Is your goal in 2018-19 to get more direct bookings? Your response should be a resounding YES.

From a PhocusWire (powered by PhocusWright) article entitled; ‘Online travel agency fightback: Tactics to lure direct bookings’. By Max Starkov. Geared towards the hotel industry but there is some good advise that is universal for all lodging properties.

Fact: ‘The conversion rate for hotels is a low 2% for booking direct.’

“For example, imagine 100 people visit your hotel website. Out of those people, less than two will complete a booking, and more than 98 will look around before leaving to make a booking elsewhere – either with your competitors or with the OTAs.”

With this fact you can understand why hotels are concerned and are spending bunches of dollars and valuable staff time to convert their site visitors to stay and book.

You may be asking… what would be the conversion rate for our smaller independently owned and operated B&Bs?

Fact: ‘An outdated website and booking engine leads to lower conversions.’

Your PMS (property management system) should be a quality, robust, and connected system. For example, Think Reservations has something called ‘Channel Management’, direct connectivity with Trip Advisor, Booking.com, Expedia, BedandBreakfast.com and AirBnB. You would be able to see on a monthly chart where your reservations came from. As a result, track your online conversion rate.

But you may be saying… I am totally on board with a great new website with SEO near perfect, new and robust PMS, great responsive mobile-first site, great download speeds but I still want more direct bookings. (greedy aren’t we!).

Something that is new on the pike worth considering.

Online chats, social messaging. A way to engage with your potential guests with pre-stay conversations. Answer their queries (Do we have to sit with a bunch of people at breakfast? or Can you do Vegan?) A chance to wow them with your answers. As a result, keep them on your site and encourage them to book direct.

Hoperator is a ‘sales and messaging platform for travel and hospitality businesses’. Their mantra:

Engage. Convert. Retain

But you may be saying…I do this all the time on the phone, why do I need an online chat?

Just like all the media tools that are available to you, this is another to add to the bucket. And it just may be useful to you.

From Hoperator’s article: What is the Cost of Real Time?

‘Messaging isn’t just a new trend, it’s here to stay. There have been a number of reports produced in the last two years that show that the adoption rate of social messaging is over taking that of social network activity.  Plus, the world is becoming inherently more mobile, making messaging more and more prominent. Live chat alone has a 73% satisfaction rate (compared to just a 44% satisfaction rate with the phone) and it takes an average of less than 48 seconds to answer a simple question. Also, customers are 63% more likely to return to websites with live chat. In other words, live chat is quicker than a phone call and is more likely to lead to a satisfied customer.

And it makes sense. 83% of consumers want to deal with human beings when it comes to customer service.’ To learn more contact hello@hoperator.com

Right now the company has more hotel customers than B&Bs but they welcome all lodging types. Since innkeepers are glued at the hip to their phones, getting a ping that someone wants to chat may be less time consuming than a call, something to consider.

What are you doing to get more direct bookings? Would love to hear from you.

Thanks for Listening,

Janet Wolf

One of the first sessions I attended at last week’s AIHP Knowledge Sharing Summit and Marketplace was presented by David Mayfield from ResNexus. Effective time Management. Some do it well, others not so much. But everyone can learn new techniques. In business and daily private life, time is precious, and worth the time to explore better ways to manage it.

Have you ever heard the term, ‘eat the frog’? It all started with Mark Twain, a guy who said a lot of smart things. His point…”if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.”

So what does this have to do with time management? Fast forward a few decades to a publication by Brian Tracy, ‘Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.’

David Mayfield based his session on many of the points in this book.

Let’s go back to that frog. “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest and biggest one first. This is another way to saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first.” Brian Tracy.

I think we have all felt the satisfaction of tackling and completing a dreaded task first, without procrastinating. And we have all sat and stared into the bulging eyes at that ugly frog and let it hop away and hide, only to return another day!

“The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place. Once you actually begin work on a valuable task, you seem to be naturally motivated to continue.” Brian Tracy

I would like to emphasize ‘valuable task’. Innkeeper (name withheld) knows that they must enter expenses in QuickBooks, they have been putting if off for weeks. But the lawn needs cutting. Which task is the biggest and ugliest? Time to be honest and time to eat that frog.

I think you get the frog analogy by now, lets continue. Here are a few of David Mayfield’s 7 keys to better time management that I picked up from his session.

Assume Responsibility

This was the first ‘key’ David listed. It is your business, and you are the one responsible to manage and complete the most important and valuable tasks.

