Innkeeper 102

[OnTheShore]

Hi there y'all. I'm from Buras, La My parents have a B&B. My mother recently passed away almost 4 years ago. I'm struggling to keep it alive. A light bulb went off in my head recently and decided to take it and put it all in Gods hands and just go with my ideas and see where it takes off to. skimming around on the net these past few days has opened my eyes to a whole new world on a B&B. Got me excited and ready to say the least. What do I do and where do I start? check us out at www.pattysplace.net and tell me what y'all think and if I need to fix anything. Thanks, Nicole.

Hi Nicole, welcome, and sorry for the loss of your mom, good that you are there to share. Our daughter and husband joined us recently to help, old age comes too quickly.
I found this group a few years ago, lots of good folks, lots to learn. Gillum and others suggested online booking to me as well, hard sell since mom doesn't like computers, but it has been wonderful. I also use the Reservation Key program. Unlike Gillum we use a regular credit card processor and Authorize.net, we take a small $10 deposit when a room is reserved. It's nice to get an email saying a room is reserved and a deposit paid. The few that cancel and lose the deposit probably pay for the use of the system.
Even if a reservation is from an email or phone call we place it in the system which follows up for us with reminder and thank you emails to guests, good way to ask those guests to write a review or visit our Facebook page. Don't know if you "play" Facebook, but for me I enjoy the contact/comments with our regular guests and hopefully reach a few potential guests.
We are a mom & pop motel and not allowed to serve breakfast, but echoing Gillum I would see a (simple) hot breakfast as a plus, if allowed and practical to provide.
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Thank you so much for your response. I value every pointer I can get . I am on Facebook which I'm about to clean it up and get family off of it. That's my biggest down fall is no one down here likes to see noone successful. Sad I know. And the 10.00 deposit is very helpful why I never thought about that one. I'm on air bnb, getting on VRBO we have a Facebook page, a website and on them buy sell trade sites on Facebook throughout the country. I try and target large groups on there. I work full time sitting with my cousin through the state of la he's handicap 60 hours a week, 2 teen girls, 1 boy, a husband and a 60 yr old dad plus I babysit from 5am to 7 am before school. AND take care of my aunt with her son I sit with she's sick and not doing good. I'm on overload.once the bnb kicks off good I'm downsizing my life to just that.
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Facebook, just so we are talking the same things, create a business Facebook page for Patty’s Place, this is separate from your personal page, use it to talk about things happening at the business
i think it is everywhere that folks think because you are “ in business “ that it means you have no money worries, few understand we take in money with one hand and quickly hand it out with the other hand
Your dad is a young guy, my son is 55
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My oldest son is 56 and my "baby" is 44. it was a bit of a shock to my system when my oldest hit 50. In 2 years the first 5 of the 6 will ALL be 50 or over!
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I am only 55 going on 56...

 

[Patty'splacebnb]

Hi there y'all. I'm from Buras, La My parents have a B&B. My mother recently passed away almost 4 years ago. I'm struggling to keep it alive. A light bulb went off in my head recently and decided to take it and put it all in Gods hands and just go with my ideas and see where it takes off to. skimming around on the net these past few days has opened my eyes to a whole new world on a B&B. Got me excited and ready to say the least. What do I do and where do I start? check us out at www.pattysplace.net and tell me what y'all think and if I need to fix anything. Thanks, Nicole.

If you are not quite ready for online reservations at least add a Google calendar that shows what rooms are available and what the price is. I won't call for prices.
This is a punctuation error you should fix on multiple pages: remove the comma, it doesn't belong there.
Let us be your, "Home Away from Home".
I'd consider changing the color of your font as it is very hard to read on a mobile device.
You need a bit of seo work on your page tabs. All they say is 'home' or 'history'. That's wasting some prime real estate! Those tabs should be used to highlight search terms your guests might use: your town name, your parish name, the general area (if your town is on the Mississippi, use Mississippi River somewhere on the tab).
Your website is nicely laid out, you just need to do a little tweaking so it is easily found by random people searching.
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Thank you so much . I will work on that. I'm still trying to figure out how to work that website.

 

[gillumhouse]

Rejoicing with you! It will be a ride of the year so get ready for some fun and Hard Work! This website is a great place to learn and ask questions!.

Thank you.. I’m super excited and nervous as well... but I have learned so much in the few days I’ve been a member.
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Jusdt relax, be yourself, and ask questions. We want to help you succeed if we can.

