Dear Guest
My name is Lone Frost, and I am a Bed and Breakfast hostess on Funen at Bed and Breakfast Åløkke - located between Nyborg and Kerteminde.
What does that have to do with a 10-year anniversary on the Bed and Breakfast Guide, you might be thinking. In fact a whole lot. Because it was me, who founded the Bed and Breakfast Guide in 2011 - somewhat in spite - and a little bit in smoldering anger. When I started my Bed and Breakfast 15 years ago, it was very different for guests to book a room at Bed and Breakfast Åløkke - than it is today.
At that time, it was not normal to order an overnight stay via an Internet site. The vast majority of guest drove to the tourist information - or prepared themselves via brochures - they were sent by post back then - and they found me that way. So we hosts did not know about commission payment via booking sites - But that all changed ...
Booking.com was founded in the Netherlands in 1996, and AirBnB in the United States in 2006. And gradually many of the guests became aware of how easy, it is to book online. The results came immediately during the searches - here is available for you at this place - book here and good luck. When you go on the internet to find a nice place to stay - and use e.g. booking.com, hotels.com and AirBnB - it looks like it’s a free service to use. And it is - for you as a guest. But its certainly not the case for the accommodations. These internet sites charge the accommodation up to 28% in commission, to connect you with the accommodation via the internet.
So free is not at all as free for you, as you might think. Eventually, as a consumer, you will pay for the service - because the prices of private accommodation necessarily will rise, when the commission is so high. Here at my little place, it means, that VAT and commission added together is almost 50% of the price of an overnight stay.
This is exactly where the Bed and Breakfast Guide has been successful. When the hosts join the Bed and Breakfast Guide, they pay a small fixed monthly amount to attend. Very, very cheap in relation to the amount that should have been paid in commission.
So - when you book directly with the accommodations, via the information you find in the Bed and Breakfast guide, you help yourself and the host to be able to maintain a reasonable price level - and thus also to be able to maintain a good and cheap accommodation. And the hosts are Bed and Breakfast hosts, because they like to meet new people, and answer any questions you may have about the Bed and Breakfast place, before you decide to book. At Bed and Breakfastguiden you can get all information about the accommodation - and can contact the host directly - if you have questions. It is a great pleasure for us hosts to be able to help with any questions about your stay or the local area.
When you book via major international internet site, you can not be informed of the accommodation’s telephone number, email address - or just the physical address, where the place is located. You are forced to use the message center to communicate with the host. Only after you have booked, will you have access to this information. If we hosts try to write our phone number or our email address to you - it will be deleted immediately on the major sites.
So my initial remark about defiance and anger - you can probably better understand now :)
And as it turned out, that that feeling was shared by many other hosts. The first year - in 2011 - only 140 hosts participated in the Bed and Breakfast Guide. This year we are around 700 in Denmark. It is only possible to keep the hosts under our auspices - because you book through us and our organization. Without commission payment.
A warm thank you for using Bed and Breakfast Guide
A 10-year-old cheer and thanks must sound from here to you who use the Bed and Breakfast guide and the participating accommodations through-out Denmark and northern Germany.
Thank you for 10 exciting, challenging and fun years - we are so look forward to the next 10 years.
Gps: 55.3381413228623, 10.71417772773378
