Tag Archives: visitors

New Year’s Eve Resolutions

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new-years-eve-resolutions

Do you have any 2014 New Year’s Eve resolutions for your bed and breakfast?  Here are some possible improvements or new beginnings with your online presence:

1. Your Website:

  • What are its strengths?
  • What are its weaknesses?
  • What opportunities come about? (business)
  • What threats does it have? (competitors)

2. Your Blog:

  • Do we have one?
  • If so, is it attracting more visitors and more bookings?
  • Do we need to hire someone to blog for us?
  • Can that person blog about a variety of issues related to innkeeping?

3. Your Social Media Presence:

  • Facebook–does our B&B have a Business or Fan page?
  • Twitter–do we regularly tweet?  do we know what to tweet?
  • Pinterest–do we post pictures of our B&B?  pictures of our food?
  • Linked In–do we have a profile as an innkeeper on Linked In?
  • You Tube–do we have videos promoting our B&B?

4. Your Membership in Associations & Organizations Giving Web Presence:

  • Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII)
  • BnB Finder
  • BB Online
  • Bed and Breakfast.com
  • Select Registry

5. Your Public Image and Community Outreach:

  • Conferences–do we attend conferences on Innkeeping?
  • Business meetings–do we hold business meetings at our B&B?
  • Weddings–do we offer weddings?  If not, could we?
  • Music–do we host concerts or recitals?

So think about your website, blog, social media presence, associations, and public image & outreach goals for 2014.  Kristi Dement, of Bed and Breakfast Blogging, wishes you a prosperous New Year full of wonderful guests that stay at your bed and breakfast!

 

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Blog and Social Media, Success

Leisure Links

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leisure-links

Are you promoting your area as the place people want to go? People usually decide upon what area to go and then pick their bed and breakfast.

Therefore, it is a great idea for your website to show potential guests what your area has to offer. You can do that through written blog posts as well as a web page with links to your B&B’s local attractions.

Kristi Dement of Bed and Breakfast Blogging can write blogs about the fun things to do in your area.  She can also find links to your local area attractions, including:

  • Arenas
  • Auctions
  • Ball games
  • Ballet
  • Bird watching
  • Bowling
  • Canoeing
  • Circus
  • Colleges and universities
  • Cycling
  • Dancing
  • Fairs
  • Festivals
  • Films
  • Fishing
  • Golf
  • Historical landmarks
  • Honeymoons
  • Horseback riding
  • House hunting
  • Hunting animals
  • Lakes
  • Marathons
  • Miniature golf
  • Mountains
  • Motorsports
  • Museums
  • Music
  • Opera
  • Photography
  • Picnicking
  • Plays
  • Pottery
  • Quilting
  • Reading clubs
  • Restaurants
  • Retreats
  • Romantic getaways
  • Sailing
  • Scrapbooking and crafts
  • Skating
  • Snowboarding
  • Spas
  • Sports
  • Surfing
  • Swimming
  • Skiing
  • Tennis
  • Tourist spots
  • Tournaments
  • Trails
  • Walking
  • Workshops
  • Writing
  • Yoga

Kristi will write about anything that can attract visitors to want to stay at your bed and breakfast.  From college parents wanting to stay at your B&B while they visit their child to sports enthusiasts to art lovers to couples seeking a romantic break–there are many potential guests we can attract to your bed and breakfast!

 

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Activities

Online Guest Book

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online-guest-book

You may already have a guest book in each room of your bed and breakfast for guests to make their comments, but did you ever think of putting their written praises on your website in an “online guest book page”?  Of course, you will need to get their permission in order to use their comment and please respect their wishes if they prefer you not give their full name or specific city when you quote them in a testimonial.

Website visitors will gain insight from what previous guests have said about their experience staying at your bed and breakfast. Some bed and breakfasts already have a web page devoted entirely to feedback they have received.

Your guests may think of reasons that you did not even think of as to why they liked staying at your bed and breakfast! It does not get any better than putting unsolicited positive feedback on your website so potential guests can feel good about booking one of your rooms because they heard recommendations directly from actual guests who have stayed with you!

 

Image by Marcus Berg of Unique Angles Photography

Posted in Associations and Ratings, Guests

Your Own Guidebook for Guests

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You will have many visitors who are not familiar with your area. This means that guests would really appreciate your own Bed and Breakfast’s guide (can be a three-ring binder or a basket full of various items) with the following information:

  • Articles featuring your bed and breakfast
  • Typical breakfast menu items you serve
  • Seasonal weather tips
  • Maps and directions to important places
  • Brochures from local attractions
  • Fliers about special events
  • Menus to recommended area restaurants
  • Contact information for area real estate agents
  • College/university campus maps
  • and more!

There is no limit to your creativity.  Your main objective is to provide a resource that they can easily find key information that will answer their questions.  The more pictures, the better! Remind them why they came to the area!

Posted in Guests

If You Own a Historic Bed and Breakfast

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Many Bed and Breakfasts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Up to 90% of Bed and Breakfasts occupy historic buildings that have been lovingly restored.  Some of them have received rewards from a Preservation Society.  If you own a historic bed and breakfast, do you emphasize its history to your guests?

You can give tours of your historic home and talk about the people who formerly lived there.  If you know their names, talk about them.  Feel free to share any stories you know to be true. If they are rumors, then let your guests know that the information can not be confirmed.  Your guests will feel as though you are giving them a window into the life of those who once lived in your home.

If you have antique pictures of family members, hang them on your walls. Bed and breakfast owners, you can display precious momentos from your historic home.  If they are valuable and/or fragile, consider putting them in a locked glass display case for your guests to view.

You could even put together a scrapbook of old photos of your bed and breakfast and the people who formerly lived in your home.  If you put that scrapbook in a common area of the house, guests will be able to enjoy looking at the pages to get a sense of the history of the place they are staying in.

Guests love staying in places that have a fascinating history. Perhaps someone famous owned (or stayed at) your bed and breakfast.  You can mention that on your website and you can refer to that in a blog post.  Highlight the things that make your bed and breakfast unique and you will attract more visitors!

Posted in History

Ten Things to Blog About

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We need a hook to “reel” our audiences in.  If we provide enough useful content on a regular basis, visitors will continue coming back. Here is a list of ideas of things we can all blog about:

  • Instructional–tell people how to do something, include tips
  • Insider information–Share some of our trade secrets
  • People love lists–top 10, reasons why, favorite, mistakes, etc.
  • Review a produce or service relevant for our readers
  • Interview a relevant expert and focus on their career
  • Write a how-to blog post
  • Hypothetical–answer a “what if…”
  • Content curating–tie together the ideas of others, adding value by sharing our input
  • Inspirational–motivational posts of good-news stories, examples of success, and writing about “what could be”
  • Informational–give information on a particular topic of interest to our readers
  • and the list goes on………..

The point is to be ever present in the minds of our blog readers through our words on the screen!

Posted in Blog and Social Media
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