We know, by now, you’ve seen the fall of our industry’s former leading online advocate BedandBreakfast.com. We hope you’ve also been seeing the slow and steady rise of bnbfinder.com.
After acquiring bnbfinder in April 2019, our team of longtime industry experts, have been working to prepare and position bnbfinder to provide professionally operating B&Bs a formidable online stage to better compete against big travel.
With the holidays fast approaching, some of our focus has been on how to best leverage bnbfinder’s well-established gift card program to help innkeepers. As we dug into the program, it hit us – to attract more travelers to inns and more inns to travelers, we should make our Gift Card program free.
That is exactly what we’re announcing here today: Bnbfinder.com gift cards can now be redeemed with zero commission!
In order for us to make this possible, we need two things:
We need to cover our actual costs – bnbfinder’s fees come out to 3.5% on each payment we make to inns. To cover our costs, we’ll need to charge a 3.5% processing fee on each redeemed GC – similar to what you’d pay to process a guest’s credit card payment yourself.
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- To reduce some of our overhead and help accommodate this change to the program, our Accounting Team will pay innkeepers twice a month on redeemed GCs via a fast and secure ACH payment.
- If you do not want to accept ACH payments on bnbfinder GCs, check payments are available, but there is a $25 check processing fee for each payment made via check.
We need your help to spread the word about bnbfinder – add a badge and link on your homepage to your member listing on bnbfinder.com.
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- When you log into your listing with bnbfinder, under “Account”, click on “Badges”. Here you’ll find a wide assortment of badges to choose from along with the code your webmaster will need to easily link your badge to your member listing.
- By adding the link to bnbfinder from your website, you’ll help Google better recognize bnbfinder as the go-to directory for professionally operating inns and B&Bs. Let us know that you’ve added the badge and we’ll note your account accordingly.
- Members who do not wish to add and link a badge to bnbfinder are still eligible to participate in bnbfinder’s Gift Card program, but there will be a 10% commission on redeemed GCs (reduced from what had been 15% at bnbfinder and down from the 20% it was at BedandBreakfast.com)
Among other accomplishments since we began operating the business, bnbfinder is now the #1 directory on Google for the term “bed and breakfast”, with more terms ranking daily. This is the result of months of behind the scenes work and strategically rolling out our plan that we created as our pathway to success. With more enhancements happening daily and planned well into the coming months, we won’t stop until bnbfinder ultimately becomes your largest source for direct and commission-free bookings.
Our investment and commitment to bringing Travelers and Innkeepers together without huge commissions and excessive “heavy handedness from corporate” is what made that possible.
Since day one, we have been taking our mission – to drive more travelers directly to innkeepers – and applying it to every aspect of the business.
bnbfinder.com is the best place to advertise your professionally operating B&B because we are 100% committed to you and the success of your business. By moving our Gift Card program from 15% to zero commission, we hope we’re demonstrating that we’re willing to do what it takes to continue to grow this business and turn it into your largest and most cost-effective channel for guest reservations.
As we head into the holiday season, we hope you find this update to be an early and welcome surprise during a year that’s already been full of many big surprises. With your continued support, we’re very much looking forward to a great 2021 filled with reaching many new milestones and capturing more and more of the travelers interest in our absolute favorite form of lodging – the professionally operating inns and B&Bs!
