Keeping Breakfast Fresh: Indoor Herb Garden

One of the easiest ways to brighten up a recipe is with fresh herbs. Purchasing them at the grocery store can add up quickly, especially if you're using them regularly. Starting your own garden is a great way to always have delicious fresh herbs and is inexpensive to start.

(Please excuse my filthy window.)

I recently planted a windowsill herb garden. It all started when I saw some small planters and watering cans for a dollar a piece. I am unfortunately not blessed with a green thumb, so I bought the already sprouted plants along with some potting soil. That was all it took and I had an herb garden ready to go! For my herbs I chose basil, thyme, rosemary, and chives. Since my window isn’t especially sunny, I’ll try to set my plants outside in the sun about once a week.

I neglected to look over my dollar containers before buying them. They turned out to not have drainage holes. I drilled some myself, but the plastic cracked midway through. I was eventually able to create two tiny holes in each container, but if I were to start over, I would just purchase containers with pre-drilled holes.

Here’s the breakdown of what I used to start my windowsill herb garden:

• Containers – 4 x $1 ea. (I’ve seen small terra cotta pots for less than a dollar—drainage holes included!)
• Potting soil (20 qts) - $7
• Herbs – 4 x $2.50 ea.
  
  Total: $21

Are you thinking of starting your own herb garden? Let us know what you’re planting!

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Join us for a Free Marketing 101 Webinar

Do you want to learn how to take your marketing to the next level and increase your revenue? If you're a BedandBreakfast.com member, join us for a free webinar, Marketing 101, on April 9 from 1-2 p.m. CST. Whether you're new to the B&B industry or a seasoned innkeeper, this webinar will help you learn the building blocks of marketing.

The presentation will cover the four P’s of marketing, plus one (people!). The webinar uses expertise from BedandBreakfast.com's Director of Marketing and Marketing Specialist, who possess a combined 8+ years of marketing experience and two Masters degrees in marketing. This free webinar will help you understand how and why you should be communicating your value with potential guests.

By the end of this webinar, you will have a solid checklist of questions to answer about your marketing strategy, which will help you create a strong plan for success moving forward.

Sign up now to reserve your spot--space is limited!

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How to Be a Good Host and Stand out From the Rest

As an innkeeper, nothing is more important than the happiness of your guests. But in order to get them in the door, you have to stand out from other B&Bs in your area. In our brand new video, learn how to capture the attention of potential guests and offer a unique experience they won't find elsewhere.

What do you think of our new video? Do you have any tips to add?

We recommend you also watch our new video for travelers that debunks the myths about B&Bs!

By Emily Starbuck Crone

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Submit Your Best Dish for Our Breakfast Tournament

It’s time to get ready for our second annual Best Breakfast Tournament! This Facebook contest launches on March 25 and works in brackets, just like college basketball’s March Madness.

How does it work?
Submit your best breakfast recipe, and our Facebook fans will vote on their favorite. They will be narrowed down in a bracket of sweet vs. savory until we have one winning recipe. The recipe must be for one dish, like a French toast dish--not a full plate with multiple dishes. Recipes will be judged on uniqueness, creativity, and appeal; we will factor in the recipe itself in addition to a photo of the dish.

Pictured is last year's winning dish, bittersweet chocolate waffles topped with mint buttercream and strawberry sauce from Lyttleton Inn in Littleton, MA.

What is the prize?
One lucky voter will win a $500 BedandBreakfast.com gift card, and the winning B&B will win bragging rights and publicity! Last year, we scored our winner and runner-up stories in several publications, including USA Today and Budget Travel.

This year’s guest judges are Anne Banas with Smarter Travel, Adrien Glover with Travel + Leisure, and Susannah Chen with YumSugar (and possibly another writer from a large publication), so we expect that the winner and possibly runner-up will also get great publicity this year.

How do you enter?

1)      Add your recipe on BedandBreakfast.com. To do this, first log in to your Home Base.

2)      Under the ‘Listing’ tab, select ‘Recipes.’ Then click ‘Add New Recipe.’

3)      Add the ingredients and steps. Our system currently only allows for five steps, so if your recipe has more steps than this, please combine some of them (we hope to have a better system next year!). It may not appear on the site immediately, so don’t worry if it takes a little time.

