In the year in which the service has been running, there have been 25,000 visitors to one or more of the Farm Holiday Bureau pages, equivalent to the number of printed guides sold. Small bed and breakfast operations are getting world-wide advertising at an affordable price. Then decide whether and how you want to expand it. So wrote the New York Times about a cycling holiday organised by Bicycle Beano in Mid Wales and the Marches area of England. Jane Barnes and Rob Green decided to be ahead of the game and put their brochure on the world-wide web in May 1995.
Potential customers can browse through the brochure, choose a holiday and then make a booking.
At present this is done by printing out the booking form and sending a deposit by post although provisional bookings can be made by e-mail. There are plans to have a multi-lingual site. People are able to respond immediately and make a booking. In the future, Bicycle Beano will certainly save on costs, especially postage abroad and printing brochures. We've gone for a black background which shows up our photos nicely.