As many of you know, Rebecca and I have moved our base of operation from Maine to Southwest Florida.  What started as a vacation a year ago has turned into a permanent move to a place as close to paradise as we have ever found.  We are both profoundly happy with our decision, and have made Florida our permanent residence.  We will likely be back to New England during some time each summer, and, despite rumors to the contrary, we continue to work at Quantum Hospitality to help both present and prospective Innkeepers.  However, the focus of our business has changed, and we wanted to explain what we are currently doing with this business. Continue reading Our New Focus of Business.

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Rebecca and I have finally taken the plunge to new quarters for ourselves and our businesses.  We have relocated for the winter months to Estero, Florida which is a suburb of Naples on Florida’s west coast.  We are thrilled with our new home, and are now up and running on continuing to service our clients.  We fully expect to be back in New England to our home in Damariscotta, Maine next spring, but for now we are enjoying the wonderful Florida weather.   Our telephone number for Quantum has been changed to 207-370-4450 so that we can be reached directly wherever we are traveling.  This is the best way to reach us for our Quantum clients and those of you who have listed your inns on our Inns-For-Sale Website.   If you have any questions or just want to renew acquaintences, please give us a call.  We are always happy to talk to our Innkeeper friends and all of the prospective Innkeepers out there!

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We tell all of our Inn Consulting clients that their website must remain fresh and full of good content to not only attract new customers but to retain existing ones as well.  Now it is time for us to take our own advice.  Even though this version of our website is only a very few years old, a lot of the information is out of date and needs to be refreshed.  We spend a lot of time working on new content via our Blog, since that will help drive customers to the website.  Now we must remember to continually update the website itself, so that once we get our customers to have a look, they will remember us and hopefully come back for a repeat visit.  Isn’t that what Inn websites are all about as well? Continue reading New Website on the Way!

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The following comments were prepared for the Spring Meeting of the Distinctive Inns of New England.  This is an incredible group of Inns for whom we are privileged to act as the facilitators.  They meet twice a year to decide on their group marketing efforts and to catch up on important topics of concern to the Inn Industry.  We offer you a glimpse into these topics with the hopes that they will be of help to both Innkeepers and those who would like to be in our business.  Continue reading State of the Inn Industry 2010

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A brand new Innkeeper remarked to me that they had spent a lot of time prior to buying the Inn discovering why people came there.  With that knowledge, they were going to change their marketing plans to try to attract as many of those people as possible.  As he said, “People can read a book anywhere.  We have to know why they want to come to our Inn.”  This struck me as being on the right track.  Now he needed to expand this planning process to include all of the questions necessary for Innkeepers to devise a comprehensive marketing plan for their Inn.  This topic will explore these five marketing questions in greater depth with the hope that it will help Innkeepers to discover the information that is critical to marketing planning. Continue reading The Five Marketing Questions for Innkeepers

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We are very happy to announce that we have sold the Run of the River Inn and Refuge in Washington.  This is a lovely 7 room bed and breakfast that is known for its excellence in providing a refuge for its guests from their busy lifestyles.  The Inn was owned for 23 years by Monty and Karen Turner and we congratulate them on their retirement.  We represented the seller in this transaction, but also assisted the buyer with regards to all closing details including obtaining financing and an SBA 504 loan. 

Join us in welcoming Stephen and Janna Bollinger as of the new owners of Run of the River Inn and Refuge!

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When buying a Bed and Breakfast there is much to learn, especially during the first year.  We have seen new Innkeepers purchase their Inns and think that they completely understand innkeeping, even when they have never experienced it.  Add a restaurant at the Inn on top of this, and it is even more complicated.  As a past Innkeeper with a dining room, I completely understand the dining room concept and the complications.  It usually takes  about five years for Innkeepers to reach out and ask for help, and unfortunately in many cases it is just too late.  Maybe our Innkeeper friends can help us in stopping this trend, and that is just what I am asking for. 

So let me set the stage.  Most buyers do not have previous experience and if so it is usually minimal, as in a part-time job.  Add to this equation, a dining room.  How can they be successful without any education of running a dining or Inn especially if the previous owner does not participate in the transition?  What would you suggest that they do to make sure they are successful? 

Help us, help them by submitting your comments!

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The one true factor in tough economic times is that most businesses, especially Innkeepers, need to increase their marketing budgets to retain market share and hopefully maintain or even increase revenue.  No question that this is getting harder to do as more internet companies shift from “free services” to business models designed to produce revenue.  Simply put, in this world of ever more complicated electronic marketing outlets, it is more important than ever to stay connected and at the cutting edge of all of this technology.  This means a commitment of time, and since Innkeepers have little available time, this means more marketing spending.  What follows are some thoughts on putting planning behind this effort rather than chasing ever more expensive trends. Continue reading Innkeeping: Planning your 2010 Marketing Budget.

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The comments to our recent blog post on maintaining conversations with bed and breakfast guests on Twitter really helped to expand the discussion.  Both Karen Thorne from the UK (@HoptonhouseBnB) and Heather Turner (@forfeng) added several suggestions for Innkeepers to try to expand the return on investment of their Social Media Marketing efforts.  In this post, I am going to summarize all of these comments into one “Best Practices” post for reaching your guests via Social Media Marketing. Continue reading Best Practices for Reaching your Guests on Social Media

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A lot of Innkeepers have found out that Social Media like Twitter and Facebook are great ways to reach your customers.  Social Media Marketing is all about conversation and trust with your customers, i.e. your guests.   Many Innkeepers who are on Twitter and Facebook have many followers or fans who are other Innkeepers.  In fact, the Innkeepers on these social media sites have consistently grown to a large and thriving community.  This business-to-business community is a great way to explore the many issues and challenges of Innkeeping, but does it really drive business to the Inns?  We each have to test all of the time spent on Twitter and Facebook against the real return on investment like any other marketing methods.  In other words, are the guests or prospective guests listening to you?  This post will explore how to improve the conversation with your guests on Social Media, and how to create specific goals for this marketing effort.    Continue reading Twitter Conversations with your Inn Guests.

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