This promotion is no longer running

The Pay What You Think It’s Worth promotion (PWYTIW) was run using booking software eviivo suite, which allows independent properties to manage guests, bookings and travel agencies.

eviivo are a leading online booking engine and software suite for B&Bs and independent accommodations across the UK and the world. Their market-leading technology enables customers to manage their bookings and sell their rooms online in the highly competitive global marketplace, on an equal footing with leading international hotel chains.

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Offer guests freebies or a discount

Everyone loves free stuff – complimentary chocolates, afternoon tea or a welcome drink, perhaps? Or a % off when guests book direct.

Partner with companies in your local area

Agree exclusive discounts for local attractions or with other local businesses.

Give something back

Organise a coffee morning to raise funds for the Family Holiday Association to help give struggling families a break.

Download our Participant Pack

Our Participant Pack is full of ideas to help you maximise your free exposure before and during National B&B Week. Download it now and get promoting!

View a list of suggestions based on some of our favourite offers from National B&B Week

• Arrange a tutored tasting of local food, wines or beers to give guests a taste of what your area has to offer – or provide a goody bag of local treats.
• Offer free tickets to a nearby attraction. A country house, vineyard, animal sanctuary, or a lake or river cruise perhaps.
• Encourage your guests to get out and explore with an overland safari, guided tour tickets or free cycle hire.
• Teach a new skill with a free demonstration or workshop. Baking, painting, pottery, surfing – whatever you’re best at!
• Provide a special breakfast menu or a late and lazy breakfast, or offer your guests breakfast in bed.
• Think of a theme and offer a discount to guests who turn up in fancy dress.
• Give guests unlimited home-made ice cream or other treats.
• Pay for a massage or beauty therapist to come to your property and pamper your guests for free.
• Provide a free bottle of champagne or sparkling wine in the room.
• Let guests bring their dogs for free, and offer their faithful companion a special doggy-friendly breakfast.
• Run a competition to win a free stay or give guests a promo code to get a discount off their next stay.
• Include dinner in your usual B&B rate, or offer a free room upgrades.

Complete the form below to submit your offer to be published on the National B&B Week website

The post Get Involved With National B&B Week! appeared first on bandbweek.com.

Click to download the National B&B Week participant pack containing banners, badges, logos, social media images, template press releases and more!

Below are our top tips to help you and your property get the most out of National B&B Week and promote your B&B like a pro.

1. Get Involved & Have Fun With It

From complimentary champagne on arrival, to serving guests breakfast in bed, or even offering free entry to local attractions, we’re asking B&B owners across the country to offer incredible experiences throughout National B&B Week. It should be something you wouldn’t usually offer to visitors – and the more unusual the better – from free beauty treatments, to workshops and classes, or even something more unusual – why not try and break a world record? The sky really is the limit!

For inspiration, check out some suggestions based on previous offers.

Ready with an offer? Submit it here!

When to do it: Straight away!

2. Keep Us In The Loop

Are you offering something special or unusual during the week? Are you hosting an event or have an interesting story to tell us about your property? As well as submitting your offer to the National B&B Week website, you might want to tell us about it! Email us with as much information as possible (the name of your accommodation, contact details and your story) at [email protected]. We’ll be in touch if we think it is something we can use in any PR activity in the hope of generating some media coverage for your accommodation.

When to do it: Whenever you have some information.

3. Shout & Share On Social Media

Twitter, Facebook & Instagram are great ways of getting the word out to a wider audience. Sharing a few posts in the lead-up to the event and then one a day during the week itself is a solid way to do it.

Consider pinning the below message to your Facebook or Twitter profile, so that any existing or prospective customers viewing your page can see that you’re participating.

Feel free to use the example post below on social media as it as it is, modify it to suit your needs or come up with your own one entirely! You’ll want to add a great image to illustrate your offer.

During the week itself, snap some pictures of your offer in action, push it out through all your social channels, and encourage guests to do the same.

