BnBassist Frequently Asked Questions

We provide B&B owners with a means to increase their income through effective online advertising at a very reasonable price. They receive booking enquiries from our site directly to themselves. There are no commissions to worry about, just a small single advertising fee starting at €20 a year.

Each advertiser gets a full colour page advertisement for their B&B, together with room for up to 4 colour photos and a contact form so that booking enquiries can be forwarded to them directly by email. Advertisers can also display other contact information such as telephone, mobile or fax. All B&B are added to our website search facilities, holidaymakers can then browse and find B&B.

It's easy, just click here and follow the instructions.

Can I send the photo prints by post?
You can always send good quality original photographic prints or a cdrom with your digital photos on it. Please also enclose a note with your B&B name and address.

What is the postal address for sending photos?
Our postal address is :
Automic
Postbus 660
2400 AR, Alphen aan den Rijn
The Netherlands

Can I send my photos by email?
Yes, we receive the majority of photos by email. The photos should be at least 600 pixels width. Ideally set your digital camera to maximum resolution and best quality. Wherever possible, please send high resolution, unaltered photos that have been outputted direct from your digital camera. We can also accept your photos in a jpg/jpeg electronic format by post on a floppy disk or cdrom.

What is the email address for sending photos?
The email address for photos is bnbassist@gmail.com. Please put your B&B name in the subject line.

Can I send photos from brochures?
We are able to scan pictures from a well printed brochure, and good quality prints of floor-plans, maps, line drawings and logos, as well as transparencies. However, the best results are always achieved from the original photographs, conventional or digital.

Can I send photos from other internet sites?
If you have good quality photographs on your own internet site, we can copy them with your permission. However, we will not copy photos from other sites without the express permission of the webmaster of that site.

What can't I send?
We cannot use colour photocopies of photos, the quality is just not good enough. Prints from inkjets of digital photos do not scan well and hence will not show your property at its best.

Responsibility for copyright
It is your responsibility to ensure that you have the necessary permission to use the photos you send to us, Automic. The electronic copyright of photos scanned by 'Automic' and placed on BnBassist.com is the property of 'Automic'. These electronic images may not be used on any other website without the express permission of 'Automic'.

How much does it cost to advertise?
Our standard ad is great value at €20 for a 12 month listing. For this price you will receive up to 3 colour photos, searchable property features, a country/region map, automated e-mail enquiry notification and more.
Our premium ad costs €40 for a 12 month listing. For this price you will receive up to 3 colour photos, searchable property features, a country/region map, your B&B located on a Google map, automated e-mail and sms enquiry notification, a advertisement randomly showed to visitors interested in your country/region and more.

How can I pay for my advertising
It is easiest for you to use one of our secure online payment options to pay for your advertising. We also accept cheques in Euros, however cheques carry a €8 processing fee and we can only accept a cheque for the amount of 50 Euro or more. Cheques should be made payable to Automic, and sent to :

Automic
Postbus 660
2400 AR, Alphen aan den Rijn
The Netherlands

Are payments I make secure and do you store my payment card details?
Paypal provides our secure payment system. This means we are able to accept payment online by debit/credit card for most of the world's best-known cards. We do not store your payment details on our website.

Do you send invoices or receipts?
Once we have received payment and processed your order, you can view and print a full invoice/receipt which is acceptable for all accounting purposes. After making a secure credit card payment you will receive a receipt instantly.

Visitors to the site who are interested in booking your B&B can contact you by telephone by fax or by email.

How do I know I am receiving all my email booking enquiries?
In short, you cannot be sure. Some Internet Service Providers and internet based email accounts can block emails they think might be spam without you or us knowing about it. We have some suggestions to help you make sure you aren't missing any email booking enquiries.

1. Use another e-mail address just for your BnBassist.com enquiries
If you want to have a spam blocker on your personal emails, you could set up a separate email address for your booking enquiries from BnBassist.com.

What if the person making the enquiry puts in the wrong details?
We receive exactly the same information as you do. If someone puts the wrong email address or the wrong telephone number on the booking enquiry form, it is like leaving the wrong number in an answer-phone message, there is nothing we can do to check it.

Can I enter different contact details for different advertisements?
Yes, you can enter different contact details for different advertisements.

How can I tell if the enquiry is genuine?
The vast majority of visitors to BnBassist.com are genuine people looking for a B&B. They like using the site because they can get in touch with the owners of the B&B, ask specific questions and re-assure themselves that the B&B is what it claims to be. By the same token, you can email or talk to the people wanting to book your B&B and make sure they are genuine. If you don't like the sound of them, don't take the booking!

You can make changes to your advertisement at any time. In fact, we encourage our advertisers to update their adverts frequently. Fill out this form and we will update your advertisement as soon as possible.

How soon will the changes appear?
Usually done within 1 working day.

Can I put a different B&B in my advertisement?
No. Each advertisement has a specific B&B number and is linked to specific B&B. Changing the B&B for a given B&B number would lead to confusion and possibly misrepresentation.

New advertisements will usually appear on the BnBassist.com website within 24 hours of us receiving your payment and your photographs. But it can take up to 3 working days in busy periods.

Advertisements will not go live on the site unless we receive full payment and your photos, and the following information has been entered online for the property :

1. Location details
2. No less than 100 words of text describing the B&B
3. Facilities marked in the appropriate tick boxes
4. Your rates
5. Your contact details for booking enquiries

To avoid delays please make sure that you have done all the above!

We have a standardised layout for our advertisement pages. We have designed and evolved this layout in the best possible manner, and it ensures that internet users can get the information they require quickly and easily.

Checking the copy
We will always take effort in the content of the advertisements on the BnBassist.com website. Although the accuracy of the text is your responsibility, we spell-check the copy of each advertisement, and check the sense and consistency as much as we can. As there is open access to the site, we must also be extra vigilant to make sure that we filter out any unsuitable language or material that a tiny minority of disruptive people may try to put on the BnBassist.com website.

Preparing the photos
We scan photographic prints and optimise them for use on the web. For digital photos, we make the adjustments on the final photo for size, colour, contrast, brightness and sharpness.

Do you return the photos?
We usually keep the photos in case we ever need to re-scan them. But if you want them back, please make sure you attach a note asking us to return them, together with a self-addressed envelope. We will return your photos after your advertisement appears.

You know the B&B and we do not! We have tried to make it as easy as possible for you to present your B&B in the clearest possible way. We offer an inputting service to get your advert set up and running for you, for an additional 20 Euro. If you'd like to take us up on this offer please use this form.

We are often asked about online bookings. Our B&B are unique and individual, so we feel that most people like to email or call the owner, or agent, just to check the details of the B&B or the location, or ask a question that has not been covered in the text of the advertisement.

And we also have to consider the wishes of our advertisers who are making their cherished homes available for renting. We must give the B&B owners the right to decide who stays in their homes.

Those personal contacts - even by email - make all the difference. Many of our visitors and our advertisers say that is one of the great benefits of using the BnBassist.com website. You, the expert, can get back to the enquirer with all the details to confirm the booking. We believe this actually provides a far superior service to anonymously booking your B&B online.

BnBassist.com is run by real people. Unlike many of our competitors we are always available during European office hours to answer your questions. If you have any questions or would like any additional information please feel free to contact us either by post, telephone, fax or e-mail.