How to Improve B&B Conferences and Tradeshows

How many bed and breakfasts are in the United States?

Between 16,000 to 20,000 from 2003 to 2019. Around 3,976 bed and breakfasts are listed on bedandbreakfast.com.

Main National Bed and Breakfast Associations

Association of Independent Hospitality Professionals (AIHP)

• Around 603 total members
• Around 181 properties attended the AIHP conference
• There were about 390 AIHP conference attendees in 2019

Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII)

• Around 1,000 total members
• Around 161 properties attended the PAII conference
• There were about 332 PAII conference attendees in 2019

There were 15,580 estimated bed and breakfasts without a membership in a national association during 2019.

Regional Bed and Breakfast Associations

• CABBI: California Association of Boutique & Breakfast Inns
• Select Registry

How many properties attended a national conference?

Around 342 properties. Around 2% of the total properties (based off of 16,000) nationwide attend national conferences.

What are the benefits of associations?

• Regulation
• Representation
• Advocacy
• Provide search engine optimization ranking to compete against online travel agencies or marketing channels

To get more reservations, search visibility is key. Given that most consumers only visit a small selection of websites, this underscores the importance of being visible in search, so that your association members do not get overlooked during the consideration phase.

Why you should join a chat room/forum with other property owners

• A common place where business owners can exchange advice
• Not structured
• Vendors aren't allowed
• Non-vendored speech may require personal one-on-one chat
• Some allow job postings

Vendor marketplace and discounts

These marketplaces act as revenue streams for the association and often contain discounts for the association members:

• Constant Contact
• TextingReviews.com
• ADP
• Travel Guard
• Office Depot
• eHealth
• And more.

What are the challenges? What could be improved?

• Vendor Pay for Play: Associations are a business, so they need to be able to generate funds to provide benefits for their members and to be able to hold conferences. This results in the association having to struggle for its independence while remaining neutral.
• Vendor Dependent for Content: At conferences, most of the content is provided by vendors. They don't curate their content as much as they should. Thus, the same presenters and content are presented over and over again. This can cause participation to decrease.
• Webinars: Due to vendor dependence and low budget, most webinars are hosted and sponsored by vendors. Many webinars become commercials. If it's requested by members, then it's not so bad, but most of the time members dislike paying for commercials.
• Financial stability: Associations need funds to run, even if you're regional or national. The way to overcome that is to have additional members or vendors.
• Management: Might not be run effectively because the staff are typically volunteers or part-time. This is not to say that part-time or volunteer employees don't run it well, but running an association is a large burden to place on someone who isn't getting compensated. Volunteers or part-time staff may not be able to dedicate their time as effectively as someone being paid to do it full-time.
• Lots of homework: Conferences provide a lot of ideas, but most of the implementation gets lost or never happens since they give you so much homework. Most members go back to work and forget what they learned because of how busy their schedule is.
• Staying current: A lot of associations are behind the times due to their budget, yet expect to be trusted by the hospitality industry. You want to make sure your association or business keeps up with trends. Update the appearance of your website and keep up with your blog (if applicable).

Are associations worth joining?

Absolutely. There are strengths to joining an association. Just make sure you join the right association for you (it should provide the value that you're looking for).

An association should:

• Provide value and organization
• Have expert industry knowledge from valuable presenters like successful property owners
• Utilize technology to expand membership

How has ResNexus elevated the industry?

ResNexus has reduced association website costs via our website builder. We make it easy for people to team together again. On a ResNexus association website, you can link to your members' properties to help them get bookings. If your association ranks well on Google, your members will have a better chance of being found as well.