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Introduce Online Booking or Die...
Paul White's Bed & Breakfast Club BlogEntertaining and informative content for when the pots are washed and the rooms are tidy. About MeHello my name is Paul. I used to edit a golf magazine and now I don't. I run this blog which is for B&B Owners. Hope you enjoy the blog. If there's anything you think we should talk about email paul@bedandbreakfastclub.co.uk
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hotel bookingsSee all posts on posterous with this tag »Many B&Bs embrace the internet with well-designed websites, professional photography and a social media campaign; however many still fail to provide what large hotels deem an essential ingredient: The online booking facility.
For the purposes of illustration (as they say!) I'm going to trace a fictional consumer journey. Lorry driver Bob is off to see his Aunty Sheila in Somerset to work on her garden (she has a gammy leg and can't manage it anymore). Sheila doesn’t have a spare room so pays for Bob to stay in a local B&B.
Being a man, Bob has left it until the last minute and needs to arrange the booking at 11 at night, after he's been working in his lorry all day. He types ‘Bed and Breakfast Somerset’ into Google and up pops a list of guides about Somerset B&Bs. He clicks on the first one he sees and visits the site. Bob likes the look of the place but with only a telephone number (it's too late to call) and an email (too late to wait for an email response) he quickly clicks back and finds another site. This happens to be a chain, ready and willing to accept Bob’s credit card.
I know from looking at the B&Bs in my network that lots of sites still don't have online booking. I've come across various arguments against it, some of them quite compelling. The main one being that old-fashioned style B&Bs like to vet potential customers over the telephone. They would prefer to do this rather than accept the anonymity of an on-line booking. "It's my home and I want to speak to the person who is coming to stay and tell them about the room."
I understand this completely and love the dedication to customer service. I agree that it would be lovely if we could all talk to each other and arrange contracts this way. The problem is that, although (ironically) social media is the biggest thing since Fabio Cappello's (unwarranted) wage packet, the world has become anti-social in terms of actually speaking and now no longer likes real contact with strangers. We now speak through computers, our typing fingers have replaced our mouths.
Room size is also apparently an issue. Big hotel chains have generic sizes for rooms, but many B&B rooms differ, so owners feel they need to explain room sizes over the phone. This is a poor excuse to me and with the right web developer and a bit of effort, each room size could be explained and illustrated better online than it can over the phone. What do you say over the phone? Type it up and put it online!
However the main reason I think lots of people are hesitant to not move on to online booking is a lack of confidence. Confidence in technology and confidence in new admin/management systems. The traditional phone calls and bookings written in diaries are still in use, because many small hoteliers have the dreaded fear of double-booking.
Technology has moved on so much that you don't even need to be there to answer phones. Divert any calls to a mobile, get yourself a blackberry and check bookings online. Then go out and do the things you've always wanted to do. Go fishing?! Go to the beach! Enjoy life!
Unfortunately if small hotels don’t move with the times and organize their online booking facility, when their older guest base dies out and the silent, typing generation takes over completely, they may just die out with them.
I'm doing an independent study on online reservation systems, pitting them against each other for price, customer service, quality, and customer feedback. There are some very good systems out there and some very expensive ones too! I understand that this is an absolutely fundamental part of the B&B business, so am looking to help you choose what's right for you. I would love to know your experience, good or bad with the systems, so would be honoured if you'd leave a comment.
5 Simple Ways to Promote Your Hotel For Free After You Have Swept Up With a Broom Handle Up Your Ar**
Apologies to you if we’re telling you how to suck eggs. Those who do find this article helpful please comment. 1. Google Local If your business isn’t on Google Local then you really are missing out on the biggest trick on the internet. Go do it now and get on the first page of Google Results. www.google.com/local/ 2. Take some pictures and put them on your social networking page (FB). Take or find some pictures of local attractions and the area around you and your hotel and put them online! The amount of pages I look at without pics is staggering. 3. Send an email Presumably you have a large amount of email addresses from previous bookings. Send them an email and remind them that you still exist! Tell them what you are up to. Give them a special offer for previous customers and write a bit about what you are doing. If you are sending a mass email to all remember to put all addresses in the BCC box separated by commas. Send it to us for a quick free copywriting/proofing service first (paul@bedandbreakfastclub.co.uk) 4. Join Hotels Combined This is like a hotel version of Compare the Market. It’s free and looks like a really good deal. However, we haven’t done an independent review yet so please don’t shout at us if you have a bad experience: http://www.hotelscombined.com/Hotelier/Signup.aspx 5. Find Yourself Online and Ensure Your Presence is a Good One Trip Advisor is a good place to start. People could be saying horrible things about your hotel all over the internet. If you do find something bad don’t get angr. Ask your favourite guests if they wouldn’t mind going and writing something nice about you. Easy. Now go back to sweeping up!!
5 Big Reasons to Follow Bed & Breakfast Club
Our number one aim is to show small hotels how to market online and be on the first page on google search results. We learnt that you don’t need to use external parties to get bookings and want to share this information. 2. Fun Videos & Podcasts We know that people like to look at videos on the internet, so have created our own TV Channel, full of quirky little films. Breakfast cookery and ‘Extreme B&Bs’ are just two in a number of series’. A weekly hospitality news podcast will be backed up with audio documentaries on British tourist areas.
3. Community Imagine having thousands of like-minded brains to ask any little question at any time… Bed & Breakfast Club will be a place to communicate with everyone in the trade.
4. Saving You Money From marketing smarter, to our Supplier Offers section and our energy saving ‘Green Room’; we will provide ways to save money and streamline your business. 5. Access to Experts We aim to provide answers to any hospitality related quandary within hours. Heading our team of experts is Karen Thorne, who runs the Bed & Breakfast Academy.
Can you afford not to be a B&B Clubber? 
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