S1 Ep13: Taking Control of Your Bed and Breakfast Business

How Bed and Breakfasts, Guest Houses and Inns Can Make More Money with Less Work

Hello I’m Yvonne Halling of www.BedandBreakfastCoach.com and today I'm going to talk about the merging of some of the online travel agents, and how they’re taking over more and more of the industry, and if this seems like a problem for you and you’re feeling like they’ve got control of you, then this video will help you.

The online travel agencies are joining forces and why not? They have the same customers and it makes sense from a business perspective. After all they’re doing a great job for us, and that’s my point….. they’re doing OUR job, and if we’re relying on them to bring us guests, then we’re in a dangerous and disadvantaged place. They hold all the cards. One glitch, or hiccup on their part sends us into a tailspin.

Because the truth is, they really don’t care about us. They care about their business and building it, and by allowing them to fill our beds for us, we become one of their “suppliers of beds” rather than a B&B business, and we inadvertently end up building their business instead of our own.

The cold hard truth is, when we operate like that, we don’t really have a business at all. No systems, no lead generation, no follow up, no database = no business.

How long do you think it will be before they begin buying hotels, guest houses and yes, even our bed and breakfast businesses? Then they’ll own the whole “food chain”.

But we do have a choice….. we can take control of our own businesses, learn how to do the essential marketing, build a profitable business and own it. When we do that, we are no longer at the mercy of the giants. We use them for the services they provide, but we don’t dance to their tunes any more.

So where do we start?

Step 1 - Decide who you want to serve, in other words, which group of people can you add the most value to with your knowledge, skills or expertise. Do some keyword research and find out what those people are searching for online.

Step 2– Armed with your keywords, set up your website to attract those people, using images and language that they can relate to.

Step 3 – Create products and services that those ideal guests would love to buy, adding value and increasing your profits .

Step 4 - Get help with the low value tasks, such as cleaning, laundry, gardening/yard work so that you can concentrate on attracting those guests with your targetted marketing, and start building your own database. Guard that database with your life, it’s your most precious business asset.

Step 5 – Encourage guests to refer you to their friends and write raving reviews on Trip Advisor, and then help them to come back by making appropriate and specific offers to them on a regular basis.

And rinse and repeat! Keep an eye on the financials as you go along, and you’ll soon have built a real business that works on systems, without the OTAs and that you can sell, even if you never want to.

If you like the sound of this kind of business, then go ahead and register for my next Masterclass where I’ll take you step by step through these simple but powerful and timeless systems that will have your business humming like a well-oiled machine. Click on the link below to register and I’ll see you there!