Tag Archives: visit

Assumptions Can Be Wrong

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Your bed and breakfast guests usually have questions. Be careful to understand their frame of reference when they ask a question. Assumptions can be wrong!

While I was a young student at Michigan State University, I lived in an international dorm. For those of you who don’t know, Michigan State is located in East Lansing, Michigan. One of the reasons I chose to attend the university was that I lived only two hours away in a town called Holland, Michigan.

When an international student asked me what I was going to do over the weekend, I replied, “Go home to Holland.” She looked shocked and asked with a puzzled look, “Only for the weekend?” I had failed to take into account that she was thinking of Holland, Netherlands. Actually, the Netherlands is the country my great-grandmother and her family came from when they relocated to Holland, Michigan.

We laughed when we both understood we were talking about two completely different parts of the world. I wrongly assumed that since we were both currently living in the state of Michigan, that she would have heard of my local Michigan town called Holland!

Often when recommending places your guests can visit and things they can do in your area, please remember my advice to never make assumptions. You may decide to offer print directions to your guests (to places like a local restaurant or attraction) so that they can take it with them should they not have a GPS with them.

You could even have an FAQ (frequently asked questions) page on your website with links to various places you suggest that they visit.  You could organize the recommended places by categories such as restaurants, museums, parks, and so on.  This helps your guests plan for their stay at your bed and breakfast and you can easily refer them to your website if they are calling or e-mailing you the question.  I recommend offering free brochures to local destinations to your guests while they visit in person.

Have you ever had a funny mix-up like mine with your bed and breakfast guests?  I would love to hear about it!

 

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Blog and Social Media, Guests, Promotion

Bed and Breakfast Spas

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Your guests like to receive special treatment.  Bed and Breakfast Spas deliver just that.  If your B&B does not have a spa, an easy alternative involves scheduling massage therapists to visit your guests’ rooms at your bed and breakfast.

Reasons for Spa Services:

  • Beauty treatments
  • Cleansing
  • Detoxification
  • Exfoliation
  • Improve complexion, circulation, and flexibility
  • Relaxation
  • Relieve aches, pains, and tension
  • Youthful appearance

Services:

  • Aromatherapy: relaxing with enjoyable aromas
  • Facials: including masks, exfoliating scrubs, acne treatments, etc.
  • Hair removal: waxing any unwanted hair
  • Manicure: finger nails and hands given royal treatment 
  • Massage: such as deep tissue, Swedish, prenatal, etc.
  • Pedicure: toe nails and feet given ultimate attention
  • Sauna: hot and steamy relaxation
  • Stones: strategically placed stones–hot to relax or cold to heal

Packages include a combination of services done on the same day.  Some B&B’s let their guests decide for half day or whole day treatments.  They can be pampered all day long!  Couples love couples massages.  All guests will love receiving care from the outside in!

 

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Activities, Amenities, Guests, Promotion

B&B Guests: Sports Spectators

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Your bed and breakfast guests could be staying with you because of local area tournaments and games or even major sporting events like hockey or racing in a nearby stadium.  Your guests may not play the particular sport, but they sure do enjoy watching it live and in person.

You can offer tickets to local sporting events and tournaments as part of a sports spectators package.  Your sports package entices more guests to visit your bed and breakfast.  You can even offer extras such as T-shirts and sweatshirts with your bed and breakfast’s name on it. They could even be seen wearing your B&B’s apparel at the televised sporting event they attend!

 

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Activities, Guests, Promotion

B&B Guests: Sight Seers

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Your bed and breakfast may attract sight seers.  If you are near a great little town like Carlton or a major tourist attraction like the Grand Canyon, you will have guests who want to visit it.  If your B&B is near a university, you can find out when certain events, like Parents Weekend, are being held on the college campus.

Knowing , for example, that Grand Canyon National Park may have some free dates of admission (or more importantly, the facts about the attractions near you) can help you plan and promote your bed and breakfast marketing.

Remember that your website, blog, and social media presence are a big part of getting the word out to potential guests and will lead to more booked rooms!

