Advertising Next Year

[Quillan]

As we come near then end of one season we look to the next and where we might consider advertising for next year and to decide which advertising companies we wont bother with again.

My method of market research is somewhat simple. I search on B&Bs and Chambres DHotes in my area and see which companies come up. One that keeps coming up is a company run by Thomas Cook called BAB France with a website called bedbreak.com. They are quite expensive but then appear to give your B&B good exposure so I was wondering if anyone has used them and what they thought. So as not to create any problems perhaps we could say give a rating from 1 to 5, 1 being I would never use them again and 5 being absolutely wonderful, dont know how I would manage without them sort of thing.

I you have something really nasty to say can you email me direct, saves all the grief under the naming and shaming rules.


Chris

http://www.chambresdhote.com

[Miki]

Guess who is with them Chris!

I am surprised you didn't scroll through to Brittany and have a butchers!!!

We signed a 3 year deal with them in 2000. Then we took out a further 2 year contract in 2003 to take us to the end of this year.

They are based in France and in Henley on Thames. The reason we are with them is simply that the first 3 year deal was really cheap, the 2 year one, not too bad but what had made us stay with them in the last 2 years(apart from getting a fair number of enquiries), is that they have joined up with several European countries to have the guide book (always a good thing to be in, as the books can hang around for years, even after you have perhaps left the organisation!) called Thomas Cook best bed and breakfast in a few European languages.

We are in the Italian, Dutch, German (I think?), Spanish and French as well as the English book.

They have been going 10 years this year and we have had promos on during the year. You become a member of Bonjour and Maisons de France, with stickers available for your front door !!

2005 will see Regional brochures to complement the National guide book.

G de Fr members are not officially allowed to be with them. It is simply big brother tactics by G de Fr to try and bully the members of the much smaller B&B France, in to being with g de Fr only.

It is supposedly all to do with grading G de Fr say that their 3 epis are harder to obtain then the 3 etoiles of B&B and if a member was with both it might degrade their sytem. Bulls--t, I claim ignorance of their ruling and have only been warned once in 5 years !!

Strasbourg are sitting on their hands telling them both to clear it up sensibly, yeh right, it's only been close to 5 years so far !!

They will take 10% for every booking that comes through Paris or Henley. You have to offer them a RIB as the money is now paid direct to your bank, usually after the client has actually left your place !! Otherwise you will be contacted by fax, email or phone, by clients, either direct from the website or from their guide books (better learn half a dozen more languages Chris !)

What do I think of them, well I'm still with them and will sign up for another one or two years, so.....................
but remember that the big problem is knowing which of your advertisers is working for you. Not so simple as one thinks, that's another subject and too long to go into here.

Miki

[Coco]

I replied to this posting originally on the old forum but for some reason it went missing in the changeover.  Will the Conq has managed to find it for me so I have cut and pasted my original comments:  

"I found them the same way that you did Chris, last July. I sent off for the forms to join but then discovered that I had missed the deadline to go into the UK book for 2004 by one month, so thought I would wait til this year to sign up. This year, when the forms came through they were still referring to June 2003 as being the deadline for the UK guide, so I presumed that the guide was only printed every couple of years. My main reason for wanting to go with them was to get into a paper guide as well as being on the internet; especially as you get five for your money. From that point of view, whilst expensive, I didn't think it was excessive to have both internet and hard copy presence.

Having heard that Miki has been with them for five years I may well bite the bullet and go for it for next year. I liked what I saw of it when I looked.

I'm having the same dilemma myself about who to go with next year and where to renew. I renewed with one of the French websites I go on back in June, who have increased their charges by nearly 50% but felt that it was worth it as 90% of my bookings last summer came via that site. However, so far this year we've had 4 lots of French people, so not such a good deal! Apart from sites that produce an enquiry form when people contact you, as Miki says, it's extremely difficult to tell where people have got you from. I've found that 95% of those I ask can't remember, or tell me very grandly that they found me on the internet. But as I don't currently advertise anywhere else, that's not a lot of help!!!"

I don't know that I'm too impressed with the website, but the hard copy is still quite interesting.  So Miki, do you know whether the Thomas Cook book is printed every year or just every so often?

[Miki]

Coco,

I cannot be sure but can offer you the contact number for Henley or Paris but both can be found on the net.

I would hazard a guess at annually, to ensure that those paying are the only ones in the current book but as I said, it will pay you to contact one of their offices ASAP, if you are still interested in joining but I think I would do it very quickly and hopefully you are not too late, we sent our cheque back in July.

Miki

[Alexis]

I would suggest you do a nude calendar.  Six photo's each.  Then send them out to garages, Womens Institutes etc.

People will be flooding across.

Make sure it is tastefull though.....

When they check you out on the internet you could have a 'special' one for them.