PAII CEO, Jay Karen and Lisa Kolb, owner of Acorn Internet Services, met at the Washington B&B Guild Annual Meeting earlier this week. Due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy and the relatively little information we’ve been hearing about impacted B&Bs and inns, the two thought a more public-access information sharing site would be helpful.
From that discussion, PAII has since created a public forum for the innkeeping industry to post any innkeeper needs, as well as offerings of help those affected. This forum is the place to go to post any requests for assistance or awareness of the need for assistance of your peers on the East coast, and to offer help in whatever way you can. Some examples of needs might be finding places for guests who had reservations at now-closed B&Bs, knowledge of any trouble getting a response from insurance carriers, supplies, places for weary innkeepers to stay or relax, etc.
Visit www.innkeeping.org/sandy and you’ll see the Hurricane Sandy forum. Once inside the forum, use the two conversations to post your information. Thanks for any help you can offer.
When it comes to your accommodation & lodging business, having the right exposure is key. You want to maximize your potential for online bookings from multiple channels. But, you don’t want to have all the work of managing your information and updating your calendars on all those channels, right?
This is the type of discussion we have every day with hotels, bed & breakfasts, and hostels of all sizes every day. So, what if you called and asked how we could expand your exposure and increase your business. Here’s a hypothetical answer about how the discussion might go:
It was very nice speaking with you this afternoon. We discussed 2 optional services that, based on our discussion, will work very well for your business. These services are:
2) IWB Booking Engine for your website
First, regarding IWB Channel Manager, you mentioned that it was your goal to (a) increase exposure of your property for bookings, and (b) have just one interface to deal with for calendars, billings, commissions, etc. IWB Channel Manager can meet these goals.
Here is our proposal for how it works:
You pay a monthly cost of $14 for the basic IWB Channel Manager membership. This offers connections to a variety of booking channels, e.g., Expedia.com and others. This service enables you to manage your calendar just once on our website, and it simultaneously updates all your 3rd party booking channels. This eliminates any time and effort having to maintain multiple calendars on multiple systems.
For a channel that you are already signed up with, e.g., Expedia, we offer an Expedia connection. And, within 24 hours you can begin using IWB Channel Manager, and updating your Expedia calendar from IWB. There are no other costs. Whatever you Expedia commission and arrangements are would continue as before.
We discussed connecting you to our excellent Reconline channel. This channel offers a simultaneous connection to about 120 IDS booking sites, plus the GDS. Premium IDS sites include premium channels such as Hotels.com, Hotwire, Orbitz, Travelocity, and many other similar sites. The GDS are the reservation systems used by over 300,000 travel agents to book their air, hotel and car reservations.
To get set up with Reconline, with simultaneous connections to all 120 IDS sites, plus the GDS, we will facilitate the application process for you. There is no cost for setup. There is a 17% commission for any bookings that originate from any of these sources. The billing and commission process is handled all centrally.
So, to summarize, IWB Channel Manager will connect your IWB calendar to your external channels, so you only have to maintain one calendar. The Reconline channel will publish your property on about 120 sites plus the GDS. The total cost will be only $14 per month for the membership, and 17% commission on any bookings from any Reconline channel. There are no other costs.
BOOKING ENGINE
The second service that we discussed is a new Booking Engine for your website. This service will enable customers to book reservations instantly on your website. And, it’s a natural complement to the Channel Manager, since bookings will be confirmed from the same calendar you’re already maintaining on our website. So, one source for all bookings and channels. And, our pricing options are very flexible.
We discussed a setup in which customers would pay a standard flat $25 deposit on each booking. Our cost for this booking engine would be $5 per reservation. There are no setup fees or other costs.
We offer alternative pricing methods, including a 35% deposit option, which would have a 5% commission cost. Or an 8% deposit option, which would have a 1.9% commission cost.
Alternatively, you can select a no-deposit option which would have a monthly fixed price of $28 (pricing available through November 2012).