 

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Activities, Events, Guests, Promotion

B&B Guests: Shoppers and Antique Lovers

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Some guests visit your bed and breakfast because of the terrific shopping available in your area.  Whether it is special boutiques, retail outlets, flea markets, or antique dealers, their mission is to find some great buys.  Some come as collectors to attend conventions for valuable items such as stamps, dolls, and cars.  Whatever their reason, your website and blog can promote these opportunities and events.

Posted in Activities, Events, Guests, Promotion

B&B Guests: History Buffs

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Some bed and breakfast guests visit because they want to tour historic buildings as well as monuments or local museums in your area.  You can take advantage of your prime location, and contact these places ahead of time to make arrangements for your guests to have tickets.

For example, in Asheville, North Carolina, the largest private mansion in the United States called the Biltmore Estate is located near a number of bed and breakfasts.  Many of these bed and breakfasts emphasize their close proximity and include tickets to the estate in a package they offer.

You may not have a huge estate in your area, but hopefully there is something historic that people tour in your local area.  If your bed and breakfast is historic, then play up your knowledge of its history and previous owners. Many people love getting a sense of history from learning about the past!

 

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Activities, Guests, Promotion

Innkeeper Personality Trait: Adaptable

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Innkeepers of bed and breakfasts need to have the wonderful personality trait of being adaptable.  According to the dictionary, someone who is adaptable is, “able to adjust oneself readily to different conditions.”  You never know what will happen when you run a bed and breakfast.

Bed and breakfast owners will need to be adaptable as they react to both new guests and new situations. Each guest is different.  They have their own unique personality, reason for staying, expectations of their stay, and objectives for their visit.

It is best when you have your initial phone conversation, to determine the purpose for their stay.  This way you can meet their own unique needs.  For example, you can give the honeymooners the romantic visit of their dreams.  You can give the business traveler, the peace and quiet they seek.

There will always be new situations that come up: a sudden cancellation, an unexpected repair, a couple lost trying to find your bed and breakfast. When you show that you are adaptable to what comes your way, your guests and employees will appreciate that and your B&B business will flourish.

 

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Success

Contests Create Customers

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Did you realize that your holding a contest could actually bring you more business? People love winning things and it will bring more visitors to your website.  If they do win, they tell all their friends about your bed and breakfast.  Even if they do not win, they may decide to become your guests anyway after reading all about your B&B on your website and blog.

First, I will mention two actual contests. Then I will share my ideas for other types of contests to promote your bed and breakfast.

Go to the contests page at BBOnline.com.  In January of 2014, the Parish Patch Farm and Inn in Normandy, Tennessee is offering a contest where the winner will receive 2 free nights after answering seven questions about the inn and an additional tie-breaker question asking you to guess on how many light bulbs are in the Inn Library.

Lifetime movies has a contest to win a stay at the Borden Bed and Breakfast because Lifetime has a television movie about the life of Lizzie Borden that is premiering on January 25.  The contest runs from January 6 to January 15, 2014.

http://www.mylifetime.com/movies/lizzie-borden-took-an-ax/bed-and-breakfast-sweepstakes

15 entries per person/email address per day
Prize: (1 winner) 3-day/2-night trip for winner and one (1) guest to Fall River, Massachusetts to visit and stay at the Borden Bed and Breakfast, the childhood home of Lizzie Borden. The guest traveler should be at least eighteen (18) years of age and if the winner is under twenty-one (21), the guest must be his/her parent or legal guardian. Trip includes round trip coach airfare to and from a major gateway airport nearest winner’s home city (as determined in Sponsor’s sole discretion), double occupancy standard hotel accommodations for 2-nights at the Borden Bed and Breakfast and a cash gift card of $1,500 or the same amount in cash to cover meals and ground transportation.

You could decide to do any number of type of merit-based contests such as:

  • the best essay on why someone wants to visit your bed and breakfast
  • the best pet photo
  • the best drawing/painting of the outside of your bed and breakfast
  • the best video commercial of your inn or a video about why someone should prefer to stay at a bed and breakfast over a hotel.

If you decide to do a merit-based contest, it is a good idea to require that the winner must be willing to share their entry on your website.  That way you can post their essay, photo, drawing, painting, or commercial on your website.  Be sure to state if you will not be able to return their entries if that is the case. Good luck and have fun with it.  Contests are a great way to promote your bed and breakfast.

 

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Promotion
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