From...

June 30, 1999
Web posted at: 11:26 a.m. EDT (1526 GMT)

by Todd Woody

(IDG) -- Summer's here and it's time to slip away for a romantic weekend at a bed-and-breakfast by the beach. But it isn't easy to book a B&B online. With thousands of mom-and-pop proprietors operating in thousands of locations, bed-and-breakfasts and other vacation properties have been slow to move to the Internet.

That's about to change. This week, Internet travel company WorldRes announced the acquisition of BedandBreakfast.com in a stock swap. Golden, Colo.-based BedandBreakfast.com offers information on more than 19,000 B&Bs on its site. San Mateo, Calif.-based WorldRes will integrate a booking engine into the site to allow vacationers to make reservations online.

Another Net travel company, Rezworks, recently began giving holiday travelers the ability to book Tuscan villas, Hawaiian condos and other vacation properties on its VacationSpot.com site. Seattle-based Rezworks was founded by two former Microsoft executives, including a former general manager of the Microsoft Expedia travel site.

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And Inntopia.com, a Stowe, Vt., startup, this week launched a reservation site for small hotels. Online booking is available for about 300 properties, according to CEO Karl Schroll.

The potential market is huge. Market research firm Jupiter Communications estimates that lodging will account for 25 percent of the nearly $16 billion that consumers are expected to spend on online travel by 2003. Yet only 15 percent of hotels – mainly large chains catering to business travelers – are listed on the so-called global distribution services used by travel agents, according to WorldRes chief executive Greg Jones. Left out of the loop are small inns, bed-and-breakfasts, ski resorts and other vacation properties.

To wire those properties, WorldRes and Inntopia offer software that allows small hotels to sell reservations on their own Web sites or others. Rezworks sells similar software that connects vacation properties to its VacationSpot site. All three companies charge commissions – usually between five and 10 percent – for each room sold.

"We're attempting to make every getaway reservable with the click of a mouse," says Rezworks CEO Steve Murch.

That's easier said than done. Relatively few innkeepers maintain a constant Internet connection. While the new reservation systems differ, they basically allow B&Bs to periodically upload blocks of rooms they want to sell online and automatically update availability and rates.

But reservations are just part of the strategy for putting the leisure lodging market online. A Sheraton in Baltimore probably would not differ greatly from a Sheraton in San Diego. But each bed-and-breakfast is unique, so vacationers want photos and detailed information on accommodations. The B&B industry also relies on word-of-mouth recommendations, so WorldRes, Rezworks and Inntopia offer reviews by travelers.

WorldRes' Jones surmises that the fragmented nature of the leisure hotel market means that consumers probably will not rely on particular brands to book their vacations. Just as people turn to different guidebooks depending on what they want to do and where they want to go, they'll go to distinct Web sites to find their holiday accommodations, Jones says.