What are your thoughts on InnRewards?

[Tom]

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer..

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer.

There is a little issue that is being worked on for the search feature. The patch should be applied this week. As for the search feature this will actually be a very cool feature once the site is populated. We have an App being built as we speak. Banner ads and other businesses will be able to advertise locally. So if a customer is in your town then the only ads showing will be local ads from your town. That's why it is set to show from your location. But we are aware of the search feature having an issue and we are working on it.
.

"if a customer is in your town then" they are already booked with me and are looking for a B&B far away!
If the goal of the web site is to help member B&B get bookings, I strongly advise you not start them searching where they already are -- let them tell you where they want to go.
I appreciate the benefit of geolocal ads, for your revenue, but that may not help your members.

 

[Morticia]

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer..

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer.

There is a little issue that is being worked on for the search feature. The patch should be applied this week. As for the search feature this will actually be a very cool feature once the site is populated. We have an App being built as we speak. Banner ads and other businesses will be able to advertise locally. So if a customer is in your town then the only ads showing will be local ads from your town. That's why it is set to show from your location. But we are aware of the search feature having an issue and we are working on it.
.

"if a customer is in your town then" they are already booked with me and are looking for a B&B far away!
If the goal of the web site is to help member B&B get bookings, I strongly advise you not start them searching where they already are -- let them tell you where they want to go.
I appreciate the benefit of geolocal ads, for your revenue, but that may not help your members.
.

If there is a way to sort the search based on whether it's a mobile device (here I am in this town, where can I stay?) and someone planning from home (I know what town/area I want, what are my choices?) then that covers two different search types.
Then again, lots of people no longer own a home computer and it's all mobile.

 

[Hillbilly]

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer..

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer.

There is a little issue that is being worked on for the search feature. The patch should be applied this week. As for the search feature this will actually be a very cool feature once the site is populated. We have an App being built as we speak. Banner ads and other businesses will be able to advertise locally. So if a customer is in your town then the only ads showing will be local ads from your town. That's why it is set to show from your location. But we are aware of the search feature having an issue and we are working on it.
.

"if a customer is in your town then" they are already booked with me and are looking for a B&B far away!
If the goal of the web site is to help member B&B get bookings, I strongly advise you not start them searching where they already are -- let them tell you where they want to go.
I appreciate the benefit of geolocal ads, for your revenue, but that may not help your members.
.

"if a customer is in your town then" they are already booked with me and are looking for a B&B far away!
If the goal of the web site is to help member B&B get bookings, I strongly advise you not start them searching where they already are -- let them tell you where they want to go.
I appreciate the benefit of geolocal ads, for your revenue, but that may not help your members.

I will turn this feature off for now but a lot of Innkeepers are looking at the bigger picture for this site. In that search field it just auto fills in your location. You can type in whatever location you would like to go. If we can get users to use the site and download the app, here is how it would help our members.
Example: You are heading across the country and its getting late. You decide it would be nice to see if there is a Bed and Breakfast in your area you are located. So you pull up the app and it automatically locates where you are to make the search easier. Its not just about the property owners but users experience as well. The more info we can place in front of our guests the more likely they are to use the site for their travel plans. Not all guests make their reservations ahead of time. At my Inn, many times I get walk ups or people passing through town. It will also show them places to eat, entertainment, shows, museums and whatever else we want to include.
I do appreciate your suggestions and keep them coming but I also want to make sure you start to see a bigger vision for what we could accomplish here with this site. If users find it helpful for more than just booking their night stay, than the more likely they are to find your property when searching for a last min place to stay. We can add this feature back at a later time if we decide too!

 

[Morticia]

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer..

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer.

There is a little issue that is being worked on for the search feature. The patch should be applied this week. As for the search feature this will actually be a very cool feature once the site is populated. We have an App being built as we speak. Banner ads and other businesses will be able to advertise locally. So if a customer is in your town then the only ads showing will be local ads from your town. That's why it is set to show from your location. But we are aware of the search feature having an issue and we are working on it.
.

"if a customer is in your town then" they are already booked with me and are looking for a B&B far away!
If the goal of the web site is to help member B&B get bookings, I strongly advise you not start them searching where they already are -- let them tell you where they want to go.
I appreciate the benefit of geolocal ads, for your revenue, but that may not help your members.
.

"if a customer is in your town then" they are already booked with me and are looking for a B&B far away!
If the goal of the web site is to help member B&B get bookings, I strongly advise you not start them searching where they already are -- let them tell you where they want to go.
I appreciate the benefit of geolocal ads, for your revenue, but that may not help your members.

