Value Added for Bed & Breakfasts

So you ask what is added value for a Bed and Breakfast? It can be many different things, but one of our clients is the Old Field Inn which is located in Intervale, New Hampshire. They have a unique business and 90% of their guests are traveling as families. They have a new Blog and [...]

Innkeepers Get Back to Basics

As we travel to work with Innkeepers this spring, we are hearing the same from everyone. Advance bookings are down. So, what are we suggesting that Innkeepers do? It gets back to the basics. We all know what they are, but it does not hurt to step back and think about them again:
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Do Cancellation Policies Hurt Bed and Breakfasts?

I posed the question on Twitter yesterday as to whether Innkeepers think that their Cancellation Policies help or hurt their businesses.  I received some really interesting answers; not a scientific survey, but the reactions of some very smart people in our Bed and Breakfast Industry.  It turned into a sort of on-line discussion, and Twitter [...]

Is Cutting Prices Right for Bed and Breakfasts?

In the April 23, 2009 Edition of the Wall Street Journal, there is an interesting article by Diana Ransom, entitled “Smart Ways to Cut Prices.”  Ms. Ransom’s theory is that while the pressure on businesses to reduce prices is hard to resist, if price cutting is too severe, the result is lower profits and loss [...]

Bed & Breakfasts Win Over Hotels!

We spent some time over the Holidays with our family outside of Boston. Rather than displace some of my nephews, we tried the closest hotel. This was a large chain hotel on a major route west of Boston with a huge shopping center across the street. While there were several small (3 [...]

Discounting Your Bed & Breakfast Rates Does Not Work

In troubled times like today, Bed and Breakfast Innkeepers have an overwhelming feeling that the best way through this downturn (say recession!) is to put their room rates on sale. Isn’t that just what the retailers do at Christmas time to survive a bad season? The answer is that discounting in the [...]

Optimizing Your Bed & Breakfast

With a clear downturn in the economy facing us, it is really time to put your Inn’s business practices in order. Metrics is the study of measuring past performance so that you can improve your business. The basic concept is that you cannot improve the future without looking at what happened in [...]

Bed & Breakfast Expense Tracking

The only way to improve your Bed and Breakfast or Inn business is to effectively track where you are today and to make realistic goals for the future of your business. At the 2008 PAII Conference Howard Levitan of Quantum Hospitality Group will be discussing the best methods to track where your [...]

Maximizing a Bed & Breakfast’s Profitability

Arden Dale writes in a compelling article published in the Wall Street Journal on January 8, 2008 that “Want to Sell a Business? You May Not Be Ready.” Ms. Dale goes on to state quite cogently that many small business owners are relying on the ultimate sale of their business for their [...]

Bed & Breakfast Front Desk, Is It a Sales Position?

When a call reaches the front desk of an Inn, many times it is just thought of as a telephone call and a potential guest for the Inn. In reality, the front desk is a full powered sales position. This is nothing to shy away from. The sooner that this is acknowledged [...]