Write it Down

Write your goals down, the non-techy way, with pen and paper, each day. Then find the frog (the most important task/goal) on your list, you know what to do next.  It may be possible that other less timely important goals/tasks on your list you can delegate to staff? Delegating effectively is a real time saver.

Review Your Day

Checking off everything on your list at the end of your day can be very satisfying. But sometimes ‘life happens’ and tasks are left undone. Don’t fret, as long as one frog gets eaten you can sleep well. Burp!

This is just a snapshot of all that David had to offer in his session. ResNexus as well as other property management systems (PMS) offer many time saving automated services. Once you find the right PMS for you, using all the tools will help you streamline your operations and help you control the running of your business.

Another great tip…two monitors. Have your reservation system on all the time on one monitor during business hours. The other monitor could be your laptop. So when that call for a room, or online reservation comes in, you and your monitor are up and ready. Thought, install a photo of a frog as your screen saver.

Thanks for Listening,

Janet Wolf

What is an Algorithm? Nothing to do with Al Gore and whether he has rhythm or not. But all to do with the internet (didn’t Al invent that?)

Definition from Whatis.com:

“An algorithm (pronounced AL-go-rith-um) is a procedure or formula for solving a problem, based on conducting a sequence of specified actions. A computer program can be viewed as an elaborate algorithm.”

Mathematicians and computer geeks know what it means but to your average non-geek, it is a mystery. I am in that category. That is why it is great that our industry has people out there that know and can help us understand.

More definitions:

“Algorithms are widely used throughout all areas of IT (information technology). A search engine algorithm, for example, takes search strings of keywords and operators as input, searches its associated database for relevant web pages, and returns results.”

Now this is making more sense. I use keywords in my blogs to help make my postings relevant and searchable. Your web designer has embedded keywords on your web pages for the same reason.

But it gets more complicated.

Q4Launch just published a blog: Changes are coming: How to Survive the Latest Facebook Update. A great read. Very relevant because it will affect our business Facebook page.

“The idea behind the update is to increase meaningful interactions between people, not pages. As a user, this Facebook update means there will be less public content from publishers and businesses.”

The article gives you some good step by step advise on how to work with the change. Facebook is making these changes with brand new, you guessed it, algorithms. After reading this article I did get a better sense of the changes that are coming. Thanks to companies like Q4Lauch and many more that are here to help us non-geeks.

There are always changes on the horizon with Google. Lisa Kolb, Acorn Internet Services, Inc. will be offering a session at the upcoming AIHP Knowledge Sharing Summit and Marketplace. Entitled; Ten Steps to Making Google Happy and Improving Your Business.

Another session; A Beginners Guide to the New Inn Owners Online Presence. InsideOut Solutions, Inc, White Stone Marketing and Acorn will put their heads together and give you more information on how to make Google happy.

If you want to get closer to the meaning of algorithm? Get your rhythm on, attend the Summit in Norfolk VA. Just around the corner, February 26 to March 1.

To end on a funny note. A comment left on the Whatis.com article

“I don’t get it and its due on Friday and its Thursday and its my homework for grade 6!”

I’m with you kid, but I keep on trying.

Thanks for Listening,

Janet Wolf

TECHNOLOGY TIP: A web-based Property Management System allows you to enter reservations from anywhere you have internet access.

OPERATIONS TIP: Alan recommends using a credit card machine instead of an internet credit card processing service if your inn is subject to frequent power outages.  Phone lines continue to work in outages and you will still be able to do business.

TECHNOLOGY TIP:  An iPhone or iPad-type device will give you that internet access capability. You can take reservations from the grocery store or while away from the inn without worrying about losing a booking by not getting back to your voicemail or answering machine soon enough.

TECHNOLOGY TIP:  Google Calendar allows you to manage your daily schedule and appointments.  If you keep your calendar on Outlook, Google Calendar can be synced with your Outlook calendar.

SECURITY (AND TECHNOLOGY) TIP: Set your wireless network to log all MAC codes and connection times of every device that connects to your service from your account.  This will identify all users on your system and will protect you if any of your users are doing illegal activity on your network (such as downloading pornography or spamming).

TIME-SAVING (AND TECHNOLOGY) TIP: If you use company credit cards and banks (and we all do!), set it up to have them download their monthly statements directly into your financial software package.  Saves a LOT of typing!  (Call Alan on how to do that…not me!)

MARKETING TIP: If you want to get to the top of Google search results, when selecting important keywords, ask a friend with a similar inn that is distant from you for ideas.  Local competition may not be as friendly sharing their secrets.

TECHNOLOGY TIP: On your wireless network, ensure it is secured with a password or phrase.  You can inform your guests of the password but it also prevents the neighbors from downloading movies on your network and slowing your network to a crawl.

