innkeeping quarterly (iq) magazine

Summer 2010 • Volume 4, Issue 3IQsmart reading for smart innkeeping

innkeeping quarterly

Way Past the Coffee PotInnkeepers Warm Hearts with Warm Mugs

28Making and Saving Money by Being GreenWhat does running a green B&B do for your bottom line?

19Mobile Friendly WebsitesDo you really need a mobile-friendly website?

Professional Association of Innkeepers International

13

FacebookWaste of time or marketing panacea for innkeepers? Page 5

IQsmart reading for smart innkeeping

innkeeping quarterly

cover story

5 Facebook Waste of time or marketing panacea for innkeepers?

feature articles13 Way Past the

Coffee Pot: Garth Mansion’s Innkeepers Warm Hearts with Warm Mugs

departments3 Key Notes

18 Industry News Beat

19 Tech Talk

24 Food Glorious Food

27 Innkeeper2 Innkeeper

28 Marketing Matters

32 By The Numbers

33 Industry Events

34 PAII News and Information Center

32 Advertisers’ Index

Innkeeping Quarterly (IQ), is PAII’s quarterly periodical. PAII has been dedicated to fostering the knowledge and expertise of keepers of the inn for over 20 years. In line with this mission, each issue of IQ features members of the innkeeping community and covers topics that are important to those in the innkeeping industry: real estate, food, finances, customer relations, operations, marketing, and more.

IQ: smart reading for smart innkeeping

Professional Association of Innkeepers International www.innkeeping.org • 800.468.PAII

Summer 2010 • Volume 4, Issue 3

© 2010, Professional Association of Innkeepers International

About IQ:IQ is published quarterly. Editorial comments and suggestions are welcomed. To contribute, please contact Ingrid Thorson, 856-310-1102, [email protected].

Editorial Office:PAII, 207 White Horse Pike Haddon Heights, NJ 08035

IQ Staff:Contributing Editors: John Felton Ingrid Thorson

Contributing Writers: Kit Cassingham Heath Croft Jay Karen Deb Mosimann Sharon Rowe Liza Simpson

Design: Imbue Creative

Advertising Sales: Marlene Sapir

PAII Staff:Jay Karen President and CEO

Michele McVay Vice President

Isabel Abreu Membership Sales Coordinator

Marlene Sapir Vendor Services & Sales

Ingrid Thorson Marketing & Communications Manager

Marty DeLuca Bookeeper

IQsmart reading for smart innkeeping

Key Notes

Can you imagine lowering your rates by up to 69 percent in order to get more business? Sounds

completely foolish, doesn’t it? Yes, it does. I happen to teach a class on pricing strate-gies to innkeepers, and I explain how low-ering your rates across the board won’t likely win you enough business to make up for the price change. Your variable and fixed costs are probably too high for such a drastic decrease, and can you imagine the marketing work you’d have to do in order to get you back to the top line you were at with the higher price? Foolish, indeed.

Well, call me foolish, because I’m actually betting on a similar strategy with innkeep-ers and PAII. Unfortunately, in the short term, the bet is not paying off. If you recall, we launched a new membership model this past fall that lowers the price of mem-bership to $89 for any size inn. The lowest price before the change was $215 (for inns with less than 6 rooms) and the highest price was $289 for the largest inns. The difference between our change and what I teach innkeepers is that we also changed the membership offering by stratifying the benefits and pricing into Silver, Gold and Platinum categories. Essentially, we turned the pricing and offering on its head, so it’s not quite the same as an innkeeper just lowering the rates up to 69 percent on the same rooms and the same breakfast. We received countless emails thanking us and praising us for adapting our model to the struggling economy, suffering innkeeper budgets and for taking the risk. What we haven’t seen, despite the marketing efforts of our hard-working staff and friends of

PAII and the lower-than-ever price, is the surge in membership we need in order to keep PAII sustainable.

If I can sum up our reasoning for taking this risk in one phrase it would be that we felt the industry needed a “no-brainer op-tion” for joining PAII. At $89, we believe that is a no-brainer price tag. We are sure of this, actually. We are simply finding that most innkeepers still don’t know they can join PAII at such a low price!

At a recent PAII Board of Directors meet-ing we discussed the status of our new membership model. We decided to stay the course for now, because the changes were made for long-term reasons. We want 10,000 members in PAII—not 3,000. Reaching those kinds of numbers is much more probable at a lower price of entry. And, the new membership model is allow-ing us to engage in very interesting part-nerships. For example, this spring we announced a formal partnership with the Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association, which counts nearly 100 B&Bs among their members. Now, when innkeepers join OH&LA, they automatically receive a PAII membership. The OH&LA leader-ship elected to include a PAII member-ship with every B&B membership. This kind of partnership could not have hap-pened when PAII dues were at least $215. Many other states are examining the pos-sibilities of packaging a PAII membership into their membership—it increases the value proposition at a time when many state associations are looking for ways to increase recruitment and retention results.

The smartest or the stupidest move ever in the B&B industry?

(continues, next page)

Key Notes (continued)

Nevertheless, the PAII board will continue to discuss the pros and cons of the new member-ship model and its impact on the operations and sustainability of PAII at our quarterly meetings. PAII is surely in the middle of a Renaissance, and our innkeeper enrollment is up 13 percent over one year ago. In fact, most of the surge in membership is made up of for-mer members who have come back to us! But, frankly, it’s not enough to keep the current level of operations, unless we see 1,000 or more new members over the next year. I don’t mind sharing our current struggles — my leadership style is to be candid and honest. But I do so in the name of moving PAII and this industry forward.

Soon, PAII will be announcing the industry’s first-ever grassroots PR and branding cam-paign aimed at generating more business for the entire B&B industry. PAII continues to put out the best educational offerings for vet-eran and new innkeepers in the industry. We are the only entity representing the B&B in-dustry that lobbies both Capitol Hill and

large corporations that impact the B&B busi-ness. We have arranged dozens of ongoing discounts and member-only deals through our Key Value program. Our online forums are active and highly professional—they are fantastic resources for getting your everyday questions answered by experienced peers. And, we happen to publish this magazine, which we hear is highly valued by our read-ers. This is just the tip of the iceberg—you wouldn’t believe the size of the list of our works-in-progress and projects-in-waiting.

Here’s where we need you, our readers, to come through for us. If you’re already a PAII member and value having a hard-working association look out for your needs, please encourage your peers to join PAII today. If you’re getting this magazine and you’ve nev-er been a member, we hope you will join and both receive some great benefits and support the industry. If you used to be a member, we want you back and think you’ll see more value in PAII than you ever have. And, to boot, we now offer our Gold and Platinum memberships on a monthly payment plan, starting at around $16 per month—no ad-ditional fees for moving to a monthly install-ment plan.

No one can doubt the staff at PAII is work-ing harder and (hopefully) smarter than we have in many, many years. I don’t want to re-gress to a higher priced membership model in order to remain sustainable, so please prove to me that our decision to lower our prices wasn’t foolish after all! My goal is long-term success and sustainability for PAII. Every in-dustry and trade should have a formidable and valuable association working on its be-half. In our case, PAII fell on some hard times a few years back, and frankly, might not have been “on our game.” I hope you’ve seen a different PAII the past three years and be-lieve we are worthy of your investment of dues—the lowest option now costing barely 24 cents per day.

www.innkeeping.org—go there to sign up, pass that web address to your peers, promote it at meetings of innkeepers and go there to see the latest news from PAII. Let’s make your association 10,000 strong, so we can get more projects-in-waiting on the accom-plished list. When we succeed, we can help you succeed.

Thanks for your support—it is incredibly meaningful.

Best wishes for the rest of the summer,

Jay Karen President & CEO

Soon, PAII will be announcing the industry’s first-ever

grassroots PR and branding campaign aimed at

generating more business for the entire B&B industry. PAII continues to put out the

best educational offerings for veteran and new

innkeepers in the industry.

4 • innkeeping quarterly • summer 2010

summer 2010 • innkeeping quarterly

5

Well, if you couldn’t figure out that my leading question was rhetorical, let me give

you the answer: neither, but it might lean in one direction.

Facebook, the site that has family and friends sharing the most mundane de-tails of their daily lives, or even the excit-ing news that they’ve picked up a sheep while visiting a farm, certainly can seem like a colossal waste of time. But it also appears that four hundred million people (the last published count of Facebook us-ers) think the joy and curiosity of keep-ing up with the lives of loved, liked and sometimes hard-to-remember people is worth the time. It’s part voyeurism and part exhibitionism, because users like to share their own musings, happenings and life events with their social network.

And it’s that very voyeurism and exhi-bitionism that could make Facebook an innkeeper’s best friend when it comes to marketing. Maybe a better friend than Google? That might be a stretch (al-though Business Week reported that in March Facebook surpassed Google’s search engine in weekly hits). But Face-book should certainly make your holiday card list of friends now.

People want to share —and people are curious about what others are doing. It’s my observation that people who stay at B&Bs are much more loyal and evan-gelical about their good experiences than those who frequent the big-box alterna-

tives. Your happy guests generally can’t use Google to share with their world what a wonderful stay they had — but they can use Facebook. And, according to Mashable.com, the average Facebook user has 131 friends. The Neilson Com-pany indicates that referrals from friends and family still remain the number one most trusted form of “advertising.”

Now there are a number of ways your guests can tell their friends and family about staying at your inn — at no cost to you, and at the same time the most effec-tive form of marketing.

Ways a guest can spread the word about you on Facebook:1. Status Update. When someone up-

dates their status with “Going to XYZ B&B this weekend!” or “Just had a great stay at XYZ B&B,” if you own XYZ B&B you might benefit from the sharing of that information. Consider yourself lucky if they do this, and even luckier if they post a link to your web site along with the status update.