4. Use #BandBWeek & Other Hashtags

Hashtags are used to categorise social media content and allow a wider audience of people to discover it. When someone interested in a topic searches for a hashtag, they’re able to see all the posts that have used that tag, even if they’re not following the users that created them.

Remember to use #BandBWeek in all social media posts to get noticed!

It’s also best practice to get into the habit of hashtagging your posts with relevant hashtags – such as #bedandbreakfast or #bandb – to get the attention of people who are searching Instagram for a place to stay.

5.  Use National B&B Week Logo & Banners On Your Website & Social Media

Download the participant pack to access a range of profile pics and header images for use on social media, as well as a logo and badges for your website, to show that you’re a loud and proud participant of National B&B Week.

Like the pinned post mentioned above, this will make it easy for your customers to see that you’re participating, and we know from last year that potential guests look out for these when booking.

When to do it: As soon as you can.

6. Contact Your Local Press

Offering something interesting for National B&B Week? Well, there’s a good chance that your local paper, radio or TV station will want to hear about it.

If you are doing something fun in National B&B Week, reach out to your local paper, radio station and even TV news desk to tell them about it. They are always looking for interesting new things to cover, and this could do wonders for promoting your business.

To get the attention of the press, remember to keep your message snappy and relevant, focussing on what’s interesting about your property and offer.

When to do it: As soon as you can.

7. Put Out Your Own Press Release

When you contact the press you might want to write a press release explaining what you’re doing. We’ve put together a press release template for you to customise and send on to any press contacts you have, or add to your website. You can access the template press release in the downloadable participant pack.

When to do it: As soon as you can.

8. Write A Blog Post

Does your website have a blog? If so, write a post about your involvement in National B&B Week – don’t forget to include some nice pictures of you and your property. You can then promote this blog post on your social media channels, using #BandBWeek.

When to do it: As soon as you can.

9.  Engage Your Local MP

National B&B Week is a great chance for your MP to champion local businesses taking part in this national initiative, so let them know what you’re up to. When you tweet about National B&B Week, tag your MP, or invite them along to your property for a visit, especially if you are hosting a fundraising event for the Family Holiday Association! MPs are usually in their constituencies on a Friday.  We saw lots of MPs visiting properties in their constituencies last year, including the Tourism Minister.

You can easily find your local MP on Twitter with this tool. Just click “MP List” to see all the eligible MPs in alphabetic order.

When to do it: As soon as you can.

10. Get Your Guests Involved

In the downloadable participant pack you will find a printable postcard promoting National B&B Week to print out double-sided on A4 card for all of your guests. It contains a bit of info on the week to get them excited, and the information they need if they want to share their own National B&B Week experiences online.

From the 16th to 22nd March, simply print these postcards out and distribute appropriately. Last year, many B&Bs left postcards on the table for breakfast, and they went down a treat!

When to do it: From 16th to 22nd March

11. Support The Family Holiday Association

National B&B Week is proudly supporting the Family Holiday Association, who provide short breaks to struggling families facing some of the toughest challenges life can bring.

Why not organise a coffee morning, afternoon tea, or cake sale, with proceeds going to the FHA and perhaps invite your local MP, or buy the B&B cookbook with all proceeds again going to the charity.

B&B owners are invited to offer two-night stays in their accommodation to families through the charity during National B&B Week and beyond. Or for users of the eviivo booking system, there is an option to add a donation element to your booking site so that customers have the choice to donate £1 to the charity at the point of booking.

If you’re interested in supporting their incredible charitable work, helping families struck by severe or long-term illness, mental health issues, bereavement or domestic violence please let us know using this form.

When to do it: As soon as you can.

Remember, National B&B Week is all about you – the hardworking host. By getting involved and shouting about the event you can help us make #BandBWeek even more of a success!

Offers will be here soon!

The post How To Maximise Publicity For Your Property<br>Around National B&B Week appeared first on bandbweek.com.

Once home to the future King James II, we couldn’t think of a better place to host the world’s first B&B&Bottomless Brunch!

Entries are now closed. The winner will be announced on the Monday following the rescheduled National B&B Week. Good luck from the National B&B Week Team!

