The Innkeeper's Resource

Bed and Breakfasts and Property Values

Any time a new bed & breakfast is in the planning stage, there are inevitably regulatory hurdles to surmount. Often times the neighbors have to approve, or at least not object too vehemently, to secure approval from planners and local elected officials.

Over the years many people have asked us about studies that show the positive impact a B&B can have on a neighborhood, especially on property values. However, to my knowledge, there are none. It would be a long term, gargantuan task to gather the information and would require enormous amounts of historical research. The evidence, however, is empirical and widespread. It's the old "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality. B&Bs are invariably the nicest house on the block and generally serve to cause the neighbors to want to bring their own property up to comparable snuff, thus improving the neighborhood generally and property values specifically.

Clients of ours have held open houses to invite the neighbors and have personally invited local officials for private tours to explain the planning and the positive impact the B&B will have on the area. We have written letters of support and have even spoken on our clients' behalf at public hearings. Fortunately, more people today know what a bed and breakfast is, though there are still some who think they are like the boarding houses of the past.

With a clear plan and a smiling face, you should be able to convince the people who matter most that your bed & breakfast will be a great asset to their community.

Peter

When a Review is not a Review...

With all the discussion about social media, blogging, travel review sites, etc., there's always a fair amount of passion. Most innkeepers either love or hate Tripadvisor. There's very little middle ground. Our feeling at The B&B Team is that innkeepers need to know about, track, and use Travel 2.0 venues as much as they can and as much as they feel it may impact their business positively. However, there's a big difference between "use" and "abuse."

For instance, is there anything wrong with an innkeeper encouraging happy, smiling departing guests from leaving a review at Tripadvisor (or some other site)? Is it any less ethical not to say a thing about reviews to a departing i.guest who had a less than a perfect stay? Is it important and proper to respond adequately to a negative review? How about posing as a happy i.guest and posting a great review about your own property? After all, it's just to get the ball rolling, right? Or what about pretending to be an irate former guest and posting a bogus review blasting your competitor?

In the early days of the public Internet, some enterprising individuals bought hundreds of URL's, including the names of industries and companies, in the belief (well founded in many cases) that someone would pay them a lot of money to buy them. It worked, for a while. There was nothing inherently wrong with being ahead of the competition and buying URLs like "bedandbreakfast.com" that were industry specific. But there was a problem with people buying the names of companies and extorting those companies, in essence, to get their own name back. In the end, because of the ethics and the law that prevailed, some entrepreneurs were denied their hoped-for windfall. A line had been crossed.

In social media, and innkeeping, everyone needs to keep a perspective and remember that there are lines that shouldn't be crossed. This is new territory, so keep a level head and keep the standards high. When a review is not a review, maybe the angel on your shoulder should be louder than the other voice!

Peter

Technorati Profile

Understanding the i.guest

Who is the i.guest? What is an i.guest? The i.guest is the contemporary traveler who is changing the face of hospitality marketing. Welcome to Travel 2.0.

The i.guest is Informed. Internet-empowered. Independent. And, importantly for innkeepers, is Identified.

The i.guest is finding places to stay and booking rooms (not just seeing availability at midnight) on the Web. Everyone knows that. But many innkeepers don't realize yet that their prospective guest is not just looking at their website to make a decision. Increasingly, especially with a younger demographic, the i.guest insists upon hearing what others have said about your inn. They want independent confirmation of your advertising claims from first hand experience. Tripadvisor is king. But so, increasingly, are other social media sources and communities on the Internet.

Your i.guest wants to learn about you and your area from more than one source, and they will book at their leisure and pleasure, not yours, but only if you let them. This independent and informed guest uses the Internet as their core tool, but blogs and other social media sites will affect their decision to buy more than your inn's website. So, what are YOU doing to attract the i.guest? Do you have a blog at your inn? How does it work? Do you track reviews on Tripadvisor? We're all ears!

Peter

Change and Adaptability in Innkeeping

Thanks to my friend, Michael Russer, a guru of modern marketing for the real estate industry, for a couple of great quotes that are particularly apropos of the innkeeping world today.

Charles Darwin said, "It's not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." In more recent years Eric Hoffer wrote, "In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."

Having watched the real estate industry teeter on the verge of extinction along with travel agents a few years ago, I can attest to the power of learning and adapting to survive and, I might add, thrive. There are lots of B&Bs and inns out there who are doing business the same way they have for years, and some are struggling. After all, hospitality is hospitality, right? Yes and no. How you treat people will never change, i.e. caring for them and doing the right things for them. It's how you get those people to begin with that is changing at warp speed. It's called Web 2.0 and now Travel 2.0.

Believe me, at The B&B Team we don't have all the answers, but we're LEARNING FAST what we need to do, and what our clients need to be doing, to remain successful. And we see some innkeepers who are adopting social media into their marketing campaigns with stellar results. Take a look at how George and Janice Yankowski have incorporated new media into their site at The Maine Stay Inn in Kennebunkport, ME. Also the Thomas Shepherd Inn in Shepherdstown, WV and The Whitegate Inn in Mendocino, CA are blogging for guests. How about your area: are other innkeepers blogging? Take a look to find out. Ask them how it's going.

When was the last time you tried something really, really new? I bet it was fun!

Peter

Strategic Thinking for Innkeepers

When you're in business as we are, you get all kinds of email newsletters on a daily basis. Most of the ones I get are either related to real estate or hospitality, the focus of our business. There are lots of articles that aren't worth much, or aren't relevant to the integrated work we do both in brokerage for the unique lodging industry and hospitality consulting, but some are good.

In the Broker Agent News today was a short piece about Strategic Thinking, and it applies everyone. To really be successful as an innkeeper, you need to consider the consequences of all your decisions, both business and personal. Consider what you can do that enhances your bottom line as well as what enhances your "return on energy." Everything you do as an innkeeper should have an outcome that you can measure either in dollars and cents or in how it "inn-vigorates" you! After all, why did you become an innkeeper? If it does neither, should you be doing it?

So, next time you have a little extra time (yeah, right!), sit down with your partner and make a couple of lists. What things are you doing that add value to your bed & breakfast business? What tasks could be hired out, done away with, or streamlined? And critically, what really gets you fired up? Where does your energy come from? Set your sights, create a plan, and go for! Do you have a secret formula that works for you? Let us hear about it!

Peter