In recent weeks others in the travel and tourism industry have been highly critical of review site TripAdvisor for various shortcomings in its administration of its online lodging reviews (and other reviews, as well). The concerns expressed are world-wide, not simply the complaints of a few, in a small part of the world.

This post is an attempt to gather and synthesize the concerns, to try to identify the core problem, and to suggest improvement.

Recent Complaints About TripAdvisor

In the United Kingdom, Paul White’s Bed And Breakfast Club blog has taken TripAdvisor to task for allegedly fake reviews that have been maliciously posted to damage a property.  Paul suggests that TripAdvisor could have listed hotels give a code to their guests, that could be entered to validate the authenticity of the review.

More recently, Heather Turner, in her Chef Forfeng’s Blog, has questioned mysteriously disappearing reviews that were favorable to a property, vanishing from TripAdvisor. In addition on several innkeeping forums, such as the members-only forum for the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII), or the public Innspiring.com forum, innkeeper problems with TripAdvisor frequently surface. We have documented some of them here on AboutTheInn, as well, calling for greater responsibility from TripAdvisor, among others.

Avoiding Responsibility

Unfortunately, TripAdvisor’s responses to nearly all of these concerns, whether made via blogs and forums, as mentioned above, TripAdvisor’s own Owner’s Forum, or efforts to make direct contact by phone or email, all seem to result in one of two standard responses. The first is utter silence – leaving the innkeeper with the clear impressions that (a) there is no procedure to handle problems innkeepers may have with the review process, and (b) TripAdvisor really doesn’t care if the reviews are genuine or not. The second “response” is the provide boilerplate statements to the effect that reviews are “validated” by a secret process and decisions to post them or remove them are also a secret process, and no further information will be provided. Clearly, the second “response” is no better than the first – no response at all.

Sometimes, in defense of TripAdvisor’s intractable refusal to validate reviews or to explain why valid reviews are removed, statements are made to the effect that TripAdvisor is actually a very small company and incapable of reading every review. Yet, in Paul White’s article linked above, he refers to TripAdvisor’s claims that human beings read every review. Clearly both statements cannot be accurate.

Making Matters Worse

To add financial insult to the unresponsive injury, TripAdvisor has begun (in 2010) offering a “business listing” to properties, with a sliding scale of very high rates, based on size of property. For this payment, the property gets a “nofollow” link from the property’s listing page on TripAdvisor to the property web site. A nofollow link is one that does not pass any search engine credibility with it. You might think that paying for a business listing would give the property owner the ability to communicate with TripAdvisor and to expect some measure of responsiveness. For the most part, you would be wrong.

On the positive side, TripAdvisor does seem to allow business listing customers to communicate with it. However, the responses they receive do not differ significantly from those given to non-business listings.

No Control Over Management of Listings

In fact, an even bigger problem is the way TripAdvisor allows for “management” of a listing by a business. First of all, a property has no choice whether it appears on TripAdvisor or not. They list properties they find, and that people review. You can only remove your “listing” if the property is out of business. You can sign up for a free account to manage a “listing” (allowing for uploading photos and videos, changing some of the details about the property, etc.). You then have limited ability to edit the listing, and can post management responses to reviews. However, if someone else signs up for a free account, claiming to be authorized to manage the listing, they, too, will be able to make changes. It appears that no attempt is made to verify that the person seeking a management account is authorized by the property.

How does this change when the property purchases a business listing? From all appearances, it does not change at all! Someone else can still claim to be authorized to make changes, apparently without TripAdvisor verifying their authority.

Declining to Correct Errors

What happens if information is incorrect, or worse, maliciously false? For the most part, nothing. TripAdvisor simply hides behind American laws protecting site operators from liability for information posted by others. In fact, even when the false information is posted by TripAdvisor, via its parent, Expedia.com (such as incorrect room rates), it claims it is free from any responsibility for the error, as it was posted by someone else.

The Core Problem

The common theme in all these areas is TripAdvisor’s desire to bury its figurative head in the sand, pretending that it has done no wrong and therefore bears no responsibility for the perceived problems. They avoid responsibility for false reviews by taking the position that they are not responsible for content posted by others, or that the reviews meet the TripAdvisor guidelines (even though they are demonstrably false, or that the guest did not stay at the property).They duck responsibility for missing reviews by saying the reviews were removed for reasons that are kept secret. They claim they are not responsible for errors, as the information is posted by others.

The one message that comes through loudly and clearly from TripAdvisor is, “It is not our fault.”

The small properties, whose continued livelihood depends on favorable reviews on sites like TripAdvisor, are the ones harmed by this attitude. But TripAdvisor’s own reputation suffers, as more and more properties who have been harmed find their voices and speak up.

Some Suggestions for Improvement

Yet the solution would seem to be relatively simple (technical issues may be present, but are surely not insurmountable). Take responsibility. Make the effort. Here are some concrete suggestions:

1. Provide for a system of verified reviewers. PAII’s CEO, Jay Karen, has been suggesting for over a year that TripAdvisor find a way to allow for reviewers to be verified, so that a review by a verified reviewer would carry more weight than an unverified reviewer. Other sites do this. Why not TripAdvisor?
2. If you’re going to accept paid listings, then act like a responsible directory. Give a proper account to the business, so they can manage the listing and limit who can make changes to those who are authorized.
3. Listen to the property owners (or authorized representatives). When they say a guest didn’t stay with them, pull the review until it is verified. If they tell you the information provided by a reviewer or relating to pricing, etc., is wrong, take responsibility to make it right. If you don’t trust the owners, then put a footnote with the information saying, “Provided by the property owner.”
4. Listen even more closely to the properties that are paying for a business listing. They are paying for, and should be entitled to, a right to be treated as paying customers. At least give them a fair shake. Explain why a review is removed. If the owner disputes it, then give them a way to prove its validity to you.

