Another dismaying discovery about webervations

[Pollyanna]

I just filled in a reservation form for someone over the phone and discovered this on the page that the customer sees after the form is completed. It kind of ticked me off. I'm hoping to sell add-on packages and gift store items to my customers and send them to the businesses in town that I know and trust and where we have a reciprocal referral relationship. I don't want my website used to encourage my customers to spend their money elsewhere. I asked them to remove it.
When I clicked on it I discovered it sends them to tours in a city far enough away that it would encourage my customers to stay there instead! Thanks, Webervations! Brilliant!
[tr] _qacct="p-4cSmIlvUCbjzY";quantserve(); <a href="http://www.quantcast.com/p-4cSmIlvUCbjzY" target="_blank"><img src="//secure.quantserve.com/pixel/p-4cSmIlvUCbjzY.gif" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="Quantcast"/></a>
document.write(''); #viator-include{ border: 1px solid #999; height:80px; width:650px;}#viator-include p { color:#555; float:left; font-family:verdana; font-size:12px; font-weight:bold; margin:0; padding:5px 10px 0; width:auto;}#viator-header{ background:url(https://www.bedandbreakfast.com/img/viator/viator-header-bg.jpg) top left repeat-x; height:26px;}#viator-callout{ float:left; clear:left;}#viator-main { float:left; .padding-left:75px; _padding-left:75px;}#viator-main img{ float:left; padding-left:20px; } function ImageChangeOver(img) { document.getElementById("clickThrough").src = "https://www.bedandbreakfast.com/img/viator/viator-button-on.jpg"; } function ImageChangeOut(img) { document.getElementById("clickThrough").src = "https://www.bedandbreakfast.com/img/viator/viator-button.jpg"; }

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[Pollyanna]

Whoa! Sorry about all that computer-speak! Didn't show till i posted this. Anyway, you get the idea. I hope.

 

[gillumhouse]

Whoa! Sorry about all that computer-speak! Didn't show till i posted this. Anyway, you get the idea. I hope..

www.reservationkey.com Nuff said!

 

[EmptyNest]

That is ridiculous! I hope they have removed it for you. Seems like bandb.com is taking over and doing

well what they please to anyone. That is not right. Now just imagine how many folks out there don't even know this is happening to their account. Not a good thing!!! Keep it up and many more will be saying bye bye to webervations.

 

[Morticia]

Whoa! Sorry about all that computer-speak! Didn't show till i posted this. Anyway, you get the idea. I hope..

Whoa! Sorry about all that computer-speak! Didn't show till i posted this. Anyway, you get the idea. I hope.

They are putting ads on your page for guests to click thru to see things to do in other places. TOTALLY get the idea and really obnoxious. Altho, they will say they are trying to make the experience better for your guest. Also note they are trying to get the guest to book at a place that offers a % off if they book online. Which COMPLETELY annoys me when it happens to me after I've paid for something. Oh, look, if only I had done it THIS way, I could have saved money.
And if you are not part of that program, you could then get a cancellation so they can book somewhere that offers that discount. HOWEVER, I would also be peeved if I were an owner of one of those properties as the owner kind of hopes the guest will go to their website and book thru them and save them the commission.
Good for you for catching that.
Hands up everyone who knew that was happening.

 

[Scott]

Tried it on ours and don't see any of this (thank goodness!).
Perhaps it's because I had previously unchecked the boxes in the config section so they wouldn't follow up with an email to my guests asking them for a B B c o m review and to have their reviews show up during my booking process.
Offering MY guests things from other places or bookings via other sites is NOT enhancing my guest's experience!

 

[Copperhead]

Thank you Polly - I usually do not use the form to add the info - like a guest, so if were not for your post, I would never have known. Yes, I did a test reservation and you are right, I got the same crap at the bottom of what the guest sees when they book. I do not have the widget or the contact for a review on my listing, so they are doing this independently.
This is just like when the put adds on our listings... it is their add to take our guests to a page where they can make money. And yes, there is a 'book online' star that may just encourage them to cancel and book somewhere else and get a discount... (their current promotion).
I do not PAY a fee for Webervations so they can have a FREE add sent to all my guests! I think they should be charged to put an ad there.....What ya'll think - maybe a pay per click or something. - YES, I am joking! I want this off. ASAP

 

[Banana]

Mine does not do that. I just filled it out and it only gave me the "someone will phone you shortly to confirm your reservation, blah, blah." Are your reservation requests confirmed when the request is received? Maybe that's the difference. Regardless, this pisses me off and I'll be checking every day to ensure my guests are not being solicited for business elsewhere. Thank you for catching this.

