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

Top Travel Innovations of the Past Decade

In the latest issue of Marketing Review from the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) there's a great article by Marvin J. Cetron about the "Top 10 Travel Innovations of the Next 10 Years." Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel asked readers to pick their favorite travel innovations of the past decade while also peering into the next ten years. While many of these innovations might have seemed downright bizarre to conceive of only twenty years ago, I think you'll agree that they are remarkably practical. Here they are, drum roll please....

10. Online maps.Who amongst us hasn't used Mapquest or Google Maps to find out where something is? Computerized mapping has made life for travelers much, much easier, even if some of it is still imperfect.

9. Digital Photography. Traveling through airport security with film was always a hassle. Having to pack film and keep track of it while you traveled and processing it when you got home was inconvenient and expensive. Digital makes it easy to snap away with impunity on your vacation and (gasp!) post pictures of your trip on the web and email them to your friends.

8. Online Flight Check-in. With all there is to do once you arrive at the airport, and with the lead time needed to get through security in a post 9/11 world, being able to have checked in from home or the office the day before makes it that much easier to make your flight.

7. GPS Navigation.Many new cars come with GPS built in (like satellite radio). But there are many aftermarket portable units that can be installed. Even boaters and hikers can use the technology. Going far, far away from everything? No need to get lost anymore. And if you're driving, a soothing voice will tell you where to turn next.

6. Worldwide ATM Access. Need cash? Not at home? In Copenhagen or Johannesburg? Peoria? In a feat that still leaves me a bit boggled, you can use your ATM card in a machine almost anywhere in the world and get cash. Talk about connectivity!

5. Cell phones. Not so long ago cell phones were tethered to your car or immensely bulky. Today they slip into a tiny pocket and are capable of performing somersaults if you ask them too (well, you know what I mean). And if you're broken down on the highway (in many locations, of course) it's easy to call AAA for help. What did we ever do without them?

4. Global Internet Access. For anyone planning a trip and wanting to know where to go or stay, the Net provides access to information about products and services plus traveler reviews. You can find destinations, hotels, car rentals, theater shows, or what vaccinations you need, thanks to the web. And if you're a travel provider, the world can find YOU, too!

3. TripAdvisor. OK. I know lots of you HATE this, but the public LOVES TripAdvisor, because they can find out about your inn from others who have stayed with you. It's pretty hard to be sold a bill of goods ("Great ocean views!" from a crummy hotel five blocks from the beach) when a potential guest can read what others have said. Think about it, as a consumer you love it, even if as an innkeeper you're ambivalent.

2. Online Travel Booking. Lots of innkeepers are getting on board with this, and again, it's the consumer who's driving the ship. Access to comparative shopping and the ability to KNOW where you'll be staying this weekend even if it's 1:00 am on Thursday morning is a great thing. Online booking has made it possible for travelers to purchase their trip without disturbing a soul.

1. Roller Bags. !!!! The TOP choice of those survey by Budget Travel was the invention of the roller bag. I have a bad back, and even if you don't, this really is one of those transformational inventions that has revolutionized travel and made it infinitely easier. So, for those of you who hate all the first nine innovations, let's here it for low tech!!! Simple is good.

Peter

The site you love to hate...or hate to love?

Without a doubt, one of today's biggest lightening rod topics for innkeepers is Trip Advisor and the broader topic of social media.  "I don't like this new way of reviews!  How can this be good for me?  People are 'gaming' the system. I can't control what goes on! Who cares what other people say?"  Sound Familiar?

These comments are usually made by the innkeepers that initially resisted the internet...then resisted online availability...then resisted online bookings.  But times change and so does the technology that we all must embrace to be competitive and visible to today's Contemporary Traveler, the i.guest. 

The information about today's traveler, as generated by various research organizations as well as anecdotally by The B&B Team, shows without a doubt, that our guests today are technologically demanding high quality websites, great photography, and the option to book their lodging stays online!

We can't forget that we are still in the hospitality and people business, but to be successful, we all need to embrace the tools that technology offers our guests...and us too.

It's interesting that within the last 48 hours, two articles about Trip Advisor and social media have surfaced from two very different points of view and sources.  What is even more interesting is that they both clearly recognize the importance of this new transparency in online information.

Our own innkeeping organization, PAII, released a Position Statement, "The largest international association of innkeepers is promoting standards to ensure fair and ethical use of online guest review systems -- one of the fastest growing segments of so-called "social media" on the Internet."

Almost simultaneous to this release was an online article from BudgetTravel on msnbc.com about the Top 10 Travel Innovations from the past 10 years...and Trip Advisor was rated as the 3rd most important innovation!  Why, because, it "takes the guesswork out of deciding where to stay" and "empowers travelers to make smart choices".

What's it all mean to us?  Technology continues to advance and we all need to embrace it, but in so doing , do it with a sense of fair play.  In the end, we all benefit!  Your thoughts?

Rick