TurkeyRed, Greytown Country Hotel

We're considering a new future for the New Zealand Bed & Breakfast Book

We are considering a new future for the New Zealand Bed & Breakfast Book.

The B&B Book website, www.bnb.co.nz is performing well. We achieve fantastic results in Google, and the website delivers a good proportion of our guests. But it is a different story for the actual hard-copy B&B Book. It is not producing the same results as the website.

We have spent a lot keeping the quality high, and on distributing the books as widely as possible. We give free copies to rental cars, information centres and cafes. Our hosts effectively get unlimited books for free, with our charge covering postage costs. In the past we have distributed more than 20,000 books annually, with many being sold overseas, especially in USA. But for the last three years we have had more and more left-over books. We don't sell enough in UK and USA to justify distributing there any more, and this year our usual flood of books to rental cars and info centres has dwindled to just a trickle. We would send all they can take, but they simply do not respond to our offers of free books.

In short, the physical book is going the way of all printed material - it is being superceded by the web. The demise of newspapers in favour the web is well-documented, and we are just part of that evolution.

This year we experimented with the condensed version as a give-away and we pay for distribution through the main information centres. In doing this we are going against the current trend, which hosts tell us is for fewer brochures. Many hosts tell us they are now supplying about half the brochures to information centres than they have in the past. Travelers are simply ignoring "hard copy" in favour of the electronic information. In spite of this we will persist with the condensed version until we know for certain if it gives good value or not.

The number of hosts in the book is declining, and in time there will not be enough hosts to justify a printed publication. I am confident this is not because we don't deliver results overall, but it is because we have not offered a web-only option to those who don't want to advertise in a guide book. Many of those who have left have said they would have stayed with us if we offered a web-only option. Many have continued with their hosting business, independent of any printed publications.

As we have a very effective website, if we offer a web-only listing we will have plenty of hosts who want to advertise there. But because we have offered no option to advertising in the book, some have understandably voted with their feet.

So, in spite of being a trusted and popular publication for 24 years we now have to look at offering a web-only listing. For the year 2012 we will be offering our hosts the opportunity of listing on the internet only, as well as listing in The B&B Book and condensed version if they want to.

I am asking for you to help by indicating your preferred advertising option for 2012. Your reply will determine what advertising we offer you.

We have sent a survey to our B&B hosts and the results are coming in now. It is too early to predict what the outcome of the 'vote' will be, but it is possible that if a large number choose to advertise on the internet only, that the 2011 edition will be our last.

Many hosts, and I, will be disappointed if this is our last edition, as The B&B Book has become an institution. But as long as we can bring Bed & Breakfast hosts together we will be fulfilling our aim. We will still be publishing, but in one less medium.

Jim Thomas
Publisher

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