 

[Banana]

This is so frustrating to me because our local B&B Association (we have 8 members) just persuaded the last two dinosaurs to jump on the bandwagon and add online booking to their websites. They had held out for years. The remaining six of us have Webervations and the plan was to add a group calender to our Association website to assist guests with checking on availability, instead of us all checking for the guest.
I am about to switch reservation programs and screw that all up.

 

[Copperhead]

So I sent an email, and also went in to get their number called to leave a message (yes I know they povide NO service on the weekend) and you guessed their mail box is full. On top of that they will be attempting that security question thing again tomorrow, so I am sure it will be a busy day for that issue too.
Yes JB, I am listening!!!!

 

[Banana]

I just sent myself two reservation requests directly from my website. Meaning, I clicked to my availability directly from my site - not a directory. When I received the reservation request in my email, the subject was "Webervations Request!! from the Bedandbreakfast.com website"
Seriously? Seriously. Am I that stupid that I'm going to believe every booking I get came from their website? Every time I discover something new about them, I think "Oh, this tops it"...then along comes something else.
Somebody else please try this & see if it does the same...

 

[Copperhead]

I just sent myself two reservation requests directly from my website. Meaning, I clicked to my availability directly from my site - not a directory. When I received the reservation request in my email, the subject was "Webervations Request!! from the Bedandbreakfast.com website"
Seriously? Seriously. Am I that stupid that I'm going to believe every booking I get came from their website? Every time I discover something new about them, I think "Oh, this tops it"...then along comes something else.
Somebody else please try this & see if it does the same....

Yes, I noticed that as well when I did the test reservation to see if that ad was at the bottom... They have done this before, not long after b&b.com took it over.
This ad on the bottom of my guest confirmation notice has just put me over the edge of no return. DH said we should all submit them a bill for advertising.

 

[egoodell]

Whoa! Sorry about all that computer-speak! Didn't show till i posted this. Anyway, you get the idea. I hope..

I just sent myself a reservation from my own website and it says the same thing - that it was sent from BandB.com. Now every reservation allocated from them is suspect. What a crock. I'm going to have to get Jeremy's Superstatz to be sure where my reservations are coming from
Riki

 

[JBanczak]

Whoa! Sorry about all that computer-speak! Didn't show till i posted this. Anyway, you get the idea. I hope..

I just sent myself a reservation from my own website and it says the same thing - that it was sent from BandB.com. Now every reservation allocated from them is suspect. What a crock. I'm going to have to get Jeremy's Superstatz to be sure where my reservations are coming from
Riki
.

For everyone's info, we've recommended for years to use a third party tracking system over Webervations home-built tracking, long before we acquired Webervations. We still do. Google Analytics is free, accurate, and reliable. Webervations tracking was built a long time ago and has never changed. David Swain built Webervations to track based on a way of logging the last Webervations recognized referring site, whether that was the last click you visited or not. Somewhat like Acorn's tracker that tracks all referring sites, not just the last click, but not nearly as sophisticated or accurate as what you would get from Acorn which pays a lot of attention to tracking.
It will not provide you with accurate results, and in this day and age, there just is no reason not to use a free third-party tracking system to get accurate results. We use Google Analytics and Quantcast at BedandBreakfast.com for all of our own tracking. Both are free, and have been very reliable for a long time. A tracker like Acorn's can even give you more insight at a small cost.

 

[Banana]

Whoa! Sorry about all that computer-speak! Didn't show till i posted this. Anyway, you get the idea. I hope..

I just sent myself a reservation from my own website and it says the same thing - that it was sent from BandB.com. Now every reservation allocated from them is suspect. What a crock. I'm going to have to get Jeremy's Superstatz to be sure where my reservations are coming from
Riki
.