GETTING STARTED
1) To get started with IWB Channel Manager, please log in to your profile at our website. Once logged in, proceed to the CHANNEL MANAGER page. Purchase your membership to get started.
2) Once you have purchased the membership, proceed to the Setup Interface. There you will select CHANNELS, and then the “Reconline” channel. Follow the instructions on your screen to request Reconline setup.
3) We will then send you the necessary Reconline application materials, and initiate the set up process.
4) For any other channels you want to setup, follow the instructions on the Setup Interface.
5) Before setting up and connecting any channels you will need to add your calendar of availability on IWB’s Calendar interface. Proceed to the CALENDAR page to do this. This will also need to be done before we can setup your Booking Engine for your website.
We all know that social media interaction works well for small businesses and tourism and bed & breakfast hotels in particular. But how does the whole “Like” system work? And what is the best method of socially interacting with Facebook?
For those asking for clarification on exactly how the “LIKE” procedure should go, here it is. We’ve found that this procedure works best, and is fast when trying to like multiple pages:
1) Log in as your personal page.
2) Go to the facebook fan page you want to like.
3) Click the like button (this increments the like count since you are logged as your personal profile).
4) Click the little down arrow in the upper right corner of your window, and switch to “Use facebook as” your business page.
5) Click the backspace button. This takes you back to the fan page you are liking.
6) Click the like button again. This likes the page as your business page, which has the benefit of allowing you to comment on and continue interaction with the page in the future (Don’t underestimate the value of this step).
7) Now, post a comment on the page you have just liked. This has the benefit of leaving a link back to your facebook page on the timeline of the liked page.
Again, don’t underestimate the value of steps 6 and 7 when it comes to social media interaction. Step 6 allows you to follow the page on your business profile and continue interaction in the future. Step 7 allows you to place a comment and link to your facebook page on the liked page. This means that every person who has liked that page (perhaps hundreds) has the potential to now see your comment and your link in their newsfeed. Since you already liked the page in step 6, you will be able to track and return to that page again in the future to leave further comments, and of course your link.
As part of an introduction to Europe’s bed and breakfast accommodation, travel specialist Rick Steves recently had some very positive things to say about UK & Ireland B&Bs in the Seattle Times.
An obvious fan, Steves begins by giving a warm impression of B&Bs in general and makes a number of pertinent observations: “While B&Bs often lack the conveniences of a hotel — such as fancy lobbies, restaurants, and in-room phones — I happily make the trade-off for the personal touches that they do offer, whether it’s joining my hosts for tea in the afternoon or relaxing by a common fireplace at the end of the day. […] But even though B&Bs are family-run, it doesn’t mean you have to feel pressure to become ‘part of the family.’ Chatty friendliness is not forced on guests. Depending on my mood and workload, I am often very business-like and private during my stay. On other occasions, I join the children in the barn for the sheep-shearing festivities.”
The interest level in IWB Channel Manager is incredible. A number of questions have been received about how to get the quickest access to this service. We’ll answer this question here.
Well, you need to start by having a free listing on BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking), which provides free marketing, a high-end calendar system, and access to all our other services. This can be accomplished in about 3 minutes at the following page:
http://www.bedbreakfasttraveler.com/listings/add_property.php
Once listed, you will have access to a wide array of service options, for example Booking Engines and a low cost property management system called IWBFrontDesk.com. You can get a free trial of our excellent property management system at:
http://www.IWBFrontDesk.com
Now, for Channel Management, which is the hot topic. You will have access to get started with IWB Channel Manager, offering management of dozens of booking sites right from one calendar. Once you have your free listing, please log in with the User ID provided, then proceed to the CHANNEL MANAGER page. There you will find all the information you need.
One thing Instant World Booking prides itself on is being able to provide high-end services at a cost cheaper than any competitor. For example, we have a guarantee to provide a booking engine for your B&B website lower than any other competing offer. For some demos on our Booking Engines, please see:
http://www.bedbreakfasttraveler.com/booking-engine.php
Aloha,
We offer several Bed & Breakfast Suites.
