June 11, 2010

Why stay at Inns? I can’t believe when I stay at an Inn that I have never been to before, that there is yet one more way, that the Inn-keepers can be different, and running their Inn uniquely from any other place that I have been. Yes, it is partly the setting, it is always the charm and taste, that individual décor, the authenticity of the art work, the beautifully appointed public areas, an oriental rug, a painting, that just makes me breathe easy. I feel a sense of being in the right place, I feel my choice was more then I could have expected by visiting here; I feel at ease and I just can relax!

So where is this latest haven that we stumbled upon? Try the Guest House at Lost River.  It is in West Virginia among mountain tops. From my window I see well situated homes off in the distance on more mountain tops, its quiet here and the owners who built many of the fancy homes in the area, also created this rambling Inn. From our room we looked down on many rooftops and turrets, and there are decks for every accommodation and a pool to cool yourself among it all!

You can hike up roads, right off the property, bicycle and work out at the spa. Exercise and exhaust yourself and then opt for a massage… or sit in the hot tub. It is all so smoothly luxuriously easy. As the sun sets, twilight descends, fog lies on the mountain tops and the light of the homes twinkle like stars in the night. If you didn’t find a good book, or didn’t bring one either, it is really okay to absorb the serenity of this place. You might find a place to sit on a deck of the common room, might consider a cocktail, and sit by the beautifully crafted bar, and linger there until it is time to dine.

The Inn-keepers are relaxed, gracious and reserved and are always present to attend to your needs. The staff is cheerful and quietly going about doing their business: want to go away? Stay in well appointed rooms, get spoiled?  Well why not research their website: www.guesthouseatlostriver.com and speak with either Bob or David, the owners. I know that you will have a great stay there, and what amazing beauty lingers in those hills! Let’s go, see you there! Heide

For 30 years we have worked to promote hospitality throughout the USA; and we owned the 3 Mountain Inn for about 5 years, in Jamaica, Vermont. Our business is to promote viable Inn and B&B businesses, to teach in our seminars the financial and personal qualifications to be successful Inn-keepers. We give workshops at National Meetings, for such organizations as PAII and Select Registry and we have been asked by many State organizations to be presenters.

Last month we were awarded the National Merit Award for Outstanding Contributions to the hospitality Industry in Austin Texas; the last time I spoke at a Vermont Hospitality Meeting was over 20 years ago!

At our Inn the Motto was: “We give you Vermont” We supported the “fresh network”, served local eggs, meats and fresh fish. Quality in décor, service and amenities was our goal at the Inn and is in our seminars that we offer throughout the U.S. Why as a State should you support Hospitality, because it brings lots of different folks, and they spend lots of money in our communities adding to the health of our economy! Rooms and Meals taxes and sales tax revenues are an important component of state revenue.  What we need now more then ever is a strong and active Tourism Promotion Task force! Are you aware that these guests are supportive of our local Artists, Musical Performances, Farmers Markets, support the Apple/ Fruit growers and keep our rural fields open and productive? The State needs to promote the hiking/biking trails, Maple –Sugaring times, our National Forests, Parks and our local Museums: give locations, times, maps and when best to visit etc.

We need to unite and make our talents and ample activities known… not by one Inn or B&B , but as a town, as a State and get the revenues that hospitality earns reinvested in our Farmers , keeping their fields open, keep our State rural and beautiful!

It is an embarrassment to see lunch tables set by States at our National Conventions, and Vermont attendees sit with either:  New Hampshire, Maine, or Massachusetts tables on which the topic is to discuss their State Association. What is wrong with that picture?

Today the strongest support for the hospitality is a Marketing Program that encompasses all Hospitality properties and a strong State support for standards and quality for all hospitality ownerships. Let’s be wise, and be Ambassadors to our communities and bring many new guests to our State by increasing their awareness of what we have to offer. Let us create the most productive State Association and embrace this little motto: “We give you Vermont! “

The PAII conference in Austin, Texas was exciting; packed with great information, from tech stuff galore to the daily tasks that allow for more professionalism in our trade. Vendors displayed their wares, the newest trends, the best amenities, plenty of pertinent information that should not have been missed! Did you miss it? I am sorry! What you also missed was that Bill and I received the first annual “Award of Merit” an award for our long service to this industry!  I was so touched that it was hard for me to grasp its meaning. Thank you to the PAII board, thank you Jay and Michele and to all of you, who shared our special moment.

