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TheBuzz
Erika Engle
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Spin of the 'Wheel' a lucky turn for Volcano B&B
The cozy-looking Bamboo Orchid Cottage bed-and-breakfast in Volcano got some free national exposure Wednesday night during B&B week on "Wheel of Fortune."
A stay there was offered as a prize on the nationally syndicated game show that airs in 211 U.S. markets and is watched by 47 million viewers each week.
That nobody won makes the exposure free, except for the membership dues the B&B's owners already pay to belong to
bedandbreakfast.com, a Web site that markets some 6,500 B&Bs around the world.
Bedandbreakfast.com was Wheel's prize partner for the week, offering stays at far-flung locations that read like one of those bumper stickers: Markt Einersheim, Rome, Ottawa, Rockland, Volcano.
The prize description appeared in the very beginning of the show, said Bamboo Orchid Cottage co-owner Suzy Kruppa, who lives on Oahu.
It was more like advertising for bedandbreakfast.com, but "they did show pictures and video and a logo," of the cottage, she said.
The phone hasn't rung off the hook yet. "I wouldn't have expected anything last night," she said yesterday. "We're going to check the Web site for hits at the end of the week," to measure the exposure's impact.
Positive national exposure at no expense is likely to benefit the inn ahead of a shoulder season, when the flow of Hawaii visitors slows from the speed of advancing pahoehoe to the clinkery plodding of a'a.
"I hope so," said Kruppa.
Bedandbreakfast.com visitorscan easily click through to bambooorchidcottage.com and may be likely to do so after reading two glowing reviews by guests of different ages who stayed at the Volcano property in October and November.
Another benefit of membership with bedandbreakfast.com, she said, is that for the reasonable listing rate, "they put you on Expedia(.com)."
Many Big Island and other B&Bs are listed on the larger site, and Kruppa thought "it was pretty good," that Bamboo Orchid Cottage was chosen for the promotional slot, given that all but one of the other promoted properties are on foreign soil.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4747, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at:
eengle@starbulletin.com