I will turn this feature off for now but a lot of Innkeepers are looking at the bigger picture for this site. In that search field it just auto fills in your location. You can type in whatever location you would like to go. If we can get users to use the site and download the app, here is how it would help our members.
Example: You are heading across the country and its getting late. You decide it would be nice to see if there is a Bed and Breakfast in your area you are located. So you pull up the app and it automatically locates where you are to make the search easier. Its not just about the property owners but users experience as well. The more info we can place in front of our guests the more likely they are to use the site for their travel plans. Not all guests make their reservations ahead of time. At my Inn, many times I get walk ups or people passing through town. It will also show them places to eat, entertainment, shows, museums and whatever else we want to include.
I do appreciate your suggestions and keep them coming but I also want to make sure you start to see a bigger vision for what we could accomplish here with this site. If users find it helpful for more than just booking their night stay, than the more likely they are to find your property when searching for a last min place to stay. We can add this feature back at a later time if we decide too!
.

We get some calls from folks using their GPS. We're in a location that guests are driving thru. So, yes, that feature of Geolocating does serve a purpose, especially for an app.
Thanks for all the effort!

 

[Tom]

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer..

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer.

There is a little issue that is being worked on for the search feature. The patch should be applied this week. As for the search feature this will actually be a very cool feature once the site is populated. We have an App being built as we speak. Banner ads and other businesses will be able to advertise locally. So if a customer is in your town then the only ads showing will be local ads from your town. That's why it is set to show from your location. But we are aware of the search feature having an issue and we are working on it.
.

"if a customer is in your town then" they are already booked with me and are looking for a B&B far away!
If the goal of the web site is to help member B&B get bookings, I strongly advise you not start them searching where they already are -- let them tell you where they want to go.
I appreciate the benefit of geolocal ads, for your revenue, but that may not help your members.
.

"if a customer is in your town then" they are already booked with me and are looking for a B&B far away!
If the goal of the web site is to help member B&B get bookings, I strongly advise you not start them searching where they already are -- let them tell you where they want to go.
I appreciate the benefit of geolocal ads, for your revenue, but that may not help your members.

I will turn this feature off for now but a lot of Innkeepers are looking at the bigger picture for this site. In that search field it just auto fills in your location. You can type in whatever location you would like to go. If we can get users to use the site and download the app, here is how it would help our members.
Example: You are heading across the country and its getting late. You decide it would be nice to see if there is a Bed and Breakfast in your area you are located. So you pull up the app and it automatically locates where you are to make the search easier. Its not just about the property owners but users experience as well. The more info we can place in front of our guests the more likely they are to use the site for their travel plans. Not all guests make their reservations ahead of time. At my Inn, many times I get walk ups or people passing through town. It will also show them places to eat, entertainment, shows, museums and whatever else we want to include.
I do appreciate your suggestions and keep them coming but I also want to make sure you start to see a bigger vision for what we could accomplish here with this site. If users find it helpful for more than just booking their night stay, than the more likely they are to find your property when searching for a last min place to stay. We can add this feature back at a later time if we decide too!
.

Well, now (for 5 minutes) I found Gillum House on a search (before it returned nothing because it was searching in my ISP backyard).
I can see you are in love with the "geo" feature, but ...
1) People are not used to the two box entry for search, and it needs to be clearly labeled (you have a mag glass icon and a pointer icon which I did not guess as mandatory part of search so I didn't guess I needed to type in another location; Yelp has "Find __" and "Near __ ") otherwise the customer just wants to enter a phrase in one box, and include in the phrase a place name if relevant.
2) Your search term is just the concatenation of the two boxes. If I use box#1 = "Inn Freeport" and box#2 blank, I find same as #1 = "Inn" and #2 = "Freeport".
3) Hence your "geographic" search is not map based at all. If I have box#1= "B&B" and box#2 = "freeport" then the site returns info about a fine member B&B, BUT if I have "B&B and "yarmouth" which is the next town south I get "No results containing all your search terms were found" and the suggestions to improve my search say nothing about deleting the geolocation.
4) Playing around, I can't predictably find that fine Freeport establishment with other relevant phrases a tourist might use. Nothing gets a customer off your site faster than "No results"
5) Less than 5% of our bookings are day-of and they find us on Yelp, for millennial/X it will be hard to compete with that.

 

[Hillbilly]

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer..

