If you’ve been reading our Intelligence for B&Bblog, you know that BedBreakfastTraveler.com believes in transparency, especially when it comes to pricing of services for your B&B.  Occasionally, we profile other services which compete with ours.  We don’t care so much that mentioning competing services basically amounts to free advertising for those services.  We’re more interested in transparency for you, our consumers and clients.  So, when selecting services for publishing, marketing, and booking your bed & breakfast, please remember to compare prices.  And, don’t overpay!

Rezovation offers services for property management and online reservations.  As a business manager, if price is important to you, please do compare.  According to the Rezovation.com website, the minimum cost for Rezovation GT Online is $50 per month.  But, that’s for just the smallest B&Bs of 1-4 rooms.  If you have at least 10 rooms, the price more than doubles to $110, and for large properties (50+ rooms), may be at least $300 per month, with an added setup fee of $999.00!  Yes, Rezovation GT is a great property management tool for those who want to lay out the cash, but there are many cheaper alternatives for small inn businesses.  Again, the prices quoted here are directly from the Rezovation website

BedBreakfastTraveler.com (by Instant World Booking) offers a premier online booking service, including credit card acceptance.  Booking engines for your website is a particular specialty of ours.  If you have the cash to pay for the competing Rezovation GT service, and want online bookings, there is an additional per-reservation fee up to 30%.  For more on the additional fees see our separate article at:

http://www.bedbreakfasttraveler.com/blog_bb/2009/12/bedandbreakfastcom-pricing/

Now, compare with BedBreakfastTraveler.com (by Instant World Booking).  If you want a fully integrated booking engine for your website, you can choose from many custom options starting at our lowest cost of just 1.9% of total reservation volume.  This is the absolute industry low for a booking engine on your website.

What about credit card processing?  Rezovation GT offers optional credit card processing for an additional monthly service fee and per-transaction fees.  Note that this is above and beyond the fees you are paying to maintain your own merchant account.  BedBreakfastTraveler.com on the other hand offers integrated credit card collection for your online bookings, and you do not even need your own merchant account.

Finally, if you want to connect to the Global Distribution System (GDS), Rezovation GT offers a premium option, allowing you to connect for just $649 + $15.50 per reservation + $250 / yr maintenance after first year.

For an unlimited budget, there are many services out there that can maximize your online exposure.  At BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking), we offer the maximum cost-effectiveness for online exposure.  Don’t pay the high prices unless you’ve tried Instant World Booking first.  If you don’t like your experience, you can always try the others and pay higher prices later.

At BedBreakfastTraveler.com, we frequently get asked how our pricing compares to BedandBreakfast.com.  We’re going to answer that question.  In this global economy, margins mean everything to B&Bs and inns, and BedBreakfastTraveler.com (operated by Instant World Booking) can really make a difference to your bottom line.

BedandBreakfast.com is a great service, and we would never recommend not using a competitor’s service.  However, if as a B&B manager, price is important to you, please do compare prices.

BedandBreakfast.com advertises 2 participation levels for their online reservation program.  This is a feature that basically allows booking of your bed and breakfast by guests directly on their website. 

Here are BedandBreakfast.com’s costs :

Preferred Participation - 25% Commission

Standard Participation - 30% Commission

These prices also include some limitations.  With the Preferred plan you must make available at least one room daily (properties with more than 15 rooms are required to offer two rooms daily) for an entire year.  With the Standard participation, you may offer any days of the year and it doesn’t need to be an entire year. They do ask you to maintain at least 180 days of inventory in a year.

If these prices seem high, then please compare to BedBreakfastTraveler.com, which can instantly start improving your bottom line.

Here are BedBreakfastTraveler.com’s costs:

Standard online booking -  8% Commission

Booking Engine with online bookings on YOUR website - 1.9% Commission

Booking Engine with deposit collection of at least 30% from guest - 5% Commission

These are just a few examples of our pricing, and we offer custom solutions to suit your custom needs.  But, the numbers basically tell the whole story.

At BedBreakfastTraveler.com, we offer Guaranteed Economics.  If you currently use another provider’s service, please contact BedBreakfastTraveler.com.  We guarantee that we can offer the same or improved service for better economics. All you need to do is contact us and ask.

We are not affiliated with BedandBreakfast.com, and always try to publish the most accurate information.  If any reader has more recent information about BedandBreakfast.com pricing, please feel free to post it or correct us.

