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.

Creating a Web-site for Free with Webs.

I was recently asked for help in a new company here in Fannmark, Norway. The company has nothing to do with tourism or hotel business (although, its services can be theoretically used there), but my job there is a lot about marketing and positioning of the company in the area.

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.

Facebook and B&B

I have noticed that our post named "Facebook" attracts attention. It is of course not because all our readers want to join us on Facebook, but as I estimate it, because people want to know how to use Facebook in their business.

There have been a lot of excitemenet about Social Media and Marketing in Tourism. There are even conferences devoted to this topic: take for example EyeforTravel’s upcoming Travel Distribution Summit Europe 2011, EyeforTravel's Online Marketing & Social Media Europe Summit, Enter2012, Social Media Strategies for Travel North America. I did have a pleasure to be present at Enter2011 in Innbruck, where a lot of information was shared both from scholars and industry representatives. But one does not have to attend all the events to have a success in Online Marketing.

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.

Bed&Breakfast and the development of the Internet

I am getting exciting updates from LinkedIn, the group of  "Hotel Marketing + Distribution + Revenue Management ". The recent post was from Seth's Blog, something about the best customers. Scrolling down to January, 18, a post about Internet attracted my attention. The thought of how does the Internet develop in the case of small hotel businesses came up. Are those stages realised and used by modern inn-keepers?