For everyone's info, we've recommended for years to use a third party tracking system over Webervations home-built tracking, long before we acquired Webervations. We still do. Google Analytics is free, accurate, and reliable. Webervations tracking was built a long time ago and has never changed. David Swain built Webervations to track based on a way of logging the last Webervations recognized referring site, whether that was the last click you visited or not. Somewhat like Acorn's tracker that tracks all referring sites, not just the last click, but not nearly as sophisticated or accurate as what you would get from Acorn which pays a lot of attention to tracking.
It will not provide you with accurate results, and in this day and age, there just is no reason not to use a free third-party tracking system to get accurate results. We use Google Analytics and Quantcast at BedandBreakfast.com for all of our own tracking. Both are free, and have been very reliable for a long time. A tracker like Acorn's can even give you more insight at a small cost.
.

My concern was that the subject line of the email that I receive indicates the reservation came from bedandbreakfast.com. I'm not getting this information from any analytics program - I'm getting this from Webervations. Why is this?

 

[Copperhead]

Whoa! Sorry about all that computer-speak! Didn't show till i posted this. Anyway, you get the idea. I hope..

I just sent myself a reservation from my own website and it says the same thing - that it was sent from BandB.com. Now every reservation allocated from them is suspect. What a crock. I'm going to have to get Jeremy's Superstatz to be sure where my reservations are coming from
Riki
.

For everyone's info, we've recommended for years to use a third party tracking system over Webervations home-built tracking, long before we acquired Webervations. We still do. Google Analytics is free, accurate, and reliable. Webervations tracking was built a long time ago and has never changed. David Swain built Webervations to track based on a way of logging the last Webervations recognized referring site, whether that was the last click you visited or not. Somewhat like Acorn's tracker that tracks all referring sites, not just the last click, but not nearly as sophisticated or accurate as what you would get from Acorn which pays a lot of attention to tracking.
It will not provide you with accurate results, and in this day and age, there just is no reason not to use a free third-party tracking system to get accurate results. We use Google Analytics and Quantcast at BedandBreakfast.com for all of our own tracking. Both are free, and have been very reliable for a long time. A tracker like Acorn's can even give you more insight at a small cost.
.

John, there are 2 issues here that need to be addressed....
1st is the reason for the thread... the ad at the bottom of the 'sent reservation' page guest sees after they book. The nend of the web script says resconfirm.asp The ad is for booking add-ons to their trip - the link goes to Viador - to the pages for the city (or region) that have attractions.
For those not seeing the ad, I am wondering if it is due to the fact that Viador may not have any attractions listed close enough to their area?
The second is the email that comes from Webervations that tells innkeepers they have just received a reservation.... It states the reservation was booked from bandb.com..... Since we were doing our own test reservation, we know that it was not from bandb.com, it was booked from our own websites! This happened once before, not long after bandb purchased Webervations.

 

[Copperhead]

Recieved and email reply from John. He is going to check into this Viator link and see what he could do. He said that it has been in place for a long time... (I presume he means since Webervations was purchased by BandB.) So Viator has been soliciting my guests for a while now without my knowledge. GRRR
And he confirmed my theroy as to why some of you do not see the ad, it is because Viator does not have any listings in your areas. They mostly cover major metro areas.

 

[checkfront]

Try Checkfront. We keep your customers on your site, and you have full control of the content and receipt page.
To see how it works with one of our customers see here: http://sanddollarinn.net/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=61&Itemid=26
Notice you aren't sent off somewhere else, as is with webervatrions (or most). The receipt page also resides on your web page - no progamming required. Admin interface can be seen here: http://www.checkfront.com
Feedback welcome.
-Jason

 

[Copperhead]

Try Checkfront. We keep your customers on your site, and you have full control of the content and receipt page.
To see how it works with one of our customers see here: http://sanddollarinn.net/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=61&Itemid=26
Notice you aren't sent off somewhere else, as is with webervatrions (or most). The receipt page also resides on your web page - no progamming required. Admin interface can be seen here: http://www.checkfront.com
Feedback welcome.
-Jason.

Jason, thanks for coming in on the up and up. We do ask for any vendors to place their info in our Resources section of this forum.

 

[B.Grunert]

Whoa! Sorry about all that computer-speak! Didn't show till i posted this. Anyway, you get the idea. I hope..

A nice option and interesting alternative is the newcomer`s solution to online reservations and guest management software.
Have a look at http://tinyurl.com/27nzglr - there is a promotion still valid for those B&Bs that would like to experience this new solution.