2. WallPost. They can post content to their Facebook “wall,” which is similar to a status update, but is used more for sharing links, photos and other content. In your follow-up emails to guests after their stays, you could en-courage them to post to their wall what a great time they had and in-clude a link to your site — just as

many of you now encourage guests to review your inns on TripAdvisor.

3. Likebutton. If you install the “Like” button on your web site, your guests can click the button and the news of liking you will show up on their walls for everyone to see. Your follow-up emails could include a link to the page where the Like button is on your web site, with the message “Care to ‘Like’ us on Facebook? Click here to share your love of XYZ B&B!”

4. TripAdvisor. When someone is fin-ished writing a review on TripAdvi-sor, the site allows a person to post the review on their Facebook wall. This is a really cool feature, because the Facebook content will give a glimpse into the review and provide a link to your TripAdvisor listing.

These are all fantastic ways for yourgueststoevangelizeaboutyourpropertytotheirfriendsandfamily.Trip Advisor has a very cool new widget on their web site that shows Facebook users which of their friends have been to the area being explored on Trip Advisor at that mo-ment. Through the widget, people can ask friends about their visits.

Most users of Facebook are active on their account more than once a day. The level of activity is amazing. Case in point: Last month, I posted on my personal Facebook page a picture of a Japanese

FacebookWaste of time or marketing panacea for innkeepers?

by Jay Karen

innkeeping quarterly • summer 2010

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maple I had just planted about 10 days prior, which was already showing signs of stress. The caption of my photo was, “What’s wrong with my new Japanese maple?” Within minutes, I had five friends offer opinions and advice for treating it. I did the same thing about three weeks later — posted a photo of billowing white smoke coming out of my lawn mower and asked, “What’s up with my lawn mower?” A few old college friends hap-pen to be small engine experts and im-mediately offered sound advice, which helped me fix the mower.

Now, I’m willing to bet that 90 per-cent of my Facebook friends thought my posts were ridiculous or a waste of time for them to read… some friends enjoyed helping me… and other friends got to see all the responses and probably learned something. With Facebook, you take the

good and the bad and hope that the good outweighs the bad. It was pretty cool having 642 friends see a picture of my suffering Japanese maple and have some people help — all within minutes.

Similarly, even if only 20 percent of my friends see my positive comments about a B&B I just visited, that means 130 people saw that I stayed at a B&B (good for our industry) and at your B&B (good for your business).

Facebook Advertising:I have two Facebook accounts — one personal and one professional. Every time I log into Facebook, I see two or three small display ads on the right side — similar to Google AdWords, ex-cept with pictures. When I’m in my per-sonal account, I see ads that have something to do with golf (I mention golf as an interest in my profile), an ad critical of New Jersey’s governor (my cur-rent city is listed as Haddon Heights, NJ) and something that says “Fun in Philadelphia” (I’m over the drinking age,

Similarly, even if only 20 percent of my friends see

my positive comments about a B&B I just visited, that means 130 people saw that I stayed at a B&B (good for our industry)

and at your B&B (good for your business).

(continued on page 10)

Jay Karen, PAII CEO, interviewed Henri Deschamps, owner of The Mast Farm Inn, regarding his success as a Facebook marketer. Currently, the Mast Farm Inn and related pages have over 80,000 Facebook fans.


Can you share some brief details about you and your business(es)? Names of businesses, how long you’ve been running them, what you did in your previous life, etc...We own The Mast Farm Inn, a 14 unit, 20 bedroom Select Registry Country Inn and Restaurant in Valle Crucis, North Carolina on 11 acres in a mountain village with 500 people. We are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Inn has been in more or less continuous operation since the 1880s. It is a family owned and man-aged operation with our oldest daughter Sandra, as the Innkeeper, her husband Gaetano, as general manager, our youngest daughter Danielle as the Chef, my wife Marie as The Executive Chef, and I am the CEO and do primarily business development, organizational development, finance… and lots of marketing based on the premise that sales are the engine that drive the train. We have owned the Inn for 5 years and it is our children’s future. I spent my life in publish-ing and retired at the age of 53, my wife owned and managed an ultra high-end retail shop. Our children were educated in the United States, England, Switzerland and France. My wife and I are French Citizens (don’t hold it against us) who grew up in America, and have always had a home here, but who recently moved back here full time, and just became U.S. residents.

What got you pumped about the Facebook phenomenon?

Two things:

1. At The Innkeeping Show in Atlanta, I saw that half the workshops were about social media and told myself I needed to re-explore those matters, as I had done so several years before. I took as many of those workshops as possible because I handle most web related matters for the Inn.

2. The first thing I tried was focusing on weddings, and within two weeks had booked $80,000 of weddings exclusively from our Facebook effort. There is nothing like results to make you a true believer. We have a major gift certificate website, and when I focused the effort on Facebook, I saw comparable results. Restaurant same story.

We also have quite an edge on those technologies because my son-in-law who manages the Inn is a computer science major and very high-end computer engineer, and I have been in com-munications and media all my life as a publisher, which eventually led to an electronic publishing company. One of the things our electronic publishing company used to design was community building software web 1.0 and 2.0 and Facebook is the 800lb gorilla mother and father of them all and for free. So we under-stood the paradigm as well as the nuts and bolts. It took some serious software analysis to understand what Facebook really is, what it does, why it does it, and how it does it, so you can go with the flow and surf the content propagation waves it creates. Facebook is designed so that “Birds of a Feather Flock Together.” That is its mission. So it is essential to know to what flock one belongs. In business that means who are my clients, who are my suppliers, who are my strategic partners and natural allies, and how do I gather all those folks under my tent to provide them

useful information and a space to meet each other and have a lot of fun.

How many fans do you have?We have 80,000 fans on 28 themed pages 12 months after we start-ed. The Mast Farm Inn page has 10,000 and is the single most impor-tant Boutique Hotel, Country Inn, Bed & Breakfast page on Facebook in the galaxy in terms of fans, the next biggest page has fewer than 4,000 and the one after that fewer than 3,000 and most B&B pages are in the 200 to 1,000 range. Our biggest single page has 20,000 fans. Each of the other pages has a specific subject matter related to our business or area. Besides pages for the Inn, and Restaurant, we have a page for example called North Carolina Chefs, one called North Carolina Farmers Markets, one called North Carolina Wines, one called Weddings North Carolina, one called The High Country Explorer, etc. We sell an area, but an area is not just geographic, it is also an intellectual area, such as a subject matter or theme. For example we believe in Farm to Table Dining, Slow Food, Organic, we promote our state and the Appalachian Mountain culture is part of our heritage, etc. so we promote museums, galleries, artists, musi-cians, storytellers, writers, poets, performers.

How on earth did you get that many fans?First and foremost the Inn is highly reputable, credible and we deliver on our promises. We win a lot of service awards, and have fantastic reviews despite being quite pricey for a rural Inn. From a service perspective we are certainly in the top five percentile, and we have award winning food. So you can only be what you are, and bluff is short-lived on social media. After aforementioned Innkeep-ing Show, we moved about 50% of our marketing effort and time from the traditional web to social media, almost exclusively Face-book. We have one person (me) who does Web, Social Media, etc. seven days a week, at least three to four hours a day like clockwork. We use Facebook in a very counter-culture way.

The initial Facebook culture was Narcissism as in “How cute is my latest pic,” or “Just had the most awesome slice of pizza,” or “I am stuck in traffic,” or “look at how cool I am,” or “look at how cool my stuff is.” We talk about ourselves very little on social media. We pro-mote everyone in our area, all our friends and neighbors, clients and suppliers, and as in the case of the themes, other people, organiza-tions, and businesses in our area interested in that theme, wedding photographers, bakers. Our restaurant site actually promotes other restaurants and chefs who share our culinary philosophy. I would say 95 percent is about other folks, 5 percent is about us. It is the Karma School of Business approach and it works wonders because network and community building software is designed to accom-plish just that, create a mutual support network. In fact we promote very little of our own stuff directly. If you attend a cocktail party and talk about yourself all the time you are a “bore” and people walk off. If instead, you listen, try to understand what people are saying, try to be helpful and supportive, a team player, you make way more friends, and the goodwill brings you good things. Why would it be any different on Facebook?

summer 2010 • innkeeping quarterly• 9

“Facebook Fans” for B&Bs are generally thought of as people who have already enjoyed the B&B and want to express their loyalty, keep in contact, etc. How do you get folks to become Fans who have never actually stayed with you?Our “already clients” tend to stay in touch more by phone and email, because they know all about the place already, how to re-serve etc… although many communicate through Facebook as well. We use it to reach out, not simply to respond. The way we get new clients is probably by showing them different facets of our services or area one thing at a time. We do packages, specials, and try to be as creative as possible, but it seems to be more about being part of something bigger. Like a train station or a hub. In fact we behave for each theme as a Visitors & Convention Bureau, or a Chamber of Commerce, or a PR agency.

Can you be more specific on tactics that you employ to get non-customers to become fans? How do you solicit their participation if they’ve not stayed with you? By painting in broad strokes. By posting on and highlighting subjects they may have an interest in that are not directly related to the Inn. Great picnic spots, trails, waterfalls, canoeing, attractions in the area, music, photography, artists and galleries. The premise being that in the entire range of what makes our area attractive someone will find something to like. In cases where someone is not interested in any of the things we feature, highlight or post about, we do not need them as a fan. If someone is interested in gambling they need to go to Vegas, in fashion to New York, in being part of the jet set beautiful people to Beverly Hills or Monte Carlo, etc… you cannot be everything to everyone, your business has a character and brand, and often it is what you do not do or talk about, that helps define you, and we have no need to attract folks who are not a good fit for us, our area, the activities natural to our area, or the types of things we do. On the other hand the guy who loves Vegas, may have a girlfriend who loves canoeing, so by featuring things which are in accord with what we do and can do, it attracts folks.