If you use Paypal to charge your guests’ credit cards, you may have noticed some new reserves that Paypal is introducing to account holders.  Reserves amount to increased costs to you, the merchant, and result in delays in receiving your money.  Instant World Booking offers alternative and better methods for collecting from your guests that will not result in delays or higher costs in receiving your money.

Here is how Paypal recently described their reserves, which may amount to 20% of your credit card proceeds:

“Why was a reserve placed on my account?  Sometimes we need to temporarily set aside some money in your account to make sure that you can cover any potential reversals or chargebacks.

What are the different types of reserves?  Rolling reserve: A certain percentage of the money you receive each day is set aside and then released after a certain number of days.
Minimum reserve: The minimum that you need to keep in your account at all times. We’ll hold a percentage of each day’s payments until you reach your minimum reserve.”

Instant World Booking offers the industry’s low-cost solution for booking engines on a bed and breakfast or hotel website.  Compare with BedandBreakfast com and others.  There are no complicated reserves to contend with.  Instant World Booking also now offers IWB Payments, a convenient way to charge your guests by credit card for reservations and other services you offer.  For more information, check out IWB Payments.

We recently read with great interest the blog entries by Eric Goldreyer, the CEO of Bedandbreakfast.com. Intelligent and well-spoken, Eric speaks in one article of the Lifetime Value of a Guest. In short, this is the value a B&B earns over a lifetime by bringing in one guest. Lifetime Value of a Guest is usually multiples of the earnings on just the first reservation. The article is worth reading and has several good points to be driven home to innkeepers.

Where we stopped short in our tracks is when Eric illustrates the concept with a typical example. He uses 25% as the typical cost of a reservation. He then goes through the calcuation and reinforces that ROI (Return on Investment) is a primary consideration for bed and breakfast owners.

Please allow me to emphasize, well no … proclaim loudly, that 25% is not anywhere near a good value for B&B innkeepers to be paying for a reservation. Even when the lietime cost of acquiring a client is maybe half of this (12.6% as Eric Goldreyer goes on to explain in his article), it’s still not a bargain for the hotel.

When CEOs of online booking services announce publicly that typical costs of acquiring guests are in the 25% range, it makes us wonder where all the value is going with the high technology available today. In this particular case BedandBreakfast.com is a proponent of all the right concepts, as stated in their other blog entries, including “online reservations, leveraging ratings and reviews, frequent stay programs, etc.” These are all the concepts we at BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking) have been talking about for year. Nevertheless, consider that the cost structure we are able to offer to you, the innkeeper, are roughly one-third the amount you’ll be paying as suggested by Goldreyer above.

This is why we are imploring all bed and breakfasts and small hotels to consider alternatives to their online marketing strategies. Another well-written article by Eric Goldreyer speaks of how to think about return on investment (ROI) for your online marketing spend. Read the article, then consider that BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking) charges no fees to join the service, offers more online, search-engine-optimized content for your property, more photos, and more translated online pages than the competition. Instant World Booking also offers a fully integrated online calendar, with credit card collections, for no sign-up fee or monthly fee. In short, you have zero cost unless you have bookings. And when you do have bookings, our cost is roughly one-third the cost offered by competing services. We encourage you to sign up for a free listing at BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking) today:

http://www.bedbreakfasttraveler.com/listings/add_listing.php

The blog articles mentioned in this article can be found at the links include in the comment below.

It never ceases to amaze me how online services continue to require hefty membership fees. The internet is the most efficient information distribution tool ever invented. In today’s lean economic environment, bed and breakfasts are seeking value in their marketing and advertising budgets. With the wide array of services available to inn managers for free, why do we continue to pay year after year those annual membership fees for services. This is the perfect time to re-evaluate our spending on those annual memberships that we sometimes blindly pay year after year.

One example I can highlight is a recent advertising email sent by PAII, the Professional Association of Innkeepers International. The email is targeted at bed and breakfast innkeepers like you, and professes how the PAII is advocating on your behalf. Specifically addressing problems the PAII sees with TripAdvisor, they indicate how some of the operations and policies of the Tripadvisor site have flaws that can cause significant financial hardship to your business. They say that this the message innkeepers all across the country have been letting PAII know loud and clear. They ask what the individual innkeeper can do to address this most critical area? After citing that PAII’s President & CEO has been tirelessly meeting and negotiating with the management team of TripAdvisor advocating for you, the rest of the email basically amounts to an advertising pitch to sell memberships in their organization at a reduced rate (for 6 months as opposed to a full annual membership).

