The value of the guest experience, and being connected with other businesses in your community, has always been vital for innkeepers. But now with the COVID-19 pandemic potentially winding down, and as innkeepers consider re-opening their businesses, this has never been more important.
By keeping your community in mind, and promoting your destination overall, innkeepers can put together experiences and partnerships to help drive business prior to and during the coronavirus recovery. This can come in the form of developing recommendations and referrals to other businesses in your area.
This was the key theme of a recent InnSpeak Podcast interview with Steve Short, Founder & CEO of the Frictionless Guest App, hosted by Ben Lloyd, VP of Marketing, Strategy & Customer Success at Odysys.
The podcast also highlighted how guests are already planning their future travel – especially to drivable destinations – for this summer and early fall.
In addition, Steve discussed how the Frictionless Guest App is ideal for communicating with guests with minimal face-to-face contact, and how many guests will most likely be more apt to seek out experiences outside of properties.
Although the entire travel sector has been crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic, forward-thinking innkeepers are getting creative to make sure their properties stay top-of-mind with guests and help drive demand when the economy begins to reopen.
From offering discounts on future stays to using social media and digital marketing to keep their brands relevant with potential guests, there are actually some positive approaches being taken in response to the pandemic.
For example, the Bed & Breakfast Innkeepers of Coloradois taking steps to provide flexibility with current bookings and offering specials and packages for those who want to make a reservation for a future stay in 2020.
Along these lines, the Holden House B&B in Colorado Springs is offering an “Early Bird 10% Discount Book Now For Later” to assist travelers in pre-booking and planning their vacations at the property.
Innkeepers and independent hotels are also using this temporary business downtime to creatively engage with and entertain guests through social media.
For example, Deer Path Inn located in Lake Forest, Illinois, is using its Instagram feed to publish light-hearted posts, which aim to provide a respite from the stress that most people are feeling these days.
The hotel recently announced it will be holding an online auction that will grant exclusive experiences to future guests, with the money raised going to the hotel’s neighboring businesses that have also shut down entirely during COVID-19.
Taking a page from Deer Path Inn’s efforts, many other boutique hotel brands are making their properties an ideal virtual destination. Anatara Hotels & Resorts is offering a steady stream of content designed to provide a positive form of travel escapism. And, the Acqualina Resort & Spa is publishing arts and crafts videos as part of its “Bringing Acqualina to You” campaign. Any innkeeper can record and post their own videos…all it takes is a steady hand and a mobile phone.
Now is a good time to reach new and existing guests using the tools you have today, such as email and social media, and to consider offering discounts for future stays. With most Americans being quarantined at home, there is actually a captive audience longing to get away and in need of positive travel-related stories.
All things do truly pass, and so will COVID-19, hopefully at some point in the very near future. Guests are certainly looking forward to booking their post-COVID vacations, and the key is having your property be top-of-mind when they do.
Many people pursue the dream of owning a B&B to gain more independence, live in tourist destinations, and lead a lifestyle outside of the traditional corporate world.
In addition to these intangibles, there are also quite a number of tax benefits that you should take advantage of, according to Little Hotelier and the financial advice website sapling.com. While you can deduct the most obvious expenses required for running your innkeeping business, here are a few less obvious ideas for lowering your tax burden, as well:
Less obvious items used by guests are deductible, such as magazines
The cost of your health insurance premium is often deductible because of being self-employed as an innkeeper
You can get travel reimbursement for the use of your car to transport your guests or perform any other tasks for your business
Leverage the benefit of depreciation of your property for rooms used exclusively by guests
Your payroll taxes can be lowered when hiring family members — especially children and parents
Contributions to an IRA may be a way to both lower your tax burden and save for retirement
You should consult your tax advisor to determine if any of these ideas are viable for your situation. Oftentimes the challenge lies in needing accurate documentation and bookkeeping to be able to take advantage of these strategies. But if that is a challenge, you can always hire a talented bookkeeper and probably deduct that expense, as well!
Many innkeepers aim to continually expand the offerings on their properties, whether it’s the addition of a barn for weddings and events or even acquiring other inns. Leveraging the equity in your property is one viable way to fund these types of expansion efforts.
For Monique Greenwood, Owner/Innkeeper of Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns and star of the television reality show “Checked Inn” on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), this strategy helped her to expand her innkeeping portfolio.
In 1995, she started with the first Akwaaba property in Brooklyn, and eventually used its increased equity value to acquire four other properties in the U.S. Today, there are Akwaaba inns in Brooklyn, NY; Washington, D.C.; Bethany, PA; Philadelphia, PA; and Cape May, NJ.
