? They just pop up obscurely some where. They go away the same way they pop up usually...
 
I think the link was for Bronze if you also use Webervations. Not sure about the "5" If you drop the link for where you saw "5" someone might be able to make sense of it.
Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast.
How were these numbers gathered? In other words, were they self-reported (person selected from a list of options) or tracked electronically?.
swirt said:
I think the link was for Bronze if you also use Webervations. Not sure about the "5" If you drop the link for where you saw "5" someone might be able to make sense of it.
Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast.
How were these numbers gathered? In other words, were they self-reported (person selected from a list of options) or tracked electronically?
I have all my guests fill out the webervations form to have proof they have read my cancellation policy. So I can run a guest report and the form they fill out has a drop down selection as to how they found me and the choices are internet engine, BBonline, Bedand Breakfast, and "other" and they all but three gave me answers. Not the most scientific, but good enough to give me an idea.
RIki
.
Yikes! Don't depend on what your guests tell you. After I started doing some sophisticated tracking of my webervation reservations, I found out that 90% of what the guests clicked was wrong! All of the directories sound alike to them.
I use SuperStatz, but many on here use google analytics to accurately determine how guests find you. Please don't make a decision on the effectiveness of directories without first using sophisticated tracking on your website.
I'm sure Swirt will also chime in about this, because that's where his question to you was leading.
.
I'm sure Swirt will also chime in about this, because that's where his question to you was leading.

Yes. I strongly recommend looking at your tracker. Time and time again I have found that you can not rely on self-reporting
For several years I had one option in my online reservation system that let them self report where they found me. TIme after time they would pick the name of the directory that we weren't even listed on (I threw it in there as an option just to see how reliable the info was).
 
How do you get a link with bronze level? I have bronze level but no link to my webpage. Just a link to online reservations with bedandbreakfast.com which I don't use anymore..
oceans said:
How do you get a link with bronze level? I have bronze level but no link to my webpage. Just a link to online reservations with bedandbreakfast.com which I don't use anymore.
I think if you only get the link with webervations and bronze... and I think it was not an automatic thing. If I recall correctly, John said you had to contact them to make it happen (that was shortly after they took over webervations).
 
I am currently on the 3 month free trial to "bring you back" wih bandb. Not enough results to pay the fee. Not taking it. Looking at my stats thre is not enough traffic to justify even bronze. (I dropped totally and the numbers did not go down drastically nor did they go back up drastically after I started the free trial.).
Looking at my stats thre is not enough traffic to justify even bronze. (I dropped totally and the numbers did not go down drastically nor did they go back up drastically after I started the free trial.)
It sounds like you are looking at just total numbers for your site. Variations from one month to another can be pretty large and not accurately reflect the cause. You really want to make sure you are comparing actual referral numbers for the various directories ... and even better yet, actual conversion numbers.
 
For us, Bedandbreakfast.com far outperforms bbonline.com,,but they are numbers 1 and 2 in both web traffic and reservations where paid directories are concerned. Bnbfinder.com was number 3.
As a result, I dropped iloveinns.com, theinnkeeper.com and lanierbb.com and went to the highest levels of membership for my top three, and it has proven to be the right way to go. Occupany, revenue and web hits are way up, marketing expenses went down overall.
I'm a firm believer in going to the very top of your top referrer. I think you would also notice a difference if you went to the top of bb.com...not knowing how many city pages you appear on, or how many Inns in your area, I can only speak from my own experience (of course)!.
Little Blue said:
For us, Bedandbreakfast.com far outperforms bbonline.com,,but they are numbers 1 and 2 in both web traffic and reservations where paid directories are concerned. Bnbfinder.com was number 3.
As a result, I dropped iloveinns.com, theinnkeeper.com and lanierbb.com and went to the highest levels of membership for my top three, and it has proven to be the right way to go.
After installing Google Analytics this was the same trend we found, and this is the same step we took with all of these directories. And Swirt, thank you so much for your page that tells you how to READ your Google Analytics, that is SO helpful!!!
 
I am currently on the 3 month free trial to "bring you back" wih bandb. Not enough results to pay the fee. Not taking it. Looking at my stats thre is not enough traffic to justify even bronze. (I dropped totally and the numbers did not go down drastically nor did they go back up drastically after I started the free trial.).
Looking at my stats thre is not enough traffic to justify even bronze. (I dropped totally and the numbers did not go down drastically nor did they go back up drastically after I started the free trial.)
It sounds like you are looking at just total numbers for your site. Variations from one month to another can be pretty large and not accurately reflect the cause. You really want to make sure you are comparing actual referral numbers for the various directories ... and even better yet, actual conversion numbers.
.
I am. One room night booked in October that may turn out to be a per diem rate. I will take it whichever but she told me bandb. I can usually tell from my stats and the city that booked where they found me - my stats tells me. Google Analytics tells me more than I can absorb.
Edited to say Swirt looked at my GA stats - bandb had more traffic but I still only have the one rez. I hope it gets more reservations before the 3 months ends.
 
I think the link was for Bronze if you also use Webervations. Not sure about the "5" If you drop the link for where you saw "5" someone might be able to make sense of it.
Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast.
How were these numbers gathered? In other words, were they self-reported (person selected from a list of options) or tracked electronically?.
swirt said:
I think the link was for Bronze if you also use Webervations. Not sure about the "5" If you drop the link for where you saw "5" someone might be able to make sense of it.
Okay I did a resport and I have had 122 bookings for the B&B overall from BBonline vs 28 for Bedandbreakfast.
How were these numbers gathered? In other words, were they self-reported (person selected from a list of options) or tracked electronically?
I have all my guests fill out the webervations form to have proof they have read my cancellation policy. So I can run a guest report and the form they fill out has a drop down selection as to how they found me and the choices are internet engine, BBonline, Bedand Breakfast, and "other" and they all but three gave me answers. Not the most scientific, but good enough to give me an idea.
RIki
.
Yikes! Don't depend on what your guests tell you. After I started doing some sophisticated tracking of my webervation reservations, I found out that 90% of what the guests clicked was wrong! All of the directories sound alike to them.
I use SuperStatz, but many on here use google analytics to accurately determine how guests find you. Please don't make a decision on the effectiveness of directories without first using sophisticated tracking on your website.
I'm sure Swirt will also chime in about this, because that's where his question to you was leading.
.
I'm sure Swirt will also chime in about this, because that's where his question to you was leading.

Yes. I strongly recommend looking at your tracker. Time and time again I have found that you can not rely on self-reporting
For several years I had one option in my online reservation system that let them self report where they found me. TIme after time they would pick the name of the directory that we weren't even listed on (I threw it in there as an option just to see how reliable the info was).
.
Same here...I have bb online on there & it gets picked all the time. We're not listed with them. Just like they pick our website and now it's more likely that they found us elsewhere. Usually a Google search.....
 
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