Pictures you place.

It has been a while since my last blog post. This was mostly due to my personal situation, and the job that I had. Now as I have started in a new position since October 1^st, I am ready to continue my blog.

It is not an accident as my new job is directly connected to marketing and sales in a small hotel called Bjørnefjorden Gjestetun, situaten in Os, half an hour drive from famous Bergen, Norway. This will be a great opportunity for me to use my knowledge and share my experience with you. I hope to be able to show what works and what does not work for a small accommodation business.

A good Website for B&B

After having talked about using blogs and Facebook for promoting B&B’s, it may seem that creating own Website is unnecessary. But it is not so. There are a lot of reasons, why a real website has to be made by innkeepers. First of all, on Facebook or even blog you can't choose design and present your business in a way you want it, in a way that your guests and partners would accept as serious. Yes, a lot of people hang out on Facebook, but when it comes to the presentation and booking, they still prefer to look at more content, with good-quality pictures etc. It is just more reliable. After all, anyone can create a blog or a Facebook without actually existing. A good Website will present your B&B and make you a desirable host.

Blogging for B&B

Blogging seems to be a good way to promote your Bed&Breakfast. With the help of blog-creating services like the Blogger, you can create an almost real, at least well-functioning, and, here come the best part - FREE OF CHARGE - web-page for your B&B. In fact, you can put any content that you would put on a custom-made web-page. But using blogs saves you time, money and doesn't demand any special knowledge about web-design.

Going through existing blogs one can make a list of good ideas to be used in your own blog. Here are some of them:

Putting an Honest Grade to the Bed and Breakfast Industry in Hard Economic Times

Today I was going through some web-sites devoted to Internet Marketing, and some things really touched me. I will come with a summary later.
But now I can't help but quote this article, because it simply expresses my own thoughts. I hope you will enjoy reading.


By Mallory Peterson

With the Great Recession, many bed and breakfast owners are crying "foul" and a handful are using that most dangerous word: "victim". One of the few good things about tough times is it can be an opportunity for re-evaluation, reflection and refinement. That's not to downplay the challenges and difficulties we face right now which are serious. But within the industry, maybe we haven't done as much as we need to do. To judge this we need to honestly grade how well the B&B's are doing as a whole with regards to product, service level, quality, marketing, retention and operations.

Some statistics on the use of the Internet for booking

Statistics show that more and more people prefer to look for information on the Internet and book their travel online. The numbers differ depending on region and country, but they show clearly the growth. Companies should therefore take that into consideration when planning their marketing strategies.

In Norway up to 80% use the Internet to book and pay for hotels online. In the Netherlands and UK the number comes up to 85%, while in Sweden and Japan it lies on 70%. In several countries (Russia, Germany, China) people use the Internet to look for information, but they do rely on travel agents while booking their vacation.

For more statistics look at Consumer Barometer