The Innkeeper's Resource

An Online Community

Alright, so we write a lot about blogging and social media and the importance of it in your marketing, etc., etc., and sometimes you just want to tell us to SHUT UP already. We get it. But we don't give up that easily!

A couple of weeks ago in my article, "Do Innkeeper Blogs Work?" I mentioned a blog, My Bella Vita, by an American innkeeper in Italy, Cherrye Moore. Something happened this past week that caused me to dig a bit deeper into her blog and to reflect on the power and strength of online community. Something happened to Cherrye's father, and the outpouring has been remarkable.

If you explore My Bella Vita, you'll read a lot about Italy, about food and art and history. But you'll also learn a lot about the author. And you'll learn a lot about blogging. It's by inference and the prominent link to Il Cedro Bed & Breakfast that you'd want to stay at her B&B as well. Cherrye gets an unusually large number of comments to her blog posts because, as she told me, "people feel like they know us through the blog." Remarkably, she replies to every comment, something we're told to do to be effective. But then she told her readers on Feb. 13 that she was going home to Texas for a couple of weeks because she'd received the middle of the night phone call that no one wants to receive. "It's your father." And something amazing happened. 

In just a couple of days nearly forty people have left comments, offered prayers and best wishes. No doubt some are friends but many, like me, are strangers. Sometimes it's tragedy that makes us realize how many people "out there" really care. And then you realize that it really is possible to create a community in cyberspace.

The whole purpose of a blog for a bed & breakfast is to share something of yourself and your area with the larger world, to make people feel like they want to come stay with you. You begin to create an emotional connection with your past and future guests, and as you write and make the effort you may not know if anyone is really reading or if they care. But if you persist you might be surprised.

Is this for everyone? No. But if you visit My Bella Vita you'll understand why a blog can be a powerful tool for communication and for creating community. And you'll understand better what drives some people to "broadcast their lives to the blogosphere." And why people would want to stay at Il Cedro Bed & Breakfast. And why you might consider following a great example of what works.

Peter

Do Innkeeper Blogs Work?

Every year The B&B Team travels to various innkeeping conferences, sometimes to exhibit in the trade show, but always as speakers. In the past month we attended the Mid-Atlantic Innkeepers Conference and Trade Show in Hot Springs, Virginia and just this week were at the 17th annual conference of CABBI, the California Association of Bed & Breakfast Inns, in Monterey. As always, we had a great time meeting innkeepers and speaking about topics that we're passionate about, like "Attracting the i.guest in a Slowing Economy"(a version of which we presented on a PAII webinar recently) and "Inn Branding and Market Positioning."

In both of these presentations we focus on the contemporary traveler, the i.guest, who is intelligent, independent, informed, imaginative, Internet-savvy and empowered, and Identified. This i.guest is using the Internet and social media to make travel decisions, and one of the topics that always comes up when we mention blogs is, "Does a blog bring innkeepers business?"

While we have anecdotal evidence that it does, based on some innkeepers who swear by their blogs, there is some new evidence of a blog's effectiveness in generating new business.

Stephanie at the Albert Shafsky House Bed & Breakfast in Placerville, CA has been writing a blog for a year and a half. Before speaking to an eager audience at CABBI about blogging and social media, she showed us her Google Analytics page that proved that one of the top referrers to her B&B's website is her blog. And her bounce rate on those referrals is a mere 25% or so. That's quite something. She thinks that the blog is integral to their marketing, along with the B&B's Facebook page and other efforts. Steph and Rita are really working social media, and it's paying off.

This morning I received a Google Alert linking to My Bella Vita, a blog by an American innkeeper in Italy, Cherrye Moore, at Il Cedro in Calabria. We exchanged an email or two, and I asked her if she got any business from her blog. Her reply was that her "blog site has been a great source of leads for our B&B." She also made an incredibly valuable point, that many people go out of their way to book with them, "because they feel like they know us through the blog." That, folks, is what social media, Web 2.0, Travel 2.0, and all the other stuff is about. Successful innkeeping is about building relationships and providing enduring experiences.

If a blog at your inn could help you build relationships before you've ever met a potential guest, that's really getting a head start on a long term relationship that can pay great dividends, both financial and "psychic," as Holly Stiel likes to say.

