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 Web-site for Free: a New Service Overview.

I have already written about the importance of a web-site. And I have been through some services before. Now, if you are in need of a web-site, or consider to make a new one, include a shop-option (adjusting it for room-booking, of course), you may want to read about my last discovery. Now, this is not an advertising article. I simply want to share my experience, and encourage you to have a look at this service (of course, if you are in need of a web-site).

As I continue to work with Akvariespesialisten Finnmark (it newly changed name to ADA Norge), I investigate different engines for making web-sites. My latest task was to find one that would support a web-shop option, as the company started to import ADA equipment to Norway and other Nordic countries, and decided to make an Internet shop as well. As my investigation went on, I also thought of how one could use such engines for purposes of B&B's, wither including a booking option, or just to make a presentation web-site.

If you have checked the Webs service, you might have noticed that it has a web shop option. Unfortunately, the free version allows to put in only 5 products. The payment methods are also too few. After looking through a number of other engines, I can say that the choice of templates in Webs is also quite small.

I have tried Magento. I read several reviews, and it looked like a good solution. But after a while, even my knowledge of web-design gave up. Far too complicated. If you are an advanced designer, familiar with all kind of codes, you may want to try this service. But it is also a costly one: you get only 1 month of free use, after that you have to pay.

Thanks to my sister, who is working with web-sites in Lithuania, I discovered an engine that I took into use after all. The name is uCoz. Apparently created by some Russian (or Ukrainian) programmers. And as expected - quite genius. Truly, the number of templates blows your mind. As a more advanced in web-design, I could change the template totally and make it to the ADA Norge's likings. If it is too complicated for a common user, the amount of templates at uCoz is so big, that one will hardly ever encounter a similar web-site.

The service is available in several languages, including English, German, French and Spanish. Your own web-site you can make in any language you wish with a bit advanced changes: I managed to create the site for ADA in Norwegian.

The basic elements are for free. For as much as 5,49 USD a month (with some further discounts if you pay for several months, and  free domain name if you pay for 1 year), one gets a Web-shop module. Once registered, one can choose a free domain name, of pay some small amount for a custom one (like .com, .org, etc.)

I could write a lot about my experience with uCoz, but I rather advise you to try it. And welcome to ask me or their tech-support for help. By the way, their technical support is really great: quick, polite and professional. 

What makes someone leave a website?

It is crucial to have good content on a web-site. But here are some other tips to follow. Click the picture to see it in full size.

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.

Next, please.

Today I would like to speak about a topic that is a bit different from that of “attracting customers”. I'd like to talk about the right personnel. B&B's have different sizes. Yes, it can be just a small family business when you don't even need any extra people. In the worst case your cousin takes care of the inn while you are on a vocation.

Apropos Facebook Places. Newest updates.

Apropos Facebook Places - Have you seen? When I logged into my Facebook account yesterday and wanted to update my status, I was pleasantly surprised by the new updated feature at Facebook. And that is: now everyone can tag the places and friends from PC or a laptop, not necessarily from a mobile device. One can also choose at once WHO they want to share their status with.

Of course I have used this opportunity on my recent trip to Kirkenes. First it appeared that the Hotel does not have its place on Facebook. But I found out that one should also not forget to change his own location to see the Places nearby and get them in the search result.

FACEBOOK PLACES

In my Facebook news feeds I see that more and more of my friends Check-in in different places on Facebook. Cafes, bars, restaurants, hotels, airports and conference centers. Some of the businesses I follow offer Check-in Deals. Not having used those features myself, I got really interested in what they are and how B&B's can use them.

Summarizing Facebook Activity

Last 2 months there have beed a lot of good articles published on the Internet about marketing both for hotels and other businesses. Those who sollow us on Facebook, could see on our Facebook Page various links and comments. To summarize the history for those who did not follow, or do not want to go through all the posts on our wall, I decided to categorize and publish the links in this new post here.

So what attracted our attention the last months?

Dilemmas in Social Media. Are we ready to meet them?

It is easy to make a mistake in the social media. Øyvind Kvalnes at Handelshøyskolen BI in Bergen, Norway, has identified in his recent research five dilemmas that can come up. While social media give a fantastic opportunity to discover and create network with other people, it also gives us challenging situations. As Mr. Kvalnes puts it, one gets a chance to discover oneself just as the Greek philosopher Socrates suggested. Mr. Kvalnes himself is a philosopher and professor at the Trade University of Bergen.

Do's and don'ts on Facebook. Learn from the biggest.

Recently my friend had a trouble with her flight with Norwegian, one of the biggest operators in Scandinavia. So I went to the air-company’s Facebook page and found the Discussion Board where I could share my (in this case) her experience of their nonexistent customer care. But this post is not about the complaints, it is about how the air-companies handle the Facebook communication.

Promoting your B&B in Free Ways.

So, we know now that a B&B has to have a web site, a Facebook Fan page and possibly a blog. Those can and should be promoted to the existing guests as well as to potential customers. If you collect e-mail addresses of your guests, you can easily create a promotion e-mail letter and invite your former one-time or regular guests to visit your new web page, Like you on Facebook or share opinion on TripAdvisor.

Your can promote your pages by advertising: in the traditional media (be it a local or regional newspaper or a TV-ad), or on the Internet. The Internet offers both payable and free of charge means. Ads on Facebook, or GoogleAds, Yahoo! and others can be used, as well as banners on all kinds of sites.

QR Codes for B&B

One of my colleagues in the tourist business (in Hammerfest tourist office, Norway) complained once that she had to put bar codes on all the items in the souvenir shop, and that some items were so small that she didn’t know what to do. If only she knew about QR codes!

Best Practices for Responding to Reviews

Webinars is a fantastic way to learn. It is much more fun than just reading.
That is why today I suggest you spend 35-45 minutes of your time on following this interesting webinar about responding to guest reviews.

Best Practices for Responding to Reviews

Guest reviews are extremely important in the age of Social Media and Web 2.0. They tell us about what is good, and what we should improve. The last are probably the most important for the hotel owners and they show the flaws and problems that one can improve. To learn more, follow the webinar.

The famous Daniel Edward Craig is the guest expert and he talks about:

- what reviews should be answered
- how to answer the reviews
- when to answer the reviews

Interesting cases are presented and revised. You can also download the PDF version.

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.

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:

The pitfalls of social media

The pitfalls of social media

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.

Our Facebook Page

To go along with own words, we invite you to join our group on Facebook and become the fan of our web-page there.

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