Every day we receive requests from people interested in becoming part of Ecobnb, in order to promote their green accommodation or to start hosting eco-travelers.
Below we have collected the answers to your most frequently asked questions, hoping they can be helpful:
1. How can I host responsible travelers with Ecobnb?
Just follow this link: https://ecobnb.com/blog/join/
2. What requirements should I have?
Your accommodation must have at least 5 of the 10 environmental requirements we selected and that are internationally recognized by several brands that deal with ecotourism; they are:
- 100% renewable energy;
- Organic or Local Food;
- Car-free accessibility;
- Ecological cleaning products;
- More than 80% waste recycling;
- Energy-saving lights;
- Green building;
- Solar thermal panels for hot water production;
- Water flow reducers;
- Recovery & reuse of rainwater.
Your accommodation self-certifies the sustainability requirements owned, which are verified (and reviewed) by eco-travelers.
Find out more about the 10 main eco-requirements.
3. What kind of services do you offer?
Mainly we sell overnights stay and special offers of eco-friendly hospitality. We do this by powering our search engine, by advertising promotions on google ads and Facebook (aimed at specific areas such as provinces and regions); we manage social networks and PR, and we publish articles in magazines and national newspapers through a news agency. On this page, you can read the last articles about Ecobnb’s platform and accommodations.
4. How do you manage reservations?
Reservations are made through a simple and intuitive online system.
- Guests contact you via a message system, sent directly to your email.
- You can answer the traveler’s request by refusing (if you do not have availability) or by confirming your availability and indicating the total price. If you do not have availability for the dates requested by the traveler, you can also propose an alternative solution, indicating different dates and the total price.
- When the traveler receives your message of availability indicating the price, he can accept the offer, confirming the reservation. Once the traveler has confirmed the booking, you will receive a message with his direct contacts (email and telephone number).
If you use a channel manager system to manage your calendars, you can synchronize it with Ecobnb. In this way, the booking system becomes faster and more efficient. The traveler can know the availability and the price through the platform. Thus, the payment takes place in two steps (instead of three).
5. How does the fastest (2 steps) booking system work?
If you have chosen to keep your calendar updated on Ecobnb or to automatically synchronize it with your channel manager, the booking takes place in just two steps (instead of 3):
- the traveler sends a booking request for an available date (based on the calendar and prices you have entered in Ecobnb)
- the accommodation confirms the reservation
6. How can I synchronize my calendar with Ecobnb?
If you use a channel manager, you can import your iCal calendar on Ecobnb. In this way, your availability will always be updated and you will receive booking requests only in the available periods. At this link, you will find instructions to update your prices and availability on Ecobnb.
7. What data to update to synchronize your calendar on Ecobnb
This video explains how to update your page on Ecobnb and manage your availability calendars step by step:
8. How do accommodation facilities manage the payment process?
Payments are autonomously managed by the owners of the accommodation facility. In this case, Ecobnb will send the contacts of the traveller once the online booking is confirmed. You can decide whether guests should leave a deposit or pay you as they arrive. At any rate, guests will pay you directly.
Ecobnb will send you an e-mail confirming the reservation. Here you can clearly see that Ecobnb does not deal with the payments and cancellations for that stay, but that they have to be managed directly by the accommodation facility. If you want to ask for a deposit, you can communicate it directly to the traveler by specifying the payment method. We suggest you should also let the traveller know about your cancellation policy.
9. What happens in case of cancellation?
Ecobnb does not take care of the cancellation policy. They will be directly managed by you and communicated to the traveller inside the conversation on Ecobnb, or via e-mail, phone, etc. You will personally arrange the payments by asking for a deposit to your account, for example, and will manage them directly even in case of cancellation.
10. How much does the service offered by Ecobnb cost?
You can choose between these 3 possibilities:
1) Membership PLUS
29€ per month (annual payment) + VAT
with these benefits:
- Maximum visibility, even on the homepage
- Priority email support
- No commission on the reservations you receive
- Add your special offers or green initiatives with no limits
- Promotion on our blog and social networks
- You are set in the highest part of the traveler’s research
- Article dedicated to your locality on our blog, both in English and Italian
- Exclusive article about your hospitality
- Promotion during the Fairs
- Online Marketing tutoring
- 1-month money-back guarantee. If for any reason our service does not suit you, we will repay you the whole amount with no questions.
