BedandBreakfast.com photo contest

The Rabbit Hill Inn, Lower Waterford, VT	Berry Springs Lodge, Sevierville, TN
Barclay Cottage, Virginia Beach, VA	L'Auberge Provencale, White Post, VA

Please keep the photos coming! There is not a deadline to the contest, as we continually are looking for beautiful pictures for all seasons and holidays. We need great photos of your inn during weddings, surrounded by spring and summer flowers, during fall foliage, decorated for the holidays, and any other beautiful inn shots you have! Both exterior and interior shots are needed. To get an idea of what we’re looking for, please click here, then click More Style Options in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

In addition to the great exposure for your property, if your photo is selected as a design for a BedandBreakfast.com gift card, you’ll win a free Platinum membership for a full year.*

Photos must be in .jpg format, horizontal in orientation, and at least 1000 x 500 pixels in size. The larger the file size, the better!

Please upload your high resolution photos to your listing on BedandBreakfast.com. You are allowed to upload as many photos as you want, no matter the membership level. Please let us know you've uploaded new photos by contacting us at Support@BedandBreakfast.com or 800-GO-B-AND-B.

*You must welcome BedandBreakfast.com gift cards to be eligible.

Travel Trends

PricewaterhouseCooper forecasts continuous hotel seller’s market: “Hotel revenue per available room and average daily rate growth will flatten in 2008, but travel buyers should expect at least another few years of a hotel seller's market, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' 2007 U.S. Lodging Industry Report and Forecast. The forecast indicated that average daily rates would increase by 5.6% in 2008, about the same level of growth forecast through the end of 2007. Revenue per available room was forecast to increase 5.1%, well below the high levels seen in 2004 through 2006 but on par with the increase expected for 2007. PwC expects that occupancy will drop only slightly to 62.9% in 2008, compared with a 63.2% forecast for 2007.”

BedandBreakfast.com partners are among top 20 most visited travel sites: “According to Hitwise's latest travel report, 37.34% of all visits to the online 'Travel' industry went to the top 10 websites for the month of December 2007. 46.73% went to the top 20 websites and 68.04% went to the top 100 websites.” Among the top 20 websites are Expedia at No. 5 and Kayak at No. 19.

Reviewers want to be helpful: “Bazaarvoice released the findings of a study that surveyed over 1,300 online reviewers to discover what moved them to share their opinions. Overwhelmingly, the survey found, reviewers are motivated by goodwill and positive sentiment:

• 90% write reviews in order to help others make better buying decisions
• 70% want to help companies improve the products they build and carry
• 79% write reviews in order to reward a company
• 87% of the reviews are generally positive in tone

 
“The survey data provides additional insight into previous analysis from Bazaarvoice, which revealed that positive reviews outweighed negative reviews 8 to 1.

“The survey also found that:

• 79% of reviewers are active online participants who post reviews as a way of giving back to the review community.
• 84% of reviewers also purchase products online
• 60% of reviewers have told friends and family about their product experience.”

Americans now buy more travel online than offline: “The year 2007 was the first in which more travel was purchased online than off-line in the U.S., according to the PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey. The report predicted that ‘the gap between online and off-line will continue to widen as more and more travelers shift behavior to online shopping and buying’ The study said that 51% of U.S. travel was booked online in 2007, and it projected that percentage to increase to 56% in 2008 and 60% in 2009.”

Kayak buys SideStep: Kayak.com announced the completion of a $196 million financing round. The travel search engine will use this investment to complete a merger with SideStep, Inc. and to pursue a more aggressive worldwide expansion. The combined company will be the fifth-largest online travel operator. A release stated that consumers will conduct more than 33 million searches on Kayak.com and its affiliates in January 2008, up from 16 million in January 2007.

“Kayak.com intends to maintain both the SideStep.com and Kayak.com brands and will develop and promote each site independently, with key SideStep.com personnel joining Kayak.com’s team. Kayak.com currently has websites in the UK, France, Germany and Spain, and will soon launch in Italy. SideStep.com’s website in Ireland and its European affiliates will add to Kayak.com’s global business. Kayak.com shared that it will also announce several anchor affiliate deals in Europe in the coming months and is currently evaluating opportunities throughout Europe and Asia.” Inns that participate in the BedandBreakfast.com Online Reservations program are bookable on SideStep.com and Kayak.