TripAdvisor, we know the guests find the information useful. We just want to make it more reliable. And, if we’re paying for the privilege, then we also want you to respect us as paying customers, instead of as if we were dangerous thieves, trying to steal bookings from unsuspecting guests.

At this juncture, we give TripAdvisor only 1 of 5 stars for responsibility.

The ball is in your court, TripAdvisor. Are you willing to take any responsibility?

UPDATE August 25, 2010:

Earlier today TripAdvisor posted the following on the PAII forum:

We identified a bug that resulted in some of our members’ reviews being removed from the site. While this affected only a small fraction of our community and properties on the site, we value every review and opinion and expect to have these posts republished as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience to our community and the property owners, and appreciate your understanding.

Certainly we’re glad to hear that a bug was found and it was corrected. No question about that. Also good to hear that it only affected a small fraction of the TA “community.”

But this creates a new problem: If it was a bug, that means it was a problem caused by TA and its technical people. Somehow that doesn’t quite square with the responses they had given, saying removing a few reviews wasn’t a big problem and claiming they were removed in accordance with TA’s policies. In other words, TA, were you just giving pat answers before and ignoring the facts, or is that what you’re doing now to try to salvage your reputation?

Besides that, it is nice to know it  “affected only a small fraction” of those on TA, but how many is that? Or are there other reviews that have been removed for other reasons?

Does this fix that problem? I suppose time will tell.

As review sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp, and others, supplemented by the more specifically-targeted sites like the bed and breakfast directory reviews, become so very important to small lodging properties, Google did not miss out, and began adding reviews from many of these sites on their “Place Page” (formerly Local Business Center) for the business reviewed.

Google’s next step was to add the ability to review a property directly on the Place Page. This was a nice feature for reviewers, but a nightmare for businesses.

Not only was the review anonymous, and entirely without any accountability, but the property owner could not respond to the review – even in cases of alleged fraud.

Today Google announced a very welcome change to that practice, allowing verified business owners to post a reply.

Google does suggest that you “be nice” in your reply, and provides some brief guidelines for responses, that would be well to be kept in mind in responding to any review.

This should provide an even greater incentive for businesses to claim their Place Page to become a verified owner, and monitor it regularly, now that verified owners can respond to Google reviews.

As we have previously mentioned, one of the most frequent questions on innkeeping forums and elsewhere is which property management (or guest management) software (“PMS”) is “best.” Like most things, this is a subjective decision. What is the “best” property management software depends on your circumstances, your preferences, and your priorities.  One size most definitely does not fit all.

If you search around the property management / guest management software world a bit, you’ll quickly see that it is difficult, if not impossible, to find software reviews. Because of Scott’s experience with this type of software (although on a much larger scale), and his ownership (with his wife, Ruth) of a small, seven room bed and breakfast in Freeport, Maine, we are adding software reviews to our information on About The Inn.

About the Reviews

When reviewing these products we have obtained a demo version, or in the case of web based software, a demo account, and used the product exactly as a new user would. When we review a product we have used for our own property, we are using it with our account and our configuration, so there may be minor differences from a new user’s configuration. We attempt to use the version of the software which is most current at the time of the review.

As we use the software, we evaluate it in regard to several categories: Rate Capabilities (types of rates and how they are supported), User Interface (ease and intuitiveness of use, availability of commonly required information), Guest Communications (emails, statements or folios), Reports (financial, occupancy, tax, gift certificates, etc.), Accounting (export to accounting software), and Online Booking (appearance, update frequency, features, etc.).

Each of these areas include objective aspects (those that are simply present or absent, and subjective features (those more important to some properties and owners than to others). The view of one reviewer (or user) of either the objective or subjective aspects may be quite different, depending on the type of property, preferences of the user, and priorities of the user. Consequently, before purchasing the software you should try it for yourself, rather than relying solely on a review, even our reviews.

The Contenders

In this installment, we’ll consider three products. Two are long-established players in the online booking and property management space, and the third is a relatively recent addition.

SuperInn, from Sark Technologies, is a well-established player in the online booking and web-based property management space.  Webervations, a sister company of BedAndBreakfast.com, is primarily an online booking product, intended to be used with a separate property management system, but a number of smaller properties also use it as a PMS. KeepMeBooked, the newest of the three, comes to the table with a very slick and usable product.

Rate Capabilities

All three of these products allow for individual room pricing. None can really be said to allow for a setup of room types (such as setting a room type of “King Room” and a price structure, then assigning several rooms to the King Room type, so they are all priced the same). All three allow for seasonal rates, and have mechanisms for discounts, packaging, specials, and add-on items. By far the easiest to use is KeepMeBooked, which allows for this setup with a few clicks in a very intuitive screen. However Webervations is the most powerful of the three in handling packaging, allowing not only upsale items (add-on sales), but packages that combine room reservations with additional items, for a package rate.

User Interface

This area looks at the ease of setting up information for the rooms, the property, policies, etc., as well as the ease of creating bookings. In this area KeepMeBooked edges out SuperInn by a slim margin, both because of its more intuitive screens, and the ease of entering reservations and other data, compared with SuperInn very dated technology and cumbersome entry process. Webervations lags far behind in this area, due to being nearly as out of date and as cumbersome to use as SuperInn, but with even less usable calendar view and even weaker guest data. In fairness, Webervations’ shortcomings are due primarily to it being intended to be used with a separate PMS.

Guest Communications

All three can send confirmation emails and most similar communications. Webervations does not create a guest folio (or statement), and while SuperInn does allow printing of a guest folio, it is difficult to navigate to that point. Of the three, only KeepMeBooked does not currently support cancellation emails. KeepMeBooked and SuperInn allow for other emails, with SuperInn supplying the most guest communications, some of which begin to compete with email marketing programs. While some systems charge extra for this capability, to their credit, SuperInn includes them in the cost of the product.