From my perspective as a Facebook user, I would not likely become a fan of something I’ve never experienced, so how do you do it?I am willing to bet cold hard cash, you have personal interests besides work and travel, things you have great interest in but have not yet done; a wish list. And as such are a fan of pages based on those personal interests, if not you are atypical and a “business only” kind of guy, at which point you will see we are really good at social media and join just for that, to follow our tracks. I’m betting we have over 500 Innkeeping professionals as fans of our page and if nothing else they are aware of our existence. When I look at who you are following on Twitter I see you follow Conan O’Brien, I am sure the connection to Innkeeping is minor if it exists at all. The day we post something on Conan playing a gig in our area, it may catch your eye. Another typical example would be that regardless of personal interest everyone eats, has birthdays, and most people have anniversaries. Just based on those three fundamentals, we can safely assume if we do interesting posts about things related to

those three things we can capture your interest at some point. Obviously you will never be able to interest everybody, but then again there is no need. In more general terms: It seems to me that what is required in our business is marketing overkill of the most focused nature followed by outstanding delivery on that promise of quality and service. Facebook provides a state of the art tool for small business that is unique, and I would urge even the busiest innkeepers, or those with fewer technical skills, time or means, to spend one hour a day exploring it, learning it, and using it strictly for business. It is work, like making breakfast is work, but it pays off.

How much business do you think Facebook alone has generated for you? How can you track it as having been from Facebook?Today, I have the feeling 25 percent of our business is Facebook generated and in terms of dollars, many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

How can you track it as having been from Facebook?It is plain as day. The minute I focus on weddings we get three–five requests a day versus one–two a day. In fact I shut down and move to a new thing when we get overwhelmed in a specific area, as in my daughter says “stop with the weddings already.” The minute I focus on gift certificates the orders increase immediately and visibly. The minute I focus on the restaurant, reservations rise. It is hyper-clear it is coming from Facebook because all our other sites change very little in a quarter, and our Google Ad words budget is $10 a day. So if all you change is what you are doing on Facebook to focus on this or that, and the results come in based on what you are doing, it’s pretty direct feedback.

Do you advertise on Facebook? If so, has it been effective? If not, why not?Not really, we tried a minor $10 to $20 a day budget, which lead straight to our gift certificate site, and it was okay, but we get folks because as a rule we make highly and interesting informative posts. We do a ton of research to find interesting things to feature, and we use every bell and whistle Facebook provides in terms of propaga-tion technology, photos, tags, we do a lot of basement and founda-tion work, not simply post our latest and greatest.

What are the most important elements in your Facebook strategy?1. Serious technical expertise and understanding of the Facebook

software, we pay a lot of attention to how it behaves

2. Sound communications practices using highly engineered and informative “Facebook Friendly” posts

3. Help others and some will help you back, those that don’t appreciate or reciprocate are not a problem. But as we are all human, we end up dancing more with those that relate to us. It’s only natural. “Birds of a Feather Flock Together.” ■

facebook


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as noted in my profile, and under the age of 90, live five miles from Philly, and am male; do you think they targeted this one?).

When I’m in my professional account, I see ads for business insurance (my pro-file indicates my profession), some outfit that wants me to join the “Who’s Who of CEOs” (my profile mentions my job title) and a new (and I think a bit extreme) ad for a group called “Hotels Against Trip-Advisor” (somehow they must know I’m in the lodging business and targeted this one — or maybe I’m on a very short list of actual people identified to see the ad? Nah. Can’t be that.) And I can even see which of my friends has “Liked” the company that is running the ad! How cool is that?

Now, running Facebook ads costs money, and you can choose either Cost Per Click (CPC) or Cost Per Impression (CPM). To me, this is more powerful

than even Google AdWords (don’t take my word for it though — I’m an amateur, not a professional internet marketer), be-cause you’re going deeper with this ad than just what words someone types into a search box. Your ad can be displayed based only on very specific geographic, psychographic, demographic and other parameters. Again, how cool is that?

I’m not suggesting you dump thou-sands of dollars on Facebook advertising. I am suggesting you take the time to learn more about it, discover what the prices might be (based on the geographic, psychographic, demographic parameters you set for the ad) and consult with your internet marketing gurus, should you be working with some in our industry.

To this last point, I met an innkeeper in Minneapolis not long ago, who has been playing in a classic rock band for more than 25 years. He asked for my ad-vice on this whole Facebook thing. His

inn happens to be about 30 miles outside the Twin Cities — a perfect little drive from a lot of people. I said something along the lines of, “What if you create a Facebook ad that said something like ‘Stay at a B&B run by a Rock Star and bring your guitar’ and have it show only on those accounts whose interests might be something like classic rock, guitar, live music or rock and roll, are between the ages of 35 and 65, and live in Minneapo-lis or St. Paul?’”

I think the light bulb turned on for him. Maybe, if they do covers of particu-lar bands (and I heard them play Jimmy Buffet at the Minnesota B&B Associa-tion conference), they can have a differ-ent ad show up that says something like “Stay at a B&B owned by a Parrothead” and have it show only on those who have Jimmy Buffet among their interests. Inn-keepers should try to marry unique as-pects about their inn or locality with the


11

interests or profile information of poten-tial guests in a physical location from where you draw customers.

A quick note about targeted market-ing on Facebook. It may be a generation-al thing, but there certainly is a segment of the population that doesn’t care too much to see ads that were placed specifi-cally on account of details they provided on their Facebook profile or status up-dates. Others (probably Gen X and Mil-lenials) don’t get too bent out of shape, because they have grown up in the age of targeted marketing. But it should be known that Facebook does allow adver-tisers to display ads on user accounts based on all kinds of data, some of which you thought might have been only shared with Facebook friends. But Facebook maintains that they don’t actually share information such as your name, contact info, etc. Data might not be private, but it

is supposed to still be anonymous. Face-book was in some hot water this Spring due to their privacy policies, but it seems that public opinion is moving them to-wards the middle.

Is this a waste of time for innkeepers, or something pretty fabulous?

My opinion? Something pretty darn fabulous. Your guests are connecting on a daily basis with people who are (gener-ally) pretty close to them, and Facebook has some powerful tools that will allow

your guests to be ambassadors for your property with their network of people. Don’t confuse what you think as a waste of time and bandwidth (Farmville any-one?) with the power of social media.

So, now along with encouraging guests to write reviews, you need to get them to talk about you on Facebook. But before you throw your hands up in the air in des-peration, think about this: Before Face-book, how on earth could you get one of your happy guests to tell hundreds of their friends and family what a wonderful time they had at your B&B? Can’t think of anything? Exactly.

Dive in! The water is warm. ■

Jay Karen has been PAII’s chief executive officer since June 2007 and can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/paiiceo

Before Facebook, how on earth could you get one of your happy guests to tell

hundreds of their friends and family what a wonderful time

they had at your B&B?


13

Julie Rolsen remembers being in the kitchen with her mother as a child. When Julie’s mother would ask her

just how much she loved her, Julie would look around the room for the farthest thing that she could see.

“I love you way past the coffee pot,” she would answer. It is something she would eventually say to her own children and is the perfect anecdote to describe the way Julie and her husband John op-erate the Garth Woodside Mansion in

Hannibal, MO. The inn has been voted by inn goers as the top bed and breakfast in Missouri. Country Victorian called it one of the four prettiest inns in the coun-try. AAA’s Midwest Traveler named the mansion the Midwest’s best bed and breakfast earlier this year. The couple purchased the 40-acre estate in 1999 and has spent the last decade welcoming guests to the home where Mark Twain himself stayed. The mansion’s original owners, John and Helen Garth, were the author’s childhood friends. They built Woodside, as they called it, in 1871 to serve as their country cottage.

Missouri’s governor has officially pro-claimed 2010 as “The Year of Twain.” This year marks the 175th anniversary of his birth, the 125th anniversary of the publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and 100 years since his passing. The writer’s connection is the reason that many will make their way to Hannibal and the Garth Mansion this year, but it’s not likely that Mark Twain will bring them back again. Instead, it is more apt to be the graciousness that guests are af-forded when they step foot into John and Julie’s abode.

“We can judge the fine line between guests wanting to share their time with us or if they are just coming for complete privacy,” says Julie. “We’re here for them if they need us.” However, those guests wanting complete privacy need not go into Julie’s kitchen where she has a camera

streaming live 24/7 on the Internet. In a setting that almost always includes fresh-cut flowers from lilacs and peonies to an-tique hydrangeas, online viewers watch Julie as she makes breakfast and dinner for her guests. It is just one of many social networking tools the couple has used to create an online presence for the inn.

“What tools don’t we use,” says Julie. “We do everything.” From Twitter to Facebook, John and Julie are committed to maximizing the mansion’s visibility. Julie also regularly emails an inn newslet-ter. Like many innkeepers across the country, she has even taken to blogging, and also recently appeared on the Travel with Stephanie Abrams! radio show to promote the mansion and Hannibal.

Part of that promotion is done by of-fering a number of items for guests’ use

Way Past the Coffee Pot: Garth Mansion’s Innkeepers Warm Hearts with Warm Mugsby Heath Croft photos by Sean Rolsen

Keeping the mugs nice and toasty. This keeps your coffee - tea - cider - cocoa, etc. warmer longer.

Presented to Helen Garth on Sam Clemens’ last visit to Hannibal where he (as always) stayed at the Garth Mansion.

In reverent memory of John Garth and an unbroken friendship of 55 years. June 1902 Signed Mark Twain


14

that display the mansion’s logo. When guests are shown to their rooms, they are given refillable water bottles that reflect the mansion’s environmentally conscious attitude.

“They are actually biodegradable” Julie says. She says the water bottles won’t end-lessly take up space in a landfill.

