August 24, 2018 Acorn News

Come Enjoy a Day with Acorn in Las Vegas this January

Acorn Internet Services is excited to announce and host, "A Day with Acorn", exclusively for our clients, on Monday, January 14th, 2019 one day before the Professional Association of Innkeepers International Innkeeping Conference in Las Vegas at the amazing Westgate Resort. We are giving you this BONUS day as our way of saying, "Thank You for being an Acorn Client". We will dive into marketing your B&B or Inn, technology, what's new at Acorn-IS, what's coming to Acorn-IS, and of course, we'll have some fun too. Plus, as an Acorn Internet Services Client, you will receive a discounted rate to attend the PAII Innkeeping Conference and Trade Show. Please note, you must register to attend the PAII Innkeeping Conference and Trade Show to take part in this bonus day.

Current innkeeper registrations are ahead of recent years by over three months, and innkeepers from as far west as Hawaii, as far east as Puerto Rico, as far north as Alaska, and as far south as Mexico City, have already registered. Be one of these hundreds of Innkeepers going to Las Vegas in January.

And, as a gift from PAII, if you've ever considered becoming a member of the Professional Association of Innkeepers International, the premier non-profit trade association representing the Innkeeping Industry and Community, you can do so with your registration, also at a discount. If you are currently not a PAII Innkeeper Member, your registration includes a 3 month trial membership, giving you access to PAII's unmatched educational and advocacy resources for innkeepers.

Only 4 weeks left to register for lowest rates! Click below to Register Now...

REGISTER NOW

R U Keeping Up

We have now passed the mid-year mark for 2018, and as expected our industry continues to change at a rapid pace. We are finding that Innkeepers are falling behind as they are not actively involved in one of our Advantage Plan Programs. If you don’t know what you need to be doing, you are not going to be able to keep up with an ongoing marketing strategy.  And without a strategy, your business is not going to grow. We invested 100+ hours creating an intensive set of survey questions to help our clients understand what they are not keeping up. Advantage Plan clients were provided step by step instructions to follow in order to catch up on areas that they identified as needing attention. Those details are below. We also reached out to our Active PAYG (Pay as you go) Innkeepers this week with a summery list of items that are required to "Keep Up" in 2018. We are encouraging our PAYG clients who are not keeping up to consider looking into our Advantage Plan program, just as we are encouraging our Advantage Plan 1 and 2 Innkeepers to make sure they are creating their own project plans for all the data we continue to provide that needs to be addressed, and if not consider our Level 3 program where Innkeepers have a hands-on project manager to meet with monthly to help keep your project plan and strategy on track, and increasing direct bookings.

• Our Advantage Plan 1 and 2 Innkeepers have already received this survey along with all the steps needed to take care of any unresolved items. https://dashboard.acorn-is.com
• Our Advantage Plan 3 Innkeepers are working directly with their Project Managers to identify and then create a plan to take care of any unresolved issues.

We've been telling our clients for years, you must keep up or you are going to fall so far behind you won't be able to catch up. It's now or never. Innkeepers are struggling, are putting their inns up for sale, or just closing their doors. We can help. We know how to help you succeed. You simply need to choose to get involved. Need proof? Abundant references are available upon request.

Click the button below to learn more about our Advantage Plan Program here:

ADVANTAGE PLAN

Click the button below to review our Advantage Plan Info-Graphic:

Click the button below to request to upgrade to our Advantage Plan here:

ADVANTAGE PLAN

A heads up for our Innkeepers currently in New-Site Development: You may want to consider choosing an Advantage Plan Level now instead of waiting until your website is live.  There is so very much you can be working on, outside of your website presence, to grow your business in the meantime.

Join our Advantage Plan Level 3 Program and this could be you!

“Since I have been working with Acorn’s Level 3 Advantage Plan, I have been able to turn around our direct bookings. June’s direct bookings were at an all-time high!   I do have to give some credit to my new Innkeeper, who is fantastic on the phone with guests.  But I also think TripConnect and Social Media postings (blogs, post and ads) have helped tremendously.”

Death by a Thousand Cuts - Your Web Presence is Bleeding

For years we have seen Google continue to make efforts to keep users on their platform for longer periods of time. Including, but not limited to: AMP Pages, Knowledge Graph, Meta Search, Mobile First and Rank Brain’s more highly directed traffic. The longer a guest stays on a Google controlled display screen, the more likely they will book with a Google affiliate or Google Hotel Ads directly, and in return, Google will get paid advertising fees. We've been watching this process continue for many years now. As Greg Dugal, a huge proponent of our industry and also the Director of Goverenment Affairs for the Maine Innkeepers Association so aptly put it, it's Death by a Thousand Cuts. Each little change, each little adjustment, and your direct bookings begin to fade a bit more. Every time Google announces a new rule or changes their process, we rush to find ways to protect our Innkeepers and Business Owners from the repercussions of that change. But what we can actually do to help is becoming more and more limited, as Google proceeds onward to their goal: capture the booking before the guest ever finds your Website to make a direct booking.

Our industry can no longer sit back and watch this downward spiral, but Acorn cannot do this alone. I reached out to Rob Fulton (AIHP) and Kris Ulmer (PAII) and shared my concerns (concerns that are also expressed by a small handful of other quality vendors who care about your bottom line, and not just their bottom line) and asked what "WE" as a combined force could do about what is happening in our industry. With their help, I was able to provide an in depth presentation for both AH&LA and the attorney of the Expedia Class Action Lawsuit that we shared in our last newsletter. Education of what is happening to our industry is the first step. As we move forward in this quest, we will continue to keep you in the loop as to the progress.

In addition, I am going to be presenting this same powerpoint in our next FFA (Free-For-All) Webinar, because I know the only way we are going to fight the loss of our industry to the OTA's, Google and other companies that want just one more piece of you, is to understand the who, what, where, when, why and how of the situation. If you care about what is happening in our industry, please make sure to register for this webinar below, or request a copy of the recording if you cannot attend.

Date: September 5, 2018
Time: 9:00 Pacific | 10:00 Mountain | 11:00 Central | Noon Eastern

REGISTER NOW

Acorn Internet Services is dedicated to you, our clients. And we must get everyone involved in helping address, support and move these issues forward to any and all who will listen. We will be better able to define the "how" as we work together with all the organizations out there that care about our industry, and as we formulate a plan. We will be calling on each and every one of you to help us move forward by shining a light on all that is against us, but first you must clearly understand what those forces are doing to impact your business. We must attempt to stop these ever strengthing forces that weren't against us 2 or 1 year, or even 6 months ago, or the downward sprial will continue.

Lisa Kolb
President and Co-Founder
Acorn Internet Services, Inc.

Blog Posts and Additional Need-to-Know Information

WordPress Gutenberg Update – What Should You Do Now?
Posted on August 20, 2018 | Read Full Article

Google Maps Platform – New Pricing Effective July 16, 2018
Posted on August 3, 2018 | Read Full Article

Latest Info On BedandBreakfast.com Featured Properties
Posted on July 20, 2018 | Read Full Article

Is Your Website Information Up to Date?
Posted on July 16, 2018 | Read Full Article

Acorn Client Webinar – ADA – What We Know – What You Need to Know
Posted on June 28, 2018 | Read Full Article

WordPress Forms & GDPR
Posted on June 18, 2018 | Read Full Article