Reports

Although reporting is very important to evaluate the performance of a property, reporting is commonly the weakest part of web-based PMS systems. SuperInn provides far more in the way of reporting than the other two products. In conversations with KeepMeBooked, there are plans to expand the reporting capabilities in future releases. Webervations is by far the weakest, though the few reports it does supply are quite useful.

Accounting

In this area we consider the ability of the system to send its financial data to an accounting program, such as Quickbooks or Peachtree. Some systems have a live interface, while more commonly the data is exported to a file, which can later be imported by the accounting software. As with other areas, how important this feature is to you will determine your attitude about the capabilities of the different products.

None of these systems has a “live” push of accounting data to an accounting package. None really exports the financial data in a way that can be imported by an accounting program. SuperInn requires a copy/paste of the data to create a file, and presumably it can be manipulated into an acceptable format by the user. KeepMeBooked can export financial data into a spreadsheet, which is a slight improvement over SuperInn, but it does not appear that this will be able to be imported into an accounting program without re-formatting the data. Webervations offers no such report.

Online Booking

Since all three of these programs are web-based, you would expect them all to be strong in online booking. SuperInn and Webervations both approach online booking similarly, while KeepMeBooked has a different approach. Both SuperInn and Webervations reflect their older technologies by sending the prospective guest to their website (leaving the property website) to get availability information and complete the booking. SuperInn does a better job of masking the transition by making its pages mimic the look of the property website. A web developer can do the same with Webervations, but it is a bit more difficult.

KeepMeBooked takes a different approach. It uses a small widget – a small booking tool, that is embedded in the property website, and gathers the information from the guest to complete the booking, all the while giving the appearance that the guest never leaves the property website. While the widget could stand some enhancement to allow for packages, etc., it is a very nice tool.

Other than these differences, all three handle online bookings satisfactorily, though neither SuperInn nor Webervations is particularly elegant.

Update: In the detailed reviews (pdf links below), we note that Webervations allows both confirmed reservations or, by changing the configuration, a request for a reservation. SuperInn does confirmed reservations, only. KeepMeBooked has pointed out that, when their product is configured not to require payment online, it also will act as a request for a reservation, or if configured to require online payments, a confirmed reservation is created.

Price

KeepMeBooked lowered its prices just as we were doing this review. For a seven room bed and breakfast, with online booking, the rate is $40 per month. It is less if online booking is not needed, but we feel that is such a major component that we don’t consider that alternative.

SuperInn provides hardly any information about itself on its website, and no pricing information. When we requested the demo, we inquired about pricing and were told the rate for a seven room bed and breakfast would be $60 per month.

Like KeepMeBooked, Webervations pricing is also based on ranges of numbers of rooms. For seven rooms it is $10.99 per month. Before Webervations was acquired by BedAndBreakfast.com, a newer version was being released. That version wasn’t released to all customers, so we have reviewed only the older version. The new version is priced at $29.99 per month for seven rooms.

Concluding Thoughts

If price were the only difference, Webervations would be the overwhelming favorite, as it costs only a fraction of the others. However, its features are by far the weakest of the group. If reporting were the most important consideration, SuperInn would be the favorite. However, it is the most expensive – even more expensive than similar products with larger feature sets, and its technology is dated. If a slick, user-friendly experience is the most important consideration, KeepMeBooked would be the winner. It’s price seems to be in line with similar products (though some offer more features at that price), but it is lacking in reporting and other areas.

As you can see, and as mentioned above, one size doesn’t fit all. Each product has its virtues and its shortcomings. If the shortcomings are not in an area that is important to you, perhaps you can overlook them. On the other hand, if they are important, you may want to consider something else.

In any case, most systems provide an evaluation copy of the software, or a free trial account. We strongly urge anyone considering purchasing a booking system to evaluate several different products before making a decision.

Read our full reviews of KeepMeBooked, SuperInn and Webervations (pdf files).

What is important to you in selecting online booking or guest management software? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Not so many years ago, as the use of the internet technologies was maturing, there was a lot of talk about the leveling of the playing field, allowing the smaller businesses to compete with the larger. You don’t hear so much about that, these days. As businesses of all sizes have turned to internet marketing and social media to build relationships with customers and potential customers, the scales have reverted to the same imbalance as in traditional marketing. Big business as well as small have devoted significant effort to using these technologies, and to finding their way to the top of the search results, especially on Google.

If you’ll indulge me a bit, this scenario seems a little familiar…

For Americans of — ahem — a certain age, there was a science-fiction television series in the late 1960′s that was very popular with teenage boys, called Land of the Giants. I was a few years too old to be interested, but my younger brother was hooked on it. The show involves a group of travelers, marooned on an Earth-like planet, where the inhabitants resemble humans but are 12 times larger than the cast of heroes. Each episode involves the group seeking a way to return to Earth, while avoiding the dangerous giants. Though the giants cause problems, there is always a happy ending, except that the crew never escape.

How does that science-fiction program relate to marketing lodging properties? Or, to borrow from a television commercial, what can a 1960′s sci-fi program teach us about internet technologies? Read on…

The Land of the Giants

For the purpose of this article, the giants are not those who compete directly against us, but those who are ostensibly here to help us. There are a number of these giants. We could consider Google, of course, Microsoft’s Bing, and surely others could be added. In the travel and tourism area we could consider the likes of Expedia, TripAdvisor, and other online travel agencies (OTA’s), as well as some of the larger directories of lodging properties. You get the idea, I’m sure.

All these “giants” (I know, some are much larger than others, but to a small B&B or similar property, all of them are giants) are in business to make money for themselves and for their shareholders. That is perfectly appropriate, and as it should be. However, there is an ethical side to being a giant that some (perhaps most) of these companies seem unwilling to consider.

The Responsibilities of Giants

Nearly all of the “giants” named above have a dual purpose: (1) helping the consumer to find, or to make informed decisions about, or to book, among other things, lodging properties; and (2) helping the lodging properties to be found by interested consumers, or to provide the relevant property information to interested consumers, or to provide booking information to the consumer.