“These only last 5 years, and they’ll be gone,” John adds. In each room’s private bath, guests will also find embossed toothbrushes. During the walk-through, John encourages each guest to take the premium-quality toothbrush rather than throwing it away. Julie says she is proud to offer custom-made soaps for her guests in both glycerin and oatmeal. Scents such as bayberry and wildflower, along with an unscented soap for those allergic, are among the many nice touches that guests will find at the Garth Woodside Man-sion. Julie says her custom soap is a “nice

big bar that the guests want to take home.” And, she encourages them to do just that along with the refillable sham-poo bottle. At just under 3 ounces, the bottles are the perfect size for a traveler’s carry-on.

One important factor in choosing an inn is obviously the variety of options available to the guest. Whatever it in-volves, guests appreciate having the abil-ity to choose. One such facet of the Garth

Woodside Mansion has become a morn-ing ritual even for Julie herself — choos-ing a coffee mug, hand made by Deneen Pottery, to complement her outfit. Popu-lar among innkeepers, the company re-cently began offering a bright red glaze, and Julie was among the first to offer those to her guests.

One important factor in choosing an inn is obviously

the variety of options available to the guest. Whatever it involves,

guests appreciate having the ability to choose.

Water bottles bio-degrade in 5 years. The toothbrushes also include the Garth Mansion contact information embossed on them.


15

“We have over 20 different colors of mugs here, and people can choose a mug that matches what they’re wearing,” John says. Niles Deneen, vice-president of marketing, says that Julie may very well have ordered all of the company’s 350 color combinations.

“As far as innkeepers go, Julie gets the gold star for most mugs ordered per year and has since her first order of mugs back in 2002,” says Niles. Part of Julie’s suc-cess in selling 600 to 800 mugs per year is the way in which she presents them.

The mugs are kept on a warming tray next to the coffee until the guest chooses one, and John says this is especially nice during the cold Missouri winters.

“People will pick up that warm mug and clutch it and say ‘Oh, this is nice and warm,’ and it really indentures them to that particular mug,” says John. Although Julie says the idea for the mug warmer came from another innkeeper, she and John both agree that it has become a way of showing their hospitality and a valu-able selling tool as well.

“What we do here at the Garth man-sion is we use what you sell and sell what

you use,” John says. In fact, almost every-thing used at the mansion is for sale in the gift shop including the mugs, stain-resistant tablecloths, and even hypoaller-genic feather beds. The gift shop also features pewter knife rests in various ani-mal shapes that are hand made by Julie’s friends at ASL Pewter in nearby Louisi-ana, MO. Inside the mansion’s scarlet dining room and later at home, guests can lay their knives upon an elephant’s back or a peacock’s tail.

Part of Julie’s success in selling 600 to 800 mugs

per year is the way in which she presents them.

(continued on next page)


16

“That’s my motto,” Julie says. “I’ll sell anything, but my grandchild.” This sum-mer, Julie will release her first cookbook, Inn the Kitchen in the Mansion. To com-memorate the Twain anniversaries, Julie collaborated with Deneen Pottery to cre-ate a limited edition 2010 Mark Twain mug and ornament.

Labor Day weekend is reserved for return guests. Retreats for aspiring inn-keepers are occasionally held, and an all-girls weekend happens every year. During this weekend, ladies are given 50 two-dollar bills to spend at downtown merchants.

“If Hannibal succeeds, we all succeed,” says Julie.

Jason Kassis of Peoria, IL and his new bride stayed at the Garth five years ago as part of their honeymoon. In order to celebrate his anniversary this year, Jason decided to make his wife breakfast from recipes he found on the mansion’s website.

“She was pretty happy that I was thoughtful enough to remember how much she enjoyed breakfast at the Garth Mansion,” says Jason. “We had never stayed at a bed and breakfast before so we didn’t know what to expect.” According

to Julie, this type of comment is nothing new, but still means the most to her.

“They had no idea it was going to be this nice,” says Julie. “They say that on a regular basis.” ■

Heath Croft is a freelance writer living in southern Georgia. He is enrolled in the Master of Arts in Communication program at Valdosta State University majoring in mass media. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Sean Rolsen started his wedding and por-trait photography career with a staff position at the Garth Woodside Mansion. Shooting mostly on location, he travels all over to photograph portraits and destination wed-dings. His portfolio can be found online at rolsenphoto.com.

To commemorate the Twain anniversaries, Julie collaborated with Deneen Pottery to create a limited edition 2010 Mark Twain

mug and ornament.


NewsIndu

stry

Beat

Do You Have

News?

If you have so

mething to share, p

lease

email your p

ress releas

e or a coupl

e

paragraphs reg

arding your news to

Ingrid Thorson at In

[email protected].

Monarch Bath Bed & Spa

Secures Exclusive

Agreement with Comphy

to Make Eco-Friendly Line

of Bed Linens

Monarch Bath, Bed & Spa,

a leading global provider of

bathrobes and luxury hotel

linens signed an exclusive

agreement with The Comphy

Company to provide their eco-

friendly line of bed sheets,

which are made from 100

percent recyclable polyester.

dNj specialties Exclusive Distributor

for Turkish Towel Company Products

Barton Brass of Turkish Towel Company

and David Scyoc of dNj specialties

have entered an agreement that dNj

specialties will now be the contact for bed

& breakfast inns order processing for all

the Turkish Towel Company products.

You may place your orders for towels

and robes by phoning dNj specialties

at 770-338-2121 or email

[email protected].

Victorian House Scones Has

New Fruit Flavors

If you are looking for a way

to pack your scones with more

fruit and fruit flavor, look no

further! Victorian House

Scones is introducing apricot

scones and chai-peach scone.

These two new scones join

the original recipe, apple

cinnamon and pineapple.

BedandBreakfast.com Becomes PAII’s

Largest Platinum Key Supporter and

Offers Limited-Time Deals

BedandBreakfast.com, the largest

international travel website in the

B&B industry and a division of

HomeAway, Inc., has partnered up

with the Professional Association

of Innkeepers International to become

a Platinum Key Supporter and PAII’s

largest patron. The partnership aims

to help the organization grow and

increasingly promote that B&Bs are

truly a “Better Way to Stay.” To kick

off the new partnership, PAII was

able to secure the largest promotions

BedandBreakfast.com has had with an

industry association. To view the

details, turn to page 11.

PAII Announces Monthly Dues Payment Options

PAII recognizes that cash flow is sometimes a

challenge and innkeepers don’t have time to be bothered

with invoicing. To make things easier, PAII is now

offering innkeepers the option to pay your dues on a

monthly plan. To join and take advantage of the

monthly options, visit www.innkeeping.org. Select “Join Now!”

on the left and securely join and choose your monthly

option. You may also call PAII directly at 800-468-7244.

Michigan Lake to Lake Bed & Breakfast Association Launches a Brand New Website

www.laketolake.com

Veterans Day Promotion started by Kathleen Panek of Gillum House B&B in Shinston, WV. B&Bs sought in all 50 states to participate. Go to www.bnbsforvets.org for more info and to sign up.

TripAdvisor Adds Value to Business Listings ProgramBusiness Listings customers can now promote special offers at their B&B that will show on the TripAdvisor property page and the city pages.


19

You have a brand new (or recently updated) website with all the latest bells and whistles: wider format, updated search engine optimization (SEO), Flash images, videos,

matching blog design, customized Facebook and Twitter pages, Google map, and more. With all this in place, do you really need a mobile-friendly website? The answer is, yes, and here’s why…

The purpose of a mobile-friendly website is to facilitate the visual and navigational functions of your website for potential guests searching for lodging from their mobile devices (Black-

berry, Palm Trio, iPhone, iPad, or any device with a visual internet display). Technology is changing rap idly within the mobile community, but there are still devices that cannot display your website with all of its images or allow the visitor to click on your navigation buttons.

Because your full website is built in a wide format to be viewed on a laptop or desktop monitor, scrolling (left and right, up and down) is required for your site to be fully viewed on most mobile devices. Aside from the scrolling, often visual fidel-ity is lost. Can the visitor see all of your images and navigation buttons, or are they seeing simple text format? If they can see your navigation buttons, can they click on them and navigate through your site?

Speaking as an owner of a Blackberry Curve working in a location that is supported only by a few major service providers but not AT&T (and thus no iPhone), I cannot navigate through

Mobile Friendly Websites: Why you need them and how they are found by Sharon Rowe, Acorn Internet Services

Tech Talk


21

most websites that I find in a Google search from my mobile device. On some sites built within the last year, I can generally navigate on my Blackberry and can successfully navigate through the pages of the site, albeit with considerable effort.

In a perfect world, if my Google search renders a result that includes a little mobile device image next to the URL of the website search results, I know I’m going to enter a site that was designed with “Mobi-technology” (mobile technology) in place.

A mobile-friendly website is essentially a mini-version of your full site, intended to provide your potential guests basic details about your property at a glance. A mobile-friendly site provides them the opportunity to contact you about availability, perhaps as they are driving into town or doing quick research on their lunch hour or between meetings.

Search Engine Land article dated 4/12/10 sites these statistics:

●● “According to comScore/TMPDM ( July, 2009), at least 60% of smartphone owners have conducted local searches using a browser on their mobile handsets. In addition, Google long ago said that 30% of its traffic in Japan… came from mobile devices. And the company has reported several times that mobile search volumes in the US are growing at a healthy pace.”

●● “A 2009 survey conducted by Opus Research found that 21% of respondents who owned smartphones were searching at least 20 times per week on their mobile devices.”

When someone using a mobile device does an internet search that locates your website, the visitor will be automati-cally redirected to the mobile version of your site — but only if you have a mobile-friendly version. No special SEO tech-niques are required for your mobile site to be found in a mo-bile device search.

Your web designer can add a small button in the upper left corner of your full web site that says “Mobile View — Click

Here.” If the search engines do not detect the search is being conducted by a mobile device, the visitor can still click on the button link on your full website and navigate manually to the mobile site.

