• Innkeepers are increasingly either registering their URL's on search engines themselves or contracting this out to 3rd party professionals. As a result we would have expected to see an increase in the percentage of guests who either go directly to the Home Page URL or come from a search engine. Somewhat surprisingly the Innkeepers have not reported any significant payback for this effort. The percent of guests who either go directly to the Home Page URL or from a search engine has stayed somewhat constant - 42% vs 41%.

• Third party directories such as Directory Listing Services and Regional Informational pages continue to be an important source of Guests and traffic to Innkeepers web sites - 49% vs 51%. Innkeepers seem to be well aware of this in that 93% pay to be on at least 1 Listing Directory and 86% will either Increase or Maintain their spending levels for listings on B&B Directories/Listing Services and regional information sites.

• Successful Innkeepers are increasingly integrating their Internet strategies into other branding, promotional and marketing strategies.
  • 82% now use the B&B's name and/or city name as part of their URL (only 53% 2 years ago).
  • 18% of properties have changed or modified their names to improve their position in rankings on search engines.
  • 95% are now including both URL and e-mail addresses on print material
  • 35% are now providing URL information as part of their messages on answering machines
  
  
• The "don't have a clue" factor has decreased significantly - As part of our initial survey 4 years ago we originally assigned this label to Innkeepers who responded "Don't Know" or "Don't Recall" when asked what their Home Page URL was. The "don't have a clue" factor has moved from 14% 2 years ago to 8% last year to less than 1% this year. There are several conclusions that we can arrive at:
  1. All of us are growing younger and our memories are improving
  2. A side effect of URL's that contain long strings of characters is memory enhancement
  3. A presence on the Internet is an important part of an Innkeeper's marketing program
  Which do you think it is? Let us know at survey@bbgetaways.com.

• With a significant portion of their advertising investments now going to the Internet, the basic question most Innkeepers must ask - "Is there a payback for investing time and money on the Web?" - The old ROI (Return on Investment) Question.

  The answer is a clear YES - there is a pay-off.

  Last year we coined a term that we called CTU (Commitment-To-Use the Web). CTU was not a single measure but rather a combination of marketing and attitudinal measures that described Innkeepers and what they were doing. We reported that Innkeepers who pursue a multi-faceted strategy of 1) having a robust Home Page, 2) paying to be on the key Directories/Listing Services and 3) actively using the Web as a marketing tool (having a high CTU) enjoy a significantly higher Occupancy Rate over those having lower CTU's (those Innkeepers who were less committed to use the Web as part of an overall marketing strategy). We continue to see that trend this year.

  Keeping in mind that the Average Occupancy Rates Overall for all Innkeepers who participated in this years study was 49% (vs. 47% last year) let's look at just 2 measures of CTU:

Final Thoughts
The ultimate test as to the value of the Internet is whether Innkeepers invest in it. In other words we also watched what Innkeepers do - their behavior - as well as what they say they will do. The fact is that we don't know of any Innkeeper that has either stopped being on the Internet or taken down their Home Page. We know of no other advertising medium that is used by Innkeepers that this can be said of.

In one of the 2 remaining parts of this series we will be reporting on both Innkeeper and Guest attitudes about using both On-Line Availability and On-Line Reservation tools. An interesting question on which we would like additional Innkeeper attitudes and thoughts concerns booking Guests through 3rd parties such as Travel Agents and paying Commissions. If you would like to express your thoughts on this subject please go to: http://www.bbgetaways.com/survey/innkeep2000.htm to participate in a short survey on this topic. It will take less than 5 minutes to complete. We will try to incorporate the findings in the final installment of this series (in April). Stay tuned, same place next month.

We and our co-sponsors -- B&B Getaways (www.bbgetaways.com) and PAII (www.paii.org) would like to thank the many Innkeepers who contributed their time and input. As in all good research, you often raise more new questions than you help answer. These contribute to future research surveys that we may conduct and share with you. If you have questions you would want to include in future surveys, or if you want to participate on future surveys, please drop us a note by e-mail: info@digital-direct-marketing.com or write us at: DDM, A Communications Agency, Inc., P.O. Box 1039, Kingston, NY 12402.

Nothing contained in the above article can be used or reprinted without the express prior permission of the authors.