Why B&Bs are for sale when tourism is booming – just a theory!

We often come across bed and breakfasts for sale in Piedmont, Italy yet foreign visitors are up by 37%. Why, in my opinion, do some B&Bs fail while others succeed. Some ideas, suggestions and why I think tourism businesses don’t always need portals such AirBnB and Booking.

This video is about finding a better way to promote an accommodation business without using the big portal websites such as Trip Advisor, Booking and Airbnb. If you get your social media correct, professional photography and local network you can succeed in running a bed and breakfast or apartment rental business without paying booking website fees and a big part of your income.

I can also help you find bed and breakfast businesses, apartments for rental and hotels for sale in Piedmont, Italy. Get in touch for more information.

Houses for sale: https://langhe.property/piedmont-property-for-sale/1

— Contents —
00.00 – intro
00.33 – tourism up!
01.42 – why selling?
04:40 – DIY
08:00 – don’t share!
08:40 – houses for sale
10:45 – conclusion
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#piedmont #piemonte #airbnb #tripadvisor #run b&b #richardedwards #realestate #langhe #hotel #noli #italy #italia

La Stampa article: https://www.lastampa.it/torino/2023/06/24/news/turismo_piemonte_2023_record-12875290/#google_vignette

My name is Richard Edwards, I‘m originally from London, England with a good fill of Italian blood (3 generations back). Piedmont (Piemonte), Italy is home and has been since 2002.

I started working in Italian real estate 2 years after moving here. I saw that ‘foreign’ home buyers needed assistance, good honest help when buying a home through local agents in the region as they can often struggle to understand the needs of people buying from abroad.
Over the years I’ve successfully assisted many people, from all over the world in realising a dream. I know the Piedmont region inside out, always working within the law and constantly networking. I cover all the main wine areas of Langhe, Alta Langa, Monferrato and the Roero in this northern part of Italy. Over the last 20 years, I’ve helped countless people buy beautiful homes in towns such as Alba, Barolo, Monforte, Cortemilia, Monchiero, Cuneo, Asti, Mango, La Morra, Sinio, Nizza Monferrato, Canelli, Santo Stefano, Canale and many other places. If you are looking to relocate or buy a vacation home in Italy I can assist you all the way.

Whether you’re looking for an apartment, farmhouse or wine business I can help. I work with many agents in the region of Piemonte and can assist you when you buy through them.

If you’re looking to buy a business in Italy I can also assist you.

I did plan on showing you a great bed and breakfast for sale this week but the bad weather moved back again and my wife stroke assistant got sick so we had to cancel the filming but I hope for next week but I did want to talk to you about

Running at Bed and Breakfast here in Ponte and I’d promised this in a video uh a week or so ago now please forgive me for not doing it sooner but the video is a lot of work and I’m trying to make a living in the meantime and in the

Future we intend to do just videos of great houses and to really inform you about the area so so bear with me so okay bed and breakfast there are around 35,000 in Italy we did personally run a B&B for a very short time here in Ponte

But working in real estate got so busy we couldn’t continue but I do get to speak to many hotel and bed and breakfast owners in the area and they always share their experience and it’s always interesting to observe how they go about their business in a previous video linked here I mentioned that

Tourism increased in Ponte in 2023 even though real estate sales were down L stampa newspaper reported recently about pante that between April and May there were over 1, 180,000 people visiting the area and more than 2.7 million overnight stays and that was an increase of 14% compared to

2022 the growth in foreign visitors was 37% and so it went on explaining how things have got so much better for the tourism industry I think our workers had no small part in that over the years in bringing the world’s attention to the area so I’m not going to say no to an

Award okay the Paradox I mentioned in the previous video that there was a lot of b&bs and small hotel type places for sale here so if business is good why are people selling I think this comes down to two main reasons owners are retiring or the business is not doing doing well

And this in my opinion is usually down to one main thing and I see it all the time bad and I mean really bad promotional work I’ll visit a nice B&B and a nice place but the business is on its knees I get sent photographs and I

Want to weep and then I look at their website and I want to cry even more they can be amazing hosts and I mean excellent the the best and the food is amazing the place is amazing but they don’t value good digital promotion they leave it to the big portal websites let

Me illustrate this I really don’t like medication if there’s no alternative then so be it but I believe a good diet and lifestyle changes fix 99% of problems even even cancer in some cases but why do pharmaceutical companies have so many people believing that the only

Way to cure an ill is a drug well it can be and I don’t mean all cases if you have someone with weight problems and diseases related to that they’re told to change their diet but often for them the simplest solution is drugs now B&B owners fall into a trap