Even with that mobile button on your site, Google and other search engines will continue to index your main web site. But when someone using a mobile device clicks on your URL, the mobile device will be automatically re-directed to the “Mobile-View” version rather than the main web site. Again, you will not need extra marketing (such as SEO) on your mobile site.

The mobile industry has its own set of expected compliance requirements. This basically means there are proven formulas for the development of a mobile-friendly website that are differ-ent from the requirements of a traditional website. Generally, mobile websites are very economical in their layout and content. For B&B sites, we recommend a page flow that includes the following:

●● Home Page●● Rooms and Rates

●◆ this page could display information for up to 5 or 6 rooms (images, pricing, brief description)

●◆ if you have more than 5 or 6 rooms, you might consider a second page or determine if you can categorize & compress your rooms (Queens, Kings, Suites, Pet Friendly, etc.)

●● Policies●● Directions ●● Contact Us

There are limitations to publishing an availability calendar on a mobile site due to limited product choices. Currently the one product that offers a mobile calendar display is Weberva-tions, although there may be updated information available as to more companies developing a mobile-friendly availability cal-endar since the last time a survey was conducted.

Here are some examples of multiple-page mobile-friendly websites:

A mobile-friendly website is essentially a mini-version of your full site, intended to

provide your potential guests basic details about your property at a glance.

When someone using a mobile device does an internet search that locates your website, the visitor will be automatically redirected to the mobile version of your site — but only if

you have a mobile-friendly version.


22

http://mobile.mauryplace.comhttp://mobile.bluegrasscountryestates.comhttp://mobile.gabriels.comhttp://mobile.albuquerquebedandbreakfasts.com

(includes a Webervations calendar display)

Here are some examples of simple single-page mobile sites:http://mobile.glenella.comhttp://mobile.innat202dover.comhttp://mobile.grapearborbandb.com

Wondering how your site stacks up as being mobile-friendly? You can preview your site from this simulation tool link provid-ed by Opera: http://www.opera.com/mobile/demo/ to get an idea of how your full site will display on a mobile device.

If you’d like to make your site mobile-friendly, talk to your web design team.●■

Sharon Rowe has been a member of the Acorn Internet Services consulting team since January 2005. As Professional Client Services Manager, she collaborates with clients on Web site enhancement, Newsletter design & distribution, Mobile Site development, Pay-Per-Click campaign strategies, Blog creation, Intell-a-Keeper training & data review, MarketWatch recommendation execution, Snippet-master support, and customized marketing consultation.


24

Butter and cream cheese are by definition bland. They have little flavor on their own but it is this very fact that makes them so versatile. Here we will explore a variety of

techniques and ideas even the non-foodies can master in their inn kitchens. What we strive to do in a meal, whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner, is coordinate a variety of flavors, tex-tures and colors that produce eye appeal, and complement each other. As innkeepers we also aim to serve something that will be remembered long after our guests check out. Keep that in mind as you choose flavors and shapes to add to your menu.

ShapesWe are all familiar with the butter curls on ice or rolled butter balls. At a very contemporary restaurant I had the opportunity

to visit recently the butter was served in geometric patterns. In Hilton Head it appeared in the shape of pretty little seashells. The Rabbit Hill Inn serves it in the shape of … bunnies! This is easily done by spreading soft butter on a cookie sheet lined with foil, chilling, and then cutting it into shapes. Small cookie cutters can be used as well for seasonal touches.

Plastic candy molds make excellent little butter shapes though they can be a challenge and somewhat time consuming to unmold. The best technique is rinsing the molds in hot water before spraying the mold with Pam, or brushing it with oil, then filling it with butter, pressing to make sure there are no air pock-ets. When unmolding use a sharp knife to loosen around the edge and then pop the butter out. Molds are available in any

Butters and Spreads to Liven any Menu by Debbie Mosimann

Food Glorious Food

888 334 3099Full Catalog Available Immediate Shipping No Reorder Minimum


26

number of shapes and are not expensive at all. While living in Europe I became enamored with the hand carved butter molds. While those are not practical for most inns, a good alterna-tive would be cookie stamps. Use them to stamp pretty designs onto a flat butter surface. Be sure to spray the stamp with Pam or brush with oil before use. These can become works of art by embedding or applying edible herbs and flowers around the edges using the butter surface as the glue to hold them fast. For larger molded forms line the mold painstakingly with foil or

plastic wrap before filling with the softened butter. This will en-able you to unmold them without pieces chipping off.

Another alternative to molding is piping as you would icing for a cake. Using softened butter, pipe your shapes onto waxed paper and then chill. To add color paint the sides of the bag with puree of parsley or a small amount of food color pastes. The possibilities here are limited only by imagination and time. Re-member when piping flavored butters or cream cheese that the pieces used to flavor need to be pureed so they are smaller than the tip or they will catch and not pipe smoothly.

FlavorsHere it helps to think out of the box for a bit. Herbs and spices in combination provide some interesting variations. It can be as simple as roasted pepper butter for toast to compliment an egg scramble or frittata, a scallion and fresh herb cream cheese for that sesame bagel, or even a pineapple butter with a hint of curry to go along with corn fritters.

Finely chopped herbs mixed with softened butter are a natu-ral accompaniment to meats. Lemon, lime, or orange zest (or any combination of the three) with a bit of confectioners sugar gives a fresh tasting citrus butter to accompany poppy seed

bread. Maple syrup and cinnamon flavors make a unique butter to melt on pecan pancakes or apple spice waffles. Soak golden raisins in rum and blend with cream cheese or butter for a sure fire favorite! Plain bagels, fresh croissants, and warm scones provide a vehicle to show off these creative spreads. Roasted pis-tachio and honey cream cheese to accompany plain mini ba-gels, raspberry cream cheese makes a cinnamon raisin bagel a special feast, and the ultimate, chocolate cream cheese on just about anything! The Hotel Hershey in Hershey PA, fondly known as ”Chocolatetown”, even serves a chocolate butter in small crocks in their elegant restaurant.

The key to success is to soften the butter to room temperature before mixing in the flavors. Cream cheese should be gently heat-ed in the microwave before flavors are added to ensure smooth blending without lumps. Once mixed, fill into a plastic container and chill immediately.

Because of the beautiful way that butter freezes many of these can be made ahead, cut, molded or piped and then fro-zen. Mix softened butter with your favorite flavors, shape, and freeze in an airtight container. Keep flavors stored separately so they do not cross over. You will always have them on hand. It is helpful to remember, that in our fat conscious society, our guests are using less butter then they once did. When making molds or cutting shapes make them small enough to minimize waste. Cream cheese does not freeze well so these will need to be made up in batches as needed. With both butter and cream cheese the flavors will marry and develop better if made at least a day ahead. ■

Debbie Mosimann and her husband own and operate Swiss Woods B&B in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Lemon, lime, or orange zest (or any combination of the three) with

a bit of confectioners sugar gives a fresh tasting citrus butter to accompany

poppy seed bread. Maple syrup and cinnamon flavors make a unique

butter to melt on pecan pancakes or apple spice waffles.

summer 2010 • innkeeping quarterly • 27

2innkeeperinnkeeper

She is the definition of extrovert and is ALL about marketing — all of which is evident in the first 5 minutes you spend with her! Much of our time as innkeepers is spent figuring out how to approach the newest trends, how to make “our product” better and how to sell more rooms in a down economy. If I can’t sell more rooms, how do I sell more packages that go along with my rooms? I always need to do more to make my inn stand out from all the rest. Most importantly, what can I do to make our inn the one my guests will always remember? I am often amazed how many guests will tell me about an inn where they stayed but cannot remember the name and even sometimes not even remembering where it was located.

I sincerely doubt that Julie has that problem. Though I would not enthusiastically embrace everything she

does, or how she goes about it, learning from other inn-keepers is not about copying what they do. It is using their ideas to jump start my own creative thinking. Do I want a webcam in my kitchen? No, not even on my very good days would I want someone watching me yawn at 6 am, but do I like the fact that Julie is doing this? Abso-lutely. Her creative out of the box approach to so much of what she does makes me take a fresh look at what I do and see if there are new creative ways I can approach marketing my inn that steps outside the norm and fits who and what I am. We all come into this business with files of ideas and bursting with enthusiasm to turn our dreams into reality striving to create inns that are unique.

As one year turns to another, we realize that like any other business our inns have routines. If we are not very careful, the creative side filled with excitement and new ideas, drifts into the day to day realities of innkeeping. I for one am grateful to all those innkeeper friends in my life who snap me out of that monotony and back into the middle of a world of new ideas. ◆

by Deb Mosimann, Swiss Woods

I met Julie years ago soon after she bought Garth Woodside Mansion.


28Marketing Matters

How much money will you save running a green bed and breakfast? That seems to be a common question among those considering environmental friendliness

in their operations. And how much money will you make by at-tracting more guests? The real question in this conversation is what does running a green B&B do for your bottom line. Right? Right. My simple response is, an-swering a question with a question, how much money do you save by repairing leaks or having less trash hauled away? That all depends, doesn’t it?!

Though my simple response seems flip-pant, and is simple, I think there is wisdom hidden in the simplicity of it. When you stop to realize that waste — throwing things away — is the equivalent of throw-ing money away, you will better understand the wisdom of stop-ping the waste. As you decrease your waste, you decrease losing money. Stopping waste is what greening your inn is all about.

Maintenance on your B&B costs money, yet you do it be-cause it preserves the value of the property, makes it safe, keeps it looking nice, and ultimately saves you money. Those benefits are part of what attracts guests too.

A dripping faucet or toilet can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in your water bill. The dripping water may even raise your heating bill, if it’s the hot water line that’s drip-ping, because it depletes your water heater. Similarly, putting out less trash means fewer pickups, and that means less cost—a plus to your bottom line.

The basics of running a green inn are the same as conducting maintenance on your inn. Yes, it may cost a bit to do that, but the payback is there. Just as you have a maintenance program, you can have a green plan. Designing a green plan for converting your operations one step at a time makes for a more manageable effort, it seems like a less onerous process when laid out in a plan.

