10 Things to Do With A Spare Room

Unlike most businesses you have an asset with a room that can be like gold if used effectively.

Give Your Room to Cancer Patients

We all have a local cancer group with women who are in much need of some R&R. Do your bit for charity and give them a weekend to remember. Ask the person who runs the group to have a word with the local press. You get great PR and the ladies get a well-deserved break.

Raffle Off a Room At the Local Fate

There will be some summer fairs near you over the next few weeks I bet! Have a word with the school/organizers to give a room away. While raising money for the fate you will also build your reputation in the community.

Sell it on Ebay!

Sell a room on Ebay for a charity that’s close to your heart. This may seem a bonkers idea but it will give you something to talk about through the social networks and people will begin to take notice in you and remember you. You could earn lots of money for charity or it could be a failure. Either way will make for a positive spin.

Offer it to a Tramp!

This one’s a little far-fetched and I won’t take any responsibility if it goes wrong (by reading this you agree that!!) but what a wonderful idea over Christmas, to find a homeless person and offer them a room for the night. Don’t forget to inadvertently let the press know…

Hold Your Own Competition

This could work extremely well if you make the most of it. Get your heads together with some local businesses to offer a weekend for two and some free hospitality and activities. ‘Win A Free Room at… A Free Meal at… And a Day out at…! By teaming up with local businesses you have multiple PR power. The local paper/magazine will have to print it for free and you can place it on your social groups as well as theirs. There's no 'I' in team!

Just Tweet it...

There’s a clever little tool called TweetDeck where you can watch subjects that are spoken about and then jump in like a hawk. Set up your status with an offer on your room. Then watch for subjects regarding your local area at a certain time. If anyone is talking about coming to stay just follow them, don’t message. They’ll look at you, see your status and book the room! This requires a good deal of stealth...

Hold Your Own Three in a Bed Competition

I have a network of around 1000 B&Bs who read this blog and are on the social networks. Why not put a message out asking if anyone would like to have a fun Three in a Bed competition. Leave the scores ‘til the end!

Room a Journalist For the Night

There’s nothing journalists like better than some free accommodation in return for a review. Contact local press or bloggers you like the style of and ask them to stay. Make sure they have something to do that's fun and will make for an interesting read.

Speak to The Local Media College

So you would like a film of your B&B but can’t afford a production company. Ask the local college if they’d like to make a film about the hotel and local attractions in return for a night’s stay. It could be quirky and fun which people will love online. If it’s rubbish don’t use it!

Offer it to the Head of a Local Business

It’s not enough to simply tell local businesses about you. Find the head of a local business and tell them they can have the room for free for a weekend with their partner as a good will gesture. If they like your B&B they will recommend!

I'd love to know if you have any ideas?

Why Online B&B Promotional Videos Are a Terrible Idea

The gaudy music, cheesy voice over’s and awkward one-liners. All reasons why you shouldn’t let anyone talk you into a promotional video.

They are really awful aren’t they? I’ve seen countless promo videos, made by so-called ‘production companies’ (who actually charge to make these things!) and 95% of them are as dull as a ditch full of dull ditch water.  

A wooden voice reading a script, along with an IMovie music track and zooming in and out shots just don’t convey any kind of personality or distinctiveness to potential guests. As a B&B owner your USP is you, not the bricks and mortar.

So what to do? How does one present a video that will stand out in the online world without coming across like some kind of hotel chain B&B?

The answer is simple and will only cost a free night stay.

Get a friend to film their visit.

We all know someone who knows someone who is into film editing. Offer them a free night for a short video of their stay.  

Post the video stating that it ‘s a video one of your guests has made. This is completely true, it is a guest video.

I guarantee that something made by a guest will get more visits than a promo video. Viewers won’t expect anything of particularly high quality but will be looking for A) the quirky amateur feel and B) an unpolished view of your B&B.

We are so used to seeing professional productions on TV; that an amateur film makes for a refreshing change.

The secret to making these kind of videos work is to give them a focus. Something else of added value to fill the piece out a little and add more interest. The big local event would be perfect.

 

Here’s an example of a video sequence from my fictional B&B

Scene 1

Guest arriving at B&B and having a good look around before putting their bags in room.

Scene 2

Guest at Local cheese festival tasting lots of cheese and local beers.

Scene 3

Guest at B&B speaking to me about how and why I set up the B&B in an informal manner.

Scene 4

Guest sets up camera on tripod in dining room and films breakfast being served. Then makes lots of nice appreciative noises of beautiful breakfast and says he would recommend staying at my B&B.

Simple, fun and effective. 

Below is my video of a gothic B&B in Whitby. The owners weren’t keen to be on camera so I took the local sunset boat trip to add a little extra value, and also because I like sunsets. Admittedly it’s about as amateur as it gets and the sound is awful, but it sure beats a hotel promo video.

Paul@bedandbreakfastclub.co.uk

A Completely Uneducated Biased View of Distribution Channels

Ok so I'm writing a blog here. This means that, according to my blog mentor, David Meerman Scott, what I write doesn't necessarily have to be fact. Blogs are not fact-based like journalism (should be!), they are just opinions, like people talking in the pub. If you don't agree with someone's opinion in the pub (as long as they aren't too big and scary!) you would tell them wouldn't you?

So here's my opinion of distribution channels for hotels. None of it is fact, it's just what I think and could most probably be wrong (it isn't though!)

I won't name any particular channels but if you run a hotel you will know who I mean. They sell rooms for you online, at a cheap rate, and charge outrageous commission for doing so - the hotel loses 50% on the room in some cases!

They do this by using their brand name and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) methods to get you up to the top of the list in Google. 

There are two ways of looking at this kind of activity. The channels would like you to believe that some money is better than no money. Without them you won't sell the room, so you may as well take the hit rather than miss out completely.

Another way to look at it is this - the distribution channels are completely monopolizing the internet like a mafia gang would do with a city's drug trade. They make it an unfair playing ground by being so large and not allowing you access to your customer base. Because they have a million hotels on their books in your area, they will always come up first when people search.

It's a bit like what's ruined and 'globalized' every town in the UK. Shopping centres. Big companies buy huge spaces and charge extortionate rates for global names to sell their over-priced wares in. Meanwhile the small shop owner gets put out of business. 

The small shop owner has three choices. He either pays the extortionate rates and tries to make a go of it, competing in the shopping centre with larger names. He does the best he can to market his shop and attract people out of the centre, or he goes out of business and lets them win.

Let's take this back to the internet and with distribution channels for hotels. Thanks to the world of social media the web now has no walls and the shopping centre is wide open. Everyone can reach their customers directly with Twitter, Facebook etc and the boundaries of technical know-how are behind us.

So why are hotels still using the distribution channels to sell rooms and paying their extortionate rates?

Educate me please.

paul@bedandbreakfastclub.co.uk