You can upgrade your membership at any time and the cost of the upgrade will be prorated through the end of your current membership term. If you would like to downgrade you can do so at the time of renewal.
No, you are not required to have a booking engine or to be bookable online to be a member of bnbfinder. We will simply direct travelers to your website link and/or telephone number to contact you to book directly.
No.
While we always recommend you have your own website, that is not required to be a member of bnbfinder. A fully utilized comprehensive listing on bnbfinder can share a lot of great information with potential guests whether you have a website or you don’t. If you do not have your own website we will simply direct travelers to call you directly to make a reservation.
Yes. bnbfinder offers listings to US and Canadian properties as well as properties throughout the world.
We are always looking for and at all available marketing opportunities for bnbfinder. This includes but is not limited to regular placements on television’s hit game show, Wheel of Fortune, regular Social Media postings on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest, innkeeper and traveler facing newsletters, Pay Per Click advertising, industry partnerships, press releases and more.
We have and continue to invest heavily in SEO work here at bnbfinder. We now show as one of the first results on Google for the term “Bed and Breakfast” and are continuing to implement our ongoing SEO work to ensure the site consistently comes up near the top when anyone is looking for a B&B or inn. We are committed to continuing to fine-tune and optimize our SEO to gain further visibility and exposure for our members. Through our extensive efforts during the pandemic, our team has been able to increase our site’s placement, visibility and traffic substantially over the levels of traffic and visibility the site has seen historically.
No, in fact with the Coronavirus global pandemic, we believe that once travelers begin traveling again (and they will!), B&B travel will become one of the more popular forms of travel. We think travelers will make a seismic shift and seek accommodations that are smaller, more intimate and absent of large crowds of people. Industry comments have also indicated that more folks than ever will be looking for shorter getaways that they can drive to as well as for higher “value” - all things bed and breakfasts are perfect for. We believe there will be a renewed interest in smaller lodging options and we feel that professionally operating B&Bs and inns are best positioned to increase their share of guests. We’re excited to champion B&Bs and Inns now more than ever.
We at bnbfinder are great supporters of the B&Bs for Vets program. We are offering as much promotional support of the program as we can. However, while bnbfinder is a powerful directory of inns and B&Bs; we do not own any of these properties, so we don’t have any rooms available to include in the promotion. We encourage you to visit bandbsforvets.org for the most up to date list of rooms available in the B&Bs for Vets promotion. This site serves as the clearinghouse for all rooms available, and we know the good folks running the campaign are adding new inns and B&Bs to the list all the time.
The bnbfinder website that existed when we purchased the company had many issues. As a result, it didn’t make sense to pay for traffic only to have the site visitor get to bnbfinder and have challenges using the antiquated site and disappointing the traveler. Thus, shortly after buying the company in April 2019, we made the decision to completely redesign & rebuild the bnbfinder website from the ground up using the latest best-in-class technology. In that process, we built SEO into the new site from the ground up and did a much more thorough job of optimizing the website for SEO, which had not been the case with the old site. The work there is ongoing, however, and we are continually implementing additional ways to optimize and enhance and improve our SEO. We pledge to our past, current and future members that they will see traffic and reservations increase as our new website grows and we continue implementing the SEO work in our development que.
With the new website having launched in October 2019, we continue to optimize, make improvements and add enhancements. We will build a robust dashboard where you will be able to track the performance of your listing and how you can improve your reach. bnbfinder also recommends that all members work with their web marketing company or webmaster to install and use Google Analytics on their websites. This free and powerful tool, if configured properly, offers incredible and invaluable insight into your inn's marketing. With Google Analytics, we are confident that you will see our traffic increasing and if you're able to track revenue, the revenue we will be sending you will increase as well...
bnbfinder is and will remain a website dedicated to promoting professionally operating inns & B&B's. All applications for membership are subject to bnbfinder review process to ensure that your property meets the specifications of a bed and breakfast or country inn type property. Eligible properties must be less than 40 rooms unless they are historic in nature (greater than 50 years old). The primary listing for an eligible property will be in the city or town where it is physically located. Breakfast must be served or available on request and can be included in the price or available at an extra charge. Rooms must be individually decorated.