TIME-SAVING TIP: If you make a cash deposit to your bank, write the name and reservation number on the deposit slip.  you will be able to query it on the internet a year later when your accountant asks where the money came from.

MONEY-MANAGEMENT TIP: Alan recommends having THREE bank accounts.  One is your personal account for all non-business transactions.  The second is for all deposits from sales…whether credit card deposits, cash deposits, gift shop sales, everything.  This is an INTEREST-BEARING account.  The third account is for expenditures.  Transfer money from the revenue account into the expenditure account on occasion to pay the bills.  This leaves the balance of the revenue earning interest.  A side-benefit of having these two business accounts is that you will have all deposits and all expenses on SEPARATE statements at the end of the month for easy reconciling.

Thank you, Alan.  I would be interested in other innkeepers’ thoughts on any of Alan’s ideas and feel free to send me YOUR tips for making the innkeeping lifestyle and business even more wonderful and manageable.  Scott

First a few facts: According to D.K. Shifflet & Associates, a travel and research consulting firm:

• Leisure travel surpassed business travel for the hotel industry in 2004
• That gap has widened and by 2009, 54% of hotel travel volume is now leisure travel.
• Corporate travel has been slowly declining, and “it’s not going back” according to Shifflet.
• The Gen X (late 20’s to early 40’s) travelers are replacing the Baby Boomers and are traveling with their young families.

The hotels are watching the changing demographics and evolving to meet the new market.  To entice the leisure traveler to their properties, focus is strengthening on FAMILY travel. Marriott is:

• Offering a Nickelodeon package to the kids with activity books and Nick bracelets
• Toddler care packages are awaiting the arriving family with squirting bath toys, fitted crib sheets, baby shampoos and nightlights.
• Spongebob backpacks with matching sheets and pillowcases are for sale in the gift shop.

The younger demographic is also demanding VALUE, a concept more wide-spread than just the Gen X-ers.  Homewood Suites by Hilton (typically a corporate traveler mecca has seen a 50% increase in its leisure travel this past year) is revising its free meals program, and Kimpton Hotels will give away free sangria drinks and Wii video games in the lobby this summer…something for the parents AND the kids.

So what does that have to do with US in the Bed and Breakfast Industry?

Everything, if you are ready to keep your business growing!

B and B owners often cater to only a certain slice of the traveling market.  They rely on the romance getaway, or traveling couple, typically Baby Boomers, to fill rooms.  But this AGE-SEGMENT of the traveling market is declining and we must target the NEXT generation as well…and they’re traveling with their kids. Some target the corporate traveler if the inn is fortunate enough to have several large businesses or a college within a mile or two.  But this segment is also in decline, and mid-week rooms are going to go empty.

Some ACTION Items for your Next Planning Meeting

• Is your Inn ready for a Tune-Up? Do your rooms and bathrooms appeal to the NEW demographic of the traveling public?  Do you have Ipod docking stations, and have you replaced gramma’s old furniture with clean lines and Pottery Barn-type styling?  People want to visit museums, not stay in one.
• Is your website ready for updating?  Anything 2 years or older is a dinosaur that won’t be found by the new search engine algorithms.  Do you have video of area attractions, or still relying on static photography of a bed?  The next generation is ultra techno-savvy and will find you in ways OTHER than your organic website, IF you embrace social media (May 7 posting) marketing and email marketing.
• Are you still illegally restricting kids to age 12 or older?  Talk to those inns who willingly accept children and find out what they do to make the family experience memorable.
• If all the inns in your area still restrict children, think of the ADVANTAGE you will have when they send all their family-travel referrals to you!
• Targeting and marketing for mid-week bookings in addition to your current corporate travelers will prepare to replace those declining mid-week business guests with others…such as quilting groups, elder travel with grandkids, or scrapbookers.  I’ll bet there’s an inn in your area already capitalizing on this new trend.

The B&B Team is ready to help you with your Evolution Planning when you are finally disgusted with negative growth of your inn’s performance.  The traveling market is evolving, and we BEG each of the inns in this industry to evolve with it.  And it’s fun!  And more satisfying than watching Spongebob!

Scott

The numbers are convincing, but not surprising when you see the explosion of Social Media and technology in our industry.  These figures, presented by Stephen Schweickart, CEO of VScreen, were detailed by Stephanie Andre in an interview published in RISMedia’s April 28 Ezine.

SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH A B&B?  Everything!