In most areas of business, the decision to provide assistance to others while seeking to make a profit for yourself, carries with it a responsibility to provide that assistance fairly and truthfully, or bear the consequences (legal consequences, civil or even, in some cases, criminal). In other words, you make money offering a useful service, that is good. If you fail to deliver as promised, or if you spread false or inaccurate information, you are responsible for any damage your error causes. To go a step further, if you didn’t know the information was false, you are not usually responsible so long as you correct or retract it when the error is brought to your attention.

Not so for our giants. They seem to do as they please, letting the chips fall where they may, and always hiding behind 5000-7500 words of legal mumbo-jumbo, the essence of which is as if to say, “We’re not responsible for any errors – ours or otherwise” and “By using our site you have agreed to this ridiculous proposition.” If that isn’t enough, they also hide behind legal protections designed to keep a web site provider from being liable for content posted by someone else. However, they use it to shield themselves from ever verifying information, so they can claim they are not responsible for errors, and do not ever need to correct their errors – even when the errors are brought to their attention.

Please understand that we are not saying that the actions of the giants are contrary to the law. We are saying that they are using the law to avoid their moral or ethical obligations to treat their customers fairly and honestly.

Let’s Get Down to Cases

TripAdvisor claims to provide “real hotel reviews you can trust” and “candid reviews.” Most small lodging properties are aware that guests often use TripAdvisor to evaluate their choice of lodging. Consequently, any review, whether positive or negative, can make a big difference to the property.

Mark Stephens, of Brewster Inn in Dexter, Maine describes dealing with TripAdvisor “like going to the dentist, you don’t want to go, but you know you have to.” Like many small lodging properties, the Brewster Inn decided to try TripAdvisor’s new (in 2010) paid business listings, providing a way for the guest to read the TripAdvisor review, and click on a link directly to the property (no such link is provided for properties who do not pay for a business listing).

Brewster Inn’s problems with TripAdvisor fall into two categories. The first is that they have several positive (5 stars, on TripAdvisor) reviews which have vanished. TripAdvisor not only gives no explanation, they respond to inquiries saying that properties who have paid for a business listing do not get any different treatment than free listings. They claim to be unable to disclose the information about why the listing disappeared.

Meanwhile the guest who posted the review was told that TripAdvisor’s automated filters had identified the review as requiring “special attention.” No explanation is given, and although this guest has taken time to reply and verify that it is a real review (it is doubtful that most guests would bother), it appears that TripAdvisor’s efforts “to ensure that the information on our site is unbiased and pure” will prevent this review from being re-published.

The second problem Brewster Inn has found is that a review was published from a guest who never stayed with them. In fact it appears that the review even states that they did not stay (the review is in German, according to an online translation, this appears to be accurate). Stephens posted a management response saying the guest did not stay, and challenged the review. TripAdvisor initially removed the review, but it has reappeared. They have not removed it, despite requests, as the guest refuses to allow it to be removed.

That doesn’t sound very much like “reviews … you can trust.”

The attitude is somewhat different with Google Place Page problems. Instead of simply refusing to correct the errors, Google provides very limited ways to get in touch with them, and then seems to make changes without any regard to the business owner’s corrections.

Business in Freeport, Maine is very seasonal, with bed and breakfasts dependent on the July-October traffic for a significant majority of the year’s revenue, and guests often choose their lodging on its proximity to the primary attraction in the area. In the spring of each of the past three years Google’s Maps (on which the location information on Google’s Place Pages – formerly Google’s Local Business Center – is based) has altered the map location for Brewster House Bed & Breakfast (not the same property – the Brewster family is related to the Brewster Inn’s family, the current owners are not related).

Initially, Brewster House claimed its Place Page, and corrected its map location, which was about a block away from the correct location. A few months later (in the spring, just as potential visitors were beginning to plan summer travel) Google removed the listing entirely, without explanation. Reconsideration was requested, and the listing eventually reappeared. A few months later (in the spring), the listing suddenly was located about two miles away from the actual location, to the southeast. Efforts to correct the location were unsuccessful. Eventually, because Google Maps gets at least its USA data from TeleAtlas, this location was corrected with TeleAtlas, and the business returned to its correct location. This year, again in the spring, the location appeared in yet another incorrect location, about two miles to the south of the correct location.

Each year this incorrect map location has caused untold damage in loss of guests, who were given the wrong location information by Google. Even though Google, as part of its Place Page procedure, verifies that the person claiming the listing is an official representative of the business, they freely change its location to a location not selected by the business!

Ironically, an early corporate slogan of Google was “Do no harm.” It is not difficult to see why they have abandoned it.

These are just two examples. We could also include examples of TripAdvisor, supposedly relying on incorrect information from its parent company, Expedia, to publish incorrect rates for properties, even after they were notified of the error, or examples of directories trying to solict bookings through their own booking gateway, to the detriment of the small property who is the paying customer of the directory, and there are, sadly, many others.

Taming the Giants

Just as there is little doubt that the laws the giants are relying on to shield themselves from legal responsibility for providing erroneous information (the provisions of the US Communications Decency Act) were never intended to protect this type of behavior by the giants, there is little chance that they giants will change their behavior unless given an incentive to change.

Other than changing the law, what are the “little people” to do? Since the problem is the giants, using force (legal proceedings, pleading with them, etc.) is not likely to be effective. However, if those who are struggling with the problems caused by irresponsible or unethical behavior of the giants speak up, and share the information with the public, perhaps the groundswell will create a chorus loud enough to shame them into a more proper behavior.

Are You Fighting the Giants?

Tell us about your struggle in the comments below, and keep up the good fight!

