Great Deals Available for B&Bs

Many travel suppliers are pitching price reductions and other incentives, and that includes bed and breakfasts. Airlines and big hotel chains, of course, can easily get their messages to travelers through newspaper and TV ads, and I'm sure you've seen plenty of them. But the Internet has made it possible for more of the small, independent suppliers to conduct and announce promotions as well. A few weeks ago I covered special deals being offered through various vacation rental sites; today, I'd like to look at B&Bs.

In general, you'll find less short-term promotion action among B&Bs than among vacation rentals—many seem to be either ignoring the economic downturn or hoping their usual seasonal and day-of-week pricing model will carry them through this year's tough times. And many of the promotions you do see are packages and bundles rather than out-and-out rate cuts. Still, you find enough attractive deals to justify a search. Here's what some of the bigger sites are doing:

• BedandBreakfast.com features several "B&B Hot Deals" on its home page, including discounts up to 50 percent in more than a dozen locations. As is true with many current promotions, the purchase and stay windows on some of these deals are very short.
• InnSeekers has a special deals page listing 23 B&Bs offering seasonal and short-term discounts around the country.
• BnBFinder posts a "specials" search system, but the ones I checked tended to be conventional packages of various sorts, rather than short-term promotions. However, it's still worth a look. The search system nominally covers locations outside the United States; I found several active offers in Canada but none in Europe.
• Pamela Lanier's Bed & Breakfast Inns also posts a searchable "Specials" page, with new offers daily. One of the options is "Special Discounts," leading to a listing of 768 supposedly discounted deals, some of which are multiple packages at the same location. Many appear to reflect routine seasonal and day-of-week pricing, but others are genuine short-term promotions. Listings cover most of the United States, Canada, and a few overseas locations.

When I checked the dozen or so sites featuring overseas B&Bs on my favorites list, I found only one that posts discounts and other specials. When you first log onto International Bed and Breakfast Pages, the homepage consists mainly of a world map. However, when you check an individual region, you find a link to "Discount B&B Stays" with worldwide listings—almost 200 in the United States, but only about two dozen elsewhere around the world. As with other sites, the discounts are a mix of routine deals and some true short-term promotions. Clearly, European B&Bs haven't yet caught on to the idea of short-term promotions.

All in all, if you like to stay at B&Bs, take a few minutes to research the possible discounts and specials you might find.