Subscription or Pay as You Go Advertising

[Quillan]

When I first opened my B&B 5 years ago I really didn’t know much about how and where to advertise it especially on the internet (I did get lots of tips from this forum that worked well at the time). There were one or two very large websites, which I still use, that are run on an annual subscription rate. I thought this was the way to go and have invested in several of these websites in different countries.

I also noticed that there were a few ‘pay as you go’ type websites that basically charged you 10% should you get a booking through them which is basically your deposit which they keep. I have recently joined a couple of these websites and have had some pretty good bookings.

Something inside of me did not really like the idea of the latter group taking my deposit and keeping it. Don’t know why I felt this way but it made me stay well clear of these sort of websites for a long time.

I am now starting to drift the other way and am wondering if they are in fact better value for money. The ones you pay an annual fee can effectively take your money and you may only get a few bookings and in some cases none (they usually say it’s you fault as your advert with them is a bit naff). I also notice that their position in the rankings slip and only seem to improve when they get a long way down the listings.

With ‘pay as you go’ I am wondering that it is very much in the interests of the website owners to give their website maximum exposure all of the time because if they slip and nobody uses them they get no income. This in turn of course gives you a better chance of getting a booking. This surely works in your interest?

Some subscription websites make all sorts of claims and as many of you will know we all suffer from a continuous stream of emails (and phone calls at times) asking us to join them at 30 to 100 Euros a go. I have got to a point now where I ask if they have a commission based service because I tell them that if their service is as good as they claim I am quite happy to give them 10% per booking. Sort of put your money where your mouth is touch.

The reason for posting this is that I am wondering if I am the only one that thinks this way and am interested to hear what others think.

[Cassis]

I would prefer to work on optimising my own website unless the portal in question knocked me into a cocked hat when it came to Google and Yahoo rankings on my keywords and I could not find a way to beat it.  We pay one portal site for advertising (39€ per year) because it comes just above us for a couple of our keyword phrases, plus Gites de France because we have to be with them for grant reasons (they also brought us 6% of our business last year, though we could have filled a lot of those bookings without them). All our other listing sites are free.  If I were paying anyone over 10% of the revenue generated through them then I would drop them.  I say that not as a B&B owner but as someone who used to work in market research and advertising.  So the guys who take a flat 10% would qualify, but only if they filled a lot of slots that I could not have filled without them.