Intelligence for Bed and Breakfasts and Small Hotels
“Don’t ever turn down free advertising. Marketing has a ‘cumulative effect’. In this case, less is not more. More is definitely More!”
The “cumulative effect” is even more valuable if the source of advertising is costless. To learn how it works, read:
http://www.instantworldbooking.com/blog_iw/2010/10/cumulative-effect-online-marketing/
BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking) has proven to be very successful in gaining top search engine rankings for its listed bed & breakfast partners. One reason it is important to use the instant booking method is that we use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to market your property on Google and other sites. Use of a PPC campaign can cost you hundreds of US dollars each month. However, for our B&B and hotel partners who use instant booking, we advertise your property in PPC campaigns for free.
For more information and tips on how to step-up your online marketing, check out:
Online Marketing Tips by Instant World Booking
Your bed and breakfast’s website is one of your most valuable assets. Like all of our assets, we wish to grow their value. But how can we do this, even in a down economy? Your website and the traffic it brings is an asset you can grow anytime.
One of the most important value “drivers” of your website is search engine ranking. Obtaining quality inbound links to your website from 3rd party sources is a major component of your search engine rankings. Most search engines consider a link to your website as a “vote” for the importance of your website. The more links that point to your homepage, the more important your site becomes when people search on major search engines.
Reciprocal linking is not the way to go, although it can be used sparingly. Major search engines today are able to figure out what links are reciprocal or not, and reciprocal links are heavily discounted, along with you website if you employ them. Reciprocal links should be used sparingly, and only with websites of actual bed and breakfasts. It’s fine to trade links with other B&Bs.
The highest-quality links are one-way links to your website that come from related, relevant, and quality websites. Building links can take a lot of time, but is worth the effort.
For another form of link that can drive qualified traffic to your website, BedBreakfastTraveler.com offers free links to your webpage with any free listing on our service. There are over 100 websites in BedBreakfastTraveler.com’s network (Instant World Booking), and an average bed and breakfast may have listings on up to 15-25 sites, all with one free listing. This means that on any of these SEO-optimized listing pages, a link to your homepage will appear. Free links on our network display your website in a shadowbox on the listing page, and do not re-direct the user to your webpage. Your entire website is visible however. Free links also do not appear on premium sites like BedBreakfastTraveler.com and InstantWorldBooking.com
Introducing Paid Links
For a small cost, paid (sponsored) links are available to gain even more traffic to your website. Paid links will re-direct the user right to your website, and paid links appear on our premium sites. Note that all our links are constructed in strict agreement with Google’s guidelines.
Again, all you need to do is have a free listing on BedBreakfastTraveler.com, and then you can access either the free links which are automatically provided to you. Or, purchase paid links by signing in to your listing at BedBreakfastTraveler.com.
Want to know the number 1 rule of tourism marketing on the internet? Good Photos Increase Bookings.
Now that doesn’t sound like much of a secret, does it? But surprisingly, almost half of all tourism marketing, especially in the lodging market (B&B’s, Inns, small hotels, etc.) don’t follow this very simple advice.
BedBreakfastTraveler.com and the Instant World Booking network have now made it much easier for you to increase bookings with excellent photos. We now offer unlimited photos for your online listing. That’s right — Unlimited! This feature is new, it’s free, and as always, maintaining a listing with the BedBreakfastTraveler.com is free.
Check out half of the small bed and breakfast websites on the internet. Photos sell rooms! We can’t over-emphasize this simple concept. Look further to the competing booking services around the web, especially those catering to the bed and breakfast and inn market. They offer maybe half a dozen photos or so for a bed and breakfast listing, and their display size is a small image barely larger than a thumbnail. This does very little to sell your rooms and beds. What’s worse? These services are expensive!
If you’re familiar with BedBreakfastTraveler.com, then you already know that we lead the competition in innovative technology. And what’s more simple (yet innovative) than offering unlimited photos for free? No other service offers this, and they know many properties will be willing to pay large membership fees if they did. Don’t pay. Try BedBreakfastTraveler.com.
If you’ve been advertising your bed and breakfast or inn on the internet for a while, you know that good photos do increase sales. And, the more photos you have the better. Don’t include just photos of your guestrooms, but of all common areas of your property, inside and out. Give a real sense of what it’s like to stay in your hotel. And what about your environment? Include photos of the surrounding neighborhood and views from your property. This really sells rooms.
To add your photos, simply sign in to your listing at BedBreakfastTraveler.com, and proceed to the MANAGE PHOTOS page. You can upload an unlimited number of images. And, you can submit images as large as 8MB! No more re-sizing and touching up your photos. Our enhanced system will handle that for you. As a bonus, don’t worry about the format of your pictures, you can now submit JPEG/JPG, PNG, and GIF images.
So get online today, and add your photos. Remember, good photos increase reservations. If it’s been awhile since you’ve refreshed your pics, get your camera out, and start taking new photos.
As always, Instant World Booking looks forward to seeing you on the web. To get listed with our network, simply go to:
http://www.bedbreakfasttraveler.com/listings/add_listing.php
