New Booking Calendar Features

We are excited to announce the following new features and improvements to the WebReserv Booking System and the new Booking Calendar.

Product Filter

The Booking Calendar now supports a product filter. The product filter makes it possible to show the booking calendar with a subset of your rentals/tours/products. This is useful if you want to create separate pages on your website for different product categories, i.e. have all room rentals on one page and all your kayak or bike rentals on a different page.

The stunning new booking calendar from WebReserv

The product filter works similar to the product filter in Booking Calendar 1.0. For more information, please see our online help file:

http://www.webreserv.com/help/booking_calendar_advanced_features.htm

Language & Date Selection

For our European customers, we are pleased to add support for language and selection parameters for the new Booking Calendar. By default, the Booking Calendar detects the customer’s regional settings and will use the browser’s setting for language and date/time/currency format. However, many browsers defaults to English and use the US date/format.

You can override the automatic selection using the language and dateformat parameters.

http://www.webreserv.com/help/booking_calendar_advanced_features.htm

6 Tips to Make Your Webpage More Valuable

A company’s webpage is a reflection of the business itself.  That is most certainly what a customer may think since it is often his/her first introduction to a business. With this in mind, creating an excellent website is vital to the success of your business.  Before you consider design and marketing, you will first want to make sure your site provides visitors the right information at the right time.  If you are just getting started with your website or are updating an existing one, here are a few important tips you need to follow to create a valuable webpage.

Tip 1: Make it simple

When it comes to designing your website, the old adage KISS is good advice: “Keep It Simple, Sweetie”. Here is why:

For your visitors understanding

You don’t want your customers to leave your webpage because they can’t find what they are looking for. Think about what information is important for someone to buy your service or product, and organize this information in an easy structure, such as a simple main menu. Make sure the important information is available from the main page and that it is not necessary to scroll down to access it.  Also, do not overload the page with unrelated information.

Use design to make it easier to complete tasks, not just for design sake. A simple but important design tool is the font you choose.  You want your site to look sharp, and the font choice is essential to this.  Keep in mind that the font you select should be easy to read so visitors can remain on your site for more than 5 minutes without feeling like they are cutting onions.

You don’t use your website – your customers do!  Adding music to your webpage might seem like a great idea, but visitors won’t go to your webpage because they love the music on it, and it is likely that most people do not share the same taste in music. If you do choose to add music make sure you give people the option to turn it off.

For SEO result

Designing a website that is straightforward and easy to navigate will also help your SEO result. If the structure is easy, search engines will give better results and the search experience will be faster and more positive.

Limit the use of animations and Flash. There are many major companies out there with big, shiny we sites that contain a lot of complicated and cool-looking Flash. But here’s a secret about it: a search engine can’t read those sites.

 

Tip 2: Make it responsive

More than 80% of the mobile phones sold in 2012 were smartphones. In other words, most of your customers may already own a tablet or a smartphone and they are going to use it to visit your webpage. Are you ready for this?

If you decide to update your website or make a new one, you need to ensure that it is responsive. Responsive means easy reading and navigation with minimum resizing, panning, and scrolling.  It also means creating a site that looks great across a wide range of devices, giving the customer a great experience whether he or she is using a laptop, a tablet, or a smartphone.

If you want to build a responsive website but design is not your passion or your skill, you can consider using website companies such as Wix.com or Weebly.com. They offer great looking websites at an affordable price.  All sites are 100% responsive and require very little work on your part.

Tip 3: Make it transparent

It is important to remember that sales are about trust and there is no trust without transparency. There is some strategic information you MUST show on your webpage if you want people to trust your business:

1. Pictures: A picture is worth 1000 words and it is the best way to show what you do, who you are, and what you sell. Would you book a room if you can’t see a picture of it? The answer is a definite no.  Also, great pictures will make your web design much nicer. If taking pictures isn’t your forte, then it is worth the expense to hire a professional photographer to do it for you.
2. Features / Services: Be specific and precise about what you offer and try to answer the following questions: what? (What is it? What do I get?), when? (When does it starts/ends? When will I receive it?), how? (how does it work? How can I book?), and where? (Where does it take place?)
3. Prices: If you are concerned about advertising your prices, remember that most customers will likely not buy your services if you don’t show your prices. Potential customers may think, “If they don’t show their prices, then they are probably too expensive”.  Ensure your visitors can easily find your rates and keep the price structure as simple as possible.  If customers need a calculator to figure the cost, then it is too complicated.
4. Contact info: Most of the time you will convert customers when you talk to them. The contact information must be easy to access and your email address should be easy to remember.

