The Innkeeping Blog

This is the year that Kathleen Panek, owner of the Gillum House B&B in Shinnston, West Virginia, took a local idea and made it international.  Through the West Virginia Bed and Breakfast Association in 2009, Kathleen breathed life into the campaign that had innkeepers giving complimentary rooms to U.S. military veterans in honor of Veterans Day.  This year, participating B&Bs in “B&Bs for Vets” are donating at least one room on the night of Wednesday, November 10th to any active duty or retired veterans.

Kathleen first approached me about supporting the campaign many months ago.  After bringing it up to a few folks, there was concern that some innkeepers might not be in a position to give up important room revenue – especially those who may be in high season during the second week of November.  And, there were some who felt that the campaign should allow innkeepers to choose the discount or added value for veterans – not be required to give free rooms.  One innkeeper, a professed veteran himself, said that if he determined he couldn’t give away any free rooms that night, he might end up looking like a “jerk” for not participating.  I thought that if this campaign really grew legs, there certainly could be that peer pressure element to participate – even if you were hesitant or reluctant.  All of those concerns are legitimate, but I think the generosity of the campaign is its shining asset.

We’ve shared information about the campaign in a few of our email newsletters, and you might have overlooked the call for participants.  I wanted to focus my column this month on the promotion, because it deserves more attention than PAII has been giving it.  I sympathize with some of the innkeepers who have expressed some reluctance to participate, but I think the way Kathleen has structured the promotion makes sense for a few reasons.  First , it’s easy to understand.  It’s simple – a free night - for only one night – for military veterans.  If an inn wants to donate one room to the promotion, that’s all they have to give.  If the innkeeper wants to donate some or all rooms that night, he or she can indeed do that.  But to the veterans, they know it’s a free room on Wednesday, November 10th – plain and simple.  If the special varied inn-to-inn, then it could get confusing and difficult to manage.  From a branding and PR standpoint, simple is good.  Secondly, it could turn out to be fantastic exposure for our corner of the hospitality and travel world.  As we close in on November, it could turn out that some major media will pick up the story of the promotion.  That’s not the purpose of the promotion, but it could be a welcome benefit.  Thirdly and foremost, it’s a worthy cause.  Have you heard the occasional story about how someone randomly or anonymously picks up the tab at a restaurant for a veteran in uniform?  How airlines often give upgrades to available first class seats to men and women in uniform?  Those anecdotes are always inspiring.  The B&Bs for Vets promotion is one fantastic way to show that our industry and our innkeepers value the sacrifices made by our military.

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Two times this week I have been contacted by innkeepers who were threatened or potentially threatened with fraudulent reviews to extort money or to inflict damage.

One innkeeper wrote to me the following:

I am having job performance issues with my college student – he perceives that the problem is me and not his job performance.  He relayed to another staff member (how do they think I won’t find out?) that his friends said he should go on TripAdvisor and pretend to write a review as a guest and make a comment that they liked everything about the inn, except how the owner treated her employees.

Another innkeeper told me that one of his guests stayed for a few nights and said she suffered several bed bug bites during her stay.  To make a long story short, they had the inn inspected for evidence of bed bugs (and they do wrap their mattresses), and there was no evidence.  The guest mentioned the possibility of writing a review on TripAdvisor about it, before she requested a full refund for her stay.  The innkeeper naturally doesn’t want to give in (and does not plan to).

We’ve known for a long time that people have been using TripAdvisor as a weapon in certain circumstances.  The most common one I’ve heard about is when guests want to cancel towards the last minute, but they don’t want to pay the agreed-upon cancellation fee.  If the innkeeper holds true to the policy, the guests get upset and threaten a negative review on TripAdvisor if they don’t get their deposit back.  This is despicable and unscrupulous in my humble opinion, but it happens.  Because the system does not verify the veracity of this guest (Did he actually make a reservation?  Did he stay there?  Who knows?), and because reviewers can remain anonymous, reviewers have the upper hand in these unfortunate situations – a true weakness in today’s online review systems.  When I’ve told stories like this to my contacts at TripAdvisor in the past, they seem genuine in their desire to fight fraud.  After all, their system becomes less valuable as more fraud gets into the database of reviews.  They have automated tools that can detect some of it, but the rest is left to human interpretation of the event as explained by the reviewer and rebutted by the innkeeper.

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Keeping an eye on the ever-evolving TripAdvisor site, I noticed a few nice changes that are available to innkeepers who purchase the Business Listings service.  Until these changes were made, subscribing to Business Listings allowed you to include your phone number and links to your web site and email on your listing page.

If you are a subscriber to Business Listings, you can now feature any promotion or deal that you want on your TripAdvisor listing page.  This could be half-price upgrade, Labor Day special, business traveler special – anything you want, and you can change it as often as you like.  When potential guests are browsing a listing of B&Bs on TripAdvisor, those who offer a “special deal” of some kind (and it doesn’t have to be a discount) will stand out.  This is what you want – to stand out in the crowd of B&Bs being considered.

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This past week I was glad to lend a hand to a PAII member asking for help.  Vinessa Milando, owner of Ivy Terrace B&B in New York, NY, informed me about a bill (click here for bill’s full text) that had just made it through the New York State Senate that would essentially make illegal all short-term lodging facilities that were not bona fide hotels, i.e. B&Bs and vacation rentals.  The law, if signed by Governor David Paterson, would make it illegal for a property owner of an apartment, condo, B&B, etc., to take money from guests who stay less than 30 days.  But the issue brings up a touchy subject – the lack of laws, regulations and/or ordinances that properly define B&Bs.

In New York City, it seems that those who have been running B&Bs out of residential buildings have been able to do so because the language that described their type of dwelling was vague enough to allow for it.   Since 2003, according to Milando, innkeepers came forward and began paying the city’s occupancy taxes – just like hotels.  Supporters of the bill argue that loud, obnoxious, dirty tourists don’t mix well with “permanent” residents in the city, where permanent housing is apparently scarce.  And, they’re saying that some property owners are scamming tourists into unsafe places.  With the quick rise of the vacation rental market and sites like Craigslist, where it’s easy to advertise a couch or room for rent, there is no doubt going to be scammers and irresponsible purveyors out there.  But I would imagine that the lion share of travelers and those who operate B&Bs and vacation rentals are legitimate people wanting to do the right thing.  A law like this should not pass on account of the rotten apples, because the law would essentially kill ALL the apples – the proverbial baby AND bath water.

Property owners (innkeepers among them) quickly rallied this past week and certainly got their message out.  Check out www.protect-vacation-rentals.com to see what they were able to do, including rallying 500 folks at City Hall.  I wrote a letter to Governor Paterson urging him to veto the bill (he’s mentioned an intent to veto, but you never know) and to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who supports the bill, maybe due to heavy ear-bending by the hotel lobby.  TripAdvisor CEO, Steve Kaufer, also submitted a letter to the Governor.  Several main stream press have been covering the story, such as USA Today, New York Times, Budget Travel and more.

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