Greening your B&B becomes a game, a mystery to solve, by look-ing at all of the ways you can conserve. Remember, conserving resources is like conserving money. And there are hundreds of ways to conserve.

But how much money can you save by using less water or electricity, and by generating less trash? How much money can you save, or earn, by having an inn that’s more comfortable for your guests because of the clean, unscented air and linens? How many guests will you attract because of your green operations? Making money is another way of getting to the bottom line you care about.

To demonstrate what kinds of saving you can experience with conserving resources I turned to 43 environmentally- conscious innkeepers across the United States, Canada, and Mexico to ask them what savings they experience by running a

green B&B. I had to laugh when the re-sponses came back with such general an-swers as: They didn’t have figures, they have always operated a green inn so there’s no comparison to share, and they don’t know because they are doing it because it’s the right thing to do. But probing further elicited a bit of useful information to share with you.

Waste reduction was a common theme among people I talked to. There are three primary ways innkeepers have reduced waste:

1. Recycling, a cheaper approach to waste disposal than trash hauling.

2. Composting, often working with a local firm or pig farmer, at no or low cost, to pick up the vegetable matter generated by inn operations.

3. Precycling, minimizing packaging and supplies from coming into the inn.

Fifty percent of the responding innkeepers commented on this type of savings. Andy Beerman, innkeeper at Treasure Mountain Inn in Park City, Utah, told me they went from an average of 40 down to 7.5 dumpster loads per month — even after a 300 percent increase in business — because of their waste reduction program. That’s typical of the kinds of savings I’ve seen in talking to a wide range of innkeepers, homeowners and businesses. You do the math; how much do you save if you cut your waste disposal bill by 50 to 75 percent?

Inn by the Sea, outside Portland, Maine, appreciates not only how their waste disposal costs are cut by their compost

Making and Saving Money by Being Greenby Kit Cassingham


29

program, but also love supporting local agriculture; one of the businesses that takes their compost is a pig farmer. What a win-win. Villa del Faro in Baja, Mexico, uses compost to not only reduce their waste disposal costs, but also to improve their gar-dens by using it for mulch and fertilizer.

Precycling is actually a big saver, and is especially attractive for those who don’t have easy access to recycling centers or compa-nies. Innkeepers who use bulk shampoo/soap dispensers talked about how much they saved by not throwing away all those indi-vidual bottles and soaps. Yes, soaps can sometimes be donated to charities, but that’s one more thing the innkeeper has to tend to, and it can be an added inn cost in the shipping to the charity.

I know a hotel that drains all its leftover shampoo and condi-tioner into gallon containers to give to a local woman who fosters numerous children; that’s one of their efforts in giving to the community. It doesn’t keep the bottles out of their recycling sys-tem, but it’s a start. Part of reducing waste is about reducing oil consumption; reducing the number of plastic bottles you buy is a great way to reduce our reliance on oil. The Asa Ransom House in Clarence, New York, saves $800/year with bulk soap/sham-poo dispensing; and they sell the dispensers in their gift shop.

Furthermore, the Asa Ransom House doesn’t provide bot-tled water, at least not the commercially produced type that has become ubiquitous in our society. Instead, they make their own bottles of filtered water to share with their guests. Hotels I

know that use this approach sell that water to their dining room guests, making money for the restaurant and saving money by not having to recycle the plastic bottles.

Energy conservation was also mentioned a lot by innkeep-ers I talked to. More than 50 percent of the responding inn-keepers talked about the various ways they were saving money

Energy conservation was also mentioned a lot by innkeepers I talked to. More than 50

percent of the responding innkeepers talked about the various ways they were saving

money through energy efficient measures.


30

through energy efficient measures. The measures range from replacing incandescent bulbs with CFLs (17 to 25 percent en-ergy reduction), turning off equipment when it isn’t being used, and installing photovoltaic panels (and wind turbines) to generate from 50 to 100 percent of their electricity. The Asa Ransom House saves over $1,600/year with energy conserva-tion programs.

The Waianuhea B&B in Honokaa, on Hawaii’s Big Island, installed photovoltaic panels when they were developing their bed and breakfast. They paid off the installation in five years

and now get their electricity for free. There is a surprisingly large number of inns that generate their own electricity and save that utility cost every month, after the system is paid for. Given the increasing prices of electricity, that’s a smart approach.

Forty percent of the innkeepers talked about the different things they do to conserve water. Santa Fe, New Mexico’s, Al-exander’s Inn has a UV-light water treatment for the spa so they don’t have to change the water nearly as often, nor use caustic chemicals to keep it clean. This saves money in both areas, cutting water usage by thousands of gallons each week. Depending on how much your water costs, that could save $1,500 or more up each year. Don’t forget to add energy sav-ings to that number because of the reduction in water heating.

The New York Times ran an article about the Topia Inn in Adams, Massachusetts, because of their ultra green operations; that’s advertising you can’t buy. That touches on the other side of the equation of the bottom line: guest income. Operation ex-penses are lowered with conservation measures, savings that goes to the bottom line.

Guest income is increased by attracting guests who want to stay in a green B&B. News articles and other publicity that talks about the organic breakfasts, beds, linens and other products catch travelers’ attention. When travelers hear of the gardens, chickens,

An important thing to remember is that the sooner you start conserving resources the sooner you start saving money. As the cost of utilities rises, which it does all the

time, you will see even bigger savings by being on board sooner.


31

monarch butterflies, and organic foods used by innkeepers to make their B&B special, they often choose to stay at those inns.

Innkeeper Brian Olynek of Quantum Leaps Lodge in Gold-en, British Columbia, commented that people are attracted to the inn because the chickens and gardens offer a special experi-ence and quality. William WrQueen, innkeeper at Las Manos, outside Buena Vista, Colorado, says that more than 50 percent of their guests stay because the inn is green.

The Arcady Vineyard B&B in Charlottesville, Virginia, buys local grown and produced foods, and sell those items in their gift shops; they are supporting the local community, supporting their green plan, educating their guests to the joys of fresh food, and making money. The money they make from their gift shop helps offset the slightly higher cost of buying quality, local pro-duce. Travelers love staying at green lodgings.

There are many more ways to save money through running a green bed and breakfast. Reduction of chemicals used in the inn for cleaning and pesticides; sheet and towel reuse programs to save water, energy and chemicals; xeric or water-wise gardening; insulating your walls and attic for heat management; and low flow water fixtures and toilets are just some of the ways you can conserve and save money. Though I have given you a brief list here, you can brainstorm a list one hundred times that long. And each measure you adopt ultimately makes for a greener, healthier, and more cost effective bed and breakfast.

An important thing to remember is that the sooner you start conserving resources the sooner you start saving money. As the cost of utilities rises, which it does all the time, you will see even bigger savings by being on board sooner. Can you save money by being a green B&B? Yes. And you can make money too. Com-bine the two cash flow elements and you have a stronger bottom line from being green. Don’t be left behind in this change. Begin adopting green operations today. ■

Kit Cassingham, a former innkeeper, who has many years of experi-ence in the hospitality industry and as an environmentalist also owns Sage Blossom Consulting. Kit has offered consulting services and seminars to the hospitality industry since 1987, was a licensed real estate agent in Colorado between 1991 and 2003. She stays cur-rent on hospitality, environmental and internet trends and issues by participating in an average of four professional conferences per year, reading hospitality literature, and networking with environ-mentalists, innkeepers and hospitality professionals internationally.

Allergy Control Products...................................................................... 24

BB.com ................................................................................................... 11

Beach House Logos.............................................................................. 30

B&B Team, The ...................................................................................... 30

BedandBreakfastForSale.com............................................................ 22

Cadence Keen Innovations ................................................................. 10

Deneen Pottery...................................................................................... 15

Essential Amenities .............................................................................. 31

Fullers’ Soaps ........................................................................................ 10

Hospitality Furnishings ......................................................................... 22

Imbue Creative ...................................................................................... 29

Inn Consulting Partners ....................................................................... 27

Inns Magazine ....................................................................................... 23

InnStyle ........................................................................................................27

InsideOut Solutions................................................................................. 4

Markel Insurance.................................................................................... 6

Mid-Atlantic Innkeepers Trade Show & Conference ..................... 14

NPC............................................................................................................ 7

PAII .......................................................................................... 12, 17, OBC

Lanier, Pamela ..................................................................................... IFC

RezStream .............................................................................................. 19

TMG, Inc., Virginia Inn Brokers ........................................................IBC

TripAdvisor ............................................................................................. 20

Victorian Heart ...................................................................................... 25

Watco Nufit ...................................................................................................2


$16.58 or $24.08

57

735,000,000

126,200,000

The all new low-cost monthly dues option provided by PAII for Gold and Platinum memberships. www.innkeeping.org

The estimated number of mobile internet-connected devices that will ship in 2014. Source: eMarketer

The percentage of travelers that share vacation information on social networking sites. Source: HotelMarketing.com

The number of mobile internet users in the United States by 2013. Source: eMarketer

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9numbersby the

AdvErTISErS’ INdEx

SEPTEMBER 2010

Florida Bed and Breakfast Inns ConferenceDates: September 19–21Location: Orange Park, Florida Contact: http://www.florida-inns.com/events-fbbi-conference.php

B&B Association of Tennessee Annual ConferenceDates: September 19–20Location: Paint Rock, TennesseeContact: [email protected]

OCTOBER 2010

Nebraska B&B Association Fall ConferenceDates: October 11–12Location: Lincoln, NebraskaContact: [email protected]

NOVEMBER 2010

Washington Bed & Breakfast.com Guild Conference & Annual MeetingDates: November 1–2Location: Leavenworth, WashingtonContact: http://wbbg.com/about/2010%20Annual%20Meeting

Colorado B&B Conference & Aspiring WorkshopDates: November 7–8Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado Contact: [email protected]

2010 Expo for Excellence: Empire State Bed and Breakfast AssociationDates: November 7–9Location: Corning, New York Contact: [email protected]

Wisconsin Bed & Breakfast Association’s 22nd Annual Meeting, Conference & Trade ShowDates: November 7–9Location: Glacier Canyon Lodge, Wisconsin DellsContact: http://www.wbba.org/conferences.php

2010 New England Innkeeping Show (hosted by PAII)Dates: November 15–17Location: Nashua, New HampshireContact: www.newenglandinnkeepingshow.com

Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association Annual Conference & GalaDates: November 22Location: Columbus, OhioContact: https://www.ohiolodging.com/conference_info.asp

JANUARY 2011

2011 Innkeeping Conference & Trade ShowDates: January 10–13 Location: Charleston, South CarolinaContact: www.innkeepingshow.com

California Association of Bed and Breakfast Inns ConferenceDates: January 31–February 2Location: San Diego, CaliforniaContact: www.innspireconference.com

MARCH 2011

2011 Mid-Atlantic Innkeepers Trade Show and ConferenceDates: March 6–8Location: Lancaster, PennsylvaniaContact: http://midatlanticinnkeepers.com

EventsIndustry


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

To view the most current Industry Events Calendar,

visit http://www.innkeeping.org To add your event to the calendar,

contact Ingrid Thorson at [email protected] or call 800-468-7244.

