Innkeeper Updates

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Austin inn tour
BedandBreakfast.com staffers were lucky enough to tour several B&Bs in our hometown this summer. The innkeepers were so gracious to let us take a look at guest rooms, common areas, and even offices! Seeing where and how innkeepers spend their time each day helps us to better serve our members. Read more on our blog.

Travel Trends

TripAdvisor reveals what guest want: “ TripAdvisor announced the results of its hotel survey of more than 2,200 travelers worldwide. Ninety-two percent of respondents said they are planning to stay at a hotel or B&B in the next 12 months; 19% will stay at a hotel or B&B more than 10 times in the coming year, and 45% will stay between 2-4 times in the next 12 months.” Here are highlights of the results.

What makes a great hotel:

• Location (30% of respondents said so)
• Comfortable beds (29%)
• Staff/great service (24%)
   

What makes a bed comfortable:

• Mattress (64%)
• Linens (11%)
• Pillows (11%)
   

A stay is ruined because of:

• Unclean rooms (54%)
• Noisy hotel guests (14%)
• Poor staff/service (11%)
   

Meet their expectations: Seventy-eight percent of travelers said hotels are often “as advertised,” 17% said they are rarely as advertised. Sixty-six percent of travelers said B&Bs are “as advertised,” 20% said they are rarely so.

Guests like free gas, green accommodations: “A June 2008 Prospectiv survey revealed that online travelers could be enticed to spend more on travel if offered promotions, such as rebates on gas expenses. In response, many hotels have been giving out gas rebate cards at higher amounts than ever before—$50, $100 or even $200 per trip. Some independent travel websites such as Expedia and hotels.com are also offering gas cards.

“More online travelers are also basing decisions on a travel supplier’s environmental policy. Prospectiv’s survey found that 22.8% of respondents made purchase decisions based on a company’s green policy. Another 40.6% said that policy would not influence a purchase but would create a favorable impression.”

Report calls for compulsory licensing of Irish B&Bs: A new report has called for the compulsory licensing of all B&Bs and for the introduction of a quality grading scheme. The report was commissioned by the Town and Country Homes association, which represents more than 60% of the B&Bs registered with Fáilte Ireland. Licensing is currently a voluntary process; compulsory licensing would increase consumer confidence, reward effort and eliminate sub-standard operators. The B&B sector is estimated to be worth more than €300 million to the Irish economy annually.

Expedia reports strong travel bookings: “Citing its own business as well as research by Smith Travel Research and others, Expedia Inc. concluded that ‘Americans are flying and staying at hotels about as much as they have in recent summers.’ Expedia noted its own North American gross bookings were up 10% in the second quarter of 2008, compared with the same period last year. The most popular destinations on Expedia during August were New York City, Las Vegas and Orlando. Orlando was listed as Expedia’s sixth-fastest-growing destination for the first six months of 2008. New Orleans, Las Vegas and San Antonio topped that list.”

The purpose-driven vacation: “Travelers are intent on pursuing travel experiences that allow them to indulge in their personal interests despite the softening economy, according to a recent survey of 501 U.S. adults by American Express Travel. Indeed, 87% of respondents indicated that the number of vacations involving one or more personal ‘passions’ would either remain the same or increase over the next two years; of those, 28% indicated that they expect the number to increase.

These findings may come as somewhat of a surprise in light of the fact that 90% of respondents indicated that they feel the US economy is currently in or edging toward a recession. But at least 60% of respondents say that it’s because travel is so important to their mental health and lifestyle that they have not let economic concerns impact their plans. Although these travelers are not immune to the softening economy, they are still moving ahead with their vacation plans but acting more resourceful in their planning. Taking savvy approaches to travel, 66% of respondents are tapping into rewards points or miles earned to offset costs, 58% are visiting more affordable destinations, and 24% are taking shorter vacations. While the survey showed that Americans have a broad array of passions and interests, here are just a few popular ones:

• Culinary Interests: 42%
• Sporting Events: 28%
• Adventure: 25%
• Music: 21%
• Educational travel: 15%"

Global hotel industry grows ADR, RevPAR in the first half: The global hotel industry achieved positive year-over-year growth in average daily rate and revenue per available room for the first half of 2008, but most regions experienced drops in occupancy, according to data from STR and STR Global. The data was gathered from more than 36,150 hotels comprising 4.93 million guestrooms worldwide.

