A Brief History

1. The Forum

The Internet Forum was born in 2007 as a direct result of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, an ill-worded and vague piece of European Union legislation that gave governments and fire services little practical guidance on how to implement it. Fire Services therefore decided to set the bar high resulting in the closure of many accommodation businesses. At the time independent accommodation providers were totally without representation and the newly-created Internet Forum now provided them with a connection through which they could communicate with one another. Since inception the topics discussed are numbered in hundreds and the number of message posts currently stands around 75,000.

2. BedPosts

During Forum discussions members began to relate to one another and organise themselves to get more benefits. These are some of the milestones:

• the establishment of a brand name - BedPosts - a pun on the fact that members with bedposts also post messages
• move of the BedPosts Forum to its own dedicated website - www.BedPosts.org.uk
• forum members' advertising on www.BedPosts.uk
• first BedPosts conference in Oxford in January 2012 (now repeated annually)

3. BedPosts Business Club

At the 2013 Warwick conference participants voted for the establishment of the BedPosts Business Club an independent organisation with its own executive and committee to offer superior services. A dozen participants thrust £50 cheques and IOUs into the hands of the visibly-shocked BedPosts Chair, Roy Magregor and Vice-Chair, Carol Starkey.

And so it came to pass that the BedPosts Business Club, pioneered by an active forum member Sylvia Neal, launched on 7th October 2013. It has an exciting agenda to further the business interests of its subscribers, initially to counter the growing dominance of online travel agents, reviews websites and price comparison websites. Join and help take your business, and ultimately your industry, on an alternative path.

The founding members of BedPosts Business Club: