Promoting the Industry

Our goal is to generate great publicity for BedandBreakfast.com members specifically, and for the B&B industry as a whole. In this issue we cover:

Upcoming Publicity for BedandBreakfast.com members
Ask the Pros

Let’s Hear It from Innkeepers

Recent Media Coverage

Current and Upcoming Publicity: Ghosts, Luxury Loos, December Dead Week
September:

• Great B&Bs for Fall Foliage, which initially appeared in USA TODAY as an exclusive, was distributed to newspapers and television contacts throughout the country.

• BedandBreakfast.com’s Great Places to Sleep with a Ghost was sent to newspapers, radio and TV contacts throughout the country in mid-September.

October:

• A press release about Girlfriends’ Getaways will be distributed in November. Please be sure to post your Girlfriends’Getaways in BedandBreakfast.com’s Specials section. All information for this release will be taken from the posted Specials on the site.

• We’ll be working with media around the country to include BedandBreakfast.com Gift Certificates in their holiday gift guide issues. If you haven’t signed up to accept BedandBreakfast.com Gift Certificates, now’s the time.

• We sent a press release about 10 Great Valentine’s Day Ideas for the Single (or soon to be) to magazines around the country. We’ve added categories for “Un-Valentine’s Day" packages (geared toward forlorn Valentines trying to forget they’re alone this Valentine’s Day) as well as Valentine’s Packages. It’s not too early to post your Valentine’s and “Un-Valentine’s” packages; long-lead publications are working on February issues now.

November:

• A press release describing Luxury Bathrooms and ‘Loos with a View’ will be distributed in November. If you have one that qualifies, be sure to send information to Marti.Mayne@BedandBreakfast.com if you haven’t already done so.

• A press release with a wrap-up of great deals for December Dead Week (the period between Thanksgiving and December 8) will be sent to newspapers, radio and TV contacts. We’ve already had a request from a producer at a national TV show for information and TV-quality footage (B-roll) , so be sure to post your package in the Specials Section under Dec. Dead Week so we can direct reporters to that section to find your package.

Silver-level members and above may post specials; simply log in with your Property ID and password. Select Specials from the table in your Home Base. Enter appropriate offers for Girlfriends’ Getaways, December Dead Week, and Valentine’s/Unvalentine’s packages. Remember, the more creative the package, the better the media and travelers’ response.

Bronze member? Please click here to upgrade.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:

• If you’re located in a fall foliage destination, don’t forget to get photos of your B&B surrounded by autumn colors. Once you’ve gotten those perfect shots, be sure to post them on your website and on your BedandBreakfast.com listing.

• Even with falling gas prices, the media continue to gobble up information about gas specials for ongoing stories. If your gas special has expired, why not post a new one for late fall or pre-holiday shoulder seasons? BedandBreakfast.com continues to have a direct link from the Home Page to the Gas Specials, making your offer even more visible to potential guests and the media.

Ask the Pros: What’s all this talk about high-res photography and B-roll, and what the heck are they?
Recently, members received a request from BedandBreakfast.com for high-resolution photos and/or B-roll. Thank you to all the innkeepers who responded with descriptions of their high-res photos and B-roll. For those who didn’t have the chance, it’s not too late to inform us about what photos and TV footage you have, plus its format and contents. Send an email to Sarah.Stiles@BedandBreakfast.com.

What is a high-res photo and B-roll?
These key terms refer to the quality of your photography and TV footage. The responses we received to our recent publicity lead indicate that there’s still a great deal of confusion about what constitutes high-res photography and B-roll.

High-res photos: This term refers to digital photography that is shot in high resolution, acceptable for reproduction in newspapers or magazines. Your photos may be .jpg or .tiff files and must be a minimum of 300 dots per inch (dpi). Photos that are posted on your website are usually low-resolution (smaller files intended to load quickly). High-res photos cannot be obtained from your website.

