Reservation Nexus - Recommendations

One of the advantages of having access to a Red Carpet Professional is that they work with hundreds of inns of all sizes and across the country. They constantly see what works and what doesn't. We love sharing this information with you in order to improve your bottom line.

Marketing Recommendations

The only way Reservation Nexus will not work for you inn is if you do very little marketing. Just because you have built or purchased an inn, doesn't mean that people know about you. If you have two hits a day on your website, you probably are going out of business. There have to be fish in the pond in order for Reservation Nexus to capture them for you!

Don't give up! There is so much you can do to jumpstart your marketing! It's ok that you're not an expert. Below are some solid tips.

Test yourself on Google Evaluate how you do on search engines at the moment. Google | Yahoo

Type in: lodging [your city] [your state]
Type in: bed and breakfast [your city] [your state]
Type in: hotel [your city] [your state]
Type in: accommodations [your city] [your state]

How did you do? Did you come up on the first page? Did you come up on the second page?

Now try statewide...

Type in: lodging [your state]
Type in: bed and breakfast [your state]
Type in: hotel [your state]
Type in: accommodations [your state]

You may want to try a region or what your area is well-known for.

Ok... I didn't find myself at all. Now what?

First, make sure on your home page and in your home page title that you have keywords that would be used to find your inn. Example: Mayfield Bed and Breakfast in Elk Ridge, Utah. Make sure on your homepage that you not only write it for your guests, but so that search engines can list your correctly. Don't try to fake search engines out. Their #1 job is to find relavant content. Make yourself relevant. You can get help from a SEO professional but find one who guarentees their work. There are a lot of bad SEO companies out there.
Second, make sure your website is submitted to Google, Yahoo and MSN. See "How do I submit my website with Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.?" below.

How do I submit my website with Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.?

Any time you make a change to your website or if you are new, make sure you let Google, Yahoo, etc. know that you exist or have changed. It's tedious but the results happen within days.

Google:	google.com/addurl
Yahoo:	search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
MSN:	search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
dmoz:	dmoz.org (Find your category and add your site to it)

What directories would you recommend? There are so many directories out there. Which one's really work?

Do the Google test above on your inn and area. Subscribe to the directories that come up on the first page and are at the top. Some may even be free.
bbonline.com is a solid investment. We see very few complaints on its return on investment. Click here for current pricing.
Your state association website directory may help.
What about bedandbreakfast.com? It does drive business to your website. The high commissions sure are painful and make you wonder if the extra reservations outweigh the cost of the service and the wear and tear on your property. Savvy guests will bypass bedandbreakfast.com's reservation system and reserve directly from your website through Reservation Nexus, cutting out their commission.
Are you on tripadvisor.com? How are your reviews?
Do you come up on maps.google.com? It doesn't hurt to make sure that you do... and it's free.

Go local!

Entertainment Areas - Go to the closest university or college and find where they like to have fun and to eat. Ask around if need be. Find out how you can get a banner in front of them.
Corporate Relationships - Make a list of all the large companies closest to you. Give them a call and see if you can provide a special discount to their employees. Have that decision maker come and stay a night for free. The same works well with school districts and colleges.
Create Local Events - Host some type of event and pass flyers out to your neighbors: Halloween party, open house, charity event, etc. Don't go crazy on the costs, focus on giving tours.

How much website tracking should I do?

Be smart about this. It's good to track reservation sources by putting a script on your website and in Reservation Nexus, but don't over track or overcomplicate things. Use tracking to identify which of your marketing investments are solid return on investments. If you subscribe to pay-per-click, these scripts are easy to obtain. Put them on your website and in Reservation Nexus.

Don't pay for something you already know. If you consistently ask guests how they found you (which is a great idea), you know.

You may find from your web host that you don't need to pay for source tracking, because it comes free of charge in your website hit reports. Many companies that provide websites are looking for additional revenue sources.

Guest Relations

Even though Reservation Nexus is working for your inn 24/7 to capture reservations from your website, it's so important to make sure guests can get a hold of you. We are constantly amazed at how many inns don't answer the phone. "Surely, they will leave me a message." You lose a lot of phone reservations that way. If you don't have front desk staff, have your main number forward to your cell phone when you don't answer.

Make sure your answering machine informs guests that they can book online. "You can now make online reservations from our website which is [Your Website]. Your call is important to us. Please leave a message."

Include your website on your brochures and other marketing materials.

Take better room pictures. About 95% of the time when we visit one of our subscribers, we think that the room pictures don't do the inn justice. On the flip side, don't Photoshop pictures so much that the guest arrives and feels like they have been mislead. If you can't afford a professional, most new digital cameras do a fantastic job. Try different times of the day and year.

Take time to record guest information correctly and professionally. Don't use all lower case or all upper case. "Dear Mike" vs. "Dear mike" in a promotional email looks so much better.

Make your guest's stay unique in your own way. Find ways to learn about and to serve your guests and they will come back.

The Competition

Inns that think more positively concerning their competition do better. If you get five inns working together, don't you have more rooms, influence and opportunity? Clashes are normally over the misperception that both inns are competing for the same business. In reality, almost every inn offers a unique guest experience, unlike larger chains.

If you are brand new, take cookies to other inns in your area. Get to know them. Let them know that you would love any overflow they experience and that you hope to return the favor as well. Ask them, "What one thing do you wish you would have known?"

Form your own association. You can even list your members free of charge with a Reservation Nexus Association Directory.