Amid all the frenzy of keeping up with Twitter and Facebook and now Foursquare and YouTube and Blogging and sorting out which directories to list on, and responding to the never-ending flow of emails from directories telling you to hurry and post your latest specials for this month, your latest photos, your latest hot deals, your best recipes and oh, yes, did you remember that you actually have a business to run? sometimes it is nice to … just … take … a … step … back, take a deep breath, and remember what it is we’re trying to do here.

Now, that’s better.

What we try to do

All the different things we’re called upon to do, and sometimes we think we’re required to keep up on, can get so fragmented, that they can pull us in too many directions and keep us from our real job. Recently there was a thread on a B&B forum (I’ve seen the same series of questions and comments on several different forums – the topic pops up every now and then) asking, quite appropriately, how to decide which (pay) directories to list on. The discussion evolved into a discussion of the value of directory links for search engine ranking. Innkeepers must be experts in search engine optimization (SEO) and in statistical analysis of directory listing results, you see.

Meanwhile, every so often there is another blog post about measuring return on investment (ROI) from social media (meaning Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc.). Some say it is worthless. Others find value in social media. Innkeepers must be experts in determining ROI in the newest, cutting edge media, too.

And, of course, all innkeepers must be great copywriters so they can blog regularly, post to their Facebook page, and also keep the website up-to-date, post tweets on Twitter, check-in on Foursquare, and, between breakfast, cleaning, shopping and check-ins, run off a couple of quick inn videos and post them to YouTube.

But there’s a secret. We tend to think that everyone else is doing all of these things successfully, so we must do them, too. The secret is, they’re not. Most are only doing a few of these things, if any. Most are not doing them all that well. A few are doing several of them. Even fewer do them really well.

Gaining perspective

Don’t misunderstand: All these things that we busy ourselves about – social media, blogging, seeking the best bang for the buck on directories, etc. – are good things. What we sometimes lose sight of is that they are part of a much bigger picture.

Perhaps as a result of the sheer volume of new information, and the detailed information we must master, we have turned to “experts” to tell us what we need to know. The result is that we have a lot of detailed information on relatively narrow subjects. Only rarely, however, do we put these subjects together into a larger picture.

I will admit at the outset that I am not a trained marketing expert. Consequently, I may not use “correct” marketing-speak. I may miss some things the trained marketer may know. Mea culpa. However, both for our Freeport Maine Bed & Breakfast, and for our other businesses and elsewhere, marketing has been a significant part of my experience.

Much as I dislike the term “heads in beds”, that is the bottom line for most small lodging properties. Some are thrilled to have any guests, any time. Others seek to attract a particular segment of the traveling pubic. But at the end of the day we all need to count the revenue from those guests to pay the bills.

Re-thinking marketing

The level of detail provided by the “experts” (some are truly experts in their area; others are most definitely not), seduces us into a “bottom-up” approach to marketing. We examine each individual directory, social media site, etc., and try to see if it is worthwhile.

If we step back from this a bit, we’ll see that what we are really doing with that approach is letting each of these small contributions create our overall marketing plan, with no real objectives or strategy. It becomes an ad hoc plan.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to start at the top, and see how all these things can work together to accomplish your objectives?

Starting at the Top

1. Setting Objectives

Begin by defining your objectives. It is fine to have big, general objectives (I want to make a profit), but the more specific you can be, the easier it will be to measure your progress. For most small properties, it will be selling a certain number of rooms in a year (or month, etc.), or increasing revenue (or profit) by a certain amount.

Whatever you may set as your objectives, translate them into both money and bookings, so that, based on your average booking value, you know how many bookings you need, as well as how much money you need, to achieve your goal.

Set narrower objectives, too. More visitors to the web site/blog/Facebook page (how many more?). Longer average visits to the web site (how much longer?). You get the idea.

2. Create a Strategy to Accomplish Your Objectives

All the things we started out mentioning (directories, blogs, social media, video, your web site) plus the more obvious, paid advertising, are your tools to accomplish these goals.

If blogging once a week brings you X bookings per year, and blogging twice a week brings you 30% more, will that help you reach your goals? If so, then you should be blogging twice a week.

Similarly, if adding a new directory can add 3% to your annual bookings, and you think that is worthwhile, then you should add that directory. How do you know if a directory will add 3%? That isn’t easy to determine, and results will differ by directory, by your geographic region, and, in some cases, by the membership level you purchase on the directory. Our article on evaluating directories covers many of the considerations. Be wary of claims by the directories that they can produce a certain number of bookings. While these may be based on their click-through rates, they are, at best, averages and, at worst, an effort to sell you something. Higher levels may help, but there will be no guarantees.

What about Facebook, Twitter, etc.? Most of the debate centers around the difficulty in attributing booking results to social media. In this internet age, we are accustomed to relating clicks on our web links with bookings to determine the source of a booking. Social media isn’t that straightforward. It usually requires more time and attention than a simple web page or website, and bookings don’t always come with technical data to show they originated with Twitter or Facebook.

In addition, as with directories the value may lie in more than just matching bookings to the source. Directories can provide value through their reviews, or through publicity they generate for you, despite never sending you a booking directly. Social media is relationship building. If you make friends through social media, and the friend refers another friend, you may have bookings you will never be able to identify as coming from social media, yet the investment of time has paid off.

As mentioned at the outset, discussions of directories (and other potential referral sources) often leads to a discussion of placement in organic search results. However, this is really combining apples and oranges. Listing on directories should be viewed as having value (or not) on their own merit, not whether they help your site place well in organic search results.

Why would we say that? Google’s official view is that paid listings (like paid listings on directories) do not enhance the reputation of your site. We have seen exceptions – most likely where Google has not discovered that the listing is a paid listing – but generally paid directory listings do not help you place well in general search results. It does appear that they can be of some help in local search results, however, so don’t dismiss directories as not helping at all with search placement.

One of the best summaries of the factors that help your site place well in search is Google’s own SEO Starter Guide (pdf).