4)      Once added, please email Emily Gerson at EGerson@BedandBreakfast.com with this information to enter:     

a.       Your inn’s name and location

b.      The name of your recipe

c.       Whether your recipe is classified as sweet or savory

d.      At least one great photo of the dish; it must be well-lit and high-resolution since it will be presented on our Facebook page

The entry deadline is January 31, 2013. The BedandBreakfast.com marketing team will narrow the entries down to 32 finalists, and a group of guest judges will narrow it down to 16. Starting on March 25, our Facebook fans will vote on each bracket until we have a winner! We hope you will participate.

By Emily Starbuck Crone

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Earn Extra Income: Sell Gift Cards!

Did you know we offer 20% commission to affiliates who sell our gift cards? When you sell BedandBreakfast.com gift cards on your website, we will give you 20% back with no work required from you!

If a guest uses the gift card at your property, the cost of accepting them is offset for you. If they use it at another inn, you just keep 20% commission! You don’t have to do any fulfillment work, and these cards are valuable to travelers since they can be used at over 4,000 inns.

How do you sign up?
We use Commission Junction as our affiliate program. To sign up, go to this link. Become a publisher in Commission Junction and provide us with your Commission Junction “PID” by emailing publishers@BedandBreakfast.com so we can give you the 20% rate.

Your commission is automatically deposited into the account you indicate in the affiliate program.

Will I really earn money?
Yes, you really will earn passive income! Here is a testimonial from an innkeeper in Colorado who became an affiliate less than three weeks ago and has already made over $500 in commissions. All he did was add a small banner ad to his homepage (screenshot below).

“Hosting the graphic banner on the webpage is the key. However, we are very vocal with our guests about purchasing gift cards and in fact mention it to everyone when they arrive and leave. We also have placards in the room and gift shop reminding guests to purchase a gift card. Occasionally we will include gift card ‘lingo’ in a reservation confirmation or invitation.”

Here are some of the banners available:

By Emily Starbuck Crone

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Announcing our 2012 Best of BedandBreakfast.com Award Winners

Yesterday, we announced the winners of our eighth annual Best of BedandBreakfast.com awards! These awards recognized 30 of the top guest-reviewed inns around the world; 10 in the U.S., 10 in Canada, and 10 internationally. They were selected through an analysis of the quantity and quality of the traveler reviews received in the past year. We chose inns that had a nearly perfect overall rating and over-the-top traveler reviews that showcase why the inn is so special.

With only 30 awards, many top-notch B&Bs that weren't able to be recognized. This is why we do monthly awards, which give other inns the opportunity to be in the spotlight. Check out our publicity opportunities page to see the upcoming awards and information on how to contact us if you think you might qualify for the topic.

Top 10 B&Bs in the United States

• Bed & Breakfast on Tiffany Hill in Mills River, North Carolina
• Belfast Bay Inn in Belfast, Maine 
• Bufflehead Cove in Kennebunkport, Maine
• Chestnut Hill Bed & Breakfast in Orange, Virginia
• Historic Webster House in Bay City, Michigan
• Hoyt House Bed & Breakfast* in Amelia Island, Florida
• Port d’Hiver Bed and Breakfast in Melbourne Beach, Florida
• The Farmhouse at Veritas in Afton, Virginia
• Twin Pine Manor Bed & Breakfast in Ephrata, Pennsylvania
• Villa D’Citta in Chicago, Illinois

Top 10 B&Bs in Canada

• Abbeymoore Manor Bed and Breakfast in Victoria, British Columbia
• A la Carte B&B in Montreal, Quebec
• A Touch of English Bed & Breakfast in Kelowna, British Columbia
• Binners’ Bed and Breakfast in Victoria, British Columbia
• Cartland Estate Bed and Breakfast in Niagara Falls, Ontario
• John Lewis House in Victoria, British Columbia
• Queen Anne Inn in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia
• Sweet Dreams Luxury Inn in Abbotsford, British Columbia
• The Refuge Bed and Breakfast in Mont Tremblant, Quebec
• Trout Point Lodge of Nova Scotia in East Kempville, Nova Scotia