Our beautiful Fern House hosts two cozy rooms with private baths on the second floor. It has a common sitting room with microwave and coffeemaker on the second floor as well. Guests of the Ohia Room and Ola’a Room can use the large 60 ft swimming pool in the back yard of the Fern House.
Our Ohia Room features a queen size bed, saterllite tv and dvd player. It is furnished with bamboo hardwood flooring, teak wood bed and furniture. It has a private marble bathroom with walk-in shower and Jacuzzi tub. From the windows you have an intimate view of the Volcano Forest with Ohia trees and Hapu’u ferns.
Our Ola’a Room features a queen size bed, satellite tv and dvd player. It is furnished with Lyptus Fire hardwood flooring, mahogany wood bed and furniture. It has a private bathroom with shower. From the windows you have a view into the forest of Ohia trees and Hapu’u Ferns and onto the 60 foot salt water swimming pool in the spacious garden beneath you
This beautiful Bed & Breakfast lies on virgin land in the middle of the Volcano Forest, 10 minutes north of the famous Volcanoes National Park. The Spanish-style Fern House with yellow stucco and red tile roof is surrounded by Hapu’u ferns and the famous Hawaiian Ohia trees that grow on elevation and carry red blossoms in the spring.
The Fern House is very classical in its set up. It features hard wood floorings, teak furnitures and cozy rooms.
Due to rising quest inquiries, we now offer three more rooms at only 3000 feet away from the Fern House.
Our Forest House features three spacious rooms; the Ginger Room and the Hibiscus Room for couples and the Orchid Room for families. Outside the house is an area with two Jacuzzi tubs and a sauna for use by the guests of the Forest Rooms only.
Our Ginger Room in the Forest House features a 300 sqft room with king size bed, satellite tv, small seating area with coffee maker and private bathroom with tub and shower. Laminate flooring and island style furnitures. Guests of this room can use the outside lounge area with two Jacuzzi tubs and a sauna and the large common living room with wireless internet.
Our Hibiscus Room in the Forest House features a 300 sqft room with king size bed, satellite tv and private bathroom with tub and shower. Guests of this room can use the outside lounge area with two Jacuzzi tubs and a sauna and the large common living room with wireless internet.
Our Orchid Room in the Forest House is ideal for families. It is a 400 sqft unit with one queen bedroom and one twin bedroom, satellite tv and private bathroom with tub and shower, washer and dryer. Guests of this room can use the outside lounge area with two Jacuzzi tubs and a sauna and the large common living room with wireless internet.
B&B Trends B&B Videos by .
BedandBreakfast.com, Rezovation, and Webervations have raised prices again. Upon recently visiting their websites to update our analysis of comparative pricing, we discovered that another wave of price increases have been rolled out in the last 6 months. But don’t take our word for it, visit their websites for yourself.
BedandBreakfast.com for example now charges about $433 per year for a “Silver” membership. This is up about 8.5% from last year’s price. Apparently BedandBreakfast.com, which was bought up by a vacation site holding company called Homeaway in 2010, believes that their hold on the North American B&B industry demands more value. Their increase in pricing seems to ignore the fact that many specialty bed and breakfast directories (BedBreakfastTraveler.com included) still offer B&B memberships for free.
This is not to say that BedandBreakfast.com doesn’t offer value for their price. For example, the price you pay enables a B&B hotel to participate in BedandBreakfast.com’s online reservation system. This is a system that will charge a B&B an additional 25% commission (on top of the membership price) to publish their availability on the BedandBreakfast.com-owned sites, as well as Expedia, Hotels.com, Travelocity, and a selection of others.