Well yes, we have been coming to these meetings for a long time…especially Bill, from the days of Mary Davies, even before Pat and JoAnn…before we were grown ups in this industry!  So many Innkeepers that I met then, are retired today, and many vendors have faded into oblivion. Norman Simpson a haloed ghost to many of you today, came to speak at one of our ”How to” seminars at The New England Inn, in Conway N.H. and Elizabeth Squires came to the Tamworth Inn in N.H. These writers’ books were crucial to where we are today.

It was PAII under Pat and JoAnn’s leadership that gathered the many pieces, that built this industry, that promoted you, protected your Inn from regulations designed for hotels, and protected historic buildings from useless restrictions. It was PAII that made Innkeeping professional as it is today, that makes our industry viable! Jay continues these toils today, to advocate for the best information and uphold our place in the hospitality continuum.  But you know, I am so grateful to all of you, thankful to have worked with so many of you,  to witness your strivings to do your best, provide the best service, use the best linens, serve regional foods, be ambassadors to your area, and love what you do. I am so grateful to be part of this industry that adds value and that values our individual efforts. Thank you, thank you for honoring that I (we) have been a part of such a great group of people! Thank you to Jay, our fearless leader, who will further lead us up the road and to Michele and all the staff. To Linda our right hand, brain, memory bank and to all the Innkeepers present or not, we thank you for respecting what we enjoy doing! And Bill, I agree that getting this Award “in the middle of our Career” is pretty awesome!

My love to all, Heide

It’s January and we are embracing a New Year; a new decade! I am stewing about the importance of having values; what were your thoughts to lead you forward to consider Inn-keeping or actually becoming an Inn-keeper? What was it that made you decide to leave the corporate milieu? There is lots of turmoil in our beautiful world; but Inns surround themselves with mountain tops, hills, rivers; inhabiting a spectacular place, embracing a different lifestyle, where personal values and quality mean something! You know, we are the stewards of our well appointed Inns and B&B’s and are ambassadors for our environments. Each of us needs to remember what it was we were seeking when we got ourselves to make this leap; was it quality in our lifestyle, authenticity in establishing relationships, allowing integrity in our behavior, creating our own domain, what was it?

Actually all of whom we come in contact with: our spouse, staff and our guests, benefit from our honest reflections. Some of you have found guidelines for reflection by attending churches of your choice, other seek private or group meetings to gain needed introspection. It matters not which form our contemplation takes, only by attending to our own spirituality that we can become aware that quality and values elude us by inner drives of scattered aims and inattention.

Attending to our values shines in every facet of our personal experience and in appointing our Inn.  Local art-work speaks of our passion for beauty, our well detailed rooms call attention to the great care we have taken to welcome our guests. Friendly polite staff, well trained, ooze the respect they have received by being empowered by the owners to do their best.

Inn-keeping is fraught with details, details and more details. It is a challenge to maintain all that we were seeking when we started out; it is a challenge to be true to our values today in this financially difficult time.

But you know your guests have a choice; they stay with you because of who you are, the quality of your service, the quality of your products, your connections with the locals: Joe, the egg-men, Nancy Miller’s apples in the apple tart. Your presence at the town zoning board might just save the State Park from a new condominium development. And those big eyed well fed cows on the hill-side, keep the meadows pastoral and local slaughtered beef on your menu.

I have stayed at great in-town Inns as well, where shirts and trousers were pressed before dawn, major newspapers kept the businessmen ahead of the news, the lawyer informed of the latest scoop on Wall Street! TV in each room, i-pod connections, hook ups for every imaginable contraption our latest tech is equipped with, and beds so comfy and snugly you cannot imagine you want to rise and face the day!