Additionally, properties that are part of large chains with similar decor/architecture do not qualify. These include, but are not limited to: hotels/motels, vacation rentals, campgrounds, apartments and RV parks.
If one company owns several inns, each property must be listed separately with its own bnbfinder membership. bnbfinder reserves the right to refuse membership to any property.
Yes. bnbfinder memberships no longer require a one-year annual contract. Instead, in an effort to afford our members greater flexibility, we now work with members on a month-to-month basis meaning you can cancel at any time.
Yes. All bnbfinder memberships automatically renew on the same annual or monthly term upon the end of the prior year’s membership. We will notify you via email prior to your membership renewing and you may choose to opt out.
Of course! You can switch from monthly payments to annual payments and will receive a prorated savings on the remaining annual payment.
Yes, if your property sells while you have a membership you can cancel your listing if you do not want to pass it to the new owners. If you have paid annually you will receive a prorated refund for the remaining time left on your membership. If when your inn sells it will continue to operate as a lodging property, we think it makes sense to keep the marketing intact and include the marketing you have in place in the sale price of the property.
Yes, by eliminating the annual listing requirement like we have, we’ve made working with us much more flexible so much so that inns can work with bnbfinder on a seasonal basis.
Please contact our sales team at sales@bnbfinder.com for more information on multiple property listings.
bnbfinder is not BedandBreakfast.com but combined, our ownership and core team have over 50 years of experience working for and operating that company. In that time, we acquired a tremendous amount of knowledge from our members with regard to products, services and support that travelers and innkeepers like as well as dislike. Based on this vast experience, we intend to bring you many of the familiar products and services that you enjoyed while with BedandBreakfast.com, but in new and improved upon ways.
Our commitment to our members is simple. We want to bring new and existing business to you directly without competing with you for placement in the most relevant keywords in pay per click advertising. We want you to own the relationship with your guest. We want you to enjoy working with us as much as we enjoy working with you. We feel with those commitments we can bring you a best-in-class website that supplies a material amount of guests all while helping you grow your business in the ways you want it to grow.
Maps for search are based on a latitude and longitude of the address that Google has for your property location. We use the address you entered when you joined. If you'd like to adjust your location on your map, login to your property details and you can adjust to the correct address there.
You control when your listing goes live on the site. You are able to build your listing prior to paying for a subscription so you can see how it will appear on bnbfinder. If you paid prior to building your listing, you just need to log in and add your property’s details to complete it. Once you pay for your subscription and have built your listing, you can immediately publish it to the website to make it “live” on bnbfinder.
You may update photos and content at any time. To make edits, simply log in, unpublish your listing (if it’s live), make and save your edits, and then “publish” your listing again. We’re glad to help you with this, too. Just email support@bnbfinder.com for assistance.
Of course! We’d love to talk with you. Please keep in mind we are a small staff so you may get our voice mail at times, but our goal is to return all calls within one business day.
We don't currently have an online chat feature but are looking into options as we continue to improve our customer support experience.
Google Chrome is best to use.
No! When a traveler searches for your city properties physically in that city will show first in order of their membership level. Nearby properties will be listed below properties that are actually in the city being searched, again, by membership level.
The sort order will be based on membership level first followed by the distance the property is to the geographical center of the city/town being searched.
Yes, your property will show up as a “nearby property” within a radius and there is no additional charge for that.
The search radius is determined by the search type input by the traveler. For example, if a traveler searches for Austin, TX", the radius will be the bounding box of Austin, as determined by Google places.
No. Properties in the primary city that is searched will appear first in the search.
The search will only display properties that offer the amenities being searched, but only if the property has selected those amenities to display on their listing.
The search will only display properties that offer the amenities being searched, but only if the property has selected those amenities to display on their listing.
Yes. The bnbfinder search functionality is not limited to cities, states, towns and zip codes. The bnbfinder search supports any "region" that the Google Places API supports. This includes destinations like National Parks including "Yellowstone National Park".
No, although we do recommend you accept Gift Cards to generate new customers, it is not required.
The Bnbfinder Getaway Gift Card™ program is now a commission-free program for members! Non-members may participate in the program at a 10% commission.
