• I don’t care what it costs, I love it, I need it, and I’m going…
• I have to carefully consider the cost (it ain’t cheap), but I know it’s worth it, so I’m going…
• I have to carefully consider the cost (it ain’t cheap), and I bet it’s worth it, but I just can’t spend the money this year…
• It’s too expensive.  Period.

And of course, I have a response and two cents for each camp.

I don’t care what it costs, I love it, I need it, and I’m going…

We know – you’re the ones who don the party hats, let loose and just absorb everything you can while you’re at the big event.  Heck, you might have even crossed the line and become a speaker to share your success stories with your peers.  You are our “raving fans,” and we HEART you and can’t wait to see you!

I have to carefully consider the cost (it ain’t cheap), but I know it’s worth it, so I’m going…

Either you’ve carefully saved for the event, or you’re putting it on the credit card, hoping to pay it off when the guests start coming after the ice and snow melt.  You too absorb everything you can, because you know that the return on your investment in coming to the show is very, very good. The more classes you attend…the more people you meet and chat with…the more vendors you talk too…the more you’ll get in return.  We appreciate you taking a risk and investing your time and money in going to an event that is both exhausting and battery-charging at the same time!  It’s not always an easy decision to leave your inn and come to the Innkeeping Show – we know this.  But we also know you are glad for doing it.  We HEART you too!

I have to carefully consider the cost (it ain’t cheap), and I bet it’s worth it, but I just can’t spend the money this year…

It’s been a tough year – maybe even a tough two or three years for some of you.  Running a successful B&B is plainly not easy.  It takes a lot of hard work and you have to keep up with the trends.  If you are getting loads of continuing education throughout the year by attending state B&B conferences, webinars, etc, then I have confidence you’re doing everything you can to keep your business afloat or thriving.  While I think there is no educational experience in our industry that can compete or compare with the Innkeeping Show, and if you’ve been soaking up as much education as you can through other means, I can’t argue with you if you just don’t have the cash and have maxed out your credit cards.  But, if you have some room on the credit cards or have just a little money socked away, you should reconsider your decision to not come to the big event.  Nearly every single innkeeper who attends finds it an amazing value and they bring back ideas that either save them money or make them money – more money than what they spend to come to the show.  The old adage is you have to spend money to make money…and I hate to say it, but it’s very true when it comes to attending an event like the Innkeeping Show.  You won’t regret it.  I’ll bet that among the thousands of innkeepers who have attended our show over the years, we might be able to dig up less than 10 who regretted their decision to come, because it wasn’t a good value.  We want to see you in Austin!  Change your mind!  We HEART you too and want to give you big hugs in Austin!

My business is too small.  The conference is too expensive.  Period.

We often hear from innkeepers who have 3, 4 or 5-room B&Bs, who might also have an ADR around $100 or less, that it just doesn’t make sense to spend “that kind of money” to go to the Innkeeping Show.  I hear you, and I can’t disagree strongly with you.  The fact is that attending our show is expensive.  It’s expensive (travel, lodging, etc), but also valuable and worth the expense for those who experience it.  But there is the issue of scale to consider.  If the gross income for your B&B is $65,000 per year, I can understand why you would opt out of attending a large-scale conference that isn’t cheap.  We know there are a lot of you out there in this camp, and we’re going to do our best to figure out a solution for you.  There certainly are less expensive ways to get your continuing education (PAII’s eLearning series of webinars as an example – included with Gold and Platinum memberships, and only $49 for Silver Members), and we hope you’re taking advantage of those.  Don’t forget our publications, like Innkeeping Quarterly, INNfo and innkeeping – great educational tools that don’t have an added fee.  But…there’s still nothing like meeting face-to-face with your peers, sitting in a classroom with a really smart speaker at the microphone, walking the show floor and seeing the new products, etc.  We want to find ways to make it more affordable for all innkeepers, and still deliver a top-notch experience.  So, please know that the PAII staff is hard at work figuring out how to make our conference more affordable – just like we recently made membership more affordable.  Heck, EVERY innkeeper should now be able to afford membership in PAII, with rates as low as $89 per year.  Like our membership offerings, we want to figure out how to make the Innkeeping Show as affordable and accessible as possible.   In the meantime, you’ll still find innkeepers of very small properties at the show, learning an amazing amount to make their lives easier and business checkbooks fatter.  They are interested in making 2010 more successful than 2009.  As trade associations go, PAII is relatively small.  We could compare ourselves to the 3, 4 or 5-room B&B.  Yet, every year without fail I attend the annual gathering of the American Society of Association Executives.  Compared to the Innkeeping Show price tag of about $400, it costs $800 to attend ASAE’s event!  Not to mention, travel, lodging, meals, etc.  But I will go every single year, as long as I’m an association executive and no matter what size budget I might oversee.  For the innkeepers who think the show is too big for them, we HEART you too and still want to see you at the show!