It’s a new decade!  Be the Inn that is the most generous in spirit, décor and service and make this your best year, ever. The “corporates” are starved for a great experience, arranged by you, and fed with the most delectable morsels from your local community. How are you going to do all that? By taking especially good care of yourself!    Heide

Happy New Year to you all out there! It is always startling to realize another year has passed. We are beginning a new era; it’s now the year 2010 … awesome! Out of my window the wind is blowing, snow has been pushed up into piles, and the streets are mostly clear, but not the side-walks, so! It is bitter cold here in Vermont, but the sun is shining and it is perfect weather for skiing. The Mountain resorts must love these weather reports, but cross-country skiing and ice-skating in the meadow are equally popular around here.

But we didn’t spend the last evening here in Vermont, no, we braved greater horizons: we were off to Ardmore, Oklahoma at the Shiloh Morning Inn. What a beautiful setting for an Inn; their rural landscape with its remote cottages, ponds frozen over, a white rime over every blade of grassy lawn, rolling hills in the distance and the air is cold and frosty, it is wintery here too.

We were there to usher in new Innkeepers, Jessica and David Pfau. They are perfectly matched for the Shiloh Morning Inn. Professionals (she trained and worked as a lawyer in Dallas, TX.) in their demeanor, gracious, enthusiastic and willing to experiment. Where else would you find a new owner practicing New Year’s Day breakfast on his wife New Year’s Eve at midnight? She had to drive into town, a 20 minutes drive, to get the accouterments for our plates to be festive in the Morning.

Coming downstairs to the smell of fresh baked scones, fresh flowers on each table, new art work on the walls; I knew, it was not just a New Year, but a new era had begun at the Shiloh Morning Inn. Congratulations, I am very proud to see a new group of Innkeepers that are joining our Innkeeping industry. Last year we welcomed the owners of Glen-Ella Springs Inn and the Chanticleer Inn both in Georgia. Glen Ella Springs already got an outstanding reward for their excellent cuisine!

I just want to bring great tidings to all of you and let you know how satisfying it feels to have new great Innkeepers join our ranks and keep this industry successful and vital. Happy New Year! Heide

The snow finally fell and stuck.  Four inches, enough that I could snowshoe through our woods…the quiet, the trees laden with snow, boughs bent to block my path: Winter has arrived.

For many of my friends who are Inn-keepers, this is a very busy time of year. I know that the decorating is done, holly on the mantels, wreaths on windows and doors; that Christmas tree lit almost all day (and night). The Santa Claus collection dusted off and cleaned of candle wax, hand-crafted angels spreading joy and goodwill and the old favorite tunes “Santa Claus is coming to Town” variations playing in your Inn.   Holiday parties each night, dining room guests enjoy the table vases filled with balsam twigs and holly berries.

If you have been good at marketing, take on-line reservations, your website inviting your guests by showing your readiness to celebrate, let them know how they can enjoy themselves, that the ski slopes are open, I know that your telephones have been ringing and your rooms are fully booked. Congratulations!

Now, how are you personally? How is your spouse? How about the kids, your personal time for shopping, cooking a meal, putting up your feet, and getting a good nights’ rest?

For Innkeepers this can be a stressful time; it is a time that you give intensely of yourself to bring and create a festive and meaningful time for others and hopefully that brings you joy and gratefulness to be healthy and capable of the ability to do so. Remember your family in your planning for each day, do one special thing to let them know that you care; a little note under their pillow, a cookie set out for them when they get home from school.

Start your day by reviewing the important tasks: I know that the day will evolve, filled with unexpected demands.  Each night take a moment and think of one person that appreciated your service, your decorations, your food, your setting the stage for them to have a good time. Let it be enough… share it with your spouse and your staff the next day. They too need to feel good about all their extra efforts.  After all, teamwork makes your success.

