Note: Marieke and I got divorced in 2020. This post might not reflect the current situation.
Last summer, my girlfriend and I went for a short break to Italy. We travelled different cities and stayed a while in Il Giglio d’Oro, a small bed & breakfast just outside the Firenze city center.
Il Giglio d’Oro is a pretty normal bed & breakfast. Not the best I have seen and certainly not the worst. It has 4 rooms, has a kitsch design feel and matching flash intro on their website.
The owner Edoardo (an extremely friendly Italian ex-ski instructor) and his wife showed us around town, helped us when we needed and made us feel very welcome. When we eventually left, Edoardo asked me if I liked the Bed & Breakfast. I replied I did. Edoardo gave me a small piece of paper (see picture) and asked me “Can you do me a favor, if you like it this much, can you go to tripadvisor.com and write a nice review? That would really really help me.”
As it turned out, Edoardo did this with every single person that stayed at his bed & breakfast. The result? Il Giglio d’Oro was the #8 bed & breakfast in Europe last year (and #1 in Italy) on Tripadvisor and is currently ranked #4 of 373 bed & breakfasts in Firenze. The occupancy rate? Over 90%.
Sometimes advocacy is just so simple.
