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Join MBBA
Watch this short video to learn why you should join the Michigan Bed and Breakfast Association. MichBnB is a curated collection of traditional bed and breakfasts, inns, purpose-built log cabins, and small independently owned boutique hotels. We are here to support our Aspiring Members and orchestrate a robust Preferred Vendor Program with valuable discounts for our members
Reasons to Sign-Up Today
1. Web marketing initiatives
What you pay buys more exposure and promotion of your inn than you get from anywhere else — at no additional cost.
2. Quality certification
MBBA’s high standards for safety, quality, and comfort give guests assurance that sets you apart.
3. Advocacy
MBBA represents your business interests when lawmakers or regulators start making changes.
4. We help with Business development strategies
Attract more guests. Make more money. Manage the business. Stay on top of the trend. We can prove our worth with a one-year commitment to join the VERY BEST Bed and Breakfast Inns and Small Boutique Hotels in the US!
5. Business Discounts from our Preferred Vendors
Many of our Preferred Vendors offer discounts to our members. The largest is a 15% discount from Fremont Insurance for your Business and Home Insurance Policies. Many of our members tell us that this discount more than pays for their membership fees.
At a glance: 10+ reasons to join MBBA.
Is B&B innkeeping in your future? Join MBBA as an aspiring member.
Have some questions before you apply for membership?
Does your B&B / Boutique Property qualify for membership?
Answer “yes” to these eight questions, and you can put MBBA to work for you.
- Are you a Michigan bed and breakfast, inn, or independently owned boutique hotel?
- Do you have at least two guest rooms, with private bathrooms, appropriate furniture, and amenities, that are kept exclusively for lodging. **
- Do you include a full or continental breakfast in the room rate?
- Does the owner or innkeeper live on the premises? **
- Are guest rooms individually decorated? (Example below.)
- Does each guestroom include a private bath? **
- Does your B&B meet the Quality Assurance Review standards? (Click here.)
- Will you accept MBBA gift cards as payment by guests? (They’re just like cash; you get full value.)
- Have you received a business permit from your local zoning department?
- Is your inn actively marketed as a lodging establishment with a domain, website, e-mail, etc., listed in directories and found in online searches?
** Certain exceptions may be possible. Inquire. Here is a link to our Quality Assurance Checklist
Marketing benefits at a glance
Website features
- Free online availability and booking from the MBBA website to yours.
- Listing in up to three cities besides your own, up to 30 miles away.
- One-button click to your website
- One-button click to your online booking
- Google map
- At-a-glance info about rooms, innkeeper
- Up to 10 photos in the top-of-page slider
- Add additional photos and video
- Option to add headlines, subheads, and links in the copy
- Featured Offers, with exposure on multiple pages, including the Home page
- Unlimited amount of photos and copy about your inn
- Additional copy about experiences you offer
Social media and email marketing
- Are posting to Facebook and Instagram too time-consuming? MBBA posts daily and shares your new photos and content.
- Members are urged to use our #MichBnB hashtag to improve their inns’ visibility in search.
- The monthly email marketing newsletter reaches subscribers who have opted in. Each new member inn is featured in an issue.
- We market both your offers and unique experiences to a demographic that is the most likely to come to Michigan and to stay at your Bed & Breakfast, Inn, Boutique Lodging Property.
Commission-free gift certificates
MBBA sells more than $25,000 each year in gift certificates. Guests spend them like cash at member inns, and they’re like cash to you, the innkeeper. You pay no commission.
B&B is on the up and up. That’s the point of the MBBA Quality Assurance Review program.
When your inn is quality-assured by our independent reviewers, you prove beyond question that your property stands apart.
Posting the MBBA logo prominently on your website tells those seeking quality that you have been inspected for meeting safety requirements and for adhering to best practices associated with cleanliness, food service and hospitality.
Because you’ve proven your high standards, the association guarantees your guests will “rest assured.”
How much does membership cost?
Beyond a one-time $150 initial start-up fee, members’ support of MBBA has two parts: basic dues + room-night assessment. After an initial commitment to 12 months of membership, members may resign anytime with 30 days’ notice. (Our Bylaws address reinstatement options within 90 days and after.)
How are funds used?
Membership dues pay for the basic operation of MBBA, one of America’s few staffed state B&B associations. Room assessments cover the innovative marketing initiatives that showcase member inns and make our website one of the few commission-free booking sources available today.
Part 1: Choose your marketing tier
Moving forward in 2024, you can choose the level of marketing you would like MBBA to do for your inn:
Part 2: Add $2 per guest room night*
The room assessment program is simple: Collect $2 per room night sold and remit the total each month, up to a cap of $1,800 per calendar year.
The room-assessment approach means that an inn’s payment scales up or down according to the size of the operation, the number of days per year the B&B is open, and the business’s success in good years and in lean ones. Payments are on the honor system. Only the MBBA administrator knows how many guest room nights members are selling.
How do most innkeepers pay for the assessment?
