The Innkeeping Blog

Rick Wolf of The B&B Team shared with me a recent NY Times article about the online review site, Yelp. Some innkeepers are beginning to see reviews of their properties on this site. From what I can tell, and what this article explains in more details, is that Yelp gives business owners little or no opportunities to defend themsevles against any reviews. They don’t even offer an opportunity for management responses! Read the article here.

The CEO of Yelp, Jeremy Stoppelman, says his top priority is “to make sure the community (of reviewers) is protected and can share without fear of being publicly spat on.” Here is where Mr. Stoppelman is off-base. Since reviewers are anonymous, there is no risk of being publicly spat on, because no one knows who the reviewers are. The business owners are the ones who bear 100% of the chance of being publicly spat on. This imbalance is a major, unfortunate flaw in such review sites.

Stoppleman even says, “Business owners want to control their reputation, and we’re just not going to let that happen.” All I can say in response is a dumbfounded, “wow.”

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In an interview with Matt Lauer this morning, Peter Greenberg gave tips and advice on how to travel on a budget during a distressing time in our economy. Dare I use the “R” word?

You can view the interview by clicking here.

B&Bs are mentioned as an economical possibility for Sunday through Thursday lodging needs.
I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of our industry being presented as an economical alternative, but the fact is most innkeepers do have lower rates during weekdays as part of a yield management strategy. And dollar for dollar, you bet a B&B is a better choice than the big-box guys! If this spurs any business at all for even one innkeeper, fantastic!

My friends at the B&B Team have also blogged about this.

Peter Greenberg’s office contacted PAII a few weeks ago, asking for information on staying at B&Bs for a piece they are planning for their website. I will spread the word once (if) something gets posted online.

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