Each high-res photo must be a minimum of one megabyte (1 MB). If you’re not sure of the properties of your photo, simply open the photo, put your mouse over the image and right-click to reveal a table that includes Properties. Click on Properties, and it will tell you the size of the photo. The pixel size of the photo will be in the thousands; most high-res photos are at least 1200 x 1600 pixels.

B-roll: B-roll refers to TV-quality footage, professionally shot in Beta, Beta SP, or in Mini-DV format. High quality digital footage on DVD will work for some stations, but most producers prefer Beta footage. Three minutes of raw footage is the minimum, and more is better. Copies of shows taped on your VCR do not qualify. B-roll refers to first-generation raw footage shot by a videographer.

Why do we need B-roll and high-res photos?
As the leading provider of B&B information to the media, BedandBreakfast.com is constantly asked for high-resolution photography and/or B-roll for use in magazine, TV, and newspaper stories. Such requests are usually urgent, so there’s no time to send everyone an email asking for the photos/B-roll. By compiling lists of who has good photos and TV-quality footage, we’ll be able to respond quickly to urgent media requests.

Case in point: We needed high-resolution photography to go with the story about BedandBreakfast.com’s Top 10 Recommendations for Leaf Peeping. Those innkeepers who had it readily on-hand benefited, with gorgeous photos that served to set their properties apart by selling the view described in the article.

While it is not necessary to send B-roll (unless you already have), we recommend that you upload your high-resolution photos to your listing page on BedandBreakfast.com. Not only will that give us ready access to share your photography with the media, but more importantly, you’ll put your good photos to work selling your B&B to potential guests. Studies show that photography is the most effective tool in promoting your property.

To upload your high-res photos onto your listing, click here to go to your Home Base, then click the Photos link. Follow the instructions to add your pictures. If you need assistance, please email Support@BedandBreakfast.com or call 800-GO-B-AND-B.

Let’s Hear It From Innkeepers and the Media
Media Quote of the Month: “If you have the slightest intention of viewing this year’s fall foliage, you should go immediately to a website called BedandBreakfast.com, which lists scores of B&Bs…” -- Arthur Frommer, Frommer’s Budget Travel

“I have found BedandBreakfast.com very helpful. Our office will be doing shoots at B&Bs often in the future, so if you happen to run across other inns with beautiful outdoor areas that are private, feel free to pass them on…” -- Carrie Lucero, Playboy Entertainment Group/ICS

Innkeeper Quote of the Month: “Thanks so much for working on this (referring to their inclusion in National Geographic’s A-List). We have received so much traffic on our website from the list...it was one of our top referrers last week. I can’t believe they included it for another week, yeah! It’s kind of funny...they’re featuring all these big resorts on the A-List...Amsterdam Marriott, Hilton London Canary Wharf...and then Inn at Cascade!” -- Sheri and Tom Schwagart, The Inn at Cascade

Recent BedandBreakfast.com Media Coverage
We’ve received a great deal of interest from radio stations about BedandBreakfast.com’s wrap-up of Great Places to Sleep with a Ghost. By the end of October, Sandy Soule will have conducted live radio interviews with stations in Erie, PA, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, Omaha, Flint, MI,  and Rolla, MO. The story also appeared online in the Seattle Times, Miami Today, Texas Cable News, Forbes.com and many additional websites.

Additionally, stories about BedandBreakfast.com’s Family-friendly Halloween packages appeared in About.com’s Travel with Kids.
Throughout September and October, the media was abuzz with fall foliage recommendations from BedandBreakfast.com’s list of Great Fall Foliage B&Bs. After the story appeared in USA TODAY,  it was picked up by other media outlets, including the Asbury Park Press, Yahoo! News and Yahoo!Canada. Additionally, the press release was included on Forbes.com, and in CBSMarketswatch.com and Travel Smart Newsletter. Frommers.com’s weekly newsletter included a story called “Jeepers, Leaf-peepers! Plan a foliage trip” and included a recommendation to visit BedandBreakfast.com, referring to the website as “an extensive site that ranks small and large cities and advertises tons of deals.”

Our summer release about floating B&Bs continued to appear through late August with stories in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Sunday Globe and Miami Herald.

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