Gone are the days when having a few photos on your website was all you needed.  The leaders in the inn industry recognize the power that video offers when grabbing the attention of the consumer.  Everybody has heard that you have 3 secondsto grab the attention of a web surfer once your SEO efforts brings him to your site.  If he subconsciously discovers he likes the look of the site, he gives you another 4 seconds to discover if your site can meet his needs by looking at the functionality and navigation. If you fail at either of these steps, he hits the BACK button and he’s lost.

Video, per Mr. Schweickart, extends that window of attention-span to 14 seconds.  People enjoy movies, they like the action.  We are a visual society and the days of stagnant photos of the bed in the guest room will not grab the attention of the potential booking anymore.

It’s time to update websites to meet these evolving interestsof the traveling market.  Check out the YouTube video made by Dallas and Nancy Renner of the Chocolate Turtle B&Bin Corrales, NM.  Not only do you get to see a bit of the inn and its colors, but the video takes you into the community to see the shops, the animals and the mountains, and you get to meet the innkeepers as well…always a part of the guest memories you want to create.  That’s a marketing advantage over the competition that throws water on the fiery argument that it’s the current recession that is causing business to be down.

Your breakfast presentations are fabulous.  Make your inn’s presentation on the internet fabulous too.

Here are a few ideas to consider as you work to improve your website:

• Replace the stills of the guest bed with video of the guest rooms…panning around the room and out the windows to the scenic river below.
• Pan across the deck or private patio with the colorful breakfast settings to the bird feeder with the orioles and bluebirds or to the water feature in the garden.
• Film the scarecrow festival in October, the strawberry festival in June, the sleigh rides in January and the flower fairs in April in your region.  These are the places your guests are going to want to see to have the full experience.
• Loan your digital camera to your guests heading out hiking or to the battlefield re-enactment, show them how to use the video feature, and put their live testimonial on your site and blog.
• Link your blog with a feed to your Facebook account to have your videos shown to your fans around the world.

Grab them with your inn’s beauty, your creativity and your innovation.  You only have 3 seconds.    Scott

By now most of you realize that social media and consumer generated content, whether it be blogs, Facebook and Twitter, TripAdvisor, or product reviews on e-commerce sites, are essential to long term business success. After all, while Boomers still make up the lion’s share of inn guests (and, by the way, females aged 55-65 are the fastest growing segment of Facebook users), Gen X and Gen Y (the Millenials) are forming a growing percentage of the traveling public. And, since most businesses (like your inn) want to be around in a few years, paying attention is a smart choice.

A great article in Hotelmarketing.com called “Gen Y and the online travel marketer” by Caroline Gates of TIG has some eye-popping statistics blended with some good advice. For instance, not only did this generation (born between 1977 and 1995) grow up with an electronic device in their hand and a computer at every turn, but they are already spending about $200 Billion a year.  The younger ones aren’t booking rooms at your B&B, but the older ones are starting to, especially if you give them a compelling reason and show them that you “get it.” Gen Xers, more than Millenials, are definitely part of every inn’s guest roster, and they’re pretty plugged in, too.

If 78% of people trust peer reviews and only 14% trust advertisements, and your website is an advertisement, the importance of bringing those reviews front and center is critical. If you’re already doing this, good for you. If you aren’t, start engaging your guests in the process and build a reserve of great reviews on all the main travel sites. And put those reviews on your home page.  This is pretty basic.

The younger generations, who are the future of travel, want to be entertained and respected, too. Keep your content on Facebook, your blog (which you should be doing) and your website fresh. Keep and show a sense of humor. Seek out places where all your guests might congregate, and join the conversation. Read and respond to travel blogs. In other words, engage.

In branding and marketing we talk about the fact that travelers want “bragging rights” when they return home. Where once being able to have stayed at the most luxurious, well known, and expensive place constituted the only important thing to brag about, today people want to brag about what they did on their vacation. And increasingly what they did may have social implications. They helped build a Habitat house, volunteered to clean up a park, ran a race for the cure, or otherwise did something that, in their opinion, “mattered.” And hopefully they also stayed at a great inn whose owners helped them find the opportunities and took good care of them. They’ll tell all their friends (via social media), and we’ve always known how important word of mouth is.

We all know about SEO, search engine optimization, and how important it is for travelers to find your website. But are you aware of Google’s new real-time search results? There’s a new wrinkle in SEO, and it involves social media. Google can now find and index information about your inn as it is being published on Facebook, Twitter, and other media. What does this mean for you? The more people you can have writing about their great weekend with you (bragging about it), posting pictures, telling their friends, the more prominent you’re going to show up in the new search results. Will it affect traditional search ranking? No one knows for sure. But “social rank” is increasingly more important to many than organic Google ranking.

