The Innkeeping Blog

Well, there is a good bit on my mind these days, as you can tell from the long title of my column this month.  I’m busy with last-minute preparations for the Innkeeping Show in Austin, which starts in a few days (although you will get this while we’re all in Austin learning and laughing together).  This column will focus on my two cents about the big purchase in our industry that was announced recently, as well as some other exciting news.  Be sure to click through and read this month’s column!

Limited-time TripAdvisor Promo with PAII

We’ve worked out an arrangement with TripAdvisor, so that all innkeepers in the B&B industry can continue to receive the 50% off deal for their new Business Listings Program through April 8^th .  You must use discount code TRIPDISC to get the deal.  If you haven’t investigated their new Business Listings program, I encourage you to check it out.  Basically, for a fee you can now add your email address, phone number and hyperlink to your inn’s web site on your TripAdvisor property page.  This is a new program for the entire lodging industry, and they’ve had several thousand properties already sign up.  I think innkeepers should sign up for three reasons:  1) you’ve poured a lot of time and effort into your own web site, and by having a direct link, you stand a better chance of getting TripAdvisor guests over to your site, 2) through your web traffic analytics program, you now have the ability to directly track the traffic coming to your web site from TripAdvisor…many innkeepers are now reporting this web link as one of their top sources of traffic, and 3) the 50% off price is low enough to give this a shot for at least the first year.  Properties with fewer than 11 rooms would normally pay $600 and properties with 11-25 rooms would pay $1,000 for this link – innkeepers can pay $300 and $500 respectively with this coupon code.  Go to www.tripadvisor.com/BusinessListings to sign up!

HomeAway Purchases BedandBreakfast.com

It was just announced a few days ago that HomeAway purchased BedandBreakfast.com, as well as their other companies RezOvation and Webervations.  Click here to read the press release, and you can read Eric Goldreyer’s post on our forum (as well as some responses) by clicking here.  If you want to read Trent Blizzard’s (internet marketing expert who works in both the B&B and vacation rental industries) reaction, click here.  My two cents?  First, I’m very happy for Eric.  He poured his heart and soul into ELG Hospitality and all its programs and services – what resulted was a highly successful operation.  There were bumps along the way and he could always count on a wide spectrum of reactions from innkeepers about their products and terms, but it’s hard to deny that he helped innkeepers move into the 21^st century and brought them plenty of business.  No company has generated more PR for our industry.  Every company that goes through a major change like this will announce that things will still be great, even with the new owners.  For some it’s true, and for others things can change dramatically.  HomeAway prides itself on marketing alternatives to the typical hotel stay, which aligns nicely with what the B&B industry likes to portray.  I think the best case scenario will be if the new ownership gives the old staff in Austin, TX and Logan, OH, all the latitude they need to stay highly involved in the B&B industry.  The people at BedandBreakfast.com care a great deal about the industry, so I hope HomeAway allows the leadership at BedandBreakfast.com to maintain a great deal of control and authority.  But HomeAway can leverage their much-greater resources to bring fantastic amounts of attention to our product and industry, and I hope they do this.  HomeAway, after all, was one of the few companies that ran a commercial during the recent Superbowl.  In addition, I’ll bet there are forms of technology, business practices and other aspects of running a successful business that HomeAway will share with BedandBreakfast.com to keep them on the path of continual improvement.

2011 Innkeeping Show Dates and Location

Mark your calendars for January 11-14, 2011 for a trip to Charleston, SC for next year’s Innkeeping Conference & Trade Show!  After some extensive research about innkeepers’ preferences on the best times to get away for a trip to “innkeeping’s main event,” and preferred locations to visit, we landed on January in South Carolina at the Charleston Area Convention Center.  We realize there is no perfect time or location for all innkeepers (a few innkeepers near ski resorts aren’t too happy about the move in dates), but please know we did a lot of homework to figure this out.  Thank you to all the innkeepers and the Committee of 100 for participating in our surveys last year.  We negotiated very good room rates at adjoining hotels ($119 per night, which includes breakfast and internet) and we’re going to take a hard look at how we can bring down the costs of attending.  Stay tuned!

2009 Year-End Performance Survey

Now that we’re about to enter the Spring season of 2010, we hope you’ve wrapped up your 2009 numbers and are ready to share them for the sake of reporting our industry’s performance.  At the end of 2009, we had approximately 800 innkeepers share their year-end data. We’re hoping to beat that number this year and top 1,000 participants!  We have put together a brief, online survey at www.innkeepingsurvey.com that asks for data such as occupancy, average daily rate, revenue/expenses and a few other tidbits of data.  This survey is not nearly as lengthy as the bi-annual Industry Study of Innkeeping Operations and Finance, so it will take you only a fraction of the time to complete.  This is our industry’s one shot at collecting rich information about the performance of B&Bs and inns.  We will share the results with the industry, and we’ll break out data by state where there has been sufficient participation.  Please take a moment and print out your year-end P&L statement from your accounting software and take our survey at www.innkeepingsurvey.com.  Any innkeepers who give data, as well as PAII’s Gold and Platinum members, will have online access anytime to dig into the data and compare your results to aggregate data by state, number of rooms, budget size and other factors.  This is a new feature!

Now is a great time to be an innkeeper and involved in your professional trade association! Not yet a member of PAII?  Join for as low as $89 at www.innkeeping.org.

Onward and upward!

Jay