How to Start & Run a B&B BandBED2eBook-1 | Page 97

Now that has all changed: your B&B can have a website as effective as that of any chain
hotel, and it is within your grasp to ensure that, if someone from Saskatchewan,
Smolensk or Sydney (or, if it comes to that, Surbiton) is planning to visit your area, he is
as likely to find information about your B&B as about the nearest Hilton or Travelodge.
And business gained this way is direct business – there is no middleman to pay
commission to!
International business is especially attractive because (a) tourists from abroad are
generally prepared to pay more, and add more extras, than UK residents on a domestic
break, and (b) they generally stay longer.
So you cannot and must not ignore the internet. There is absolutely no reason, on cost
or any other grounds, why a small B&B should not have its own website – and every
reason why it should. It can be a real business generator.
Domain Names
A domain name – sometimes called a “URL” – is just the website’s address: for
example, our B&B’s domain name is www.thepheasants.com. It is becoming standard
now to omit the “www.” In promotional literature and on letterheads, and simply say
thepheasants.com.
Domain names can easily be registered for under £10. At Hostway.co.uk, for example,
“.co.uk” domain names cost £7.95 for two years, and “.com” domain names cost £15.95
for two years. Of course, you can only register a domain name if it is available – that is
if nobody else has registered it yet. This is getting harder all the time as so many good
names have been used. If you are unlucky, you may find that someone has registered
the name you want, so that instead of being able to register it new for under £10, you
may have to make a substantial offer to an internet name broker.
What domain name should you choose? The best one in the name of your B&B,
followed by “.com” or “.co.uk”, especially if your B&B’s spelling is obvious. Adding
the name of the town may be a good idea too. For example: rosecottage.co.uk or
rosecottageamberley.co.uk would be good names.
Points to bear in mind are:
• Avoid very long domain names
• Avoid difficult spellings if you can
• You can’t use “&” in a domain name – so “b&b” would have to be “bandb”
• Avoid hyphens: use “rosecottage.com” rather than “rose-cottage.com”
• “.com” is probably best, followed by “.co.uk”; you are best advised not to use
other suffixes (eg “.info”, “.biz” etc.) in your domain name, as these are not the
obvious ones so people may not find you
• Avoid text-speak, eg “rosecottage4u.com” – again it is not obvious, so may not
be found, and does not give a professional image
Once you have registered a domain name, you can “upload” a website to that domain,
and then your site will be live on the world wide web and can be viewed by anyone on
the planet! Uploading your site is technical and outside the scope if this book, but is
fairly simple with free “FTP” (File Transfer Protocol) software like CuteFTP from