2) Membership PRO
12.5€ per month (annual payment) + VAT
with these benefits:
- No commission nor any other expenses
- You will be highlighted on our search engine throughout the year of subscription (12 months from the date it will be put online)
- Add your special offers and green initiatives with no limits
- Promotion on social media
- 1 month money-back guarantee. If for any reason our service does not suit you, we will repay you the whole amount with no questions.
3) Membership BASIC
- 10% (including VAT) on the overnight stays and offers sold through our website
- Free presence on Ecobnb, without fixed costs
- Email support
11. How the commission payments are done (membership BASIC)?
If your accommodation facility is in Ecobnb as BASIC, Ecobnb will invoice the 10% (included VAT) of the total amount of the reservation after the traveller’s stay. Ecobnb will send you the invoice by email automatically. You will receive by email the instructions to pay the amount of the commission to Ecobnb.
If your accommodation structure is registered on Ecobnb with a PRO or PLUS membership, you will have not just more visibility on our website, but you will also have no commission nor other expenses on the bookings you will receive.
12. How does the reservation take place?
Here you have in a nutshell what happens on Ecobnb system:
- The traveler contacts you asking for availability
- You can answer by choosing one of these 4 options:
– Accept and propose a total price
– Offer availability for a different date (and propose a total price)
– Refuse the request
– Send a message (if you need more details) - If you have accepted the availability and proposed a total price, the traveler can confirm the booking: you will receive his direct contacts and you can ask him to pay an advanced deposit through a wire transfer or PayPal or credit card as a guarantee.
- The traveler comes, stays, and pays for his overnight stay.
- If you are not subscribed with a pro or plus membership, Ecobnb issues an invoice of 10% (VAT included) on the reservation after the stay of the traveler. You will receive the invoice via email with the indications to make the payment.
13. After the confirmation of the availability, how long should I block the rooms?
Usually the guests/travelers answer (confirming or canceling the reservation) within 24/48 hours from your message of availability.
In order to communicate again with the guest you can click on the blue button you can find inside the email you received from Ecobnb.
If you do not receive any answer from the guest within 48 hours from your confirmation, we suggest you should write a message to the guest (by clicking on “send a message”) informing him about the urgency to have an answer or to cancel the availability on the website (by clicking on “refuse the request”).
14. What if a guest cancels the reservation?
Guests can cancel their booking by sending an email to info@ecobnb.com and to the email address of the accommodation facility. Ecobnb will cancel the reservation on the database. This way both the traveller/guest and the accommodation facility receive a message confirming the cancellation of the reservation. The accommodation facility itself will take care of the cancellation.
15. What are the terms of cancellation of the bookings?
Ecobnb will not manage the payments and cancellations. You will directly administrate them autonomously and with no limitations set by Ecobnb.
On your page on Ecobnb you can specify the cancellation policies, to make them transparent to guests at the time of booking.
16. Can I indicate different prices throughout the year?
Yes, after entering a basic price of the space (room, apartment, etc.), you can also enter different prices (higher or lower) throughout the year.
There is a calendar where you can enter different prices for different times of the year. To do this you should:
- login to ecobnb, go on your profile and click on the button with the blue gear link at the top right of the page;
- click “Rental Space” and click “Edit” to update the data;
- click “Pricing Calendar” (the last item on the bottom of the page);
- select dates, change prices and save.
17. Is there a calendar of availability?
There’s a timetable for each space so that you can enter the prices throughout the year, but there is still no availability calendar. The booking is not done directly, but only after you reply to an availability request sent by a guest.
However, you can insert the unavailability periods, corresponding to the closing periods of the accommodation.
For doing this, you must:
- Please sign in Ecobnb with your email and password;
- open your accommodation page in edit mode;
- select “Property”;
- insert one or more unavailability periods of your space;
- save the changes.
18. Can I insert unavailability periods for a single space?
Currently, you can enter the unavailability periods only for the entire accommodation (see the previous question), but not for individual rental space. The booking is not immediate, it always requires your acceptance, so there is never the risk of overbooking.