Tip 4: Make it fast

Did you know that 40% of people will leave your site if it takes more than 3 seconds to open?

If your site is slow, the experience is frustrating and you certainly don’t want to give that feeling to your potential customers. Here is some data on how your website speed directly affects your revenue: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/loading-time/?wide=1

There are several things you can do to improve your site speed:

As we said earlier, keep your website simple.  The more data you have on your page, the longer it will take to transmit.

Be very cautious with Flash animations, pop ups, and ads that could slow down your site and distract your visitors attention from the important information.

Here are more easy steps you can take to increase your website speed: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/6-ways-to-speed-up-your-site/

Tip 5: Make it seo friendly

It doesn’t matter if you have the most amazing webpage in the world, if nobody can find it, you will not make money. Google and other search engines use the keywords as well as the content to determine what your site is about.

Typically you will want to include the following keywords: who you are (business name), where you are (location or address), what you do (bed & breakfast), and what you offer (reservations).

Where and how you add keywords to your website depends on the software you are using. In many website design tools it’s called meta keywords or search keywords.

Here are some nice tips that will help you improve your keywords efficiency: http://www.sitepoint.com/the-5-most-valuable-places-for-keywords-on-your-website/

Tip 6: Make it bookable

If your visitors are able to find easily the information they are looking for and consider it is reasonable, they will logically want to book online because it is the easiest and fastest way to make a reservation. Additionally, you want your customers to be able to book online so you don’t have to spend your time taking reservations.  You can focus your attention on other business tasks such as marketing and sales.  Having an online booking system will help you with the success of your business.

WebReserv offers a flexible booking system with an easy setup and an affordable price.

Once you’ve done these changes, get feedback from your friends and family.  Ask them to go to your webpage and navigate through to find the important information such as descriptions, pictures, pricing, contacting information, and the booking page.  Find out how long it took them to find the information and what was their honest opinion about their overall experience.  Furthermore, ask your customers about their experience, and take the feedback in account to keep improving your webpage.

Weekend Stay Rules

The WebReserv system now has two ways for your bed & breakfast, vacation rental, or campground to set up a weekend stay rule.   If you require at least a 2 night minimum over a weekend, then you can now select between “Reservation Must Be At Least” or “Weekend Stay Required“. The difference between them is important, and we will explain each option below.

In the system to define a weekend restriction rule, you will first want to set your Weekend definitions.  The system defaults to a weekend being Friday/Saturday, but it can be adjusted by going to Setup – Business Information – Advanced Options.

Weekend Definitions

Next, go to Setup – Products & Reservation Rules – [select room to edit] – Reservation Rules.  Set the weekend restrictions in the Length of Reservation section.

Option #1 – Reservation must be at least 2 nights

This option will require that a reservation must be at least two nights, but it doesn’t define which night over the weekend it must be.  If a customer attempts to book a reservation for a Thursday and Friday night, then the system will allow the reservation because it satisfies the 2 night minimum rule.

Reservation Must be at Least 2 nights

Option #2 – Weekend Stay Required

This option will require that a reservation meets the Weekend definitions that you have set in the system.  For example, your weekend is Friday/Saturday, and a customer attempts to book for a Thursday and Friday night.   The system will either accept the reservation and make a rate adjustment for an extra night (Saturday) or not allow the reservation at all (depending on what is set in the Reservations section in the Advanced Options of the Business Information).

Weekend stay required

With the Rate Adjustment, the system will accept the reservation, but charge the customer the rate for the requirement, i.e. Friday AND Saturday night.  In the example below, the total rate includes the rate for Saturday night even though the customer will only stay Thursday and Friday night.