I too had a problem with search. It seems to have two boxes to fill in: 1) the search term and 2) the geographic location.
When a guest arrives on the home page, it seems the website is geolocating his IP service and filling in box #2.
This is NOT a help. This default seems to mess up an attempt to search, plus I and 99% of B&B customers are not looking for a B&B near where I live.
The geolocation is an unneeded bell and whistle from the web designer.

There is a little issue that is being worked on for the search feature. The patch should be applied this week. As for the search feature this will actually be a very cool feature once the site is populated. We have an App being built as we speak. Banner ads and other businesses will be able to advertise locally. So if a customer is in your town then the only ads showing will be local ads from your town. That's why it is set to show from your location. But we are aware of the search feature having an issue and we are working on it.
.

"if a customer is in your town then" they are already booked with me and are looking for a B&B far away!
If the goal of the web site is to help member B&B get bookings, I strongly advise you not start them searching where they already are -- let them tell you where they want to go.
I appreciate the benefit of geolocal ads, for your revenue, but that may not help your members.
.

"if a customer is in your town then" they are already booked with me and are looking for a B&B far away!
If the goal of the web site is to help member B&B get bookings, I strongly advise you not start them searching where they already are -- let them tell you where they want to go.
I appreciate the benefit of geolocal ads, for your revenue, but that may not help your members.

I will turn this feature off for now but a lot of Innkeepers are looking at the bigger picture for this site. In that search field it just auto fills in your location. You can type in whatever location you would like to go. If we can get users to use the site and download the app, here is how it would help our members.
Example: You are heading across the country and its getting late. You decide it would be nice to see if there is a Bed and Breakfast in your area you are located. So you pull up the app and it automatically locates where you are to make the search easier. Its not just about the property owners but users experience as well. The more info we can place in front of our guests the more likely they are to use the site for their travel plans. Not all guests make their reservations ahead of time. At my Inn, many times I get walk ups or people passing through town. It will also show them places to eat, entertainment, shows, museums and whatever else we want to include.
I do appreciate your suggestions and keep them coming but I also want to make sure you start to see a bigger vision for what we could accomplish here with this site. If users find it helpful for more than just booking their night stay, than the more likely they are to find your property when searching for a last min place to stay. We can add this feature back at a later time if we decide too!
.

Well, now (for 5 minutes) I found Gillum House on a search (before it returned nothing because it was searching in my ISP backyard).
I can see you are in love with the "geo" feature, but ...
1) People are not used to the two box entry for search, and it needs to be clearly labeled (you have a mag glass icon and a pointer icon which I did not guess as mandatory part of search so I didn't guess I needed to type in another location; Yelp has "Find __" and "Near __ ") otherwise the customer just wants to enter a phrase in one box, and include in the phrase a place name if relevant.
2) Your search term is just the concatenation of the two boxes. If I use box#1 = "Inn Freeport" and box#2 blank, I find same as #1 = "Inn" and #2 = "Freeport".
3) Hence your "geographic" search is not map based at all. If I have box#1= "B&B" and box#2 = "freeport" then the site returns info about a fine member B&B, BUT if I have "B&B and "yarmouth" which is the next town south I get "No results containing all your search terms were found" and the suggestions to improve my search say nothing about deleting the geolocation.
4) Playing around, I can't predictably find that fine Freeport establishment with other relevant phrases a tourist might use. Nothing gets a customer off your site faster than "No results"
5) Less than 5% of our bookings are day-of and they find us on Yelp, for millennial/X it will be hard to compete with that.
.

As stated with my last reply there is an issue that is in the process of being fixed with the search so it will not function 100% at this time. I hope this is fixed in the next few days. That said, the first box for search is working correctly. If you clear the second box out than it will work according to what listing owners have included in their listing for "Search Key Words" listing owners can place up to 10 keywords of their choosing. InnRewards does not choose these words. This is from listing owners. If an owner needs help or suggestions we are more than happy to help them. If you list your property you will be able to view this process and understand it a little more. I placed a support ticket myself for the software company to turn off the search feature for now. It should be turned off very soon. The site is brand new. It will take awhile to populate the site with listings. So the Search feature will be a valuable tool once we have a lot of listings. But Rome wasn't built over night.
if you have any other suggestions please feel free to let us know.
We are still excepting free listings for a year for at least a few more days. Most of the issues have been fixed and we will then move to the next phase of the site.

 

[JBloggs]

Sign up and kick the tires a bit, once she hits the road some of the kinks will fall out.

 

[Hillbilly]

Sign up and kick the tires a bit, once she hits the road some of the kinks will fall out..

Sign up and kick the tires a bit, once she hits the road some of the kinks will fall out.

I love your words of wisdom!