Each evening, when the day is done, just for one moment, in the privacy of your home, light your candle and tell your significant other how important their contribution, their love, their caring was for you today. It will make a great difference! Happy Hanukah, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Heide

October 22, 2009

It has been a while since I sat in front of my computer to write a blog. Why? Summers are filled with family visits to Germany, and cousins visiting us from there. Not to forget our grandchildren, who amused us for a week, stretching our tolerance physically as well as mentally by biking around the Isle la Motte, in Vermont’s Lake Champlain. That was only the beginning; winding our way through a corn maze, staying at the North Hero House: swimming, jet-skiing, island cruising with a guide and having the owner spoil us at his own Island. We ended that vacation by a visit to the Shelburne Museum in Burlington. And whenever we get home …we love our Farm, the fresh vegetables that Bill grows, my flower gardens around the house…the apple trees this year laden with red perfect, delicious apples. Our freezer is full, full, full of good things for this winter consumption! And so is the cupboard, with peach and plum jam or black and red-current jellies and then there are the quince concoctions…

But we did work too, we went to the big Island of Hawaii, what an awesome place and what a great place to have an Inn! Right in the middle of the rain forest, luscious vegetation, beautifully appointed cabins, all within a four-mile drive from the Volcano National Park! Seeing coffee beans grow on trees, the ocean round every bend and those black arid lava fields that stay in your dreams: black and expansive…as far as your eyes take you before landing in the Pacific! We loved our walks in the park and I cherished those quiet early morning jogs.

Well, now I am back in Brattleboro; where the leaves are falling in colorful profusion, and the maples are a deep orange- yellow when I look out of my office window. They too, will soon be beneath our feet. It’s beautiful here.  I am so deeply grateful to be able to see so many unique Inns that are inviting us, hosting us and allowing us to see why they have chosen to be there to welcome their guests. Summer is long over and I am ready to be here! And you all know what follows Fall? Have a great week. Heide

A view from Brattleboro, Vermont.

Most of us are tempted, at times, to seek another profession.  There are not many other countries that offer that opportunity as liberally as this one! So, why not? Then how about considering being an Innkeeper?  You would be your own boss, create a wonderful ambiance for the worn out, tired city folks, (the ones like you before you changed your life around) and you can schmooze  and have the pleasure of giving others  a truly genuine experience at your Inn.

The hook is to get away from corporate America: to the fresh air, to the hills, the bucolic vistas, the slower pace, the unpolluted water, the fresh vegetables and fruits all locally produced and the fish and meats and not contaminated by the production of the 13 large conglomerates that dominate the meat industry.

I was shocked to see the film: “Food Inc. com“.  My 19 year old granddaughter Hannah requested that I see it. Hannah has worked on an organic farm for the last 4 summers, in Guilford, Vt. and she reminded me how important it is that we protect our environment for ourselves but equally important for the guests that come to visit our area.

What we offer our guests is not only our hospitality, but we attract them to our uniqueness, our commitment to a freshness that no longer exists in the cities. We as Innkeepers have to be the stewards of “Farm -Fresh” products, putting on our menu the names of the apple farmer, the local egg-man, the local vegetable and meat farmer, as well as the old time Vermonter who caught the trout down stream and will take your guests on a guided tour.

We can’t support mass feed lots, where animals are force fed to speed up getting them fatter by genetically altered feed! Altered corn in the form of fructose is in the sodas we drink, in milk and yogurts we commercially buy and lots of items we consume without knowing that.

So if you make that commitment to Innkeeping, please consider carefully the commitment that you are willing to make to your environment.  At our seminar I always stress: you are the ambassador to your area, you influence the policies of your town, or city. That is a great contribution, that is being involved, that is caring for your guest and my hat is off to you for choosing to be that kind of  Innkeeper. Have a great rest of the summer! Heide

Walking through our woods in early morning, the air fresh, Chocolat my Weimaraner, sprinting after a scent of maybe a bobcat, deer, porcupine, or chipmunk, pointing at birds, I revel in my good fortune of living in Vermont; on Newfane Hill and toiling in my favorite town, Brattleboro.

Those walks clear my head. But often my thoughts drift easily to Innkeepers I have met, become friends with, and have been privileged to see the changes that occurred to their relationship.

Many of them were at one point prospective Innkeepers, seeking a career that allowed for more autonomy, more freedom to be creative, and more in control of the product they could deliver, and with pride embrace their guests satisfaction and pleasure at having found them and their wonderful Inn.

