The Innkeeper's Resource

Word-of-Mouth Marketing

When innkeepers take a reservation from a repeat guest or learn that a new reservation was referred by a previous guest, it's always a good thing. The higher the percentage of repeat and referral guests, the better, because word of mouth advertising costs nothing. Or does it?

In the day to day reality of most inns, word of mouth is free. But in the larger world of marketing, advertisers (that's anyone asking someone else to buy their product or service, including innkeepers) are spending an increasing amount on Word-of-Mouth marketing, according to a recent article from PQ Media. PQ Media reports that "Spending on word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing jumped 35.9% in 2006 to $981.0 million and is expected to top $1 billion in 2007." If WoM has now extended from just friends and family talking together to social media outlets where future guests get referrals from "friends" they may not actually know, this is huge.

According to Nielsen Online, the most popular social networking site, Myspace.com, had almost 59 million unique visitors in October, 2007, up 19% from October, 2006. Facebook.com grew 125% in the same period! The B&B Team has been addressing this issue a lot lately, because it's important. Does this mean that you have to start spending money to get the word of mouth that has always been free? No, not really. To partcipate in the virtual WoM world takes time more than anything. If you set up a blog the cost is minimal, but it costs nothing to belong to and read various social network sites where a lot of this word-of-mouth marketing is happening. So what are you waiting for? Eavesdrop a bit. Join the party and find out what everyone's talking about. We are!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Peter

What a Week!

Here it is Monday noon and the entire week beginning last Monday seems like a nonstop event....sound familiar?  Monday and Tuesday, Jan & I were attending and participating in the 86th Annual Meeting & Conference of the Maine Innkeepers Association.  Kudos to our association's Executive Director Greg Dugal and his capable staff for mounting another successful and informative conference. 

Without a doubt, one of the highlights of the conference was the presentation by Peter Yesawich, Chairman and CEO of Ypartnertship.com.  As one of the leading sources for information on travel trends and preferences, Peter's dynamic presence and the information shared was truly informative and enlightening.  After the presentation, I had the opportunity to spend some time, one on one, with Peter. I shared some ideas about The B&B Team's approach to our own research and how from his macro view of the travel industry we drill down to more of a micro view of the small lodging industry...always with an eye towards the big picture travel trends and how they effect our unique segment of the lodging industry.  You'll soon be hearing more about our research and the i.guest.

Tuesday found me in an all day seminar relating to the practices and laws of Maine Real Estate as a part of continuing and expanding our areas of expertise in this important area of our business.

Our partner Peter Scherman arrived from Virginia Thursday as we prepped for our Aspiring Innkeeper's Seminar which began Friday and concluded last evening.  We had a wonderful group of Aspirer's and were well cared for by our host inn, English Meadows Inn and innkeepers Bruce & Valerie Jackson.

It was at our seminar that the launch presentation, based upon our own research and compilations, of the i.guest was presented to our group and our special guest, Sandy Soule, the renowned travel writer and VP of bedandbreakfast.com.

So as an ex-innkeeper I felt right at home with this exciting, busy and productive week. Please keep tuned in as we share more about the i.guest...today's informed, intelligent, independent, and internet savvy traveler.  A question for you...have you identified this guest? If so, we'd love to hear from you and how you are marketing your inn to today's contemporary traveler.

Have a great week!

Rick

This is how marketing is done...

It's always exciting to find inns that really "get it" when it comes to marketing their properties. It's not that there is just one way to do it, but that most successful inns follow one consistent pattern: they all pay a great deal of attention to what is happening: at their inn, in the marketplace, and in trends that will affect them.

I recently did some work at The Folkestone Inn in Bryson City, NC. This is a true country inn, rural, close to Smoky Mountain National Park, the Cherokee Indian Qualla Boundary, and the Nantahala Outdoor Center, to name but a few attractions. At 10 rooms, Folkestone Inn isn't huge, but it's big enough to be a viable business. One of the things that impressed me is the way the owners track their business. They want to know not only what is happening now in real time, but how that compares to last year and the year before. If there's a change, they ask themselves why? What are the leading indicators that would suggest a reason for a change. What should they be doing to anticipate a change or even a recurring event? They have beta tested almost every reservation system to pick the one that works best for them, for the information they want to be able to analyse. They have real time online booking. And they utilize a professional phone service when they are away, even for a few hours, to be sure a human answers the phone whenever possible.

They leave their web work to professionals, but they direct those pro's as to what they want featured, and when. They artfully integrate the style of their inn with the amenities they offer. Scrupulous attention is to paid to the basics like extreme cleanliness and good food. They monitor websites like TripAdvisor to know what people are saying and plan to put those reviews on their own site. In short, they pay attention to the details.

Importantly, they spend their time on the high value tasks which they can do better than anyone and hire the help that is easier to come by (not that great housekeepers are easy to come by, but you know what I mean!). Are they blogging yet? No, but who knows what the future holds once The B&B Team gets our hands on them!

Peter

Remember Web Basics

In all the discussion about social media, blogs, Web 2.0, etc., I am reminded that it's important to remember the basics when it comes to marketing your inn.

There's no substitute for the elemental aspects of hospitality, but to get i.guests to visit you, you have to attract them, and that means starting with a decent website. Your i.guest is intelligent, informed, and Internet savvy, so you can't afford to neglect the core elements of a successful website.

You need to have GOOD DESIGN, GOOD PICTURES, copy that is appealing and is OPTIMIZED for the SEARCH ENGINES, page TITLES that actually describe what the page is (also for the search engines), and listings on the major INTERNET DIRECTORIES like bedandbreakfast.com and bbonline.com at a bare minimum. You should also be linked to your local chamber of commerce and other organizations that are sources of local information and help attract visitors to your area. Consider group marketing with other local inns.

While we at The B&B Team believe that the best and most successful inns will be doing a lot more than this, we are often reminded that many bed and breakfasts are still neglecting the basics. Take a look at your marketing to see if you are taking care of them. If you are, then venture into some of the new media to see what else you could be doing. But if your basics need attending to, that should be at the top of your "to do" list.

Peter