The post B&B & Bottomless Brunch! appeared first on bandbweek.com.

What our partners say

Read more from some of the companies and organisations getting behind National B&B Week and showing their support for the UK’s independent accommodation sector:

As the UK’s most popular booking suite for B&Bs, guest houses and independent hotels, we fervently believe in championing the UK B&B sector and are giving National B&B Week our full support.

National B&B Week really celebrates the important role of B&Bs to the tourism industry in the UK. We are delighted to be part of it and to keep supporting those who create such memorable experiences for travellers to the UK.

Booking.com is proud to support National B&B Week, and to celebrate the incredible work of our amazing B&B partners throughout the country who deliver outstanding, authentic, local experiences to travellers each and every day.

The Great British Bed & Breakfast is an integral part of what makes a visit to the UK amazing and memorable. Google recognises their valuable contribution to the tourism industry in this country and is proud to support National B&B Week.

National B&B Week is a celebration dedicated to all of the committed, passionate and hard-working people who help make a British holiday or break the wonderful experience it is. We are glad to support it, and the whole British B&B and guest house sector, to help it thrive as a cornerstone of British tourism.

The British Bed & Breakfast is one of the fundamentals of what makes a visit to Britain great for overseas visitors. We support National B&B Week as a celebration of the valuable contribution they make to the tourism industry in this country.

The AA are very pleased to support National B&B Week, to celebrate the outstanding quality, personal service and value that the great British B&B offers to guests.

National Express carry thousands of passengers a day to some of the country’s most popular holiday destinations, where they enjoy the unrivalled value and welcome of the British B&B. We are happy to add our support to National B&B Week.

We want even more companies and organisations to get involved in National B&B Week!

Why?

Because we want to make as much noise as possible about the Great British B&B, to make people think of a B&B first when planning a stay and to encourage them to enjoy the unique and genuine hospitality that only independent accommodation can provide.

How?

By getting as many partners as possible from across the tourism industry to shout with one voice to promote the country’s independent hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs. The more noise we can make together, the more we’ll be heard!

What’s in it for me?

If you work with B&Bs, this is your chance to show your support for the hardworking individuals, families and small teams behind their success. Your brand will be featured here on the National B&B Week website where it can be seen by the 20,000 B&Bs across the UK, and we are planning on generating plenty of media interest to give your brand free exposure.

What do I need to do?

• Encourage all of the B&Bs who you work with to upload an offer to the National B&B Week website. The more original the offer the better, as these are those that are most likely to attract press attention.
• Encourage all of your customers to book or stay in a B&B during National B&B Week. There are hundreds of fantastic offers, from discounts and upgrades to hampers of local goodies, discounted admission to local attractions, unlimited free ice cream and free baking classes. 

Here are some specific suggestions of how you can get involved based on your type of business or organisation:

Online Travel Agent

Lower or waive your commission on bookings made during National B&B Week for all B&Bs or participating properties.

Run a competition for a guest to win a free B&B stay.

Tourist Board

 your local press and PR contacts to get your participating B&Bs media coverage on TV, radio, online or in print. 

Host a special event, such as a breakfast or afternoon tea at a tourist information centre.

Supplier

Set up a promotion on your website to offer your B&B customers a discount during National B&B Week.

Run a competition to win B&B essentials such as kitchen equipment, tableware, linen, toiletries, technology… whatever goods and services you sell!

Transport Company

Run a competition for passengers booking or during National B&B Week to win a trip to a popular tourist destination where they can find a great choice of B&Bs to stay.

Feature National B&B Week in your in-house magazine for  

Trade Publisher

Publish a feature in your magazine or on your website about some of the amazing B&Bs to be found around the country and some of the best National B&B Week offers.

Offer advice and encouragement to your readers on how to submit special offers to the National B&B Week website.

Trade Body

Offer a discount or special introductory offer on an annual subscription to new members who join you during National B&B Week

Send a newsletter to your members to encourage them to get behind National B&B Week and submit their best offers to the website.

The post Our Partners appeared first on bandbweek.com.