U.S. 2008 hotel revenue seen rising at slower rate: “Revenue for U.S. hotels will keep rising in 2008, but at a slower rate than in the past couple of years as leisure travel softens and the supply of new hotel rooms increases, industry experts said. Despite recession fears, steady demand from business travelers is expected to allow hoteliers to raise room prices by 5.2% this year, while occupancy slips 0.8%, bringing revenue per available room up 4.4% for the year, according to a forecast from Smith Travel Research presented at a lodging industry conference in Los Angeles. RevPAR, rose 5.7% last year and 7.8% in 2006.”

hotels.com targets iPhone users: “hotels.com has introduced a customized Web application for the iPhone and iPod touch that makes it easy to research and book hotels while on the go. The hotels.com Web application has been optimized for viewing on a 3.5-inch screen and enables users to:

• View photos, descriptions and amenities for more than 75,000
  properties worldwide
• Check hotel availability
• Book accommodations
• View existing hotel reservations
• Contact hotels.com customer care for assistance

The new hotels.com iPhone Web application is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to use the latest technologies to connect with users and make it convenient for them to search and book accommodations. Inns that participate in the BedandBreakfast.com Online Reservations program are bookable on hotels.com.

hotels.com expands across Europe: hotels.com has started 2008 with the launch of five new European local language sites in Greece, Turkey, Iceland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The company now operates 25 sites across Europe, including sites in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia and Benelux. The launch of the new sites continues hotels.com’s local language expansion plans which also saw Poland and Russia go live in 2007.” Inns that participate in the BedandBreakfast.com Online Reservations program are bookable on hotels.com.

Gift card growth projected at 5% through 2012: “Gift cards will continue to grow by 5% or better over the next five years, according to a new Packaged Facts report on the U.S. market for prepaid cards. The report estimates that gift-card sales rose 5.6% to $40.5 billion last year, and will reach $52.2 billion by 2012. Average annual gift-card expenditures rose from $281 to $288 between '06 and '07, and are expected to reach $326 by 2012. Nearly two-thirds--62%--of all U.S. adults purchased at least one gift card in 2007, and PF projects that this will rise by 1 percentage point per year, to reach 67% in 2012.

“Cards' continuing growth is being spurred by consumer recipient preferences, as well as the convenience for the card purchaser. According to a late '07 BIGresearch survey conducted for the National Retail Federation, gift cards/certificates are the top gift preference of most people age 18 and over: 53.8%. They are the top choice of 62% of women, although they come in No. 2 among men (45% prefer cards, but 52% prefer books, CD's, DVD's, videos and video games).”

Expedia launches new hotel certification program: “The new certification program makes it easy for independent properties and small- to medium-sized hotel chains to achieve maximum efficiency in managing their rates and inventory with Expedia. By awarding certification, Expedia is able to assure its partners that the channel management and rate allocation tools they use are compatible with Expedia’s mix of inventory and pricing models.” Inns that participate in the BedandBreakfast.com Online Reservations program are bookable on Expedia.

Sixty-four percent of Americans have money to spend: “According to a report by The Conference Board, about 73 million U.S. households now have discretionary (spendable) income, up from about 57 million in 2002. Total discretionary income in the U.S. topped $1.7 trillion in 2006, with the household average at $24,335.
“Highlights of The Conference Board report include:

• The region with the wealthiest concentration of households is New England. About 63% of these households have discretionary income, with an average amount of $27,337.
• Household discretionary income is lowest in the West North Central region, with average household discretionary income of $20,749.
• California has the largest number of households with discretionary income: 8 million households with $224.7 billion in total discretionary income.
• Texas has the second-highest number of households with discretionary income of more than 5 million, with $136.8 billion total.
• Florida has almost 4.7 million households holding discretionary income of $126.1 billion, and New York has about 4.6 million households holding $119.4 billion in discretionary income.
• More than two-thirds of Baby Boomers (1946 and 1964) have discretionary income, with the highest average discretionary income, at $29,754.
• Two-thirds of Gen X-ers (1965 and 1981) have discretionary income, and the second-highest average discretionary income, at $22,562.

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