4 | Bed & Breakfast News | Summer 2019
‘News and Views’
Petition against “Brandjacking” by OTAs
Stop OTAs bidding on your
B&B’s name on Google without
your express permission
As readers of our recent member
eNewsletters will know, B&B owner
Frank McCready launched a Government
petition against “brandjacking” – that is,
where online travel agencies (OTAs) “bid
on” your business’s name on Google and
other search engines, so that the OTAs
always come top of customers’ searches
even for your own B&B. This reflects
one of the five formal complaints to the
competition watchdog (the CMA) by the
B&B Association back in July 2017, where
we asked the CMA to ban OTAs from
bidding on B&Bs’ names except with your
separate express permission. We said this
practice should not happen simply because
of a clause buried in the T&Cs of the OTA.
Frank’s petition, despite being about a
highly technical subject that very few
people understand, has already garnered
just over 3,000 signatures; if you haven’t
signed it yet, please do today, and ask your
family and friends (and guests) to consider
signing. Any adult with a UK postcode and
an email address can sign. The petition link
is below:
https://petition.parliament.uk/
petitions/243020
New Tourism Minister
A new Minister of Tourism was appointed
on 23rd May – the 8th since 2010 and the
12th the B&B Association will have dealt
with since 2006. Rebecca Pow MP (above)
is MP for Taunton Deane in Somerset. We
thank the departing Minister Michael Ellis
(now moved to Transport), who visited a
B&B in Yorkshire with our Chairman during
B&B Week, and we congratulate Rebecca
Pow and look forward to working with her
to promote the interests of Britain’s brilliant
B&Bs.