3. Measure Your Accomplishments

Use a tool to help measure your results. A web-based statistics program such as Google Analytics will help you see where the visits to your web site are coming from, how long the average visitor stays, how many pages they view, etc. If you configure ecommerce tracking you may also be able to track some of the revenue to the source (this is very difficult to configure correctly using online booking systems, but can be done). Other systems, such as Intell-A-Keeper make no effort to trace web site visits, themselves, but track booking sources.

No online tool is perfect. At the very least, it is very tricky to track bookings attributable to social media. Even Intell-A-Keeper can not track a booking source if the guest last visited the referral source too long ago for their computer to have retained the information.

Consequently, you’ll need to create your own record of the things you are trying to measure, and how they are working.

Getting Started

Most likely you’ve already begun using some (or even all) of the tools mentioned. If so, you only need to set your objectives and begin measuring the results. If you need to adjust your use of the tools, to better meet your objectives, or to aid in measurement, what are you waiting for? Do it!

If you haven’t begun using the various tools, or some of them, don’t just dive in! Set up your objectives, and think carefully about how each tool fits those objectives. Decide which social media tools are right for you. Decide which directories are likely to pay off (considering all the different areas of value they may bring), and be sure you are signed up for only those who will help you reach your goals.

If you don’t have the background or the skills to do some or even all of these things, don’t despair! There are a number of bed & breakfast-centered companies (several of whom are mentioned above) who can provide help with some, or all, of these services. Others, including PAII, provide training in using these tools, to help you learn to do it yourself.

Most important of all, however, is measuring the results so that you know when you’ve accomplished your objectives!

When you think about it, attempting to provide security in a medium (social media) where the objective is to share (at least to some degree) personal aspects of your life, doesn’t make much sense. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that Mark Zukerberg of Facebook famously declared that privacy is dead.

But is it? Should it be that way? Even with Facebook moving the goal posts every few weeks, and changing the way you control access to your data, and sometimes defaulting to very poor choices, you still have some opportunities to control what you share outside your circle of friends (real friends, I mean, not just Facebook “friends”).

What’s the probem?

We may all have different ideas of what we are willing to share with others – depending, at least partly, on how well we know them. That’s the reason that “one size fits all” privacy doesn’t work. Whether you believe in sharing everything, or sharing very little, chances are the next person has a different view about what information they want to share.

Understandably, businesses want to share lots of information about the business, but individuals often want to restrict some of their more personal information. However, many individuals use personal accounts for business information, and the lines between business and personal get blurry.

An eye-opening example

Recently a reporter published an article called Confessions of an Online Stalker. He did it to research just how much personal information is available for free on the internet. He chose a person who is very “plugged in” – having several online businesses, lots of social media presence, etc. What he was able to learn about his “target” was surprising, even to the target (the reporter eventually met him and revealed the information to him).

For example, he knew where he lived as a child, and how much that home was worth. He knew where he lived currently, that he lived with his fiance, and his educational and professional history. The reporter knew what coffee shop the target frequented, and what he drank. He was able to find his target’s travel schedule for the indefinite future. He saw his target on YouTube videos, and heard him speak.

The reporter got a bit of his own medicine when he traveled to Singapore, and posted his jogging route online, and had a reader contact him to jog with him. They became friends.

How can you regulate your own privacy?

Possibly as a reaction to Facebook’s intentional openness, or perhaps it is just good timing, but there have been a number of articles recently on protecting your privacy online. One of the best is 9 Ways to Control Your Privacy on Social Media Sites. Others will come up with a search – especially a blog search.

Post discreetly

If you post your information on a web page, a forum, a blog, or a site like Twitter (which has no set of privacy controls – your only hope at a private message is the Direct Message or DM – but see 5 Reasons Twitter Direct Messages Are Useless), whatever you post is available to the public. Because of real-time search by Google and the other search engines, that means it is available almost instantly – there are no “do-overs”.

The result for these public postings is that everything you post is public, and because of caching by the search engines, it is available to anyone, anytime, anywhere, forever! The best solution to this is to very, very cautious about what you post. Some have said, don’t post anything you would be embarrassed to have your mother read. Whatever yardstick you choose to apply, be careful out there!

A special word is warranted about forums. Many (most?) forums require you to create a login and password to be able to post to the forum. However, most do not require a login and password to read the posts. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security that because you have to log in to be able to post, that it is a private forum – it is a public forum and anyone – repeat ANYONE – can read what you have said.

The article called 9 Ways to Control Your Privacy addresses this topic as Number 3: Have a Clear Understanding of What Sensitive Information is — and Don’t Share it. Good advice!

Control your privacy settings

For sites, like Facebook, that do allow you to control who has access to particular content, go through the controls carefully and set them to your liking. When Facebook changes the privacy settings and controls, go back and check them, to be sure you are still happy with the settings.

Create groups or lists or whatever Facebook wants to call them this week. Set different privacy controls for each group/list, so you can add new “friends” to appropriate groups, and they will only be able to see what you decide to show them.

Take a look at Reclaim Privacy to see what your privacy settings are showing and consider resetting them appropriately.

Be careful who your friends are

Don’t accept friend requests from strangers. If you are a business, set up a business page, and point the strangers to it, rather than accepting them as “friends” on your personal page. According to the 9 Ways to Control Your Privacy article, studies indicate that 40% of new Facebook profiles are fakes.

Don’t automatically follow back on Twitter or other microblogging platforms. See if the user seems valid, and follow them only if they are valid and worthwhile for your purposes. Would you be friends with them in real life?

There are other issues as well, many discussed in the articles we’ve linked to above. Some are more security issues than privacy concerns (like strong passwords, fraud and phishing issues, etc.), although failing to implement these properly can lead to very serious privacy issues.

Another related issue is mentioned by Heather Turner in her article, Important Information for Facebook Fan Page Business Owners. If you have a business page, and an employee is taking care of it for you, be sure you are listed as an admin for the page! If not, the employee may leave (no matter the reason) and you may no longer have any ability to control the page!