It is satisfying to see a couple buy an inn and make it their own: there is their enthusiasm, plans to restructure rooms, remodel whole buildings sometimes, new furniture, new king-sized beds, new bathrooms, and maybe fresh flowers setting the final touches of elegance of meticulous décor.

I love this phase of creativity. If the money doesn’t run out, if they bought a viable business, this is the most exciting stage. Guests and owners smile with equal satisfaction and contentment.

So what are the issues, or maybe there are none! What I have observed is that life beyond the creative stage is repetitive; and like creating an Inn, and every so often recreating that Inn (at least every 7 years), our personal life seeks to evolve and we need to find time as individuals, and together as a couple, to reinvent ourselves.

And therein lies the difficulty. We are busy with the daily tasks; those must do lists, and the complications of the roles we assume and perform routinely, that we become unaware of  a sterility, a monotonous response, the lack of love and affection, stimulated by our own lack of interest in self awareness, personal growth.

A couple that I respect deeply are the Innkeepers at the Captain Lord Mansion, in Kennebunkport, Maine. After 30 years in Innkeeping they still have an impressive occupancy (even this summer). You will never visit their Inn without being aware of the changes and upgrades that have occurred since your last visit; but it is the Innkeepers that have evolved, have grown as individuals, have changed themselves. I have witnessed that over the years as they raised their family at the Inn, they reached a critical stage, where they personally had to take stock of their needs as individuals, as well as their need to respect each other as  different and individual, to come together again as a couple.

It is this unique milieu as Innkeepers, that breed of entrepreneurs that allows people again and again to reinvent and rejuvenate not only their Inn but even more importantly the owners. Bev and Rick are not the only stars in this industry but they are the ones that have the longest track record in the Innkeeping industry to my knowledge. Have a great summer!

Heide

After almost 30 years visiting Inns, giving seminars on Innkeeping, consulting in the transfer of hundreds of Inns and B&B’S, our commitment has not varied: we love the Inn business and are proud to be part of this hospitality niche. There is PAII and Select Registry to provide on-going training and updates on every imaginable segment of this business, but we here in Brattleboro, Vermont have tried our best not to let prospective Innkeepers buy Inns that are not right for them. Inns have to be viable businesses and you the prospective buyer need to love serving your guests. Sound easy? Well think again!

The greater hospitality marketplace has taken a hit in the economic slump; but not inns that have further dug into what they do best: giving the guests more than they asked for, eliciting the “wow” out of that satisfied guest.

That doesn’t mean that Inn owners are not worried. The game is that Innkeepers need to stay on top of the curve; being ambassadors to their area, marketing the highlights of their area such as art, music, mapping out hiking or biking trails, easy access to canoe rentals, telling the guests how they can enjoy themselves; and after their muscles ache, relax in the pub and luxuriate with a scheduled massage and dining over a fabulous meal of regional delicacies!

You think that double income person isn’t out there anymore, you are wrong! Chicago, Illinois’ greater area has towns like Galena to escape to, we visited the Bernadine’s Stillman Inn, as well as the Goldmoor, and saw that Mississippi river snaking through the pastoral green meadows and were impressed how much there is to do.

Seattle, Washington is another area. On the foot of Mount Rainier there is the Alexander Country Inn, not fancy but really comfortable, friendly and what a majestic area that Inn is situated in. And at an almost equal distance, there is the town of Seaview. If you love the Pacific Ocean , visit the Lewis and Clark exhibit on a rainy day, or go bicycling for 26 miles along the ocean, then stay at the Shelburne Inn. You might be lucky and the owner will serve you his fresh caught trout for breakfast.

What about Washington D.C. area, or New York and the out-lying towns around the Boston area; how about all the Inns I have visited in  North Carolina and  Georgia. Magic places, I could go on and on and on, there are many great Inns, caring Innkeepers to cater to your whims; who appreciate that you have chosen them and want to give you a piece of their rural world and their gracious hospitality.

Innkeepers are doing well, if they put their heart and soul into what they do! Isn’t that true for anything we do passionately? So go and stay at an Inn and have a great weekend! Heide