Top 10 International B&Bs

• Bed & Breakfast Pegaso in Valeggio sul Mincio, Italy
• Casa Lima Bed & Breakfast in San Jose, Costa Rica
• Casa Roa in Mexico City, Mexico
• Estinfil Guesthouses in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
• Le Roulage in Longueville, France
• Lippergüt’l in Füssen, Germany
• Los Artistas B&B in Ajijic, Mexico
• Maison Maurice in Biron, France
• Suites Plazza del Popolo in Rome, Italy
• Villa Los Paraisos in La Puebla de Cazalla, Spain

By Emily Starbuck Crone

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New Feature: Detailed Map Search

Last month, we announced a change to our reviews program that was requested by many innkeepers. Today, we are announcing a brand new maps feature that makes it easier for travelers to find properties in the exact area they want to stay. It also makes it easy to see how many B&Bs are in any given area.

There is still a map on the city page in the right sidebar, which you can see in the image below:

Starting today, when a traveler clicks on the map on a city page, it will take them to a new page with a large map like the one below. When they click on a pin, they will see the name of the inn with some quick facts, plus a link to the listing. If they drag the map to another area, it will automatically repopulate with properties in the new area. BedandBreakfast.com Diamond Collection properties are noted with a blue icon.

We think this change will make it even easier for travelers to find the perfect B&B. What do you think?

By Emily Starbuck Crone

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Changes to Our Traveler Reviews Program

We are excited to announce a change to our traveler reviews program that we think our members will really like!

Previously, when a traveler went to review a property, each of the five categories (rooms, service, value, cleanliness, dining) showed three stars as a default baseline. Travelers could keep the three-star rating, or they could click and change each one to a higher or lower rating. However, we heard complaints from innkeepers that many travelers kept the three-star rating by default and were concerned that this kept travelers from choosing a higher ranking since a value was already chosen for them.

We have just removed this default ranking, so when a traveler goes to review your property, there are no stars already selected. Travelers will be forced to pick their own rating. You can see below what this now looks like. We hope this change will lend even more credibility to our reviews. We now have well over 200,000 traveler reviews on our site!

Several other changes to the reviews will be coming in the following months. One is that we will make the "Write a Review" button easier for travelers to find on your listing.

What do you think about this change?

By Emily Starbuck Crone

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Survey Results: Traveler Breakfast Preferences

We were already on a roll with our Breakfast Recipe Challenge, so we decided to survey travelers to learn about their breakfast preferences. Nearly 1,100 travelers completed our survey. Here are the takeaways that you may enjoy learning about!

• There was a near tie for the favorite meal of the day. We found that 45% of travelers enjoy breakfast the most, while a close 44% selected dinner as their favorite. Only 11% say lunch is their favorite meal.

• A whopping 72% of travelers prefer their breakfasts to be savory, while 28% prefer theirs sweet.

• When it came to specifics, we found the All-American (bacon and eggs) breakfast was the unquestioned favorite, with 47% of the votes. Carb loaders (pancakes, waffles, bagels) and Health Fanatics (fruit, yogurt, granola) were near ties for next-favorite breakfast, with each representing approximately 24% of responses. Just Like A Kid (hot or cold cereals) and Fit Foodies (protein shakes or smoothies) represent only 2-3% of responses.
  

• In regards to the size of the meal, 63% like a breakfast that will keep them satisfied, while 30% count on a breakfast large enough that they can skip lunch if necessary. We were happy to learn that only 7% usually skip breakfast!

• On the weekends, 59% of travelers prefer eating brunch rather than a regular early breakfast.
  

• Only 29% of travelers want their coffee black. The rest want milk or cream.

• If offered a choice of juice or milk, 76% prefer juice.
  

• When asked their favorite way to eat eggs, 33% said baked in an omelet or casserole, 30% said over easy or sunny side up, 25% go for scrambled, and a mere 12% opt for poached.
  

• If eating toast, 55% of travelers say they want butter on it, while 45% said they want jam.

• We asked if they would consider eating fish, such as lox, for breakfast, and 63% said no.

 Here is the infographic we submitted to the media:

Do any of these findings surprise you?

By Emily Starbuck Crone

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