Major industry news came out today with the announcement that HomeAway bought BedandBreakfast.com.  HomeAway is clearly the leader in the entire Vacation Rental (VRBO) space and BedandBreakfast.com is undoubtably the leader in the Bed and Breakfast (B&B) Space.  Each of them are bigger than their next few competitors, combined.

We had a big discussion around our office about this topic.  Was it smart?  Of course, the first question was “Wonder what they paid for it?”  Eric or Brian or Carl… please give me a call if you want to disclose that.

Before sharing my opinion, let me give a little background.

Blizzard has worked with BedandBreakfast.com for years (14?)… back when they were InnsandOuts before they were InnkeepersOnly.com, before they were BBchannel.com before they were BedandBreakfast.com… and we have enjoyed working with people there like Eric Goldreyer, Liz Hamilton, Tim Wilson and Sandra Soule… all great people.  While many innkeepers have not supported our opinion, we still recommend: “If you are a B&B, you have to be on BedandBreakfast.com.  They send oodles of traffic.  Pay them more and you get more!”  No matter what you think about them, you have to acknowledge that they rule the space and send huge amounts of qualified traffic.

Here are some of our editorials from our newsletter (our blog before it was a blog) back in 1999:

www.bbchannel.com has a special section that is available to its silver and gold members — if you are a silver or gold member, adding a special is a MUST if you want to receive the full value from Bbchannel. (June, 1999)

www.bbchannel.com (aka Innkeepersonly and Innsandouts) unveiled a new gift certificate program in April. Inns that belong to their directory (we highly recommend bbchannel.com) will have the option of honoring gift certificates sold to consumers from the bbchannel.com website. (May 1999)

www.bbchannel.com just changed their domain name to www.BedandBreakfast.com (before that they were also known as Innsandouts.com and Innkeepersonly.com) They also recently merged with World Res, the online reservation booking company. (www.worldres.com). Look for Bedandbreakfast.com to bundle their services more closely with WorldRes in the future. (July 1999)

Blizzard has recommended  HomeAway and VRBO.com for years too… not as many as BedandBreakfast.com.  Our opinion is the same though, and it also angers many of our Vacation Rental Manager clients who see HomeAway and the VRBO movement as threatening: “VRBO.com is the biggest player in the space.  Listing your homes with them will send you hundreds or thousands of leads a year.”

Many Blizzard folks were surprised by this acquisition: it is a big move for a company that specializes in the VR space to move into the B&B space. They are very different markets with very few synergies.  It is also odd because the vacation rentals space is much larger than the B&B space.  BedandBreakfast.com has 10,000 B&B listed.  Orlando or the Outer banks, alone, probably have 20,000 vacation rentals each.

But, we all believe that management at Homeway is smarter than your average bear.  Clearly becoming the market leader in another segment of the lodging industry is a solid move (assuming it didn’t cost too much).

But there is more to this story. (more…)

Emarketer just released a study that doesn’t have many surprises:

Nearly 96% of Google clicks come from the first page

Google owns the world with 74% of search referrals:

TripAdvisor, the leading source for travel reviews and advice, is offering enhanced business listings for hotels, bed and breakfasts, and innkeepers.

Sorry vacation rentals, maybe next time, but you can still use FlipKey.

The TripAdvisor Business Listing allows properties to add key info to a listing including a phone number, email address and website URL making it easier for potential guests to make direct contact.

The pricing structure of the listing is much like other directories in that it is an annual subscription and the cost is tied to the number of rooms in the property. The price starts at $600, but TripAdvisor is offering a 50% discount for new listings through February 2010 (next week is the last week of February!)

Here is a screen shot of their pricing:

Will this listing generate more emails, calls and ultimately conversions? We can’t say for sure if it’s an effective listing, but we recommend trying it for a year and tracking the listing to see if it pays off.

Exciting news came from Escapia last week when they released their Vacation Rental 2010 Annual report.

After about 18 months of bad news, it appears that the industry is looking up!  While numbers were down for 2009, they clearly were trending up during the fourth quarter.  This is partly due to the comparison to an absolutely miserable 4Q of 2008.  Nonetheless,  it looks like the market has stopped falling and is holding steady (at worse) and even improving a bit!

Here is their month-to-month comparison for 2009 VS 2008 bookings:

This report is a must-read for any student of the Vacation Rental industry.  They offer a free download with over 20 pages of data.

Thanks Escapia for making this data public!

Escapia is an industry leading provider of property management software, bookable websites, web distribution and yield management for the vacation rental management industry.  With over 300 active users, their on-demand software offerings are among the hottest in the VRM industry.

Join the Vail Valley Chapter of HSMAI at the Arrabelle on Vail Square this month for a presentation by Trent Blizzard of Blizzard Internet Marketing who will present the latest strategies for marketing online including proven tips and social media tools for the hospitality industry:

The Truth on Social Networking: Where to start with a  Web 2.0 strategy?

What strategy works and what does not? Learn how to distinguish the pitfalls from the opportunities in the realm of Web 2.0. Important segments like blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Linkedin will be analyzed. Learn about easier Web 2.0 entry points like Google Local, TripAdvisor and Yelp. This session is designed to create a social networking strategy with prioritized segments.

Event Details: (more…)

Facebook has been busy!  Following last week’s privacy settings update Facebook made another update yesterday and it is now allowing Google to index pages to serve them up in their search engine results.

If you don’t want your page to be indexed simply change your settings by going to: Settings –> Privacy Settings –> Search –> then UN-CLICK the box that says ‘Allow indexing’

Since yesterday Facebook has responded to the “misleading rumors” that Google will index all of your information with the pop up below when you go to your settings:

By “basic information” they mean some of your friends, what you are a fan of including products, places, websites and stores.

Our take is that you WANT Google to index your company page, so “allow” indexing, and if you don’t want your personal page to be indexed then un-click “allow indexing.”

Since 2005, Website Magazine has provided articles from the internet industry’s top experts on website success including search engine optimization, internet marketing and design. This publication has continued to focus on: the business of running a thriving website, solutions for increasing website traffic, the latest industry trends, statistics and news.

Their October issue features Blizzard Internet Marketing in their top 50 Search Engine Optimization/Search Marketing providers and honors them with the ranking of #7. They also note Blizzard Internet as the only agency on the list to focus on hospitality and travel internet marketing. (more…)