So, Bedandbreakfast.com does offer some value for B&B’s who absolutely want exposure to Expedia, Hotel.com, and other premium sites. But is 25% too high a price to pay (we didn’t mention that they charge 30% to some properties, depending on the specifics of their arrangement). Consider BedBreakfastTraveler.com’s new IWB Channel Manager service (presented by Instant World Booking). With a free membership at BedBreakfastTraveler.com, B&B’s have access to join IWB Channel Manager, which offers connections to Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Booking.com, Travelocity.com, and others for a total commission rate of only 18% (compare to BedandBreakfast.com’s 25% – 30% commission). Assuming an average reservation value of $200 and about 60 reservations per year (conservative assumptions), after considering all membership fees, commissions, etc., BedBreakfastTraveler.com comes in at savings of about 31% versus a BedandBreakfast.com Silver membership, or about $1,260 in the first year. Quite significant savings indeed.
What about Rezovation and Webervations? Well, Webervations have now increased their pricing for the smallest B&Bs by 11% – 18% over last year’s prices. This is really quite a substantial increase in a down economic cycle. But, let’s consider Rezovation, which now offers a more full service set of options. Prices for Rezovation GT Basic software increased between 20% – 33% in the range of property sizes between 1 and 19 rooms. A price increase of 33% represents an increase of a full third of last year’s cost. The Rezovation GT Online product, and online offering which starts at a higher price than Rezovation GT, now has prices between 13% – 20% higher than last year, also substantial increases.
Rezovation has a rather dominant market position, and perhaps their price increases reflect this. But, considering that a B&B with 5 rooms may now pay $90 per month for Rezovation GT Online (or a 15 room B&B $130 per month), is this still a positive value proposition. Sleek alternatives like IWBFrontDesk.com will cost only $16 per month for the same property ($28 for the 15 room property), a significant savings pocketed. But, what about Rezovation’s built in service suite, including a website Booking Engine. Well, BedBreakfastTraveler.com can bundle Booking Engine with IWBFrontDesk.com, essentially the same product set as Rezovation GT Online, and still save up to about 60% of the cost a user would pay for Rezovation GT Online (as much as $1,000 savings per year given the assumptions above, for a 15 room B&B).
When it comes to Channel Management, Rezovation offers connection to the GDS or BedandBreakfast.com’s third party website connections (like Expedia). The GDS connectivity will cost $649 just to get the process started, and then there are ongoing 15% commissions, $15.50 per reservation, and $250 per year after the first year. If this sounds expensive, it is. The connection to BedandBreakfast.com’s online reservations may be cheaper for some B&Bs. But, as mentioned above, with commissions of 25% – 30%, this is still quite an expensive undertaking. This is why BedBreakfastTraveler.com can bundle GDS connectivity, or connectivity to Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Booking.com, Travelocity.com (or about a hundred other choices), right into the IWBFrontDesk.com solution. So, an end to end solution including property management system, booking engine for your website, and channel management, can save you $1,000 or $2,000 every year versus Rezovation’s and BedandBreakfast.com’s new pricing.
We have a New Year’s gift for you. We now offer channel management to our members.
This means you only have to manage your calendar once, and you can update all your booking sites. The advantage is incredible time savings and convenience. Eliminate many hours of work each month in managing calendars on multiple websites.
Even more incredible are the savings. BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking) is well known for providing services at a cost much cheaper than the competition. For less than $ 14 per month, submit your calendar to dozens of booking sites. At a price this low, there’s nothing to lose. Try it today.
Want to learn more about getting started? It’s easy. Just log in to your profile at our website. Then proceed to the Channel Manager page.
Manage your calendar on B&B booking networks, and sites specializing in small hotels and inns. These sites are included in our base price. What about major sites like Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Priceline, and others? Yes, you can publish for bookings on these sites as well. In fact, Channel Manager enables you to submit your property and availability to more than 500 booking sites, including the Global Distribution System (GDS).
Don’t waste time with multiple calendars on multiple websites. Save money and get the exposure you really need. Log in at our website and sign up today.