Welcome New and Welcome Back Former Members!

MEMBER BENEFIT SPOTLIGHTPAII Announces Monthly Dues Payment Option

INN MEMBERSINTERNATIONALCanadaOverlanderMountainLodgeGarth Griffiths 553 Hinton, AB T7V 1N2 Canada (780) 866-2330 overlandermountainlodge.com

Kidd’sBedandBreakfastDavid Kidd 518 Point Ideal Dr Box 1152 Lake Cowichan, BC V0R 2G0 Canada (250) 749-7790 www.kiddsbb.com

Claire’sBed&BreakfastinLadnerVillageClaire Oates 4919 - 48th Ave Delta, BC V4K 1V4 Canada (604) 940-8867 www.clairsinnladner.com

LakesideIllaheeInnPeter Dooling 15010 Tamarack Dr Vernon, BC V1B 2E1 Canada (250) 260-7896 www.illahee.com

AWaterfrontHouseDiane Clark 425 La Fortune Rd Cobble Hill, BC VOR 1L4 Canada (250) 743- 0202 www.awaterfronthouse.com

BeachVillaLeana Li 5163 Sunshine Coast Hwy Sechelt, BC VON 3A2 Canada (778) 323-3422 www.beachvilla.ca

SGBBBSandra McMillan 47 Copeld Creek Dr, RR 4 Penetanguishene, ON L9M 2H7 Canada (705) 549-1330 www.copelandwoodsbb.com

BrockamourManorRick Jorgensen PO Box 402, 433 King St Niagra-On-The-Lake, ON LOS 1JO Canada (905) 468-5527 www.brockamour.com

LyonsHouseJolanta Janny 8 Centre St Niagara on The Lake, ON LOS 1J0 Canada (905) 468-2297 lyonshouse.ca

CloveHallInnkeeper Owner 11 Clove Hall Rd Georgetown, 10050 Malaysia (604) 229 0818 www.clovehall.com

CasadeKathyKathy Gannett 367 Calle Bromelias Barrio Esperanza Vieques, 765 Puerto Rico (787) 741-3352 www.casadekathy.com

CasaArabellaParqueDelReyAngela Playa Blanca, Spain (11) 0845-021-2105 www.lanzarotelates.com

SatoriVillaZenita Sujana Galle, Sri Lanka (949) 1492-5218 www.satoriexperience.com

ALASKACrookedRiverRetreatDorothy Baker 59325 Sterling Highway, PO Box 1190 Kasilof, AK 99610 (907) 260-9014 www.crookedcreekretreat.com

ARIZONASedonaMotelWinn MacIntosh 218 Highway 179 Sedona, AZ 86336 (928) 282-7187 www.thesedonamotel.com

CALIFORNIAShelterCoveJill O’Hara 26 Seal Court Shelter Cove, CA 95589 (805) 379-3911 www.sheltercove.com

COLORADOLookoutInnGuestHouse&SuitesJacek Mrowca 6901 Lookout Rd Boulder, CO 80301 (303) 530-1513 www.lookoutinnguesthouse.com

TheBradleyBoulderInnHeather Collaton 3800 Pleasant Ridge Boulder, CO 80301 (303) 545-5200 www.thebradleyboulder.com

FLORIDASandpiperInnHarold Cullison 5451 Gulf of Mexico Dr Longboat Key, FL 34228 (941) 383-2552 www.sandpiperinn.com/FL/

GEORGIAParkAveManorGlenn Gaylord 107-109 W. Park Ave Savannah, GA 31401 (912) 233-0352 www.parkAvemanor.com

HAWAIIAlaKaiBed&BreakfastMary Roblee HCRI Box 5221 Keaau, HI 96749 (808) 966-7205 www.alakaibb.com

HaikuPlantationInnSandy Camou 555 Haiku Rd Haiku, HI 96708 (808) 298-6579 ww.haikuplantation.com

VolcanoTeapotCottageWilliam Bullough P.O. Box 511 Volcano, HI 96785 (808) 967-7112 www.volcanoteapotcottage.com

MacadamiaMeadowsFarmCharlene Cowan PO Box 756 Naalehu, HI 96772 (808) 929-8097 www.macadamiameadows.com

OldWailukuInnLtdThomas Fairbanks 2199 Kahookele St Wailuku, HI 96763 (808) 244-5897 www.mauiinn.com

HonuKaiB&BWendi Wasson 74-1529 Hao Kuni St Kailua Kona, HI 96740 (808) 329-8676 www.honukai.com

ILLINOISRoscoeVillageguesthouseJoe Helfrich 2104 W. Roscoe Chicago, IL 60618 (773) 835-5626 northsidesuites.com

DeerFieldBedandBreakfastBeth Francis RR 1 Box 99 A Windsor, IL 61957 (217) 459-2750 deerfieldbandb.com

INDIANAInnAtWindmerePaul Rexroth 2077 County Rd 40 Auburn, IN 46706 (260) 925-3303 www.innatwindmere.com

TheInnatIrwinGardensEve Jackson 608 5th St Columbus, IN 47201 (812) 376-3663 www.irwingardens.com

LOUISIANA TheStockadeBed&BreakfastJanice DeLerno 8860 Highland Rd Baton Rouge, LA 70808 (225) 769-7358 www.thestockade.com

Available for Gold (Only $16.58/month) and Platinum (Only $24.08/month) MembershipsWe recognize that cash flow is sometimes a challenge and innkeepers don’t have time to be bothered with invoicing. To make things easier, we are now offering innkeepers the option to pay your dues on a monthly plan.

Take advantage by joining PAII Today!


MAINEBlairHillInnRuth McLaughlin P.O. Box 1288 351 Lily Bay Rd Greenville, ME 04441 (207) 695-0224 www.blairhill.com

AcadiaHotelChris Coston20 Mt Desert St Bar Harbor, ME 04609 (207) 288-5721 acadiahotel.com

CornerStoneCottageEric Ellis PO Box 15 Readfield, ME 04355 (207) 626-3889 wwww.cornerstonecottage.com

MARYLANDSimplyBed&BreadCheryl Hoopes 208 Mt. Vernon Ave Chestertown, MD 21620 (410) 778-4359 simplybedandbread.com

bedandbreakfastsElizabeth Cole 110 North Morris St Oxford, MD 21654 (410) 226-5496 ruffledduckinn.com

MASSACHUSETTSHarborLightInnPeter Conway 58 Washington St Marblehead, MA 01945 (781) 631-2186 www.harborlightinn.com

HarbourHouseInnKenneth Komenda 119 Ocean St Hyannis, MA 02601 (508) 771-1880 www.harborhouseinn.net

TheHighHavenHouseChris Russell PO Box 3350 Oak Bluffs, MA 02557 (508) 693-9204 www.thehighhaven.com

SevenSeaStInnMatthew Parker 7 Sea St Nantucket, MA 02554 (508) 228-3577 www.sevenseaStinn.com

RedHorseInnLLCHamish Hohman 28 Falmouth Heights Rd Falmouth, MA 02540 (508) 548 0053 www.redhorseinn.com

LizzieBordenBed&Breakfast/MuseumLee-ann Wilber 92 Second St Fall River, MA 02721 (508) 675-7333 www.Lizzie-Borden.com

MICHIGANVoyager’sInnB&BCaryn Wilson 210 East St Three Rivers, MI 49093 (269) 279-9260 www.voyagers-inn.com

Queen’sResidenceJoe Queen 220 S Huron St Ypsilanti, MI 48197 (734) 340-2802 www.queensresidence.com

OnEaglesWingsInnBethany Goodman 4159 East Hubbard Rd Midland, MI 48642 (989) 835-2804 www.oneagleswingsinn.com

MINNESOTA MorningGloryBedandBreakfastKaren Herbig 726 NW 2nd Ave Grand Rapids, MN 55744 (218) 326-3978 morningglorybandb.com

HistoricHutchinsonHouseB&BDouglas Schluter 305 2nd St NW Faribault, MN 55021 (507) 384-3291 www.historichutchhouse.com

MISSISSIPPIRiverRanchGina Poage 655 River Rd Hattiesburg, MS 39401 (601) 433-1361 www.visitriverranch.com

MISSOURIGelbachManorRhonda Gelbach 300 S Holden Warrensburg, MO 64093 (660) 747-5085 gelbachmanor.com

LoganberryInnInc.Cathy McGeorge 310 West Seventh St Fulton, MO 65251

LococoHouseBedandBreakfastofSaintCharlesWanda Sumner 1309 North Fifth St Saint Charles, MO 63301 (636) 493-9060 www.lococohousestcharles.com

