Cyclists Welcome - a printed guide?

mattb31daytona
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Joined: 25 Jan 2013, 2:41pm

Re: Cyclists Welcome - a printed guide?

Post by mattb31daytona »

A printed guide would certainly be an advantage for two specific reasons;

1) Not everyone has computers ; i pad's; sat nav's and all the other technical stuff that many of the younger people are addicted to - and some of us pensioners although having lap tops don't have printers.

2) I certainly don't cycle / tour with a laptop in my pannier and there is great pleasure to be obtained by being flexible on your route and maybe arriving at unplanned stopovers after everywhere has closed..... a guide would indicate the whereabouts of small B&B's etc in the area and also allow further planning on route.

Modern Tech Equipment is not all it's cracked out to be!
MattHodges
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Re: Cyclists Welcome - a printed guide?

Post by MattHodges »

I used to think this would be useful but now i am very doubtful. I put in several suggestions for places we had stayed to the online Cyclists Welcome. They didn't appear. Why? B&B operators are understandably reluctant to pay for an entry in a listing they know nothing about. I also get the impression that moderating the list at CTC was a spare time job for someone when He/she wasn't busy doing something more important.
A charged guide whether printed or online won't work unless it is done really professionally and has a very convincing large user base.
Having said that a lot of smaller B&B owners are very fed up with the Tourist Boards because of the high commissions on bookings through the TICs . The last time I used a Tourist board brochure I found there were no direct phone numbers they were all directed to the TICs so they could collect booking fees and commissions.
If that is still the case there might be a case for a free to advertise site that would carry a small standardised advertisement set up by the B&B and that needed to be renewed each year or two.(email reminder).
With any online site it should be easy to select and print or save offline a whole list of possible addresses and phone numbers of possible B&Bs near your proposed route. We like to tour on a day by day basis seldom booking more than a day ahead. Usually phoning B&Bs at lunch time for that night. Using the existing site I found it very hard to extract the information to make up a list of prospects. That was before smart phones and I suppose that would make it easier now to manage without a paper list.
So I think No to a charged book. Online site - Maybe if free to advertisers but is that good use of members subscriptions?
thirdcrank
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Re: Cyclists Welcome - a printed guide?

Post by thirdcrank »

There seem to be two approaches to compiling a guide of this type. (And as I've posted, we currently seem to have both in use and both called Cyclists Welcome :? )One, used by the tourist boards (who now talk about visitors rather than tourists) is that the establishments apply for inclusion and are inspected by the tourist board. The other is that the organisation's own members make their own recommendations, based on personal experience, and then the establishment is approached to see if they want to pay to be included. Method one counts trouser presses (or in this case drying space) and can't really measure how welcome riders are made to feel, while method two is pretty subjective.

Apart from the End to End rides, are there really now enough cycle tourists to maintain a good flow of recommendations for overnight accommodation? There are plenty of forum members with an an intimate knowledge of everywhere within a hundred miles of their home where you can get a decent all day breakfast or tea and sticky buns ( :oops: :oops: :oops: ) but have no reason to become so familiar with B&B accommodation. Even if they tour and make recommendations, they are much less likely to have much knowledge of a particular place.
JT
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Re: Cyclists Welcome - a printed guide?

Post by JT »

Firstly, doesn't a cafe or B&B have to pay to get on the list for Cyclists' Welcome? Without a decent way of promoting the list, this seems pointless - particularly as most establishments are cycle-friendly. Scrap the fee, canvas all the Member Groups for their cafe stops (and B&B's) and use the Cyclists' Welcome to promote CTC.

As for the initial question... I wouldn't pay for a printed list. Keep an up-to-date PDF online and people can download/print it or just download it to their smartphones. That covers most bases.
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admin
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Re: Cyclists Welcome - a printed guide?

Post by admin »

Various interested parties are having a meeting about the future of Cyclists Welcome in early March, and there are various ideas on how the directory could be improved. I'll convey the comments posted here to that meeting.

Currently Cyclists Welcome is only open to establishments that pay a (relatively small) annual fee. Places that haven't paid, or who don't renew, get a free listing of just their name and location. We get many suggestions of new places, but the current system makes adding them quite time-consuming.
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robgul
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Re: Cyclists Welcome - a printed guide?

Post by robgul »

admin wrote:Various interested parties are having a meeting about the future of Cyclists Welcome in early March, and there are various ideas on how the directory could be improved. I'll convey the comments posted here to that meeting.

Currently Cyclists Welcome is only open to establishments that pay a (relatively small) annual fee. Places that haven't paid, or who don't renew, get a free listing of just their name and location. We get many suggestions of new places, but the current system makes adding them quite time-consuming.


Online form for establishment to fill in - direct input to database content - human moderation/approval - job done. Simples. (That's how the E2E site directory works)

Rob
E2E http://www.cycle-endtoend.org.uk
HoECC http://www.heartofenglandcyclingclub.org.uk
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Re: Cyclists Welcome - a printed guide?

Post by admin »

Online form for establishment to fill in - direct input to database content - human moderation/approval - job done. Simples.


Oh, yes, quite. Unfortunately it doesn't yet work like that, even though it should, for various (mainly historical) reasons that I hope can be resolved at our meeting :)
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