The Independents · Membership
For owner-run hotels, inns, resorts and event venues. Three ready-to-use tools for reviews, promotions and returning guests, and a group of owners who use them every week.
$499 for your first year, then $99 per year.
Why this exists
Most independent owners know what they should be doing: ask every guest for a review, run a promotion when the calendar looks thin, and stay in touch with the people who already stayed with you.
The problem isn't knowing. It's the time. Between the front desk, the staff schedule and the plumber, the marketing slips to "next week". Meanwhile the booking sites send the emails, run the sales and take the commission.
The Independents gives you the tools that do the heavy lifting, and a simple weekly rhythm to use them.
What's included
Reviews
Asks your guests for a review after their stay and helps you answer every review you get.
Sold separately: $790 per year
Promotions
Turns a promotion into a ready campaign: social posts, images, a Google Business Profile post and an offer page with QR code.
Sold separately: $468 per year
Returning guests
Everything to bring this year's guests back as next year's direct bookings.
Sold separately: $17
Members only
A private space where members share what works: the promotion that filled a slow week, the review reply that turned a complaint around. Plus step-by-step lessons for every tool and new templates as I make them.
Bought separately, the tools alone cost
$1,275 in the first year.
Members pay $499, then $99 per year to keep everything.
How it works
1
Every morning
Review requests go to yesterday's departures. Answer new reviews in a few minutes.
2
Once a week
Pick one promotion for your quietest dates and publish it everywhere in one go.
3
Once a month
Send your past guests the month's email from the Comeback Kit. Your own booking link, every time.
A good fit
Not a fit
Who's behind this
More than twenty years ago I was General Manager of a boutique hotel in the Texas Hill Country, with a restaurant and a pub that brewed its own beer. Summer filled itself. The quiet months were where every single booking counted.
We filled them by hand: letters to past guests, a "bring a friend" voucher for our regulars, open houses, packages with local partners. We grew from a handful of weddings to forty a year.
The tools have changed. The principle hasn't: real relationships and a good idea, done consistently. The Independents is the toolkit I wish I'd had back then.
More about meJoin today
Look inside before you buy
There's no money-back guarantee, because the software and downloads are activated the moment you join. Instead, you can see everything first: join the free area of The Independents, take the Scorecard and download the free kits. If you like what you see, upgrade from there.
Join the free area firstQuestions
You get access to the full Independents area immediately. Your RateRoby account is created automatically and the invitation arrives by email within minutes. PromoSteward is unlocked as soon as you create your account there with the same email address.
If you join with the same email address, we use your existing account. Nothing you've set up is lost.
For most smaller properties, yes. If you have more departures than that, more requests are available to members as an add-on.
An outlet is one part of your business that runs its own promotions, for example your rooms, your restaurant and your event space. You can create one new campaign per outlet every week.
Yes. Cancel anytime before your renewal date and you won't be charged the $99 renewal.
Software accounts and downloads are activated immediately when you join. That's why the free area exists: you can look inside, use the free kits and decide with full information.
No. The membership is tools, lessons and the Members' Lounge, built so you can do it yourself in about an hour a week.