New site offers B&B exposure

As far as bed and breakfasts go, the 1790 House in quiet Georgetown, SC, doesn’t look like it’s on the leading edge of the information revolution.

You won’t find any ISDN connections or interactive televisions that automatically tabulate your bill here, and the rooms come standard with a crystal decanter of sherry instead of a PC.

But appearances can be deceiving. The inn’s owners, Patricia and John Wiley, have boosted online bookings by 20 percent in three years, thanks to an aggressive and unorthodox Internet marketing plan.

Most surprising, perhaps, is that the centerpiece of their cyberspace strategy isn’t expected to debut until next month. That’s when their new home page will be posted under the 1790house.com domain.

The Wileys decided in 1995 that to show their six-room property to the most potential visitors, they would blanket the Web with information about themselves.

A great idea, but it contradicted the conventional wisdom, which favored building a solitary home page in the hopes that users would someday land there. “I thought, ‘The more sites I’m on, the more exposure I’ll get,” says John Wiley. “Back then, I didn’t know what kind of a source of business the Web would be. But I knew it was growing rapidly.”

It’s probably a good thing that Wiley followed his instincts. Today, a listing on Bed and Breakfast Online is his leading source of cyberspace business, followed closely by a Myrtle Beach, SC, guide published by an Internet service provider called the Strand. America Online also is an important pipeline for leads.

All told, the 1790 House is represented on about nine directory sites, costing the Wileys about $600 a year. A scattershot approach to marketing “has been very important for our business,” says Wiley. “Not everybody is tuned to the same part of the Web. If you do a search [for] the 1790 house, you may not find it on one search engine, but you’ll find it on others.”

Adding a site on 1790house.com doesn’t signal a departure from this strategy, he insists. It’s just one more site to increase the chances of getting an online booking. Wiley estimates that within two years, the Internet will account for about 35 percent of his business. A new home page is key to meeting that ambitious goal.

Besides, calling the shots on a central Internet presence gives innkeepers like Wiley more flexibility in their marketing presentations. The new 1790 House site will feature a detailed description of the restored West Indies colonial plantation-style inn. Plans are underway to add photos of the bedrooms, gardens, verandah and common rooms.

With practically unlimited disk storage at his disposal, Wiley will be able to add and update information on events in Georgetown, which is located about halfway between Myrtle Beach and Charleston, SC.

“It’s going to increase the number of hits I get,” says Wiley. “And, hopefully, the amount of business.” If there’s one thing the Web has taught entrepreneurs like Wiley, it’s that persistence pays.

By never leaving well enough alone, the 1790 House has drawn bookings from far-flung places, not just England and Germany (where few people know Charleston, and fewer still have heard of Georgetown), but New Zealand, Eastern Europe, Asia and other parts of the world that are just now getting online.

In a competitive business like innkeeping, it is that kind of interactive edge that is likely to separate success from insolvency.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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