A credit card & Stripe payment processing fee of 3.5% applies to all redemptions and is deducted from the redemption amount paid to the innkeeper. In order to qualify for the 3.5% processing fee, the participating member must display and link a bnbfinder badge on their website with it linking to their listing on bnbfinder. A 10% commission applies for any redeemed GC in the case of the property not wanting to display and link the bnbfinder badge.
Innkeepers that utilize the automatic bank payments via ACH incur no additional fees. Innkeepers that utilize payments by check incur a $25/fee per payment.
There is a Lookup Gift Card portal here where you sign in, enter the Gift Card Certificate Number, and click Lookup.
Absolutely. It's quick & easy! There is no need to find an envelope and stamp and wait for your payment because you aren't mailing anything to us. There is a Redeem Gift Card portal here where you sign in, enter the redemption codes, amount you would to redeem, and optionally add notes for the redemption. You can also email us at giftcards@bnbfinder.com to redeem directly with a support agent!
To minimize costs, allowing us to remove the 15% commission, bnbfinder processes all gift card redemptions twice a month. Payments are made within 5 business days of the 15th of the month and the last day of the month.
bnbfinder gift cards are paid automatically by either ACH at no additional cost or by check for a $25 fee. To sign up for the ACH payment method, please email giftcards@bnbfinder.com to request access.
Just provide everything you can. We don’t want to make this process complicated. As long as we can find the details, we will process the payment! Our new certificates only have two identification numbers, and don't require any physical card to be present. We want this to be easy for you, and the Traveler - send us what you have and we will do everything we can to figure out the rest for you.
We ask that you redeem a gift certificate as quickly after you get the details as possible - this will limit any issues with proper funding of the stay when the Traveler arrives. Because we currently redeem via email, and have employees all over the world, you can submit a certificate for redemption any time of day or night!
We can still send you a printed check - however, a $25 fee applies to cover the extra costs we incur to manually handle this process.
We work with a third-party merchant provider for monetary transactions on the site called Stripe. Updating information about your account is important and required. These updates help protect against fraud and keep your account current with global Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
In certain countries, Stripe is required to collect, verify, and maintain information about a company’s beneficial owners and directors. These requirements come from government regulators and help promote transparency and prevent financial crimes.
No problem. It just means that until you do we will pay all gift card redemptions via check and a $25 fee will apply. So update your banking info as soon as you can.
Follow the link from Stripe’s email — the form will prompt you with instructions on how to update your information. It should take less than 5 minutes to update your information. If you need help, you can reach out directly to support@stripe.com or via chat and phone support.
While we do not yet have proprietary bnbfinder reviews, we currently display Google and TripAdvisor ratings for individual properties. In the future, we have plans to create and launch our own in-house reviews program.
We currently support Google reviews and Tripadvisor reviews. Additionally, we support linking to all your social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter & YouTube.
Reservations are not made on bnbfinder, but on the property’s website using the property’s booking engine. bnbfinder plans to eventually create a best-in-class online reservations program to send the travelers directly to you to complete their booking. This allows you to deal directly with YOUR guests, process their payment yourself, on your time to help better manage your cash flow, and will allow you to more easily market directly to your guests in your future marketing efforts.
You can find our Traveler Terms of Use Agreement here. You can find our Owner Terms of Use Agreement here.
Login to your IK dashboard and click on “Account”. Just below your account information you’ll see a referral code that looks like this Account Code: 01F0EAEB8DTD1066E4NNB6KA9V. Just send that code to the property you’re referring and they can enter it in the promotion code field when they are joining.
Once a month, bnbfinder will manually add the additional three months of membership for all referred and referring properties.
There’s NO limit to how many inns you can refer to bnbfinder for membership! You’ll earn three free months for every inn that signs up with your referral code! The property being referred will also receive the three months of membership for free as a result of your referral.
Not a problem! Just have the property that support@bnbfinder.com and include your referral code. We’ll add the three free months for your property and the property you previously referred.
We’re here to help! If you have any questions or need help with your code just call (212) 480-0414 or email us at support@bnbfinder.com for assistance.
The additional three months for free will be added to the end of your membership term. For example, if your membership originally expired in March 2021, the new expiration date will be June 2021 and you will not be charged during the additional three month period.