They add a $2 per night association assessment fee to each guest’s pre-tax invoice and do not regard the dollars collected as their money.
This $2 per guest room night covers the bells and whistles that keep our marketing tools competitive with the commercial directories.
Bronze Plan- $35 per month plus assessments
The Bronze plan is similar to our pre-tier plan was. All the basics that you need to be listed as a Quality Assured and Inspected Inn with the Michigan Bed & Breakfast Association (MBBA). You will receive a Basic Listing with photos and 1 listing on our experiences page. You will also be mentioned in Instagram and Facebook Postings that the MBBA produces. When we do a group blog post, your Inn will be included if it fits the topic. You will have access (on a paid a la carte basis) to our Educational Webinars for continuing your knowledge base, as well as free access to our “Innsider” over Coffee open forum calls each Winter/Spring. As an MBBA member, you are eligible for a 15% discount with Fremont Insurance, which in a lot of cases, saves you enough on your Insurance to pay for your membership with MBBA. You can also redeem MBBA gift certificates with no commission or fees.
Silver Plan-$45 per month plus assessments
Building on the Bronze plan, we have added more marketing opportunities for your Inn. You will receive 3 additional listings on the Experiences page allowing more opportunities for your Inn to be seen. You will also be featured in our Group Blog posts as opposed to being just mentioned getting you more exposure to prospective guests. You will be allowed to have up to 3 listings on our Offers page which is a popular page for visitors. You will also be part of our online availability calendar, and potential guests can book directly with you commission-free*! Your Inn will also be included in the Monthly Newsletters that go out to visitors around the country.
Gold Plan- $75 per month plus assessments
Marketing on a whole new level for MBBA-This plan is made for Inns looking for that extra marketing to help your Inn get more heads in beds! You will receive everything the Bronze and Silver has but with additional marketing and advertising. It also starts to become a bit more customizable. This starts with being able to be listed on 8 different experience pages on the MBBA website. Your Inn will be featured in our Group Blog Posts instead of just being mentioned. You will also get 1 Individual Blog post written about your Inn that will show your Inn off to prospective guests. Your Inn will also be located on our Featured Inn area with a link to your page on our home page. Along with this, you will be featured in one of our consumer Newsletters that go out monthly.
For Social Marketing, you will get 4 Facebook posts that we will ad boost to our growing social media presence. Once the $2,000 room assessment threshold has been met, the extra assessment money will be used to build a personalized marketing plan to use the excess money. This can be a videographer coming out to your Inn to create content for your Inn, ad boosts of social media posts that have been successful, or other options that you and our marketing team come up with. You will also receive free access to our Webinar Series each Spring along with access to our past webinar library which is updated as new webinars come out.
Do you want it all? This is the Tier for you! Gold can help you with your Marketing needs.
Why quality certification matters to you…and to guests
It’s always a plus when a trusted third party reassures guests your B&B is on the up and up. That’s the point of the MBBA Quality Assurance Review program.
When your inn is quality-assured by our independent reviewers, you prove beyond question that your property stands apart.
Posting the MBBA logo prominently on your website tells those seeking quality that you have been inspected for meeting safety requirements and for adhering to best practices associated with cleanliness, food service and hospitality.
Because you’ve proven your high standards, the association guarantees your guests will “rest assured.”
Check the Quality Assurance Review Checklist to see if your inn will meet the standards.
How MBBA advocates for members
Think you can’t fight city hall? Sometimes you’re right. But when all our respected B&B innkeepers join forces across Michigan, we can work together and have an impact. That’s the beauty of an association and a primary function of MBBA.
We go to Lansing because you don’t have time. We’ve worked collaboratively with organizations such as:
- Pure Michigan
- Tourism Industry Coalition of Michigan
- Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association…
… To form a lobbying force that has accomplished and fought for:
- Post-Labor Day school starts as state law
- Funding of the Pure Michigan campaign that brings so many visitors to Michigan
- Revised gift certificate laws that let you reap your rightful return
- Alerts to legal issues and how these will affect you
- Local and statewide strategies for addressing unregulated homestays.
We also work closely with national lodging organizations to:
- Understand the impact of new federal regulations affecting our business
- Develop and publicize initiatives to level the playing field across the country wherever unregulated home-sharing puts B&Bs at a disadvantage
Business development strategies & opportunities
MBBA works with innkeepers to drive profits and return on investment by putting a wealth of business development strategies and opportunities at your fingertips, including:
- Annual educational conference in late October or early November
- Informative email newsletter in frequent, quick bytes
- A private Facebook forum where innkeepers share experiences and tips
- Webinar series on topics ranging from hiring and training staff to email marketing to optimizing every page of your website for search engines
- Innsider Trading Over Coffee, a series of Zoom get-togethers for innkeepers from January through May
- Participate in free inn-to-inn lodging exchange for last-minute getaways
- Free listing on our high-traffic Inns for Sale page when it comes time to sell.