 

[Morticia]

Hi there y'all. I'm from Buras, La My parents have a B&B. My mother recently passed away almost 4 years ago. I'm struggling to keep it alive. A light bulb went off in my head recently and decided to take it and put it all in Gods hands and just go with my ideas and see where it takes off to. skimming around on the net these past few days has opened my eyes to a whole new world on a B&B. Got me excited and ready to say the least. What do I do and where do I start? check us out at www.pattysplace.net and tell me what y'all think and if I need to fix anything. Thanks, Nicole.

If you are not quite ready for online reservations at least add a Google calendar that shows what rooms are available and what the price is. I won't call for prices.
This is a punctuation error you should fix on multiple pages: remove the comma, it doesn't belong there.
Let us be your, "Home Away from Home".
I'd consider changing the color of your font as it is very hard to read on a mobile device.
You need a bit of seo work on your page tabs. All they say is 'home' or 'history'. That's wasting some prime real estate! Those tabs should be used to highlight search terms your guests might use: your town name, your parish name, the general area (if your town is on the Mississippi, use Mississippi River somewhere on the tab).
Your website is nicely laid out, you just need to do a little tweaking so it is easily found by random people searching.
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Thank you so much . I will work on that. I'm still trying to figure out how to work that website.
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Thank you so much . I will work on that. I'm still trying to figure out how to work that website.

Do you have access to the website to make updates? If you didn't build it yourself, be sure you can make changes. It can be very expensive to have to ask someone to make changes for you.
Lots of us take care of our own sites so someone should be able to offer how-to advice if you need it.

 

[Maggalizzy]

Rejoicing with you! It will be a ride of the year so get ready for some fun and Hard Work! This website is a great place to learn and ask questions!.

Thank you.. I’m super excited and nervous as well... but I have learned so much in the few days I’ve been a member.
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Jusdt relax, be yourself, and ask questions. We want to help you succeed if we can.
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Awesome... Thank you

 

[MidwestBB]

Hi there y'all. I'm from Buras, La My parents have a B&B. My mother recently passed away almost 4 years ago. I'm struggling to keep it alive. A light bulb went off in my head recently and decided to take it and put it all in Gods hands and just go with my ideas and see where it takes off to. skimming around on the net these past few days has opened my eyes to a whole new world on a B&B. Got me excited and ready to say the least. What do I do and where do I start? check us out at www.pattysplace.net and tell me what y'all think and if I need to fix anything. Thanks, Nicole.

Hi Nicole,
First, congratulations! How exciting. I'm really happy for you.
Noticed a few things on your web site. On the home page where it says, "father and daughter" the right parenthesis is the wrong color. Copyright on the bottom could be updated to 2018.
I highly recommend putting a "book now" or "Reservations" button into the body of your pages not just on the menu on top. Experience has taught me that people don't read web pages and the most important things you offer really need to be in their face. On your accommodations page each photo of a room could be a link to book the room or put a "book this room" button under each photo;.
"accommodations" is also spelled wrong. It's spelled with one "m" on the page and the menu but should be spelled with two "m"s.
I also highly, highly recommend that you provide an actual online reservation experience for people rather than an email form. People want self-service and to able to book their room easily. A lot of people might see the email reservation form and leave without booking. If you stay with the email form, then I would also suggest you add a phone number so that people can call and make a reservation.

Hope that helps!

 

[MidwestBB]

Hi there y'all. I'm from Buras, La My parents have a B&B. My mother recently passed away almost 4 years ago. I'm struggling to keep it alive. A light bulb went off in my head recently and decided to take it and put it all in Gods hands and just go with my ideas and see where it takes off to. skimming around on the net these past few days has opened my eyes to a whole new world on a B&B. Got me excited and ready to say the least. What do I do and where do I start? check us out at www.pattysplace.net and tell me what y'all think and if I need to fix anything. Thanks, Nicole.

Hi Nicole,
First, congratulations! How exciting. I'm really happy for you.
Noticed a few things on your web site. On the home page where it says, "father and daughter" the right parenthesis is the wrong color. Copyright on the bottom could be updated to 2018.
I highly recommend putting a "book now" or "Reservations" button into the body of your pages not just on the menu on top. Experience has taught me that people don't read web pages and the most important things you offer really need to be in their face. On your accommodations page each photo of a room could be a link to book the room or put a "book this room" button under each photo;.
"accommodations" is also spelled wrong. It's spelled with one "m" on the page and the menu but should be spelled with two "m"s.
I also highly, highly recommend that you provide an actual online reservation experience for people rather than an email form. People want self-service and to able to book their room easily. A lot of people might see the email reservation form and leave without booking. If you stay with the email form, then I would also suggest you add a phone number so that people can call and make a reservation.

Hope that helps!
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Sorry...I didn't read all the commentary before I posted my previous reply.