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.

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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  

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?