How do you travel with Twitter?

[egoodell]

Riki,
....from you...Does not sound like you are familiar with our industry at all
I pretty much explained several times that I have 12 years working at a motel.... Somewhat different from a B&B. I also said I am here in the forum to research what your major marketing challenges are in this industry.
How else would you propose that I learn more about what Innkeepers need and want?

The fact that you consider motel experience on a par with B&Bs show you don't understand our industry at all, in my book. I worked for hotels and they also don't work as we do. Neither considers customer service unless they have to. And the fact that your motel would not handle online booking really shows they are behind the times.
When I wanted to learn about B&Bs I read the forums. I didn't try and come across as a Marketing Expert. You're doing a lot more talking than listening. I suggest you go out and offer your services to a B&B to learn about the industry. We have plenty of marketing "gurus" on the various chat boards, with no B&B experience, telling us how to run our businesses.
And the majority of them want us to do things which require extra time (which we don't have) or lots of money (which we don't have). And we don't have the time to educate you either. If you just read the forums from the beginning, and go purchase "Innkeeping for Dummies" you'd find out what you need to know.
RIki

 

[JBloggs]

I am catching crap left and right, because I want to help?
Go figure...

Actually you are catching crap because you are here like a bull in a china shop - to sell something and have all the answers. Arrogance is not an attractive disposition when you tell experienced well-seasoned innkeepers how to run their businesses.

 

[swirt]

And while I may not know everything about B&B's - I am already an expert in marketing and a techno geek of sorts.
Like I said, it is probably better that you don't play this card yet. You wouldn't want the ante getting upped prematurely.

 

[egoodell]

I am catching crap left and right, because I want to help?
Go figure...

Actually you are catching crap because you are here like a bull in a china shop - to sell something and have all the answers. Arrogance is not an attractive disposition when you tell experienced well-seasoned innkeepers how to run their businesses..

I am catching crap left and right, because I want to help?
Go figure...

Actually you are catching crap because you are here like a bull in a china shop - to sell something and have all the answers. Arrogance is not an attractive disposition when you tell experienced well-seasoned innkeepers how to run their businesses.

And... I notice you are doing this same thing on the About.com B&B forum as well....it sure looks like you are trolling for clients to me.
RIki

 

[MarketingMojo]

I saw someplace and I don't remember where, a blog post about finding out your guests' FB and Twitter accounts and following them so you can be on top of their needs when they show up. HELLO? Does anyone else think that is an invasion of the guests' privacy? I realize Twitter is wide open and some people allow anyone to view FB but do you really want to know in advance that your guest has friends who are totally different from yourself to the point you regret taking the reservation?
I prefer to take the guests as they come. How they behave here may be totally different from what they are 'at home.' Why borrow trouble?
And, given the comment that this ONE person has so gamed the system that he gets whatever he wants to eat whenever he arrives, that's peachy for ONE guest. Did the hotel REALLY just sign up to prepare individual meals for thousands of people EVERY day? And if not, what about the thousnads of non-hedge-funs managers who also Tweet and travel? Do their needs not count?
This is not to say I don't keep track of what guests like. If you need lemon for your water, you've got it. Love the brownies? A plate is waiting for you on arrival. Need more blankets or different pillows? We put them in the room before you get here. But I am not going to do this for guests I've never seen before and probably will never see again. Because I don't want to spend my day glued to Twitter trying to keep track of every possible perk I could offer a guest.
Because if I do it for one, I have to do it for all. ANd I don't have staff people dedicated to social media. I have me and just me. Gomez doesn't even know what Twitter is..

 

[MarketingMojo]

I guess I'm not getting the 'application' idea? What kind of application would there be to stay here?
As for asking if it's ok to follow guests or them giving me their info so I can follow them- I don't want to. I have a friend who is so wired she tweets while driving. When she's home she has 10 windows open to keep track of everything as it happens and that doesn't include having her phone on, too.
I don't want to do this. Right now I am finding minutes to post here in between ironing, cleaning rooms, doing laundry, trying to get in touch with the company I just received an order from that is totally crap and I needed the items for TOMORROW for an event here. So, now I don't have the items I needed for the event and I'm supposed to be tracking the guests' tweets so I can run out and buy them something or make them something or have flowers because I'm just finding out it's their anniversary? It's enough to keep track of just getting the things in order that I planned to do!
Nope. Not gonna happen. And I can multi-task! If I asked Gomez to do this he would just go lie down and say it's too much to think about.
I think is an excellent opportunity for those places that can do it. Absolutely, they will take biz away from me. But this is just too much to keep up with. Even if I have one place that funnels everything to me, I still have to wade thru it. I don't even read half my emails anymore unless it looks like it is from a guest.
And this is the slow season. In the summer it is 16 hours/day just treading water.
And here's a scenario that would frost me...I follow a guest's tweets and I'm waiting for them to check in. I've now been up for 14 hours and I would like to get into my jammies but I'm waiting for the guests. So, I'm reading the tweets for fun and there's one from them about the lovely dinner they're having FOUR hours away from here. Which means they won't be here until 2 in the morning. I COULD have been in bed hours ago. Nope, it's better I don't know.

