Yel p, TA, Iluv Inns, etc.
We had a lovely phone call yesterday "Hi....this is (NAME) and we're reaching out (such a non-threatening, warm-and-fuzzy term...)to (your property) from Yel p! Are you familiar with us? Blah blah blah. OOOOOO...they can give us a premium position for only $300/month. So tempted.....not.
Another beauty from ILuv about why we haven't renewed. If we do we'll get a bogo package worth up to $2100 so we can cut into YOUR B&Bs cashflow ! Hmmm....business 12 years....maybe took in 4-5 BOGOs here....not quite stellar ROI.
We've been called by Book ing.com too. Not convinced.
We DO have a listing with that much bally-hoode B&B.com, but it's funny that we get few (if any) reservations directly from that, but a couple come in each month from the Exped ia/Hot els.com crossover link. We "convert" about 90% of these reservations via follow-up phone confirmations, bypassing the 30% commission.
Everybody wants a piece of our cash-flow and thinks they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. They spew forth "data" like so many hits on our "free listing", inquiries into our zip code, etc. Funny, our reservation process asks these questions and FEW guests come because of YEL P, TA, or ILuv. Those who cited these wouldn't provide enough revenue to validate using these portals.
Anyone have input fresh about this?
I do find out that the longer you hold out the lower the price goes with many of these listings. Lov toes cape wanted £150, we finally settled on £60.
The argument that annoys me is "It will only take 1 booking and it will pay for itself". Great!!! I'll pay to be on 1000 different websites, have 100% occupancy and I'll go bust within a year. Brilliant business model.
I got the latest TA email with 'call us'. Well I have to say thanks, I'd rather delete an email than get the annoying phone calls.
About these listings - it works for some or they would not exist. Some markets are driven by these listings, others are not.
I have tried many of them, most was wasted money not even recouping the money spent but now I can honestly say 'your business did not work for mine' and I can move on. Hopefully not to be suckered in by some 'grand' sells tactic again.
BB.com is the only one I can say has produced, not to the extent I feel they should, but enough to keep paying for now. And it is used as link love as well.
I have renewed on the least expensive of THE Directories for one more year, more than anything for the "shotgun" marketing approach - and that is the only shell in the shotgun. The rest I am target marketing to see what happens that way this year. Not paying to list on any of the above.
I have found that 'reaching out' is code for 'my hand is out'.
In this area a couple of places buy every high end listing out there. Diamond, SR, TA, etc. They do have about 10 - 15% more biz than I have and one of them charges an average of $75/ night more.
For some people it works.
I guess if ta starts listing properties based on how much they make off the property rather than by the ranking, it might become necessary to consider it.
We are listed on TA in the Specialty Lodging category, which is easily overlooked by folks perusing TA for a place to stay. If somebody does happen to find us, buried as we are, and decides that we are the place for them based on what they see and read on our listing, chances are they are smart enough to just google to find our own site and make contact that way. If somebody is going to pass us by and move on to the next listing just because we don't have a web link or "click to book now" link right there on our TA listing, then they probably are not our target customer anyway.
Given all that, along with our relatively small size, we just can't justify the cost of TA's "business listing" (which is relatively high since we are in a somewhat competitive market here).