As an Innkeeper and business owner, you are undoubtedly familiar with the fact that Google allows you to claim your local business listing, and to customize the information people see when they conduct a search for lodging in your area. Through the Local Business Center, claiming your “Google Place” page allows you to add photos, video, hours of operation, highlight some of the special features of your Inn, and add custom description. In addition, you can create coupons, perhaps offering a bottle of wine with a two night stay in June, or theater tickets to the local production with a three night booking.

These days, one out of every five searches is location related, so having your local listing up to date and accurate is of the utmost importance.

And now, once you’ve claimed your local listing, you can download a “QR” (aka bar code) customized for your Inn from your Google Places dashboard. This eye-catching graphic can be placed in the window of your Inn or Restaurant, on business cards or other marketing materials. Customers scan the QR bar code with their mobile devices, and view the mobile version of the Place Page for your business.

Your Guest or Potential Customer Can:

• Read reviews to see what other users have to say about your Inn.
• Find a coupon that you’ve posted to your Places Page.
• Star the Inn to remember to check it out later, or to visit again.
• Leave a review of the Inn.

On a peninsula in Lake Hamilton, the Estate as a breathtaking view of the Lake and surrounding area. We were so delighted to create a design for the Estate that would give visitors an impression of what it was like to really be at the inn.

We used cool colors and gentle florals to make the site feel appealing and approachable. The old design was rigid, and we wanted the web site to convey to potential guests and brides that Hamilton House is committed to their guests’ comfort and enjoyment on the lake.

Hamilton House Estate, Hot Springs Inn & Wedding Facility

Adding a Google map to the directions page allowed users to instantly access driving directions, reviews and other information about the property and the area from Google maps.

We re-vamped their wedding page to include all new and relevant local services and vendors that a bride may be looking for. Their Hot Springs Wedding packages are listed clearly, and there is a downloadable PDF for brides or event planners who want more details.

The Hamilton House website now optimized and designed to current web standards while giving the visitor a better and more accurate impression of this exceptional property.

Garden House Map

Google Maps gives users of your website access to interactive content that you would otherwise not be able to provide them. Giving a visual representation of your business’ location and activities nearby is a powerful way to get users interested in staying at your destination.

More than just driving directions, a Google Map with local restaurants and things to do can really sell your property. The Garden House Inn, a very fun Key West Lodging has a great example of a map displaying proximity to local businesses. They are close to downtown and this map shows the many opportunities for guests to have fun and enjoy their time in Key West.

Inn at Cape Cod Map

If your business is not as close to the action, a Google Map can show the surrounding region as well. Maybe show all of the great golf courses nearby or lakes and rivers in which guests can fish and boat. Also, your map could show potential customers travel routes to and from your business like the the map we built for Inn at Cape Cod, a Cape Cod MA bed and breakfast.

On Sunday night Jeff and Katie enjoyed a tour of several Duluth inns, including Solglimt, one of our clients. We enjoyed an evening of fantastic architecture and jaw-dropping beauty in these turn-of-the-century mansions. Our friends Anne & Niles Deneen from Deneen Pottery, had made many of the inns’ stoneware mugs that we saw on display or in use during the tours.

Monday was a busy day; Jeff Logan presented Minnesota with their new Bed and Breakfast Association web site, which will be going live in May. We have loaded the site with great features that only InsideOut is providing, such as seven different ways to search for an inn and an interactive map that will allow users to search for inns within a certain radius of their desired location. The site will help the members coordinate within each other to target market specific attractions that bring guests to their area, and administer their individual listings whenever they want.

The crowd went wild when they saw the site, and everyone hurried to follow Jeff into his presentation on Google marketing after lunch was finished. The presentation went smoothly and was very helpful and informative for the innkeepers.

It was great to see some of our current clients, such as Chuck Dougherty from the Water Street Inn, a lovely Stillwater MN waterfront inn, who’s new site had gone live only a few days before the conference.

On Tuesday morning, Jeff and Katie did a presentation on Internet Marketing with Facebook. It was a great success, with a packed crowd and lots of good questions. Visit our facebook page to see some pictures and real-time updates. Facebook is becoming a very important space on the web, and our team is researching the newest developments and trying to keep our innkeepers informed. We look forward to updating this presentation as trends develop, and sharing it at other conventions.

Katie Pate & Jeff Logan: Internet Marketing with Facebook

As always, we enjoyed meeting new innkeepers, talking with them about their potential for online marketing and sharing with them a ranking report that indicates their position online for various search phrases. We run these ranking reports for almost all the conferences we attend, and provide them to innkeepers for their knowledge.

Now that the Hood Canal bridge will be closed up here in Northern Washington for the next month and a half or so, we will be limited to the Northwest at least for a little while. But summer conferences are just around the corner, and we look forward to seeing you at one of them!