PAII | Bed Breakfast Traveler

November 7, 2012

Hurricane Sandy forum introduced by PAII

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.

November 1, 2010October 13, 2010

New Booking Engines, Lower Prices for 2011

Following is a letter published to our fellow members of the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (paii.org):

We wish to introduce to you our new Booking Engines (Online Reservation System) for 2011. They’re available right now! BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking) believes that this announcement is quite timely. Economic conditions in North America, and for the B&B industry as a whole, are still quite lackluster, despite earlier forecasts. Like you, we feel that internet technology should not only make our lives easier, but also save money … and lots of it. Instant World Booking has introduced a pricing model for Booking Engines that does just that.

In short, BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking) guarantees you a much lower cost for your website’s booking engine than your current provider.

And what’s more, you even choose the way you want to pay: commission pricing, monthly cost, per-transaction cost, etc. We can customize a pricing plan to meet your specific needs, as well as reduce your costs. You choose the pricing model that’s best for you. What really matters is — you’ll be saving money.

For years now, we’ve been reading our competitors’ websites and blog posts explaining their cost structure. You’ve probably seen some of these articles, trying to justify commission costs of 25% – 30% for online reservation programs. And, if you use a competing Booking Engine for your website, you may be paying from $50 per month (that’s the absolute lowest) up to $300 or more per month, plus a commission for every reservation. And, then there’s the setup fee (as high as $999), and plenty of restrictions on how much availability you need to allocate to avoid higher costs.

If there’s any one message I want to get across here: Please Don’t Overpay! It’s no wonder that in the last year, some of these competing providers have been bought out by major corporations or conglomerates. This has been widely publicized in the news. Let’s just see which direction their prices go in the next year.

There’s no secret to why BedBreakfastTraveler.com (Instant World Booking) can offer the same, and better, services for a much lower cost. We’ve been developing better Booking Engines and online marketing services for close to a decade. And, we’re passing on the savings of our smart solutions to you.

Check out a demo of our Booking Engine for your website here:

http://www.bedbreakfasttraveler.com/booking-engine.php

Then, contact us and tell us how much you pay for your current solution. We guarantee a lower cost, and you can even get set up for free in just 24-48 hours.

Check out our blog for more innkeepers’ intelligence, and get the real breakdown of pricing for some of our most popular competitors:

http://www.bedbreakfasttraveler.com/blog_bb/category/business-intelligence/

Even if you’re not in the market for a new Booking Engine just yet, list your property with BedBreakfastTraveler.com today for free. You get 15+ pages of web-optimized, translated content about your B&B (we translate your B&B descriptions for you). This comes complete with custom searchable maps and extras. This is an unprecedented value.

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

Thank you for your valuable time. I promise you that, after spending a couple of minutes checking out our Booking Engine demos, you’ll be saving a lot of money in 2011.

February 28, 2010February 28, 2010

US Travel Promotion Act

In a nutshell, the Travel Promotion Act is: “A bill to establish a non-profit corporation to communicate United States entry policies and otherwise promote leisure, business, and scholarly travel to the United States.”

International travelers are an important customer in the US travel industry. Visits to the US are below 2000 levels, and this has a great impact on the North American economy – especially the micro-economy of the travel industry.

Some B&B owners and innkeepers have do not support this bill because it would involve a new $10 fee on travelers from visa-waiver countries. Compared to what Americans pay in similar fees when visiting European countries (most fees are hidden in taxes and fees in your airline ticket) this is very minor. The question is whether $10 fee that is good for two years would prohibit people from traveling to the US.

PAII.org, the Professional Association of Innkeepers International, supports the bill. For more information on what the bill might mean to your bed and breakfast business, please see their blog at:

http://www.innkeepingblog.com/2009/09/action-alert-to-innkeeping-industry-help-pass-travel-promotion-act-now/

To understand more about the powers of the bill and how it would be funded, click here.