Trends in 2010

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JBloggs

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Now with the bulk of the busier seasons over with, could you give a few moments of your day to consider trends at your B&B this year?
Did you notice a sharp intake or uptake of a certain clientele or demographic? ie more 20 somethings this year than in the past, or more babymoons, more first time B&B goers than usual, etc.
More one nighter special ocassions compared to business travelers...more guests staying shorter stays but adding on romance items such as flowers, or adding on packages with their stay?
Are people tending to drive less and stay longer? Are they driving further and staying shorter? Are they using you more as a home base vs Inn hopping which was the norm for summer or fall where you are?
Different nationalities, or a different country base this year compared to previous?
Any noticeable trends? Without giving away specifics or polling, just anything that seemed to "catch" this year vs last or the previous few.
 
Second question is, was any of this due to your marketing? Were you marketing more recreation for outdoor enthusiasts to drive them to you vs a cabin rental? We you offering in season discounts to compete with local hotels? Anything you did to influence some of these variations this year?
Thirdly: Were you happy with these variations? ie were so many one nighters draining vs the usual 2 night stays? Were the add on packages a good thing for the local economy?
 
One thing I have noticed is that we are getting more weekday bookings for our "Travelin Thru" package. It has them coming to the inn by noon to go on the wine tour, check in after the tour, and transportation to dinner downtown with pickup as late as 9:30pm
Again, we are located near DC where government workers can adjust their hours to get a day off. And the wine country has been getting great reviews from the travel press. And since we have the insurance from the wine tour company we can offer the ride to downtown.
RIki
 
We noticed that it is different then 2006 and other B&B's in the area confirmed it. People are booking later. Now our calendar was pretty bare and is still so maybe it just felt that way to us but we still have very few people booked 60 days out.
 
I had a lot of anniversaries, but they were not saying anything about the anniversary until they were here. With my rail-trail fixed, we had more biking people (tht is due to ads in bike/hike publications) and we also had more horses - first-timers who returned several times. We also had a lot of week day traffic.
 
This year's guests, overall, seemed much happier and more appreciative than in years past. We also had a lot more men booking. More mid-week, longer stays, and guests coming for a specific reason. I think our blog really helped as I post upcoming events which drew a lot of interest. I'll know more on that by the end of next year. A huge trend was online booking. I rarely, if ever, get phone reservations anymore. Also, most of the guests came from within a 4 hour drive (outside of the international guests, which remained pretty much the same in number).
 
Our first full year of offering a $10/night online booking discount was a huge success. We have freed ourselves from SO MANY inane phone calls. It's fantastic.
Definitely more last minute bookings versus 30-60 days out as the last few years have shown. This seems to be slowing though, I am already taking bookings for next Spring which I'm taking as a great sign.
With a lot of personal issues this year we definitely had less time for blogging, I can't see that it made much of a difference. We did however start a FB fan page and I'm really enjoying posting little tidbits there. A few weeks ago I posted a pic of muffins I had made for breakfast and asked people to email if they wanted the recipe, or to request them when they made a booking. Had 3 takers on the recipe and a person booked for this week and requested the muffins! I got a kick out of that.
 
Shorter stays. More add ons. Nicer overall, with a few exceptions. Less trespassing into private space.
 
I had a lot of anniversaries, but they were not saying anything about the anniversary until they were here. With my rail-trail fixed, we had more biking people (tht is due to ads in bike/hike publications) and we also had more horses - first-timers who returned several times. We also had a lot of week day traffic..
gillumhouse said:
I had a lot of anniversaries, but they were not saying anything about the anniversary until they were here. With my rail-trail fixed, we had more biking people (tht is due to ads in bike/hike publications) and we also had more horses - first-timers who returned several times. We also had a lot of week day traffic.
I just looked at your reservations online and you don't have a field asking them why "REASON FOR YOUR VISIT." Notes but not saying why they are staying.
Not sure if you had it and it is gone due to the packages now, but it is a simple one liner, and in fact having this field "REASON FOR YOUR VISIT" for them to type anything in they want has been excellent for me vs the old pick list I used to have on the old online system.
 
For us:
  • We had more calling from the road with a gps trying to book online AFTER the actual check in time on that very day. ie calling at 7pm to book a room for NOW arriving at 10pm. Again, new gps/technology users and all that.
  • We also have seen an upswing in African American guests this year.
  • Also a few more single female guests just here to have a quiet getaway.
  • We had LESS DC guests this year than previous, and more from other areas that were not typical for us, Iowa, South Dakota. etc
  • This weekend the colors are peaking, yeah right now, brilliant out there and we have all rooms here on an anniv or bday and all from this state. Very unusual.
  • We had MUCH LESS for graduations and parents weekends than normal.
  • We had a definite upswing for our twice a year Nascar which is getting closer to the way it used to be, but we used to have hundreds of calls near the date which we don't have anymore. Meaning there is still lodging avail elsewhere closer to the track.
  • We still have an online discount to book online and have 80-90% of our bookings made online.
  • We had less cancellations this year overall, although there was a moment in time when they seemed to be them all at once.
  • With my marketing recreation/outdoors we DID NOT have more outdoor enthusiasts, at all. I was hoping this would be one area that increased and it did not. We had folks here who went for a hike, but didn't know where - even with it online and in the rooms they still asked, so it was more of an afterthought once they were here.
  • we had less breakfast deliveries and less romantic add ons like flowers, but sold more packages (which may have included these items) but for more one night stays.
 
