The Innkeeping Blog

On Facebook, is what I mean.  I encountered an example of how an inn is simply not “with it” when it comes to social media.  They’re missing the boat, and I wanted to share with PAII members about the missed opportunity at the Boar’s Head Inn in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Recently I attended the Bed and Breakfast Association of Virginia meeting in Charlottesville.  I arrived by train and took a cab to the Boar’s Head Inn – a classic inn up the road a couple of miles from the UVA campus.  I worked and lived almost across the street from the inn about 15 years ago, so I was excited to be back in the area.  As I waited for the cab driver to run my credit card at the entrance of the Boar’s Head, I thought that I would “check in” to the inn on Facebook.  The relatively new Facebook Places feature allows Facebookers to “check in” at various places, i.e. restaurants, parks, stadiums, hotels, attractions, etc.  One uses his or her cell phone’s Facebook application to let their friends know where they are at that moment.  It’s just a way of sharing news with your friends.  Click here to learn more:  http://www.facebook.com/places/

When I attempted to find the Boar’s Head Inn on Facebook on my cell phone, I couldn’t find them!  I was hoping to tell the 700+ friends of mine that I was checking in, and maybe some of my local buddies might see that I was in town.  But, because it appears no one at the Boar’s Head is on top of the social media side of marketing, they missed a golden opportunity for me to tell hundreds of people that I was staying there.  To confirm my suspicion that someone is asleep at the social media wheel, I went to their web site and could not find a Facebook logo anywhere.  No invitation to become a fan or “check us out” on Facebook.

When I searched Facebook for “Boar’s Head Inn” this is what appeared:

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The big question about all this social media hubbub in the innkeeping industry is – will getting on Facebook, Twitter and other similar “social media sites du jour” bring me reservations? I think we should look at the rise of social media sites in three ways with regard to effect on innkeeping – learning, reservations and novelty.

Reader Interruption…If you don’t know what Twitter is, click here for a neat video explanation. If you don’t know what Facebook is, click here for Facebook’s explanation.

My short and sweet explanation …Twitter is a program that allows people to share short statements, called “Tweets,” about what’s on their mind, anything from “Just made bananas foster pancakes for 8 happy guests” to “Just read this blog post about B&B cancellation policies.” Users are limited to 140 characters, and each person has followers and can follow others. It can be passive (you get others’ “Tweets” sent to your cell phone) or active (you could log in and check them out at your convenience). Facebook is a much more comprehensive site that allows users to post all kinds of content on their own “pages,” including photos, links to items of interest, personal information, business information, and so much more…so much so, that it’s hard to encapsulate in a few sentences. Your “friends” on Facebook get updates when you change your page and add any content, and you get the same updates from them. It’s a bit overwhelming, but it is just as interesting as it is overwhelming. There’s a reason Facebook has over 200,000,000 users.

So, why should innkeepers strongly and carefully consider jumping in with sites like Twitter and Facebook, when on the surface it might seem like just a bunch of noise, hype and Gen X stuff?

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