Bed & Breakfast Marketing and Distribution Channels

The Bed & Breakfast industry is growing at an exponential rate in the United States and Australia. Some of the world trends in tourism that are influencing the growth in this market are greater competition, increased market fragmentation and complexity, more experienced customers and communication technology. These factors have created a demand for unique products in the lodging industry to create a competitive advantage. The purpose of this work was to determine the market trends and distribution possibilities of the specialist accommodation sector in Australia and the United States. A series of four studies were conducted to explore the key issues of guests' motivation, guests' satisfaction, and guests' sources of information. One of the strengths of this work was being able to assess and compare guests' perceptions of the B&B experience in two countries. Additionally, the development of a new model to analyse and categorize guests' motives specifically for B&B settings was proposed. Further, the use of the World Wide Web as a field research method is one of the earliest studies reported in tourism research which utilizes the World Wide Web as a data collection method.