For all the inspiration from all the innkeepers mentioned above and those that keep us going every day, all I can say, again to echo Holly Stiel (and some guy with sideburns), is "Thank you, thank you very much!"

Peter

What's In a Sign?

In other postings on The Innkeeper's Resource we often talk about tools like Google Alerts that can help you monitor your "social presence." We have a regular Google Alert for "The B&B Team." It lets us know if someone might be using our trademarked name, so we can address it, but the spinoff is that one comes across some interesting links. This morning there was an alert that flagged "B&B" in the article. It caught my eye for a very good reason.

The title was "The Importance of Proper Signage Advertising Your Business." It's a blog post by a young Irish woman who was traveling in Italy (I assume). They'd found a business card from a B&B, called the owner, and were directed to the property. As they approached they saw the poor quality, amateurish sign and almost turned away, imagining the worst. Fortunately, they forged on and were delighted to find a wonderful country inn!

There are two great lessons for innkeepers here. The first is that those business cards and rack cards that you distribute around town at friendly businesses, etc. can actually pay off with the serendipitous traveler. There are great stories of innkeepers who have really used everyone from gift shops and restaurants to their local mechanic's garage to promote their B&B. The cost is low and the payback can be big.

The second, perhaps more important, lesson goes to the heart of the article: signage matters! Most B&B's in recent years have done a good job with their signs. Sign makers are present at conference trade shows and are readily available online. Good signs aren't cheap, as anyone who has bought one will tell you. Unfortunately, most signs won't last forever.

We see lots of great inns whose signs seem to be the forgotten stepchild. While you pay lots of attention to your rooms, when was the last time you took a close look at your street sign? Is it a bit moldy? Maybe it's started to rot. Even slate signs can start to turn green with algae. If your sign is less than pristine, consider a simple cleaning, repainting, or even replacement. It matters. They always say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and this applies to signs as much as it does to your web site, which is where the real first impression is. But I'll leave that for another post!

On the topic of signs, there's one other perspective. Some B&Bs out there have absolutely magnificent signs (or websites), but the B&B itself disappoints. I'm not saying to dumb down your sign, but it's always a good reminder to look at EVERYTHING you do to make it the very best it can be. In these tough economic times, especially if business is slow going into the winter, take advantage of the extra time to do something really positive for yourself and your business. Deep clean. Repaint. Caulk. Upgrade some linens and towels. Spend some time (and money if necessary) improving your website. You and your guests will be glad you did!

Peter

Learn to Blog from a Dog!

OK. So it takes me a while sometimes to get a new post written. But this one has been simmering for a month when Google Alerts first let me know about a GREAT posting by Oscar Meier. Oscar is a dog. A Weimaraner, to be exact. And he's written an article all about BLOGGING and WEB 2.0!!! So, have you been wondering about all this stuff and how to incorporate it into your B&B or inn? Check it out.

It seems that Oscar's parents, Mike and Laura at The Craftsman B&Bin Pacific City, Oregon, taught Oscar to type, and with that new skill (Weimaraners are smarter than your average dog) he's decided to share all the things he's learned about blogging and how it works. Oh, and how it can help a B&B.

"I have been writing this blog for a few months. My idea is to tell the world about Pacific City, the Oregon Coast and The Craftsman B&B.  Where to visit, hike, eat and to tell about the people of Pacific City and some of our interesting guests we have had stay with us," writes Oscar. Sagely, Oscar explains that "now we have what people are calling Web 2.0.  This is where the average user has input to what is on the Internet.  This is social networking, adding your information to a wiki, you are now the Internet.  YouTube, MySpace, Blogs and just about any topic you can think of has a forum.  You are able to communicate with people that have the same interests as you do." And it's a great way to generate interest in and promote your inn in a fun, "soft sell" way.

 

Oscar, I couldn't have explained it better (and we've been trying for a long time now). Interested? Check out Oscar's Blog! (While he's learned all these great tricks about typing and blogging, no one taught him about not sharing trade secrets...)

 

Peter

Bill Marriott's Blog

As the debate rages on about social media and its impact (or not) on the hospitality industry, innkeepers wonder just what they have to do to stay competitive, especially in a tough economic environment. The topic often arises when The B&B Team addresses groups at the PAII Conference or the Mid-Atlantic Innkeeper's Conference or in consultation with individual clients as to whether a blog is important. Can it yield results? Let's take a moment to look at Bill Marriott's blog. After all, Marriott International is one of the largest hospitality companies in the world.