Rate Adjustment

If you have set it to not allow a reservation that does not meet the weekend stay requirement, then the customer will see this message when trying to book:

Do not allow reservation

Considerations

Based on these two options, what makes the most sense for your business?  Our recommendation is to consider each option carefully for your business.  While the Weekend Stay Required might be necessary for your business, it is important to bear in mind that a customer  might be displeased about receiving an error message that the reservation isn’t allowed or that they have to pay for an extra night.  It is possible that they might choose to take their business elsewhere.

If having the customer stay with you at least two nights is the most important to you, then setting the 2 night minimum is the best option.  The reason is that the customer will not run into any restrictions or price adjustments and happily complete the reservation and enjoy 2 wonderful nights at your establishment.

The 7 Crucial Steps To Get More Bookings

You have a website and you think it looks good but you feel like your business could be doing better and earning more money. It is important that customers make their bookings with you and not your competition, so here are 7 critical steps to improve your bookings this year. Commit to doing one step every day and you’ll be ahead of the competition in a week.

Step 1. Update Your Website. Time: 4 – 8 hours

When was the last time your website was updated? If it’s out of date, make it a goal to get it refreshed before the season starts.

If website design is not your passion or your skill, you can consider using website companies such as Wix.com or Weebly.com. They offer great looking websites with very little work.

If you decide to build or buy a new website, make sure it’s easy to understand, complete and responsive. Responsive means that the page automatically adjusts to the screen it’s being shown on, thus, giving the customer a great experience whether he or she is using a laptop, a tablet, or a smartphone.

Step 2. Get a higher ranking on Google. Time: 30 minutes.

Not only does your website need to have good content, but it needs to have good keywords, too. Google and other search engines use the keywords as well as the content to determine what your site is about.

Typically, you will want to include the following keywords: who you are (business name), where you are (location or address), what you do (bed & breakfast), and what you offer (reservations).

Where and how you add keywords to your website depends on the software you are using. In many website design tools it’s called meta keywords or search keywords.

Here are some nice tips that will help you improving your keywords efficiency: http://www.sitepoint.com/the-5-most-valuable-places-for-keywords-on-your-website/

Step 3. Add Stunning Pictures of your business/products/services. Time: 1 – 2 Hours.

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by the cover, but that is exactly what happens every day online. Customers are much more likely to leave your website and go somewhere else if your website is outdated, difficult to navigate, or doesn’t have good pictures.

Remember – You may offer the world’s most amazing rental or tour, but, if the customer can’t see what they book, they won’t book it!

Use a good quality camera to take pictures or hire a professional photographer to get 10-15 stunning pictures of your rooms, rentals or tours. Once you have captured all your pictures, then, upload them to your website.

Tara Banda has some great tips for taking good pictures here: http://blog.getreachcast.com/443803/2012/05/11/how-to-take-better-pictures-for-your-business-website.html.

For best results we recommend that you upload pictures in either png or jpg format, with a maximum resolution of 2048 by 1536 pixels.

Step 4. Get an online booking system

What do you feel when you are able to book something on the web with few clicks of the mouse? Isn’t that a great experience? Your customers want to be able to book at any time of the day and when they do so, they want to book, pay and get the confirmation at a glance. It is your choice to give them this great booking experience or not.

Many businesses think they can handle all the bookings with Email and phone. This is probably true, but how many Emails do you need before you can confirm a booking? Do you answer the phone 24/7?

If you help your customers booking your services online, they will love it and you will catch more clients.

Step 5. Get Listed On Facebook and Twitter. Time: 30 minutes

Facebook and Twitter are a great way to promote your business for free. Also, it allows you to interact with you friends, your clients or your providers.

Here is a great article about how to take advantage of Facebook and Twitter for your business: http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/facebook-twitter-for-business

Once you have created your Facebook and your Twitter account, you can start publishing news, pictures, articles, etc. on a regular basis. Remember to include a link to it in your emails, on your website, and ask your customers to “like” you on Facebook and to follow you on Twitter.

Step 6. Link To Your Reviews. Time: 30 minutes

In addition to good descriptions and pictures of your rooms, rentals or tours, it is paramount that you give your customers the ability to read reviews from other customers on your website.