The bottom line

Take control of your privacy! Share what you want shared, but don’t share anything publicly that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the local newspaper. Just as you might share very personal information with your closest friends, set up groups with different privacy levels so you can share what you want with each group.

Our B&B, Brewster House Bed & Breakfast, was recently in a position to re-evaluate its guest management software choice. You would think that the frequent evaluations (and upcoming reviews!) of various systems (we’ll call them guest management software, though some call them property management software) would make this an easy thing to do, but it never works out that way. You see, while we did a careful study of the available software before our initial purchase, every time we have to review that decision, there are new players, with new products, and the older players and products have changed, and their pricing has changed. So, while we felt we made the best choice for our property at the time, it is always worth the time to review the competition instead of blindly renewing with the same product.

1. Take the emotion out of the equation

From forum discussions and other contact we’ve had with innkeepers, it is clear that some guest management software companies give the impression of being a faceless corporate giant, while others give the impression of being the small, user-friendly company. Some make friends by giving things away, or being helpful in public forums. One may make you disinclined to buy from them, the other may make you want to help them out, but neither of these emotional reactions is a solid foundation for an important business decision.

2. Compare features that are the same

Almost all products provide a list of their features on their websites. However, there is no industry standard for naming the features, so be sure that you understand what the feature actually does. For example, if being able to export guest transactions to an accounting program (such as Quickbooks or Peachtree) is important to you, make sure you know what the company means when they say the accounting information can be exported. Many systems export a file that can be imported into the accounting software. At least one provides a real-time sync. Some, however, simply export a bunch of information to a file, and it is not necessarily in a format that can be imported into the accounting program.

3. Don’t compare features you don’t need

It is easy to get caught up in the feature “hype” of marketing messages. Think about the features carefully – are they features you will really use? If you won’t be using the guest management system for your accounting, then there is no advantage to buying a guest management system that includes its own accounting module.

4. One size doesn’t fit every property

It is a good idea to check with other innkeepers you know, to see what they use, how happy they are with the product, its features, support, customer service, etc. However, even properties that appear similar may have different requirements when it comes to their guest management software. Maybe you love to get reports from the system that allow you to “slice and dice” the data about your guests – where they come from, when they stay, how often they return, how much they spend – and your neighbor with a similar property just wants to know how many rooms they sold and how much income they had. The two of you may have very different requirements when it comes to the number and types of reports the software can provide.

5. Set your priorities

Make a list of the things you want the guest management software to be able to do. Do you want web-based software, so you don’t have to worry about backups, and can access it from anywhere? Do you want it installed on your computer so you have control over it? Should you be able to control it using your smartphone? Do you need it to send confirmation, reminder and follow-up emails to your guests? What kind of reports should you be able to get from the system? Should it smoothly interact with an accounting program? Should it provide online booking, or will you use another system for online booking?

6. Objectify your analysis

Prioritize your desired features – put them in order of importance, or assign numeric values to them, so you can decide what is most important, and what is less important. Make sure you don’t minimize a feature that may not be of great importance, but you don’t feel you can do without. In a prior article we provided a sample spreadsheet that can be used as an example of this process.

7. Try before you buy

Almost every guest management we’ve looked at (except the very high end systems that are more-or-less custom built) will allow some type of demo access. Either a limited function (or limited time) download, or a limited time online account. Take advantage of it! Get a demo, and enter a few reservations. Make changes. Cancel a reservation. Send yourself the included emails to see what the guest sees. If you can use the online booking capability with the demo, give it a test drive, too. Don’t wait to be surprised after you’ve spent your money!

Bonus tip #1

Undoubtedly, while comparing features, you’ll also be comparing prices. When you do so, be certain you’re comparing all the costs that go into the total price. If there is a purchase price and a service agreement, add them together to come up with the annual cost (or the first year cost and later years cost). If there are additional modules you have to buy separately, make sure you include them in figuring your total annual cost.

A hidden cost that isn’t always evident is the cost of not having something. For example, some online directories show availability for properties using a particular online booking system. If your new property management system has its own online booking, will you want to have a second online booking system so your availability will show up on these other sites? Other directories charge for a link to your availability page if you don’t use their online booking system. Don’t forget that cost if you’ll be using something else.

Bonus tip #2

Don’t be afraid to ask. Even the faceless corporate giants have people working for them. They can provide a wealth of information about capabilities and rates. If you have questions before you buy, or you want to see what specials they may be able to offer you, contact them and ask. Your prospective guests haven’t been shy about asking for breaks on the rates, and neither should you be. You may not be successful in getting a break, but then again, you never know.

Bearing in mind that one size definitely doesn’t fit all, our review of competing products was fruitful. We found some new products that look interesting, but that we rejected either because of lack of features or high price. We also contacted the current provider and were able to work out a satisfactory arrangement for a renewal.

As if you haven’t heard enough about getting started with Facebook, Twitter and other social media, and you need to claim your Google Place Page (formerly Local Business Center listing), here we go again, with more changes to the way we market our businesses.

Those who are on Twitter will have noticed that the web pages for posting have recently shown a link asking if you want to add your location to your posts. If you thought about it at all, it probably looked like Twitter was defending itself against Foursquare’s location-based messages. That appears to be the case, certainly, but an article from the journal Search Engine Land shows more is going on than meets the eye, and speculates about upcoming uses for the information.

Behind the scenes

If you are using the web interface, when a tweet includes location information, you can move your mouse pointer over the location, to see a pop-up bubble with information about that location. Twitter announced on June 14 that this feature would be rolled out in 65 countries over the next week. The image below is a link to the Search Engine Land post’s image, as our account doesn’t yet show the location information.

Twitter place information

Clicking the “Tweets about this place” link displays a search results page, showing tweets about this location.

What this means for lodging properties

This is all very cute, you may say, but who has time, and what difference does it make? The answer to the second part of the question is also the answer to the first – if it is important, you’ll have to make time.