.

 

[MarketingMojo]

Absolutely no way I would stay anywhere I had to apply to. Prove I am good enough to stay with you? NO THANKS!.

Absolutely no way I would stay anywhere I had to apply to. Prove I am good enough to stay with you? NO THANKS!

There is a B&B less than an hour away from me that does exactly that. I think this was mentioned on the old forum but not in recent history. You can read an article about it here. Check the TA reviews - guests and prospective guests don't like it. The town's Chamber of Commerce fields complaints about this B&B on a daily basis.
.

 

[MarketingMojo]

 

[MarketingMojo]

Other than the rose between my teeth, my attire is quite unlike my avatar...

.

Love your sense of humor!

 

[MarketingMojo]

I appreciate some of your technical advice, MM, but really stop and think about some of the suggestions you have made - an application for guests to fill out before they book, a contact form with a captcha on it? Both of those items make it much harder for a guest to contact us, and I am only speaking for myself but neither of those ideas appeal to me for that very reason. I'm not really in a position where I have so many guests that I can afford to turn off someone by making them work so hard to talk to me or book with me..

 

[MarketingMojo]

I appreciate that you are finding "problems" with my solutions to your problems.

No, I just have problems with your solutions. I don't consider too much email or inappropriate queries to be a daunting problem for me. Not anything I lose sleep over, anyway.

I guess the question you may want to ask yourself is, "Do I really want someone at my Inn who is so impatient that they can't fill out a form or captcha?"

I'm pretty sure I already have a lot of those people, and they make perfectly fine guests. Do you think my guests want to fill out an online booking form and wait for me to review their application to confirm their reservation? They want to know they have a room. That is okay with me - that is the way I roll, too. That doesn't make them fussy or impatient over breakfast, as far as I can tell.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I don't believe that either of those suggestions would bring me more guests, or guests that were nicer. If you're implying that my opinion would make me too difficult for you to work with, or give you an ulcer - really, that's okay with me too..

 

[MarketingMojo]

The problem with your "solutions" are that you are speaking as if it were 5 years ago and nobody really had to compete for guests. Nobody these days has the luxury to "cherry pick" guests. We need to pay our bills.
Guests today don't want to waste time on filling out forms to be "considered" for a reservation. You'll go out of business. Our guests, than God, fill out our reservation request because I ask them to tell me what they don't like for breakfast so I don't serve it to them.
Don't put our email on our website??? We have to be sure that they can contact us or book us from any page on our website, or they'll go to the next one.
Does not sound like you are familiar with our industry at all.
RIki.

 

[MarketingMojo]

I also said I am here in the forum to research what your major marketing challenges are in this industry.
How else would you propose that I learn more about what Innkeepers need and want?
I think the reason you are running into some resistance here is that you say you are here to research, but for the most part you have fallen immediately into helper/expert mode. There really isn't a category for "expert in training" because the two are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
It is good that you want to offer help while you are here, but it may help to play your cards a little closer to your chest for a while, and not offer solutions quite so readilly that reveal your current level of experience with the B&B industry..

Swirt -You make a good point. Thank you

 

[MarketingMojo]

I appreciate that you are finding "problems" with my solutions to your problems.

No, I just have problems with your solutions. I don't consider too much email or inappropriate queries to be a daunting problem for me. Not anything I lose sleep over, anyway.

I guess the question you may want to ask yourself is, "Do I really want someone at my Inn who is so impatient that they can't fill out a form or captcha?"

I'm pretty sure I already have a lot of those people, and they make perfectly fine guests. Do you think my guests want to fill out an online booking form and wait for me to review their application to confirm their reservation? They want to know they have a room. That is okay with me - that is the way I roll, too. That doesn't make them fussy or impatient over breakfast, as far as I can tell.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I don't believe that either of those suggestions would bring me more guests, or guests that were nicer. If you're implying that my opinion would make me too difficult for you to work with, or give you an ulcer - really, that's okay with me too..