Transparency is the key. If a customer can’t see (or post) reviews, they will likely think that your business is not in good health or that you have something to hide, which in turn, increases the likelihood of the customer going somewhere else.

If you already have reviews on your own website, you are doing well. If you don’t then you should link to reviews in TripAdvisor or create a section for reviews on your site.

Step 7. Ask your customers to send their friends and family. Time: 1 minute per customer.

Last but not least, all the tips above are worth nothing if you don’t provide a great service to your client. Do not forget about it when they are spending the money in your business. Word of mouth advertising is extremely powerful. A confident “try this, you’ll love it” from a friend means more than all reviews in the world. Give a good service and take care of your customers then ask them to share their experience with friends and family.

Adding the Booking Calendar to your Facebook page

It is now possible to embed the new booking calendar on your Facebook page. Check our Facebook page to see how it looks.

The set up process is fairly straightforward with an end result being a fully functional booking system for your business available on your Facebook page. Just follow the steps.

Note: It is also possible to embed the booking calendar 1.0 following the same method.

1.    Locate the app on Facebook

Once you have completed the setup of your account, you can now add it to your Facebook page. To embed the WebReserv booking calendar into Facebook, go to the following Facebook Application page http://apps.facebook.com/static_html_plus, and click on “Add Static HTML to a Page”.

2.   Select the correct Facebook page

You may have more than one Facebook page. When asked, select the correct Facebook page from the drop down menu.

3.    Add the app

Click “Add static HTML” to add the app.

4.    Open the app

Go to your Facebook page and click the tab “Welcome” to open the app.

5.   Access the HTML code of the booking calendar

Once you open the Welcome tab, you will see an area to add the HTML code.  In order to get the HTML code of the booking calendar, login to your WebReserv account and click the “Website” tab in the top menu.  Select the options and the appearance of the calendar and then click “Preview” to generate the HTML code. Copy the entire code from the box.

Note: Both versions of the calendar (1.0 and 2.0) are available.

6.    Embed the HTML code of the booking calendar

Paste the calendar’s HTML code into the editor and click “Save & publish”.

Note: You can modify the height and the width of the calendar directly in the HTML code.

7.    Change the name and the picture of the tab

Once you’ve saved the HTML code, go back to your Facebook page and click the arrow near the “Welcome” tab.

Click the “edit” button on the Welcome tab and click “Edit settings”

To change the name of the tab, just type the name you want in “Custom tab name” and click “Save”.

To change the picture of the tab, click “Change” in “Custom Tab Image” and upload the picture you like.

8.    See the booking calendar on your page

Go to your Facebook page and click on the tab you just created.

Click “View tab in visitor mode instead” to see the final result.

Congratulations! You have successfully added the booking calendar, and you’re ready to receive bookings from your Facebook page.

Check our Facebook page to see how it looks

Hourly Reservations Made Easy

The WebReserv booking system can be set up for many types of applications, including bed & breakfast booking system and tour booking system. This article explains how to set up different time rules for hourly reservations. Hourly reservation rules are often used for boat rentals, bike rentals, paddleboard rentals, jetski/waverunner rentals and similar.

The hourly rental is designed to be used for rentals where the customer can select a start time and a variable amount of time for the rental, such as 1, 2 or 4 hours or a full day.

When the customer books an hourly rental, they will see an hourly calendar that shows availability for each hour during opening hours.

Here’s some examples of what the booking calendar can look like, depending on your configuration.

Multi-day/overnight rentals

Hourly Reservation (multi-day)

Click here to try it out.

Click here to view the time rules for this setting

Same-day rentals

Here’s the same booking calendar, but for a rental that can’t be booked overnight or multiple days. Notice that we can pick a start date, from time and to time, but no end-date (end-date is always the same as start-date).

Hourly Reservation (same day)

Click here to try it out.

Click here to view the time rules for this setting.

Same-day rentals with fixed length

Finally, we can let the customer specify the start date and time, but instead of entering the end time, we let the customer select the length of time from a list of options:

Hourly Reservations (Fixed Length)

Click here to try it out.

