The Innkeeping Blog

As most PAII members and blog followers know, for nearly two years I have been meeting with TripAdvisor about the B&B industry’s issues with their web site.  With tens of millions of visitors each month, there has been no question about the importance of their system to even the smallest B&Bs around the continent and beyond.  It is in our industry’s interest that I meet with them and share our perspective on a host of issues.  I met with senior members of their team on May 20^th at their offices outside Boston, and here is my “brief” report on the issues we discussed.

Keep in mind that the issues below represent a portion of the ongoing matters we discuss.  There are some larger issues at play (i.e. not requiring proof of stay from the reviewer when an innkeeper protests a fraudulent review) that we will often discuss, but the list I try to bring to the table involves impactful issues that I think could be changed in the near or foreseeable future, if our case is compelling enough.

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Facebook has been in the news A LOT over the past several days, ever since their founder and head honcho, Mark Zuckerberg, announced some big changes to the site and how the site now integrates with the rest of the web.  Click here for a great summary of the changes.  Allow me to give you my two cents about what’s happening here…

Facebook has over 400,000,000 users, most of whom log in every day – and often more than once a day.  It’s apparently as active (I’ve heard recently even more active) than Google.  People (your guests) are sharing all kinds of information and details about their lives with their “Facebook friends.”  Mashable.com reports the average Facebook user has 130 “friends.”  Sounds pretty darn powerful on the surface.  But, is it worth any effort on your part to market your B&B in the Facebook world?  After all, don’t you already have your hands full with SEO and blogging?  If you watch this little humorous video, you’ll certainly get the gist why so many people still ardently believe (or at least profess to believe) that Facebook is a colossal waste of time.

I think it’s important to distinguish between being a Facebook user to personally connect with friends and family and using it as a savvy marketer of your business.  It’s true – Facebook can sap a lot of time, and a lot of the content you’ll see from “friends” you will deem as waste.  But hundreds of millions of people find more value than waste in what they are sharing and learning about friends and family.  Case in point – yesterday I posted on my personal Facebook page a picture of a Japanese maple I just planted about 10 days ago, which is already showing signs of stress.  The caption of my photo was, “What’s wrong with my new Japanese maple?”  Within minutes, I had five friends offer opinions and advice for treating it.  I did the same thing about 3 weeks ago – posted a photo of billowing white smoke coming out of my lawn mower and asked, “What’s up with my lawn mower?”  A few old college friends happen to be small engine experts and immediately offered sound advice, which helped fix the mower.  Now, I’m willing to bet that 90% of my Facebook friends thought my posts were ridiculous or a waste of time for them  to read…some friends enjoyed helping me…and other friends got to see all the responses and probably learned something.  Pretty cool.  With Facebook, you take the good and the bad and hope that the good outweighs the bad.  It was pretty cool having 642 friends see a picture of my suffering Japanese maple and have some people help - all within minutes.  By the way, I have a personal Facebook page and one for PAII – here’s the one for PAII.  Would love to have you join my network and help me figure out how to get my stapler unstuck.

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Recently some changes were being tested on TripAdvisor’s “Tourism Pages” and it seemed there was a threat that B&Bs would be obscured on these all-important pages.  Tourism Pages (or city pages, as I like to call them) are where many travelers go to learn about a destination – many times before even thinking about where they’re going to stay.  I had a recent fantasy of taking my wife to Cinque Terre, Italy, (after a great recommendation to go there from the fantastic innkeeper at Akwaaba DC, Kristin Singleton), and I started my homework on Cinque Terre on TripAdvisor.  The Tourism Page is where I started my homework.  I imagine a lot of travelers do the same, although I’m sure many already know about your inn and go directly to TripAdvisor to read reviews.  Nevertheless, exposure for B&Bs on the Tourism Pages is very important, which is why some innkeepers reported concern that “Top-Rated B&Bs” were disappearing from some Tourism Pages.  Only “Top-Rated Hotels” were showing.  This was all during what appeared to be some beta testing by TripAdvisor, because it was happening in some cities, but not others.

TripAdvisor started to hear the complaints right away from innkeepers.  Our Innkeeping Forum was buzzing with discussion, and some innkeepers were encouraging folks to start a campaign to get as many innkeepers as possible to submit grievances.  And this was all happening at the same time TripAdvisor was offering a 50% off deal to innkeepers on their relatively new Business Listings program.  You can read all about that here, but the gist is – pay an annual fee and have your phone, email and web link added to your TripAdvisor property page.  Innkeepers on the fence about Business Listings were scratching their heads – why pay for Business Listings if B&Bs can’t be readily found on the Tourism Pages like they had been for years?

I give credit to TripAdvisor.  They have some senior staff who are involved with PAII.  Brian Payea, their Trade Relations Manager, pops in from time-to-time on our forum to offer innkeepers advice, clear up misunderstandings and to announce things like the changes made earlier this week to the Tourism Pages.  They listen to what innkeepers have to say.  I’ve been meeting with them regularly for nearly two years, and they’ve always been willing to listen – and have made some improvements to their site based on our ongoing dialogue.  So, what changes were made this week?  First of all, “Top-Rated B&Bs” are back on the pages.  Thank you, TripAdvisor!  Furthermore, if you go to a Tourism Page that has more B&Bs than hotels, you’ll notice that “Top-Rated B&B”s are shown above “Top-Rated Hotels.”  This makes good sense for the web site visitor, because if they’re checking out a town with more B&Bs than hotels, they’re probably more interested in B&Bs.  This is TripAdvisor’s way of improving the experience for the web site visitor.  When doing homework on Cape May, New Jersey, it makes good sense to showcase the B&Bs first.

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• Laying April Fool's joke to rest – Eric Goldreyer did NOT buy #PAII. He did buy me nice cowboy hat though. http://tweetphoto.com/16806443 #