MONTANAWalkerCreekRetreatDarlene Kechely 7871 Clausen Rd Helena, MT 59601 (406) 449-2552 www.wcrmt.com

NEW JERSEYRiverLineInnBedandBreakfastCindi Vee 204 BRd St Riverton, NJ 08077 (609) 941-9198 www.1875riverlineinn.com

NEW YORKPawlingHouseBarbara Lanman PO Box 414 Pawling, NY 12564 (845) 855-3851 www.pawlinghouse.com

JFKGuestHouseEmeks Ojukwu 134 155th St Jamaica, NY 11434 (718) 219-4103

BrookinsInn&SuitesBeverly Mandaville PO Box 332 Olcott, NY 14126 (716) 870-6244 brookinsinn.com

SoleEastDave Ceva 90 Second House Rd Montauk, NY 11954 (631) 668-2105 www.SoleEast.com

AuntDot’sVictorianB&BDorothy Lockridge 9625 Main Rd East Merion, NY 11939 (631) 477-5903 www.auntdotsvictorianbandb.com

PlatinumPebbleAM Hunton 3021 West River Rd Grand Island, NY 14072

NORTH CAROLINABlackWalnutB&BLori White 288 Montford Ave Asheville, NC 28801 (828) 254-3878 www.blackwalnut.com

BalsamMountainInn&RestaurantKim Shailer 68 Seven Springs Dr, PO Box 40 Balsam, NC 28707 (828) 456-9498 www.balsaminn.cm

TheInnAtOakGroveCharlieShankles3453 Plateau Rd Newton, NC 28658 (828) 322-5326 www.oakgrovenc.com

OHIOBerlinVillageInnDeanna Rausch 5135 State Route 39 Berlin, OH 44610 (330) 893-2861 www.berlinvillageinn.com

HockingHillsDreamscapeHideawayLeona Doughty 16390 Collison Rd Logan, OH 43138 (740) 215-9875 www.dreamscapehideaway.com

VictorianVillageGuesthouseJeff Morton 1149 Neil Ave Columbus, OH 43201 (614) 294-2849 www.victorianvillageguesthouse.com

1830HallauerHouseB&BSusan Woodward 14945 Hallauer Rd Oberlin, OH 44075 (440) 774-3400 www.hallauerhousebnb.com

CarriageHouseCottagesJeff Wilkins PO Box 230 Berlin, OH 44610 (330) 893-1700 www.berlincabins.com

EuclidMotelRohit Patel 18327 Euclid Ave Cleveland, OH 44112 (216) 481-8666

Sojourner’sLodge&LogCabinSuitesGwen Miller 2156 Durstine Rd Dundee, OH 44624 (330) 359-5320

SunriseLogCabinsBruce Wyrick 30080 Phelps Rd. Logan, OH 43138 (740) 385-8722

TheBarnInnPaul Coblentz 6838 County Rd 203 Millersburg, OH 44654 (330) 674-7600

KenyonInnTristan Haas 100 West Wiggin St Gambier, OH 43022 (740) 427-2202 kenyoninn.com

McKenna’sInnJoe Jessen 5714 East Pittsburgh St Port Clinton, OH 43452 (419) 797-6148 www.mckennasinn.com

Rider’sInnPainesvilleElizabeth Crane-Sherman 792 Mentor Ave Painesville, OH 44077 (440) 354-8200

RockVacationRentalSusan Ruehl 672 State Route 247 Manchester, OH 45144 (937) 549-4855

SimplePleasuresBed&BreakfastOwen Shevlin 1004 St Rt. 62 Wilmot, OH 44689 (330) 473-2084


innkeeping quarterly • summer 201036 • innkeeping quarterly • summer 2010

OREGONNewportBelleB&BNancy Sims 2126 SE OSU Dr Newport, OR 97365 (541) 867-6290 www.newportbelle.com

APaintedLadyInnJody Runge 1927 NE 16th Ave Portland, OR 97212 (503) 335-0070 www.apaintedladyinn.com

PENNSYLVANIAInnsoftheGettysburgAreaEileen Hoover 2350 Baltimore Pike Gettysburg, PA 17325 (717) 337-9508 www.lightnerfarmhouse.com

HillardHouseCecilia Williams 58 West River St Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702 (570) 823-6591 www.hillardhouseinn.com

MansionDistrictInnRoss Porter 905 W. Main St Smethport, PA 16749 (814) 598-7403 www.mansiondistrictinn.com

TheInnonMapleStBed&BreakfastJay D. Roush 115 E. Maple St One block off Route 6 Port Allegany, PA 16743 (814) 642-5171 www.TheInnOnMapleStcom

Bellefonte1885InnPatricia Andriaccio 101 W Linn St Bellefonte, PA 16823

RHODE ISLANDEdgewoodManorB&BRichard Lombardi 232 Norwood Ave Providence, RI 02905 (401) 781-0099 www.providence-lodging.com

SOUTH CAROLINABloomsburyInnBruce Brown 1707 Lyttleton St Camden, SC 29020 (803) 432-5858 bloomsburyinn.com

TENNESSEETownsendGatewayInnPete Girard 8270 State Hwy 73 Townsend, TN 37882 (865) 238-0123

TEXASElmCreekManorMarcia Scarbrough 2287 FM 2739 Muenster, TX 76252 (940) 759-2100 www.elmcreekmanor.com

VERMONTQuimbyCountryLodge&CottagesRay Wojcikewych P.O. Box 20 Averill Vermont, VT 05901 (802) 822-5533 www.quimbycountry.com

ButternutLaneBnBCarol Loveland 32 Butternut Lane Norwich, VT 05055 (802) 649-1549 www.butternutlanebnb.com

JacksonHouseInnRichard Terwelp 114-2 Senior Ln Woodstock, VT 05091

VIRGINIABlueRidgeManorBedandBreakfastDarlene Juliana 90 McAyers Rd Cana, VA 24317 (276) 755-2118 www.blueridgemanorbnb.com

WhiteFenceBed&breakfastKelly Oyama 275 Chapel Rd Stanley, VA 22851 (540) 778-4680 www.whitefencebb.com

KenmoreInnVirginia Horstman 1200 Princess Anne St Fredericksburg, VA 22401 (540) 371-7622 kenmoreinn.com

WASHINGTONShepherd’sInnEllen Berdan 168 Autumn Hts Dr Salkum, WA 98582 (360) 985-2434 www.TheShepherdsInn.com

RunoftheRiverInn&RefugeJanna Bollinger PO Box 285 Leavenworth, WA 98826 (509) 548-7171

MaxwellHouseBed&BreakfastPenny Maxwell Bingham 701 Boyer Ave Walla Walla, WA 99362-2309 (509) 529-4283 www.themaxwellhouse.com

C&CInnattheLakeBlane Coffey 581 S Shore Diamond Lake Rd Newport, WA 99156 (509) 447-5772 www.innatthelake.com

WYOMINGFerrisMansionBed&BreakfastKaye-Marie Wilder 607 West Maple St Rawlins, WY 82301 (307) 710-3961 ferrismansion.com

NEW VENDORSJaneWoosterScottGalleryJohn Girton 1145 Hilltop Dr Redding, CA 96003 (530) 244-5010 [email protected] janewoosterscott.net

PrivateQuartersLuxuryLinensValerie Pugliese 2338 Century Ave Simi Valley, CA 93063 (805) 405-1953 [email protected] www.privatequarters.net/dbv

SiteValetDave Hyndman 11 Newbury Ln Charlottetown, PEI C1A 8W6 (902) 370-3444 [email protected] www.sitevalet.com

SunsetHillStonewareLLCThomas Dunsirn 1416 S. Commercial St Neenah, WI 54956 (920) 886-1115 [email protected] www.shstoneware.com

Turkishtowels.comBarbaros Ozdogan 125 Broad Ave North Bergen, NJ 07047 (201) 917-3034 [email protected]

ASPIRING INNKEEPERSINTERNATIONALCanadaJohannaRoachOttawa, ON Canada

United KingdomHelenWillsherGravesend, KEN United Kingdom

ALABAMAHansSamiosMadison, AL

ARIZONAFayeComerScottsdale, AZ

CALIFORNIATobyWeissSan Deigo, CA

COLORADODougNapierTelluride, CO

CONNECTICUTIekeScullyWest Simsbury, CT

FLORIDASusanButlerPembroke Pines, FL

FredJeanSunrise, FL

RebeccaYagermanMiami, FL

CarltonBeallBoca Raton, FL

GEORGIANancyStaffordAtlanta, GA

RobinLeberteBuford, GA

KENTUCKYJenniferFoxLedbetter, KY

MASSACHUSETTSChristopherRodriguesBoston, MA

MINNESOTARaymondMohrMinneapolis, MN

CindyStensrudeOttertail, MN

MISSOURIGailBurkehartBranson, MO

MONTANAHeatherAllisonMissoula, MT

NEW JERSEYJohnHemmingsHillsborough, NJ

NORTH CAROLINACydneyCraigCharlotte, NC

PENNSYLVANIAMargaretKollerAmbler, PA

FranklinGreerYork, PA

DavidBlakeMedia, PA

ElizabethAlfreeLincoln University, PA

RHODE ISLANDJoanReillyKingston, RI

TEXASDanWarnerFlower Mound, TX

StaciJamisonArgyle, TX

INTERIM INNKEEPERSMASSACHUSETTSJessicaWatersP.O. Box 609 Conway, MA 01341 (413) 628-1640

TEXASAcesInnkeepingServicesPriscilla Johnson 4312 Bellaire Dr S #202 Ft Worth, TX 76109 (817) 965-3919

AtYourServiceStaffingSolutionsDebbie Bridges 600 Sunset Ter Amarillo, TX 79106 (806) 335-6414

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