Click here to view the time rules for this setting.

More tips for your booking system

For more tips on how to set up hourly reservations, we recommend that you take a look at the quick start guides.

5 BIG Mistakes B&B Owners Make And How To Avoid Them – Part 5

At WebReserv we have been working with the B&B industry for several years trying to provide the best service to our clients. We know that a good booking system is a valuable tool for the B&B owner, but we are also aware that there are many other aspects (marketing, communication, sales, accounting, etc.) that the business needs to refine and improve in order to be successful.

Yvonne Halling is a B&B owner and a WebReserv client. She runs a successful B&B, and wants to share her experience and knowledge with other B&B’s. She writes about the 5 most common mistakes that B&B owners often make. Each week, we will discuss one mistake and give tips on how to avoid them. Here is the 5th mistake.

Not Realising That Customers Having Money in Their Pockets To Spend, That They Could Be Spending With You!

There is an old saying that a customer is a customer is a customer, to me this opened up the prospect of actually taking additional money from my B & B clients for non B & B goods and services.

I literally jumped in the air when I got this one, as it had never really occurred to me before and it fitted so well with my new found ‘how can I give customer value at an even higher level’?

Now remember while I am doing this I have never ever called in the decorators or worst still picked up a paint brush myself, nor have I bought more new comfy beds, sofa’s or put new carpets on the floor. No I have done none of that, in fact the truth is if I applied for a star rating again, god forbid, I would at best get 2 stars! So my point is you don’t need to do any of that at all!

So let me share with you how I made a full on profit of 20k, YES TWENTY THOUSAND, not turnover, full on money in my pocket by using a marketing strategy called ‘Upselling’.  This was truly one of the light bulb moments for me and what I call one of the, well I call it ‘Stupid Mistakes’ I was making and almost all B & B owners are making too…

Here’s what I did, with some research and time I started to find out what my customers really wanted, yes I know, I have said that in Big Mistake No. 3. But part of what I found out is that they love spending cash with me on the things they want, that in some cases, other than for me, they would never have found out about.

All I did was tell stories about the area around me and guess what, they wanted to know more and more, so I started offering them things they could buy from me that were in the story. Now I hear you say, that’s easy for you, you are where you are! But trust me, it’s true of every B & B, you have local expert knowledge that they will love, all you have to do is join the dots and offer them what your research tells you they want – It really is a no brainer.

To run this strategy of upselling, in marketing jargon you need to create a ‘Niche’ – which simply means identifying a speciality, preferably something you know about and/or like yourself. All you then do is share your knowledge. Now of course it has to be local to you, there’s no point being a specialist in sea fishing if you live 100 miles inland. Then with this specialist knowledge you simply start to build yourself a specialist B & B business around your chosen subject.

It really is a case of how much do you want or need that extra cash, after all what would you do with and extra 20k straight in your pocket this year? I got this in my second year after getting upselling started. This year I have increased my B & B prices by 5% and am expecting even more visitors as I hone my marketing strategies. On top of that as I hone my ‘upselling’ skills I am expecting even my 20k of extras to vastly increase, how cool if I could help you do exactly the same for your business…

Yvonne turned her Bed and Breakfast « hobby » business, making 10k a year into a 6 figure professional B&B in less than 3 years.  Trained in NLP, Presentation Skills and Leadership with Chris Howard, Yvonne is a professional coach and consultant helping B&B owners worldwide to make more money.  Get the full report “5 BIG Mistakes B&B Owners Unwittingly Make And How To Avoid Them” at http://bedandbreakfastcoach.com

More information about WebReserv on www.webreserv.com

5 BIG Mistakes B&B Owners Make And How To Avoid Them – Part 4

At WebReserv we have been working with the B&B industry for several years trying to provide the best service to our clients. We know that a good booking system is a valuable tool for the B&B owner, but we are also aware that there are many other aspects (marketing, communication, sales, accounting, etc.) that the business needs to refine and improve in order to be successful.

Yvonne Halling is a B&B owner and a WebReserv client. She runs a successful B&B, and wants to share her experience and knowledge with other B&B’s. She writes about the 5 most common mistakes that B&B owners often make. Each week, we will discuss one mistake and give tips on how to avoid them. Here is the 4th mistake.