Let me be clear that the PAII is a reputable organization which adds value to bed and breakfasts and inns in the U.S. However, know that membership in one or more of these types of organizations can cost between $100 and $300 EACH per year. When you start looking at how these memberships hit your bottom line, what you need to focus on are services “support services” that bring in business, not “support groups”. Also, beware of organizations that claim to be international, but boast a membership of predominantly North American companies.

So, as the new year approaches, look for some new opportunities to build your online footprint with some truly global services. Pay special attention to services that do not charge a membership fee. There are many such valuable services easily available. And, think about eliminating some of the more expensive annual memberships that are not really critical to the operation of your business.

The Intelligence for Bed and Breakfasts Blog promised to bring you the most valuable online advice for B&Bs and small hotels, as well as controversial intelligence that you won’t find on other websites. Let’s talk about what matters most to your business: Value. When you shop support services for your bed and breakfast, what’s the most important factor? Price. Let’s face it, we’re all looking to keep costs down and compare for the most valuable services at the lowest price.

There are a number of big online marketing services out there, offering online booking and advertising of your property. You know who they are. In the Bed and Breakfast market, they’re charging you an annual fee to list your property. Do you really need to pay annual service fees for online listings year after year? Many B&B’s list with multiple services to maximize exposure. Costs can quickly add up. These fees are not insignificant. The biggest player in this online marketing game charges annual fees ranging from $99 to $559. Then they take up to 25% commission on any online bookings they send your way. Use their booking engine on your website and pay 30% commission. Add this to several other online services, then your membership in a professional innkeepers association, and you have a serious online budget to contend with.

Why do they charge so much? Didn’t they know that the internet is the most efficient value distribution system available today? Perhaps they’re taking advantage of the fact that the North American B&B population is by and large behind the curve with online technology. Many of these service providers do not even offer there services outside the US or Canada. How does one B&B booking engine justify a 30% commission for a booking engine on your website? To paraphrase, they claim that “70% profit on a booking is better than no booking at all”.

The good news is that you don’t have to be captive to services that charge large fees and commissions. It’s true that a correctly executed internet marketing strategy can increase your net profit by at least 20% in the first year. Don’t throw away your profits with high service fees. You internet spend should only be a fraction of what these companies are charging you.

Let’s remember that we’re in the 21st century now. Many online booking providers are offering tools adapted from 1980’s style tourism industry technology. Beware especially of services requiring you to install software on your desktop computers, and pay periodic fees for updates. None of this should be necessary with today’s online technology.

And what about the big question. What should I be paying for online bookings and marketing on the internet? The answer is you should pay nothing at all to sign up for online listings. The most advanced online booking and marketing services are offering membership for free. BedBreakfastTraveler.com is one of the services in this category. Look for firms that list properties globally, not just in the US and Canada. Global services are the ones with real experience in offering advanced booking capability. As for commissions, throw out companies charging more than 15% (including the 25% example above). The best services today are offering commission rates of only 8 - 10%, providing advanced booking technology and allowing you to increase your profit margin. Finally, what about booking engines for your own website? You should be paying no more than 15% (compared with 30% for the provider mentioned above) if the provider is collecting the entire booking amount up front. If only a small deposit is collected at booking, you can expect to pay only 2-3% commission. BedBreakfastTraveler.com offers an industry-low special price of 1.9% for this service.

Don’t be held captive by booking and marketing services with annual membership fees and commissions. They’re just not worth it, and you can get the same and better service for almost free in today’s advancing marketplace. If you’re using a service that you like today, but think you may be paying too much, post your arrangement here for comments. Or, contact Instant World Booking directly. Instant World Booking stands ready to beat any price for a competing service offering, and will offer superior technology in the process.

One final tip. If you’re using one of the several major “booking by request” engines for your bed and breakfast website, this is not real online booking. These are services that pretend to offer online calendars or rudimentary availability to guests, while requiring you to manually confirm every booking. You may only be paying a small monthly fee for the service, or no commissions at all. However, with “booking on request” services you are losing business. There are many B&B owners in North America who desperately hold on to this form of booking. But, there is no doubt that this form of booking loses you business. Many guests seeking lodging online today refuse to book with this method because there is no instant confirmation.