If you’re familiar with Google Place Pages (and you should be!) you know that your local business can claim its page and provide information for Google to display when potential guests search for your type of business in the local area (that is, a search for “bed and breakfast yourtown yourarea” yields place pages for bed and breakfasts in that area). Twitter is essentially combining that capability with Foursquare’s location-based check-in system – if you tweet with a location, Twitter can relate it to a Twitter place, and potential guests can find information about the place via the “Tweets about this place” link.

What to do

How do you take advantage of this?

Since the full rollout has not yet occurred, things may change, of course. Nevertheless, it looks as though there are three things small lodging properties can do:

1. Create an account for your property on Twitter if you don’t already have one.
2. Enable locations – and if your property doesn’t appear, search for it or add it.
3. Tweet retularly – not necessarily frequently, as no one likes following people who tweet constantly, or who have little to say except “stay at my property”. Provide value by tweeting things people are interested in around the area, specials, and links to other interesting things.

By doing this you’ll build followers, but also build credibility. It is far too early to tell exactly how these Twitter place pages will be used or what criteria Twitter will use to fill them with content, but certainly having a presence, and giving yourself credibility by showing your knowledge of the location can’t hurt!

Bonus tip:

No secret here – if you haven’t already done so, do not wait any longer to claim your place page on Google!

What holds you back from using social media (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, or others) to market your property? We’ve address some of the barriers in earlier posts (see, for example, What Good is Social Media?, or click the Social Media link in the tag cloud below right), but another barrier is time.

One of the commonly asked questions is, “How much time do you spend on social media?” The answer is (and should be) different for different people. Some people, who see social media as their primary marketing mechanism, will spend an enormous amount of time engaging with potential guests through their favorite social media. Others will shy away, saying it is too easy to waste time, and being afraid to get sucked into spending all day on it.

Ultimately, it is up to you how much time to spend on social media marketing. We suggest that making it your primary source of marketing is not (currently, at least) a good use of your time. We do think that building the relationships that can come via social media is very effective, and should be considered an investment in the future.

The presentation below illustrates some of the time problems of social media, and suggests some tools and strategies to streamline its use. Please feel free to comment on other avenues you have found helpful in dealing with the volume of information on the social web.

You’re not alone! Most of us would like to know if some change, or some technique that we’ve heard about will actually make any difference. Recently five Google experts answered questions on the Digital Inspiration blog, covering such topics as page loading speed, duplicate content, sitemaps, and more. John Mueller (Webmaster Trends Analyst, Google Zurich), Matt Cutts (Webspam Engineer, Google California), Zareen Kazim (Strategist, Google India), Koteswara Ivaturi (Project Manager, Google Hyderabad) and Kaspar Szymanski (Strategist, Google Dublin) provided answers to questions common to most website owners.

If you manage your own web site, or just want to know the details, the 25-question interview is available at the link above, as well as a pdf file of the entire interview.  We’ll summarize some of the interesting answers here (think of it as a short version, or executive summary).

Page loading speed: This is a ranking factor, though not a “high-impact” factor, so faster site loading will not guarantee better search ranking.

Duplicate Content: Duplicate content on your site is generally not a problem. You should consolidate, where possible, to help the search engine (and users) know what is your preferred content. Google discusses different ways to handle duplicate content within a site and across domains. You do not need to worry about sites which scrape your info and republish it as being duplicate content. Google can tell which is the original source and takes care of potential negative effects caused by the scraping site.

Media-rich sites: In addition to using alt tags for images or media, and descriptive file names (these are a must to get a media-rich site indexed), providing textual context for the media can help Google understand the image and its relevance. Google now allows descriptive terms about images in XML sitemaps.

Sitemaps: HTML sitemaps (a page with links to the major sections of the site) are helpful for humans and also help the search engine to confirm they know about all the important pages. Your XML sitemap should include all the pages you want to have indexed by Google. If you don’t want a page indexed, you should include a “noindex” meta tag on the page.

Paid links: Google’s policy is that paid links do not pass page rank. Thus “advertorials” – paid editorial advertisements – do not pass page rank. The link buyer doesn’t benefit and the link seller is considered untrusted by Google. Affiliate links (where a link in the text leads to another site where, if a purchase is made, the linking site receives a commission) are not inappropriate if they are relevant to the content of the site. To guard against possible violation of Google’s policies, these should be made “nofollow” links. Similarly, cross-linking two sites (setting both sites up to link to each other) with unrelated content is not seen as a paid link if you own both sites, but may not have value, unless it is something that is useful for the reader. Cross-linking large numbers of sites is not recommended.

Guest blogging, article submission sites: Links back to your site via guest blogging or by submitting articles to articles submission websites do not violate the paid links policy. However, Google is more impressed a site linking to your great content, than by you linking back to your own site from another article. In other words, high-quality content that others link to is more important that you linking to your own site from another article.

Ranking changes/Penalties: Changes in ranking in SERPs does not always mean your site has been penalized as Google is always making changes to its algorithms. Google will use its Webmaster Tools Message Center to communicate important information about the sites you manage.

Google Ads: Ads are entirely separate from “natural” search, so even if an ad is very popular and frequently clicked, it will not affect the natural search results. Ads on a page do not affect that page’s search ranking.

Publishing frequency: If you publish frequently, and Google updates results quickly, then you take a break, Google may not update your site while you are not publishing, but it will return when your publication frequency resumes.

Keywords on a page: As long as you can do it in a natural way, using different synonyms for important terms is appropriate and will be helpful to both the reader and the search engine. Keyword stuffing should be avoided.

Outbound links: Links out from your site do not directly affect your search rankings. However, linking to quality sites may help in how Google perceives your site.

Recommended reading: Due to the changing nature of the internet, the Google experts did not recommend any particular book on web search and SEO, but suggested their SEO page in the Webmaster Help Center, and the pdf file called the SEO Starter Guide.