Having NO CLUE about the Life-Time Value of a Customer

How many customers are you looking for? I know that might sound like an odd question but do you know that in marketing terms it’s massively easier to get someone to buy something from you that has bought from you before?

Now this is not me sharing this, I learned it in my long lonely nights learning about marketing and if you think about it, it is obvious. Here’s how it works, it’s called –

Know – Like – Trust

Now it’s obvious that for someone to buy something from you they have to know you first. So how many people do you know? And have you got them on a list so you can communicate with them?

If You Don’t Have a List of Customers, You don’t have a business.

Today I have several lists all working away for me with little input and what I do is to get people to ‘Know’ me first. I do this using my Facebook and Linked In accounts and have come to master this whole process which other than a little time, costs me nothing in terms of cash outlay. This is one big way I get people to KNOW me…

Getting someone to LIKE you is different to getting them to simply know you, Getting them to LIKE you means you have to interact with them but again if you are smart this is simple and takes little time and is, to all intense and purpose FREE, yet it’s something B & B people are not doing on mass that works…

Here’s the BIGGY though, for someone to buy from you they have to ‘TRUST’ you at some level, after all they are giving you their hard earned cash. Now we have to take that trust very seriously and we do this by delivering ‘MORE’ than we promised, YES if you exceed someone’s expectation they will be coming back for more, time and time again.

And if that’s not enough, most importantly they become a part of your ‘Unpaid Sales Team’ as they tell their family, friends, colleagues, even people they meet down the pub how great you are, and of course, just as sure as ‘Bob’s your uncle’ you get more people TRUSTING you…

Now once you have peoples trust, as long as you over deliver and never abuse them by sending them stuff they don’t want, all you have to do is stay in contact with them. If you don’t you simply become a distant memory and they forget all about you. In marketing terms you commit one of the cardinal sins of letting them go COLD!

Now remember they won’t mind hearing from you if you bring back happy past memories of staying with you and that in marketing terms is what is called ‘keeping them WARM’. Once you get this started and keep on and on building it, in business terms there’s simply nothing quite like it. It’s like having your own personal cash machine that produces cash over and over as soon as you send an email.

Imagine Lady Gaga for a moment. She has such a huge raving fan base, all she has to do is keep producing great content (aka another song or album) and bingo, another $10m in the bank.

You can do this too, and it’s a lot easier than you might think.

Yvonne turned her Bed and Breakfast « hobby » business, making 10k a year into a 6 figure professional B&B in less than 3 years. Trained in NLP, Presentation Skills and Leadership with Chris Howard, Yvonne is a professional coach and consultant helping B&B owners worldwide to make more money. Get the full report “5 BIG Mistakes B&B Owners Unwittingly Make And How To Avoid Them” at http://bedandbreakfastcoach.com

More information about WebReserv on www.webreserv.com

5 BIG Mistakes B&B Owners Make And How To Avoid Them – Part 3

At WebReserv we have been working with the B&B industry for several years trying to provide the best service to our clients. We know that a good booking system is a valuable tool for the B&B owner, but we are also aware that there are many other aspects (marketing, communication, sales, accounting, etc.) that the business needs to refine and improve in order to be successful.

Yvonne Halling is a B&B owner and a WebReserv client. She runs a successful B&B, and wants to share her experience and knowledge with other B&B’s. She writes about the 5 most common mistakes that B&B owners often make. Each week, we will discuss one mistake and give tips on how to avoid them. Here is the 3rd mistake.

“Who do you want to serve?

When helping B&B owners who want to make more money and have more fun, the first thing we look at is who they really want to welcome to their homes, and this is often a sticky subject.

Question:  Who is your ideal guest?

Answer:  Everyone

The problem when we try to be all things to all people is that we then become no-one to everyone.  We scatter our energy and focus and end up not really making anyone happy, including ourselves.  We become another ordinary, forgettable B&B experience and that doesn’t build our businesses, nor does it serve our guests.

“But if I focus on one type of guest, I’ll lose business, won’t i?”

