We are excited to announce that we are officially live with Travelocity as our newest distribution partner for the BedandBreakfast.com Online Reservations Program.  Participating properties will automatically be included on Travelocity.com and their affiliate sites including Yahoo Travel, AOL Travel, American Express Travel, Lastminute.com (Europe), and Zuji (Asia-Pacific).

We have begun the process of getting properties live on Travelocity and will continually add properties each week until we have loaded all of our participating properties.  Please be certain that you have rates and availability loaded for our Online Reservations Program as this is a requirement for your property to be loaded.  The more availability you have loaded, the faster you may appear on Travelocity.  If your property does not have rates and inventory loaded, or if you have very limited rates and inventory loaded, you will not be loaded onto Travelocity until we have that information updated in our system.  To ensure your property has the necessary inventory loaded to be activated on Travelocity, and to ensure you’re maximizing your potential for reservations through this program, please call us at 1-800-462-2632 ext 4.  We’ll be happy to assist you with this.

We’re excited about the additional exposure and reservations this relationship is sure to bring to all our members.  Please note - If you are already participating with Travelocity through a direct relationship, you will continue to work with them directly rather than through BedandBreakfast.com.

Thank you for your continued partnership. 

The reservations you receive via the BedandBreakfast.com Online program are generated by many different websites, receiving a total of over 100 million guests each month.

If the reservation is made on BedandBreakfast.com, SideStep.com, and Kayak.com, we can give you the guest’s email address because the transaction for these reservations takes place on the BedandBreakfast.com website.

When a guest books through Expedia, hotels.com, or one of their sister companies, the email address cannot be shared with us because of strict guidelines and laws that govern the sharing of a personal email information with a third party. When guests book through Expedia, they complete their entire booking transaction on the Expedia website, unaware that BedandBreakfast.com has supplied Expedia with the B&B information. For Expedia to pass their customers’ email addresses would violate anti-spam laws, and would also raise privacy concerns among their customers.

Originally, when Expedia and hotels.com began listing B&Bs on their websites, they did not even share guests’ phone numbers with innkeepers. When we partnered with Expedia, we successfully negotiated to get them to share this information. In addition, the direct phone number for your property is on each guest confirmation email, along with a request that each guest contact you 48 hours prior to check-in.

We do understand that phone numbers supplied by travelers are not always useful and that it can be difficult to reach people once they have booked. If you are unable to get in touch with a guest who has booked your property through this program, please do not hesitate to let us know. We can submit a request to Expedia and ask them to send the guest an email asking them to contact you.
 
Although we realize that’s not a perfect solution, we are convinced that the benefits of this program far outweigh any drawbacks, and we hope you agree.

Thank you again for being a member of BedandBreakfast.com and for your participation in the BedandBreakfast.com Online Reservations program! We sincerely value your business!

It is hard to believe, but more than half of 2009 is behind us. It is time to start thinking about 2010. We are already seeing many travelers searching for available rooms and booking them for dates in 2010. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to capture these potential customers!

If you have not done so yet, please remember to load your rates and availability for 2010 into the BedandBreakfast.com Online Reservations Manager. If you are connected to our system through RezOvation GT or Webervations, you will never need to load rates or inventory with us, as your system does so automatically. If you have any questions, need any help loading rates and availability, or you would like more information on our connectivity options, please contact us at OnlineReservations@BedandBreakfast.com or 1-800-462-2632, option 4.

We look forward to helping you make 2010 a great year!