You don’t have to be an empire builder to take advantage of this approach. For example, you can use the current equity in your property to fund renovations and new amenities such as a swimming pool, gazebos and event barns for weddings and concerts.
The key, of course, is being sure that the investment will generate revenue and feeling confident that the risk outweighs the reward. For larger projects that appear to have a significant upside, using the equity in your property may be the best alternative and one that you should seriously consider.
Thanks to Monique Greenwood for contributing to this Frictionless Innkeeper TIP by sharing insights during a Frictionless Innkeeper podcast.
Remaining competitive in the innkeeping arena is no small challenge, especially in the face of multiple accommodation offerings, and Airbnb growing in popularity. One of the best ways to remain competitive, and achieve long-term business growth, is to maximize virtually every opportunity to enhance revenue.
Megan Smith, innkeeping expert and consultant, as well as the host of the popular “Inside Innkeeping” podcast series, recently offered the following revenue-generating tips:
Weddings: Many people are looking for special locations – outside of the traditional banquet halls – for weddings these days. Consider hosting weddings at your property and develop revenue-sharing partnerships with local vendors (i.e., tent providers, caterers, etc.).
Partnerships: Develop partnerships with local golf courses, museums, art galleries, wineries, and other attractions – where guests can get discounts. This also entices these businesses to refer guests to stay at your property.
Reach Out to Businesses: Are there larger businesses in your area? Perhaps hospitals? Reach out to the hospital recruiters to have their potential new employees to stay at your property while visiting for an interview. From this, the hospital (or other business you reach out to) may ultimately end up hosting functions, like their holiday parties, at your property.
Winery/Brewery Tour Packages: Orchestrate tours of local wineries and breweries in your area, where you find the local transportation to drive guests. This allows travelers to have fun and your new transportation partners will help send referrals to your property.
Host Outdoor Concerts: During the summer months, seek out opportunities to host live music at your property, which will provide entertainment for both locals and guests. This will also enhance the overall guest experience and make people want to come back to your property.
Host Family Movie Night: Consider hosting a monthly family movie night, where you put up a projector in a nice outdoor space on your property.
With environmental sustainability being a major trend in virtually every industry, there is often a disconnect between marketing and reality. In other words, many companies claim to be “green,” but don’t actually follow-up on this promise.
Fortunately, there are innkeepers who are doing some very innovative things to minimize their impact on our planet – and are “walking the walk,” while also seeing financial rewards from their efforts.
The West Hill House B&B in Warren, Vermont is an example of this kind of property. As an electrical engineer by training, Peter MacLaren, owner and operator of the inn, has worked to make the property 100 percent solar powered.
In addition to this, here are some other “green things” West Hill House has done that are great ideas for any innkeeper to consider implementing at their property:
Install charging points for electric vehicles
Provide re-usable bottles to guests for water
Offer composting and recycling to guests, in addition to doing so for the property’s operation
Use low-power LED lighting
Offer reusable shopping bags for guests
Create green cleaning products for use at the property which are chemical free and safe
In addition to being a good thing for the environment, these efforts have resulted in goodwill from guests who appreciate the commitment to going green, while also yielding some significant financial benefits. For example, the B&B gets energy credits from local electric provider Green Mountain Power when it generates power from its solar energy operation. As a result, Peter and his wife pay virtually nothing for their energy consumption.
To learn more about the West Hill House B&B’s green efforts, please check out this Mad River Valley TV segment:
At the AIHP 2019 Knowledge Sharing Summit & Marketplace, Steve Short, Founder & CEO of the Frictionless Guest App, participated in anInside Innkeepingpodcast interview hosted by Megan Smith.
Megan is a renowned innkeeping consultant, who also co-owned and operated The Vermont Inn for 13 years, and served as Vermont’s State Tourism Director. She also recently participated in a Frictionless Innkeeper podcast interview, which you can listen to here.
Listen to the full Inside Innkeeping podcast interview, which highlights how the Frictionless Guest App helps to enhance the guest experience, here:
You can also listen to the podcast at SoundCloud here.
Here are the key highlights from this interview:
A high-level overview of the Frictionless Guest App for innkeepers. (:53)
How innkeepers can inform guests about the app in their pre-stay email confirmations. (1:33)
How the Frictionless Guest App team helps innkeepers to populate their apps with local places to eat, play and shop. (2:07)
The history and evolution of the Frictionless Guest App. (3:50)
The size and types of properties that currently use the Frictionless Guest App. (4:32)
More about the mapping capabilities in the app. (5:24)
By offering guests an easy way to find recommendations of the best places to eat, play and shop – using any mobile device or desktop – the Frictionless Guest App allows guests to plan their trip starting at the time of booking and easily navigate to recommended places throughout their stay, so that hoteliers and innkeepers play a significant role in improving the experience of their guests.To learn more about the Frictionless Guest App, please contact us here.