Well, no actually.  In fact the opposite will happen, and here’s why:

• When you get really clear on the expertise, knowledge and skill set you have, then you can really begin to shine
• When you go and find the people who would most appreciate that expertise, knowledge and skill set, then you can really add value to them
• With these first two steps firmly in place, you can then develop products and services that those ideal guests would want to buy or use
• This increases your bottom line while you do less work

Here’s an example of how this works in my own case:

• We welcome champagne lovers worldwide who want to discover the hidden gems of Champagne.  So now anyone who loves champagne and is looking for the “off the beaten track” experiences that only we can offer, we become the “go to” people, or the obvious choice.
• Those champagne lovers want what we have – 17 years of experience and knowledge of living and working in this region.  They want the inside scoop, the hidden gems, the personal introductions, the things that ordinary B&Bs do not provide.
• We produce products and services, both digital and physical to help those guests get their needs met.  They enjoy a memorable experience and write a glowing review for us on Trip Advisor.  We’re happy because we helped them, and there’s no better feeling in the world.

And the icing on the cake is that we make more money, and that’s a great feeling too.”

Yvonne turned her Bed and Breakfast « hobby » business, making 10k a year into a 6 figure professional B&B in less than 3 years.  Trained in NLP, Presentation Skills and Leadership with Chris Howard, Yvonne is a professional coach and consultant helping B&B owners worldwide to make more money.  Get the full report “5 BIG Mistakes B&B Owners Unwittingly Make And How To Avoid Them” at http://bedandbreakfastcoach.com

More information about WebReserv on www.webreserv.com

5 Big Mistakes B&B Owners Make and How To Avoid Them, Part 2

At WebReserv we have been working with the B&B industry for several years trying to provide the best service to our clients. We know that a good booking system is a valuable tool for the B&B owner, but we are also aware that there are many other aspects (marketing, communication, sales, accounting, etc.) that the business needs to refine and improve in order to be successful.

Yvonne Halling is a B&B owner and a WebReserv client. She runs a successful B&B, and wants to share her experience and knowledge with other B&B’s.  She writes about the 5 most common mistakes that B&B owners often make.  Each week, we will discuss one mistake and give tips on how to avoid them. Here is the 2^nd mistake.

“Do you know what your guests want, what they really want?

Many B&B owners I speak to insist that having “stars” or ratings by organisations who grade them are the most important reason people choose them, and I’m here to tell you today, that it’s not!

Not at all!

But hey, I thought that too, and I fell into the same trap as everyone else and got a rating from my national organisation, Gites de France.  Gites de France came to my B&B, focussed on all the things I didn’t have, like TV in the rooms, private parking, difficult access etc. etc. and gave me a 2 star rating.  They then told me how much I could charge which was around €60 euros a night, which is about $40.  Well €60 a night wasn’t going to cut it as far as my bills were concerned, so I dumped Gites de France, who didn’t bring me any of my ideal guests anyway (more on how to determine your ideal guest in another article) and put my prices up to €92,50 a night!  And my business exploded!

Guests are not interested in your grading, your stars, or your awards.  What they really want is an emotional connection with you, and now, if you know what you’re doing, you can easily create this using the power of video, online technology and mankind’s greatest invention so far…. The internet.

• First you need to have a proper CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system so that you can capture guests’ details when they book.
• Next, take a quick video of yourself speaking to the camera, smiling and introducing you and your B&B, and how you’re very much looking forward to meeting them soon.  Pop this on your website.
• Create a follow up sequence of emails for your incoming guests, and link the first one back to your website where they can see the video of you.
• All this builds trust and connection before your guests arrive, and makes them much more pre-disposed to spending more money with you.

Before you spend another penny on upgrading your bed linen, installing TVs or expensive toiletries, check out my free report here: http://bedandbreakfastcoach.com  You’ll be surprised with what I share with you.”

Yvonne Halling runs “Les Molyneux” Luxury B&B in the heart of the Champagne region of France.  Using her proven strategies, she helps B&B owners to become more successful and increase guest revenue, while at the same time create a fun and fulfilling B&B owner experience.  Find out how at http://bedandbreakfastcoach.com

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