European hotels in the sample attained an ADR increase of 16.8% to US$169.56 and a RevPAR jump of 15.3% to US$110.35, while seeing occupancy drop 1.3% to 65.1%.

Hotels sampled in the Americas region posted a 5.1% increase in ADR to US$110.14 and a 2.7% bump in RevPAR to US$67.94. The region’s occupancy fell 3.9% to 66.7%.

Price beats brands when times are tight: “More than four out of 10 U.S. nonbusiness travelers surveyed expect to reduce the number of trips they will take in the coming year as a result of the economy, according to a June 2008 Destination Analysts’ ‘The State of the American Traveler’ survey. Nearly three out of 10 said they would spend less for their recreational trips in the next 12 months, nearly double the percentage that said so 12 months ago. In the past 12 months, 23.6% of leisure travelers said they had taken a “staycation"—a vacation spent at home—in response to gasoline prices. Nearly three out of 10 said they planned to do so within the next 12 months.”

Travelocity’s second look at consumer travel behavior: “In Travelocity’s annual Forecast Poll (Jan ’08) travelers responded to questions about how higher costs would impact their vacation plans for the coming year. But, with record-high gas prices, higher airfare, and a slew of unexpected airline fees, Travelocity took a second look. By comparing current travel data to the forecast poll they can show where travelers are sticking to their strategies and where they’ve abandoned them. In January, almost half of all respondents indicated recent travel trends would have no effect on their 2008 travel planning. But current Travelocity data shows summer fares are up 13% over 2007 with the average domestic flight at $366 compared to $317 in 2007. Despite rising costs, 55% of Americans are still opting to travel this summer, however many said their plans would change based on rising gas prices.
 
In January, most (46%) said the weakening of the U.S. dollar would not affect their plans to travel internationally, and 25% said they’d choose cheaper destinations, whether international or domestic. Seven percent said they would travel to destinations where the dollar goes further.
Current data shows that Americans are still traveling internationally, but choosing places where they can stretch their dollar. Travelocity data shows share of travel is up to Mexico (31%), South America (8%) and Eastern Europe (13%), while share of travel to Western Europe is down 15%.

hotels.com launches hotel booking app on iPhone: hotels.com announced its new application for iPhone and iPod touch is available on Apple’s new App Store. The free application offers a richer mobile experience for researching and booking lodging and was built using Apple’s iPhone Software Development Kit.
 
Users can search properties based on their proximity to their current location. They can also locate hotels close to an airport, landmark or street address. They may organize search results by price, guest rating, star rating, property name or hotels.com picks.

Travelers going online for bargains: A recent poll by lead-generation firm Prospectiv reports that a growing number of travelers are going online to find bargains. About 79% of the 500 consumers responding to the online poll confirmed that costs are influencing their vacation plans -- and 38% said they'd be going the ‘staycation’ route as a result, meaning they would spend their vacations at home.

Many (25%) of those not staying home will be vacationing closer to home. Smaller numbers will be taking shorter vacations (14%); staying with family/friends (10%) or eating in more during their vacations (7%). 64% report that they'll be spending less on summer vacations this year, compared to 19% planning to spend about the same and 17% spending more. To find the bargains they need, 72% say that they’re relying primarily on online resources offering travel information and special offers. Most (59%) also express a preference for receiving travel info/promotions through opt-in e-newsletters, electronic vouchers or coupons, and promotional Web sites versus 38% still preferring postal mail, and 2% preferring the telephone.

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