But let’s be honest, innkeepers don’t have to obsess about this the way Pepsi or Apple do, but you do have to be in the game. For years at conferences in our blog (The Innkeeper’s Resource) and in personal consultations with clients we’ve spoken and written about changing trends, tastes, and demographics, social media marketing, and the basics of hospitality. In the end, the important thing is not to get discouraged. Take bite sizes. Put together a plan for reinventing and reinvigorating your marketing. This may have to start with reinventing your inn, but you won’t know if you don’t ask. Sound daunting? It doesn’t have to be. Think of it as FUN! And if you can have fun, you’ll be happier, your guests will be happier, and your bed & breakfast will be more successful. Did I hear “exit strategy?”

What are YOU doing to be part of the new world we live in?

Peter

There was a great piece recently in Hospitality News about a company that handles vacation rentals on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Eastern Shore Vacation Rentals has embraced “voluntourism” in a big way. In the off season, renters can get one free day for every three paid days for each day a guest volunteers with the local Habitat for Humanity. Not only does the company benefit by being socially conscious, but Habitat gets additional willing volunteers, and the vacationers get something to do that makes them feel good, and they save money in the process. Does anyone lose here?

Andon-Reid Inn Bed and Breakfast in Waynesville, NC is trying to raise money for breast cancer research by donating $1.00 for every new fan over 200 that they get by a certain date. They get the fans; the Susan G. Komen Foundation gets some money, Andon-Reid Inn looks great, and new fans can feel like they did a good thing, and it didn’t cost them anything!  Do the right thing.

Timothy Coleman, a member of the HSMAI Revenue Management Advisory Board, wrote a great article called “How about a ‘race to the top’ for 2010-2011?” In an obvious reference to the Obama administrations plan for education, Mr. Coleman echoed the words of Bob Gilbert, President and CEO of HSMAI, that with all the discounting that has gone on the past year or two in the hotel industry in a frustrated (and largely unsuccessful) effort to fill rooms and make more money, it’s going to take a long time to get those rates back to where they should have been and should be unless property owners are willing to make the tough calls.  That effort should start now by finding ways to increase rates ahead of immediate demand.

Travelers want an experience, right? Innkeepers are great at delivering that experience. And Innkeepers have been MUCH better than hoteliers at resisting the urge simply to cut rates but instead have added value and incentives. But your rates should still see upward creep. If you have a policy of raising your rates in small amounts every year, most people won’t notice it. And if you deliver on that promised experience, they won’t mind even when they do notice. Holding rates steady means losing income over time. So be smart and realize that your ADR is in your hands. Be courageous and willing to buck the trend. Lead the pack by raising your rates in 2010.

And then there was the article “Social media best practices for hotel marketers” on Hotelmarketing.com. Annemarie Dooling writes about the five basic tips to remember.

1.    Make your “friends, fans, and followers” feel special by giving them incentives that don’t go out to the general public. It’s a compelling reason to become part of an inn’s social network. And you can employ “flash marketing” (short-lived specials just for recipients of the messages) with your “inner circle,” which makes them feel special, generating loyalty.

2.    Create an open and transparent dialogue. When you respond to a negative review properly, you are doing this. Taking it a step further and contacting the complainer personally and offering to do something to make up for a deficiency (if it was there) and not wanting to remove the negative review. Honesty pays.

3.    Give your friends and fans tools to spread the word. Find ways to engage your social media circle and post some of what they post on your blog/Facebook page, etc. Wouldn’t it blow away your guests if they happened to be tweeting about something they were doing while staying at your inn, and you knew about it (because you were also following them) and were able to do something special as a result? Try it; it could be fun. And they just might tell everyone what a cool thing you did.

4.    Feature fans in your communications. If you’re adept with a flip video, ask to film some short “reviews” or interviews of guests and post them on your blog. If fans write about staying with you on their page, re-tweet or re-publish their remarks. Their bragging is better than you bragging, but you’re helping them help you spread the word.

5.    Establish relationships on your guests’ terms. At The B&B Team® we’ve talked about the need to have a social media presence, because some people don’t check email but do look at their Facebook page every day. Likewise with Twitter or others who live by their RSS feeds (from your blog and others).  And, by engaging and watching what your guests do, you may find even more ways to reach out and touch them in personal ways that just might blow them away!

Have a wonderful spring, and make 2010 the year to break all records! You just might do it if you do the right thing, are smart and courageous, and are clever at embracing the real world of social media.

What ideas do you have that are making a difference in your business? Let’s hear about them.