According to an article in the Washington Post entitled "Marketing Moves to the Blogosphere," Marriott uses his blog to show that he is "a human just like everybody else." While the blog is an important vehicle for Mr. Marriott to communicate personally with employees around the world, it's also a way for the traveling public to see a personal face of a huge chain. Not surprisingly, people like to make personal connections on the Internet, and that's why social media or consumer generated media (CGM) is so important.

What is really significant, and why innkeepers need to pay attention, is that Marriott has generated $5,000,000 (that's five MILLION dollars) in bookings directly from the blog. Mr. Marriott isn't always writing about company matters (employees make of 20% of his readership); sometimes he writes about a movie he saw with his wife over the weekend. This is the power of the medium, to do and be things that aren't suitable for your primary marketing venue, your website. And we know that those innkeepers who are blogging effectively are getting business from their blog. It takes time, patience, persistence, and passion. How about you?

Don't really understand what this is all about? Maybe you're still wondering what a blog is? Don't worry, there are many resources out there. Explore. Ask questions. We've been writing The Innkeeper's Resource blog for a little over a year, and, frankly, we're having fun with it. And, hopefully, those of you who are reading it will want to link through and talk to us sometime. It's a two way street. Come join the fun!

Peter

Dave Berkus's Ten Trends in Technology

In case you haven't been paying attention the past few months if you are a member of the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII), there is a lot of very good information coming your way on a weekly basis through PAII's email newsletter. Being a bit of a trend junkie, I really liked one recent article, "Ten Trends in Technology That Will Shape How We Plan and Execute Beyond 2008"by Dave Berkus.

Without addressing every point in this post, there are a few that are worth highlighting. Trend #1, "The growing scope of the Internet," could have been written today or ten years ago. It seems there's no end to the evolution of the Net. Berkus quotes Charles Giancarlo of the San Francisco Chronicle who said in 2006, "In three years, twenty typical California households will generate as much traffic as the entire Internet did in 1995." While this is astounding, it's not surprising. I used to run my business from a "desktop" application (i.e. it resided on my computer). Today, my entire contact management system with nearly 6,000 contacts, including all attached emails, copies of letters sent, etc., is through a browser-based system, which is to say, all that information resides on a server somewhere else, and I access it from any computer with a browser. I think I'm generating a bit more traffic today than I did in 1995 when email and some web surfing were about it. Witness the same for inn operations and online property management systems and booking engines. Many of us live on the Internet today, just to do our work, though we forget that it amounts to "traffic" each time we click the mouse.

Trend #2, "The Paradise of Choice" is a bit like an embarrassment of riches. Consumers today simply don't have to "put up" with too much that they don't like. If it's not working for them, they can go somewhere else. Berkus points out, as we have many times in presentations about the i.guest, that "over 69% of consumers research online before a purchase. 62% look online for peer reviews [e.g. TripAdvisor or bedandbreakfast.com]. And 39% compare prices across suppliers before purchase." Do you think your B&B is the first and last a potential guest looks at before booking? If your website doesn't grab them, if it doesn't load quickly, if it isn't easy to navigate, and if they can't book it now, they just might move on to another inn's site.

Trend #3, "The audience is the network" addresses the democratization of distribution and search. We talk all the time about how anyone can voice their opinion on the web and be heard across the globe, sometimes to our dismay. But this is really a great thing. If travel agents have had to become "the specialists of complex knowledge" to survive, innkeepers have that same opportunity with a blog, for instance, and an intimate knowledge of your community and what is happening in it. What better place for a potential guest to get the latest scoop on restaurants and events than from you, the local innkeeper? If you provide that information to a larger audience than your bed & breakfast guests, you become a key thread in the network. And, in the process, you are increasing the visibility of your inn by creating greater search visibility through "mastery of keyword placement, prodigious use of blogs and other previously non-traditional exposure resources...." So, step out on a limb and get creative. Do you have a blog? Is it working for your business?

I'll address some of Dave Berkus's other trends in my next post. Stay tuned!

Peter