Often it’s not their fault but they are great at what they see as really important aspects but fall flat on their faces when it comes to getting the promotion spot on let’s face it it can be a real challenge for any of us born before 1995 we live in a complex world

But this has to be mastered or left to someone else someone owners have to listen to a simple fix can be paying Airbnb or Trip Advisor for me these things are like a drug they offer a simple solution but this is not always the answer now personally I dislike

Airbnb as much as I dislike medication the last time we used it we needed a night in bergo as my wife was flying from there the next morning the owner was very sweet but it all went wrong the place was so difficult to find there was no parking and nothing was

Explained now the apartment was right outside a big supermarket and there was a light outside the window as as bright as the sun I’m I’m not exaggerating after 2 hours of this I decided it would be better to sleep in the car but when I got up I found the window had an

Electric blind and I pushed the button and the blind came down and the room went black the owner had neglected to tell us this then to add to this it wasn’t cheap it seemed cheap but then the fees piled on and it turned out to be more

Expensive than a hotel now it’s my opinion and I have experts backing me up on this you don’t need these big portal websites spend a little bit of time on your business get the details right and promote it yourself and it can do well and I think these complex systems aren’t

So hard once they’re up and running for me the first thing I want to see is good photographs now owners will often do it themselves but I would say unless you are great photographer and it doesn’t mean that you have a good camera or an iPhone 25 that you’re fine no you need

To know good composition and good editing you need a professional to do it and he needs to visit a few times to get the place in different lights then you can use your iPhone 25 I’m future proof in this to update your social media channels like like Instagram and

Facebook whatever it is you use and get good at it and then you need to give your guests good instructions the first one is how to find the place the apartment in bergo was was a nightmare to find and and we were tired a simple bit of direction

Would have been great under the light that resembles the Sun for example or a sign on the doorbell then you need to network get out and talk to people strike up conversations if you’re inclusive who thinks talking to strangers is an encroachment on someone’s personal space you’re probably

Not cut out to run a B&B get to know local businesses such as cafes restaurants estate agents wineries they always have people looking for somewhere to stay I get asked all the time and this mentality really works in pante in 20 years I’ve been here I’ve never paid

A single Cent to advertising and I’m still going get out and talk to people anyone and everyone and you can have great fun doing that along the way now the next thing you need is a good website and this is really worth getting right I used to work as a

Freelance designer when I was in England when the internet was kind of in its infancy and I still see websites 25 years later looking like they were designed 25 years ago get that right it’s not difficult and it’s not even expensive make sure you can update it easily and make sure

It works on all platforms like laptops and computers and phones and get someone to criticize it for you there are companies that can do all these things for you and it’s better than paying Airbnb now the other thing is business cards now even in 20204 they’re still

Relevant but please design them well I get given all kinds of stuff that makes me kind of want to not keep it pay pay a little extra and get good quality printing on thick card it’s what I do and it’s really not expensive when you’re out talking to your neighbors and

To local businesses you give them a card and it works and make videos we live in an age where we can’t ignore it make video shorts from your beautiful phone that you’ve got and get one of these a gimbal they make a huge difference and they cost this one I think about100

And it works and it makes a huge difference to the quality of the video you make it makes it very very smooth and this gets you found on social media and give you gives potential guests a way to discover something about you I love staying at places making

Friends with the owners it makes it a part of the trip not just a bed for the night tell your story and people will want to become part of it then you need to sort out a booking method but I’m told this is all doable so find your own

Guess and all you earn is yours and you don’t have to share it with the big portals apart from giving some money to the tax man but you’ll have to do that anyway I had clients from the US last month and they had two teenage children with them and it was incredible the

Expertise they shared with us on how to promote a business on social media in the Modern Age so speak to kids they really know their stuff buy them an ice cream afterwards and get these things right and it will work it’s worth the effort I have friends here that do this

And their businesses are booming because they are great hosts and they know how to tell the world about it so what do I have for sale that needs turning around well I’m going to make some videos as I said at the outset as soon as we get

Some decent weather we are in the middle of winter so they’ll be coming very soon but I’ve also had a couple of houses come in in the last few days and so let me put some pictures here for you to browse and some details and if you need

More details just get in touch at the moment I’m doing this they’re not on my website but by all means get in touch and ask me for more Details I’d like to thank you so much again for your support our numbers of subscribers and viewers and likes has gone up we have a strong desire to improve so stick with us and hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already and thank you if you already have so let me know what you

Think I’d love to hear your comments and what you think about this uh material and also the houses that I’ve just shown if you’ve got any questions by all means get in touch as soon as the details are on my website I’ll put a link in the

Description below so thank you so much again for watching I look forward to seeing you in my next video