To get started, simply log into your accommodation profile at our website. Then proceed to the Channel Manager page. If you’re not yet listed with HostelTraveler.com, list for free at:
Add your bed & breakfast for free
Bed and breakfasts promise the warmth and comfort of home for those on the road. But, how many of us are cozily welcomed home with a glass of wine by the fire or awoken by the smell of coffee and freshly baked scones every day?
Like at your most generous friend’s house, the innkeepers live on site, so they know the area backwards and front and they can’t wait to show you the best of it. The houses themselves, often in an idyllic setting, harbor a rich history and ooze character.
Whether they’re haunted, were once homes of grand families, or have been passed down by generations of B&B owners, every portrait and floral bedspread tells a story.
http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/08/06/8-bed-and-breakfasts-with-the-best-fixings-photos/
| Introducing IWBFrontDesk.com, a cheaper alternative for property management
IWBFrontDesk is a new property management system with one major advantage: Savings of 30% to 75% versus competing services. With prices so low, why not begin saving today? Get a free 30-day trial, available only to Instant World Booking members. Contact us for the promo code to enter when you sign up at: IWBFrontDesk offers all the features you need to manage your front desk. Engineered as an alternative to products like RezOvation, Webervations, SuperInn, Resnexus, Hostel Power, HostelMate, etc., IWBFrontDesk is easier to use, and saves you money. This special opportunity for a free demo is only available for a limited time. Sign in today to get your 30-day free trial. If you’re not already a member of BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking), sign up for free here: http://www.bedbreakfasttraveler.com/listings/add_property.php Questions? info@instantworldbooking.com |
| Espanol-Spanish
La introducción de IWBFrontDesk.com, una alternativa más barata para la gestión de la propiedad IWBFrontDesk es un sistema de administración de propiedades nuevas con una gran ventaja: ahorro de 30% a 75% en comparación con los servicios de la competencia. Con los precios tan bajos, ¿por qué no comenzar a ahorrar hoy? Obtenga una prueba gratuita de 30 días, disponible sólo para miembros Instant World Booking. Introduzca el código de promoción cuando te registras en: IWBFrontDesk ofrece todas las características que usted necesita para administrar su recepción. Diseñada como una alternativa a los productos como RezOvation, Webervations, SuperInn, Resnexus, Power Hostel, HostelMate, etc, IWBFrontDesk es más fácil de usar, y le ahorra dinero. Esta oportunidad especial para una demostración gratuita sólo está disponible por un tiempo limitado. Regístrate hoy para recibir sus 30 días de prueba gratuita. Si aún no eres miembro de BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking), registrarse de forma gratuita en: http://www.bedbreakfasttraveler.com/listings/add_property.php ¿Preguntas? info@instantworldbooking.com |
| Italiano-Italian
L’introduzione di IWBFrontDesk.com, un’alternativa più economica per la gestione della proprietà IWBFrontDesk è un nuovo sistema di gestione immobiliare con un grande vantaggio: risparmio del 30% al 75% rispetto a servizi concorrenti. Con prezzi così bassi, perché non iniziare a salvare oggi? Gratuitamente per 30 giorni di prova, disponibile solo ai membri Instant World Booking. Inserisci il codice promozionale quando ti iscrivi a: IWBFrontDesk offre tutte le funzioni necessarie per gestire le reception. Progettata come alternativa a prodotti come RezOvation, Webervations, SuperInn, Resnexus, Potenza Hostel, HostelMate, ecc, IWBFrontDesk è più facile da usare, e consente di risparmiare denaro. Questa speciale opportunità per una demo gratuita è disponibile solo per un tempo limitato. Registrati oggi per ottenere la vostra di 30 giorni di prova gratuita. Se non sei già un utente di BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking), iscriviti gratuitamente qui:
http://www.bedbreakfasttraveler.com/listings/add_property.php Domande? info@instantworldbooking.com |
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