Hundreds of Inn Websites Showing “Connection Not Secure”, What to Learn From Airbnb, Getting Last Minute Summer Guests

Was Your Website Marked NOT SECURE On July 25?

This is what your website will look like in the popular Google Chrome browser if you did not migrate your site to HTTPS after July 25.

Google announced that all websites that didn’t migrate to HTTPS will be marked as “not secure” on July 25 and thereafter.

Note the “not secure” in the URL above as seen in our developer’s Firefox browsers. This is showing up on many inn websites that are not HTTPS. You need to acquire a security certificate so this doesn’t show up. Why? Because some potential guests will not take the chance of opening a website that is shown as insecure.

 

3 Steps:

1. Look up your website on diffeerent browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox etc.

2. Get your hosting company to help you get your HTTPS. Or check out the resources below for in depth guides to making this change.
GoDaddy  and here.
You can also see more at Google

3. Think about getting the user experience on your website up to date. For a review of your entire site:

 

Call iloveinns at 949-481-7276 or email DRingler@iLoveInns.com

 

The Ritz London

Everyone’s Improving – Even The Ritz Got Better

Hotels are making their customers much happier across the board, especially when it comes to rooms and facilities, according to J.D. Power’s 2018 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index.

“Hotels in all price ranges have excelled at ensuring their customers have a top-notch experience,” says Jennifer Corwin, at J.D. Power. “Years of capital investment in offerings such as higher-end televisions and in-room tablets have left their mark.”

The Ritz-Carlton scored 902, up 14 points from last year and the highest for the brand in the study’s history. Technology such as new TVs is increasingly important, especially in guest rooms. For instance, 77 percent of guests surveyed said they had a large flat-panel television in their rooms. More

 

Peter Shields Inn, Cape May

How To Use Airbnb Ideas to Make Your Business Better

1. It’s Not Just the Stay But Experiential Hospitality
Airbnb rentals offer unforgettable experiences during the stay. (xotels.com) How? They bought the company Trip4real, so their guests can directly book experiences during the stay with local people. One innkeeper we know in a mountainous gold mining area, brought in an old gold miner – a fascinating storyteller who would entertain during wine and cheese.

2. Chat Boxes Make it Feel More Personal
There is an efficient chat mechanism on Airbnb that is more like email, but it poses as chat, to make it feel more personal. Guests can contact hosts for any question and the host can make recommendations and provide personalized add-on service throughout.

“We in the hotel industry have become lazy. Our website is a gatekeeper. It is a barrier that replaced the phone. It allows us not to have to talk to travelers.. the attitude is please look it up yourself…i”

3. Tapping Into Suites in An Era of Airbnb

One hotel marketing recommendation is to give travelers what they’re looking for – more space. The thinking is that many guests go for Airbnb because they can get so much more space. Some inns are in the  position to create suites and offer more perceived value.  More

 

What We Heard This Week 

1. Airbnb Hidden Fee – “I recently had a team member price match AirBnB  – at a rate substantially lower than our internal rate – only to find in audit that AirBnB had hidden a $75 “Service Fee” that appeared later in the transaction.” Dave

2. Bait & Switch – “Exp and Booking are showing us appearing in thousands of searches but the reservations aren’t coming. We know that’s because they are including us as part of 50-100 hotels regularly returned for every search – making their metric meaningless. This is best exemplified by Expedia who show our wins and losses for the past 72 hours. We lost all 6 searches in which someone clicked on our inn – they were lost to places 50-60 minutes away.”

3. Why B&Bs Are Better Than Airbnb – “Our state B&B association hired a PR director.  She says their whole emphasis has to be on WHY BBs ARE BETTER than airbnb…the experience, what’s included, etc.  NOT an emphasis on just cost. We’ll be focusing our marketing on that.”

 

Full Moon & Candle-Lit Yoga – Monarch Beach Resort

“Fridays – complimentary Full Moon Yoga on the lawn, a gentle candle-lit class with live music and meditation. The ideal way to begin your weekend this Fridayat 7pm.”

 

Food and Wine

No One Orders Room Service Anymore – Here’s Why (From Food and Wine)

Instead, some hotels have been solving this problem by latching onto another modern dining trend: an appreciation of eating local, especially while traveling. As a result, many of these hotels are turning to what Restaurant Hospitality called

“Restaurant delivery as amenity”—Properties are partnering with local eateries to offer in-room dining menus…These hotels often offer these items at the same price as the restaurant would. It’s less expensive for guests, and barely costs the hotel anything either, so both parties see the benefits. “We don’t get any extra for adding this service,” explained Pere Sanchez Frigola, at NYC’s Roger Smith Hotel, which has partnered with five local restaurants, “but for the guests it’s a huge value.” More

 

Make Ahead Breakfast Quesadilla

Watch this video and make ahead a few individual quesadillas for emergency – they claim they can be stored in the freezer 30 days – It’s the third one in this fun and easy to follow video. (Watch the cheesy egg bake recipe also.)

Photo is a vegetarian taco cup.