The Frictionless Innkeeper TIP series is intended to provide practical suggestions to innkeepers. Oftentimes these ideas are provided by our guests on the Frictionless Innkeeper podcast series.
If Bono was right in claiming that “music can change the world because it can change people,” then it seems reasonable that hosting live music at your property can enhance the experience of your guests.
With the rise of house concerts, where musical artists perform in an intimate setting, innkeepers are now presented with an opportunity to differentiate themselves by bringing live music to their properties. And while the idea of hosting musical events may seem difficult to coordinate or impossible due to limited space, it’s probably easier to make happen than you might imagine.
Wendy Collins, co-owner of The Mission Inn in Cape May, NJ, hosts a monthly concert series from October through April to offer her guests specialized experiences and gain more marketing visibility during the slower winter months. She invites singer-songwriters from the local area, as well as Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, to perform in the property’s common space, and offers desert and great food during intermissions.
Both the community and guests are invited to attend the performances, and she uses social media to promote the musical events. This has also created a “ripple effect” where the performers and attendees all share their experiences on their social media sites.
And it’s really paid off. Wendy has had guests return over and over again during the offseason to see the performances.
As both music lovers and supporters of independent innkeepers, we thought this was an excellent win-win idea that was worth sharing!
The Frictionless Innkeeper TIP series is intended to provide practical strategic or tactical suggestions to innkeepers. Oftentimes these ideas are provided by our guests on the Frictionless Innkeeper podcast series.
Serving breakfast has been such an integral part of what innkeepers provide their guests since the earliest inception of the independent lodging genre that it’s literally infused into the name “Bed & Breakfast.” And while no one would logically suggest that innkeepers stop serving breakfast, it is worth reassessing the offering from the perspective of today’s guests.
Here are some questions that seems reasonable if you put yourself in the shoes of the guest: Why serve guests a one-size-fits-all breakfast, knowing that some of them prefer a much smaller version? And if a guest asks for a continental breakfast-sized meal, why should they pay the same amount as another guest who gorges themselves at the breakfast table? Finally, what if I don’t want breakfast at all?
Jim Belote, the owner of The Beall Mansion in the St. Louis region, considered these questions and has adjusted the B&B’s offerings accordingly. “We discovered that many Americans don’t eat full breakfasts,” said Jim. “As such, we developed a variety of packages for breakfast including a discounted continental option that allows guests to help themselves during a three-hour period. It’s all about the guest and providing the right experiences for them.”
It also comes down to the basic principles of choice and being fair. If a guest doesn’t want a big breakfast, then it seems reasonable to offer them other items that are less filling. And if they choose less or none, why not be fair and cut them a break with a discount to their overall stay?
This approach isn’t something that all innkeepers will consider taking but we thought it was an excellent idea worth sharing.
In our Frictionless Innkeeper podcast series, we share the stories behind how property owners became innkeepers, oftentimes discussing their challenges and the strategies they use for achieving long-term success.
Along the way, we sometimes uncover ideas for enhancing the guest experience that we believe are worthy of passing on to other innkeepers, so they can consider using them at their properties. For example, Christine Boeke, the owner of the Westcott House Bed & Breakfast in Hudson, NY, invites people who work at local attractions to have breakfast with her guests, so they can have an intimate conversation about the area.
“I often invite local business owners, such as gallery owners, store owners, antique dealers, and even the President of the Olana Partnership, to come have breakfast with my guests,” said Christine. “This allows our guests to learn more about the history and art in the area, and it gives them a positive feeling about Hudson, so they will hopefully visit us again.”
This seems like a great way of giving guests an opportunity to learn what’s going on in town and get some firsthand stories about some of the local attractions that make the area unique. Imagine that you are a guest whose passion is art and you get to learn about the local art scene from someone who is intimately familiar with the artists and their work. Can you envision a better way for your guest to get buzzed about your town and want to come back to take in more?
We believe this is a great idea that’s worthy of consideration by all innkeepers. Think about the places that make your area interesting and unique, and consider inviting someone from those attractions to have breakfast with your guests. Then watch as your guests soak in the conversation and get buzzed about returning to your town so they can experience more of the great things it has to offer them.