I had a lot of anniversaries, but they were not saying anything about the anniversary until they were here. With my rail-trail fixed, we had more biking people (tht is due to ads in bike/hike publications) and we also had more horses - first-timers who returned several times. We also had a lot of week day traffic..
gillumhouse said:
I had a lot of anniversaries, but they were not saying anything about the anniversary until they were here. With my rail-trail fixed, we had more biking people (tht is due to ads in bike/hike publications) and we also had more horses - first-timers who returned several times. We also had a lot of week day traffic.
I just looked at your reservations online and you don't have a field asking them why "REASON FOR YOUR VISIT." Notes but not saying why they are staying.
Not sure if you had it and it is gone due to the packages now, but it is a simple one liner, and in fact having this field "REASON FOR YOUR VISIT" for them to type anything in they want has been excellent for me vs the old pick list I used to have on the old online system.
.
I added it. But the anniversaries info came out in conversation. It was not considered the reason for the trip to them. They just do a road trip every year around their anniversary.
 
I had a lot of anniversaries, but they were not saying anything about the anniversary until they were here. With my rail-trail fixed, we had more biking people (tht is due to ads in bike/hike publications) and we also had more horses - first-timers who returned several times. We also had a lot of week day traffic..
gillumhouse said:
I had a lot of anniversaries, but they were not saying anything about the anniversary until they were here. With my rail-trail fixed, we had more biking people (tht is due to ads in bike/hike publications) and we also had more horses - first-timers who returned several times. We also had a lot of week day traffic.
I just looked at your reservations online and you don't have a field asking them why "REASON FOR YOUR VISIT." Notes but not saying why they are staying.
Not sure if you had it and it is gone due to the packages now, but it is a simple one liner, and in fact having this field "REASON FOR YOUR VISIT" for them to type anything in they want has been excellent for me vs the old pick list I used to have on the old online system.
.
sorry - duplicate
 
I had a lot of anniversaries, but they were not saying anything about the anniversary until they were here. With my rail-trail fixed, we had more biking people (tht is due to ads in bike/hike publications) and we also had more horses - first-timers who returned several times. We also had a lot of week day traffic..
gillumhouse said:
I had a lot of anniversaries, but they were not saying anything about the anniversary until they were here. With my rail-trail fixed, we had more biking people (tht is due to ads in bike/hike publications) and we also had more horses - first-timers who returned several times. We also had a lot of week day traffic.
I just looked at your reservations online and you don't have a field asking them why "REASON FOR YOUR VISIT." Notes but not saying why they are staying.
Not sure if you had it and it is gone due to the packages now, but it is a simple one liner, and in fact having this field "REASON FOR YOUR VISIT" for them to type anything in they want has been excellent for me vs the old pick list I used to have on the old online system.
.
I added it. But the anniversaries info came out in conversation. It was not considered the reason for the trip to them. They just do a road trip every year around their anniversary.
.
gillumhouse said:
I added it. But the anniversaries info came out in conversation. It was not considered the reason for the trip to them. They just do a road trip every year around their anniversary.
So not having a REASON FOR YOUR STAY online was not the reason. Okay, silly me, thought I was helping. :)
I agree we have plenty who stay here for a few diff reasons, and it might be a belated bday or anniv. Maybe it is a private affair, so they want to keep it to themselves. That happens too.
 
I had a lot of anniversaries, but they were not saying anything about the anniversary until they were here. With my rail-trail fixed, we had more biking people (tht is due to ads in bike/hike publications) and we also had more horses - first-timers who returned several times. We also had a lot of week day traffic..
gillumhouse said:
I had a lot of anniversaries, but they were not saying anything about the anniversary until they were here. With my rail-trail fixed, we had more biking people (tht is due to ads in bike/hike publications) and we also had more horses - first-timers who returned several times. We also had a lot of week day traffic.
I just looked at your reservations online and you don't have a field asking them why "REASON FOR YOUR VISIT." Notes but not saying why they are staying.
Not sure if you had it and it is gone due to the packages now, but it is a simple one liner, and in fact having this field "REASON FOR YOUR VISIT" for them to type anything in they want has been excellent for me vs the old pick list I used to have on the old online system.
.
I added it. But the anniversaries info came out in conversation. It was not considered the reason for the trip to them. They just do a road trip every year around their anniversary.
.
gillumhouse said:
I added it. But the anniversaries info came out in conversation. It was not considered the reason for the trip to them. They just do a road trip every year around their anniversary.
So not having a REASON FOR YOUR STAY online was not the reason. Okay, silly me, thought I was helping. :)
I agree we have plenty who stay here for a few diff reasons, and it might be a belated bday or anniv. Maybe it is a private affair, so they want to keep it to themselves. That happens too.
.
Silly you - I added it because you suggested it. Your WERE being VERY helpful. Those particular guests - back to back to back aniversaries in one week had all called and had not said anything.
It had not occurred to me that it was not there. Too close to the forest to see the trees.
 
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