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Tips & Advice: 2009 Marketing Without the Risk

The way people choose an Inn is changing.

Hi, I'm James and I'm the spokesperson for Web Reservation Desk, a consulting firm for innkeepers.

In these hard economic times, more innkeepers than ever before need help making sure their Inn's future is secure. Since it's our job to help you do that, we've made valuable resources freely available on this website so you can learn how to protect your business, cut expenses, and increase the effectiveness of your marketing without the risk.

A mysterious occurrence has been happening over the last five years... Innkeepers who don't have a website have started to notice a frightening drop in year-round reservations, and this is going to get dramatically worse with time. To understand why, let's look at what experts are calling “The Emerging Internet Age.”

You happen to be living at a time where the Internet is giving your potential guests more options and details than ever before. As your advertisers and your competitors make websites of their own, more of your potential guests are going on the Internet to see all the Inns in your area, what others have thought of their stay with you, and what makes your Inn special.

As more advertisers and competing Inns decide to make their ads appear on the Internet, more people skip over your ad if it doesn't list a website, and even if it does, more visitors bounce right off your website if it was poorly designed.

Innkeepers that are losing guests fail to realize that people not only expect to see a website, but that the website needs to convert as many visitors into guests as possible. You may only be getting a fraction of your web site's full value and sometimes, a website can actually work against you.

A good website gets visitors attention as they arrive with an interesting, eye catching message or special offer that serves as a headline in the center of the page around eye level. The design needs to be easy to look at, inviting, and professional but with the personal touch that one would expect from an innkeeper. The overall experience is that your website is helpful to your visitors, answering their questions, and asking them to reserve a room with a built-in on-line reservation system that gets them to take action.

It can be scary at first getting or improving a website, but it's really a lot easier than it looks. We want to make everything transparent for you so you know the kind of pricing and difficulty to expect. The guide below will show you how easy and inexpensive it is to get or improve a website in 2009, and how we can offer you one that is designed specifically for your Inn for as low as $20 a month. We also provide free guidance on Innkeeping and Internet Marketing to explain in detail how the Internet is changing your marketing and the many new options you have available to secure the future of your Inn. In these free guides we teach you how to design a website to attract visitors to stay with you and how to go about starting a website on your own.

Web Reservation Desk was made to inform innkeepers – so you've come to the right place! Whether you're interested in our offer or not, we're all in this emerging Internet age together, and we'll help you through it step-by-step. So welcome to Web Reservation Desk and I hope you enjoy your stay.