19. Is there a section in my profile where I can manage the themes of my accommodations?
The “themes”, which are found on the left in the search results (for example: https://ecobnb.com/liguria-italy), can only be changed by us and you should let us know which ones are most suitable for your accommodation. You can choose up to 3 themes, among:
- Families
- Groups
- Trekking
- Mountain
- Natural Park
- Gourmet vacation
- Ski holidays
- Romantic escape
- Adventure & sleeping bag
- Bicycle
- Sea
- Old Town
- Spiritual escape
- Treehouse
- Singles
- Volunteering & free hospitality
- Horse
- Lake
- Wellness holidays
- Historical House
- Glamping
- Igloo
- Albergo Diffuso
- Chalet
- Lighthouse
- Castle
- Holidays with animals
- Organic food
- Vegan
- Unusual and Unique
- Ecovillage
- Garden
- Clean energy
- Recycling
20. How can I add a special offer?
To further promote your accommodation you can, whenever you like, create a special offer such as cooking classes or other workshops, itineraries, discounts, free drinks, etc… Every week we publish the most interesting offers directly on our homepage. Creating an offer is easy: just log in with your credentials on our website, activate the changes, and click “Create a new offer.” Now just fill in the different fields.
21. Can I enter a discount for one week-stays or another type of discounts?
For your rental spaces, you can enter different pricing detail (optional). To do so you have to:
- Please sign in to Ecobnb with your email and password;
- open your accommodation page in edit mode;
- select “Rental Space”;
- select Edit in space;
- Activate the section “Optional Pricing Details”
- Here you can enter discounts for children depending on their age and also Week Discount
- save the changes.
22. Can I request a minimum stay?
After you have logged into your accommodation page, in the Properties section, in the bottom of the page you will find Minimum Stay Length (optional).
Here you can enter the minimum number of nights required. This number is always applied, not at particular times of the year. If you need to report a minimum number of nights required in a particular period, we suggest you add it at the end of the description of your accommodation.
23. How can I suggest a green itinerary near my accommodation?
If near your accommodation there’s a slow route, to cross on foot, by bike, on horseback or by other eco-friendly ways, you can report it by filling out this online form (the form is in Italian but you may write in English). We will publish the itinerary on our blog, to make it known to travelers and also to advertise your accommodation.
24. To whom should I issue a receipt or invoice?
Your invoice or receipt must be issued to the guest and must indicate the data of their stay. If you’re not registered with a PRO membership, once a year you’ll receive an invoice by Ecobnb for the commissions of all the bookings made through the site.
25. How do I get paid by a guest?
Since you manage your payments yourself, you can choose the payment method you prefer. For example, you can ask the traveler for a deposit via bank transfer or via PayPal at the time of booking, with a balance at check-in or check-out.
26. How can I unsubscribe and delete my page on Ecobnb?
If you want to delete your page on Ecobnb you have to write us at info@ecobnb.com, specifying “delete me” in the subject line of the e-mail. We can put your page “offline” for a short time or forever, according to your requests.
As soon as your page is no more posted, it will not appear among the results of the travellers’ research anymore and you will not receive accommodation requests from Ecobnb.
You can always re-publish your page by writing to info@ecobnb.com.
Do you want to learn something more about it? Read the answers at the most frequent questions about the project Ecobnb.
27. How can I improve the environmental sustainability of my accommodation?
On the Ecobnb blog, we share ideas and suggestions to improve the sustainability of your B&B, farmhouse, or hotel. If you want to reduce the ecological footprint of your accommodation, here are some useful tips:
- Green hotel: 20 actions for a more sustainable accommodation
- 5 tips to say no to plastic in your hotel or bnb
- The Ultimate Guide on How to Make Your Tourism Business Sustainable
- How to implement Vegan Food in your Holiday Accommodation
- An All-in-One Guide to implement e-bike charging stations in your hotel
- An All-in-One Guide to implement e-bike charging stations in your hotel
28. How can I guarantee safe hospitality during the covid?
In order to ensure the safety and well-being of guests during the health emergency due to the coronavirus, Ecobnb has shared these guidelines for green, clean and safe hospitality. Additionally, we have posted these post-covid reopening tips and shared best practices during webinars.
Haven’t you found the answer to your question?
Write us at info@ecobnb.com and we will answer you as soon as possible!
You will be able to publish your page again by writing to info@ecobnb.com.
Here you can find more Frequently asked questions about Ecobnb