It’s funny – we often hear criticisms that “PAII is only for the little guys”…and we hear that “PAII is only for the big guys.”  The fact is, we exist for and serve ALL innkeepers, from the 1-room B&B in rural Missouri to the 30-room inn in Santa Barbara, California.  The Innkeeping Show exists for all of you too!  Every single one of you would get something amazing out of attending.  If you’re on the fence, then fall off the fence on the side of attending.  If you had committed to NOT coming, give it one more serious reconsideration.  It’s not too late.  Register today!

Off my soap box now, and down to the basement to grab my snow shovel.  See you all soon – I hope!

Jay

Heather Tyreman
Bronze Antler B&B
Joseph, OR

Greetings from Atlanta and the 2009 PAII Conference! Today’s pre-conference activity included the Association Leaders Meeting. Twenty-five innkeeper-leaders from across the United States and Canada assembled for a full day of idea gathering, presentations and collective thinking. Of course, a tasty salmon filet lunch didn’t hurt either. Roll the tape! (The session was recorded.)

The meeting started off with a local presentation by Janet Cochran, the Northwest Georgia Historic High Country Regional Tourism Representative for the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GA’s home for state level tourism). GA divides its state into 9 marketing regions with a representative for each. Janet gave us an overview what the state office does to promote travel in the state. One particularly notable fact–any lodging entity in Georgia can be listed on the state’s website at no charge!

Jeff Logan from InsideOut Solutions continued the morning with a detailed presentation, “Effective Internet Marketing Tactics for B&B Association Websites.” Very interesting and definitely useful. Jeff touched on the importance of incorporating blogging, Google maps and photos into bed and breakfast association websites. He encouraged associations to post specials and events to provide more fresh content. Using free products such as Google docs and Google analytics are also good ideas. Jeff provided some interesting, limited statistics about association websites.

On an annual basis:
74,000 visitors per year (202 per day)
normal visit length is 5:15 minutes
55% of site visitors originate from within the site’s home state

Lastly, Jeff spoke extensively about effective search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing tactics for associations. He wrapped up with things to watch for when launching a new site and pitfalls to avoid. All in all, a thorough presentation from an industry professional.

Stop the tape! (Everything from here on is committed to memory.)

The afternoon was an off-the-record, animated, interactive session led by Jay Karen, PAII’s CEO. Jay started off by noting that there’s a Twitter feed live on his blog to capture conference tweets.

Of course, I can’t reveal everything that came from this session, but can reveal a few details:
- PAII mails out over 16,000 copies of the Innkeeping Quarterly magazine to both members and nonmembers. What a great source of information!
- PAII staff members are available to speak on a variety of subjects. They’re a good resource if you’re planning a local conference.
- The industry study of finance and operations is soon to wrap up. If you haven’t sent in your data, please do so soon. More data makes for more robust study results.
- Key Connections, PAII’s new newsletter targeting communication between PAII and state associations and other allied leadership groups, is on the street.

Lastly, we were given a sneak preview of PAII’s new website and asked for constructive criticism. You know a room full of innkeepers, especially leaders, aren’t short on opinions!

All in all, it was a very successful, eye-opening day. It was enjoyable meeting so many innkeeper leaders and talking about what’s happening in their states and provinces. Geez, it’s worth taking a spin on your bed and breakfast organization’s board of directors just to have the opportunity to attend!

And, if you’d like to see this blog post with links and photos, please see it on the Bronze Antler Bed & Breakfast blog, http://blog.bronzeantler.com.

1. Having a fantastic time at dinner with some innkeepers from Texas, all of us highly anticipating a fantastic Innkeeping Show in Austin next March. The Texas B&B Association is helping us with the event, and we’re sure to have some wonderful experiences in store for everyone. Thanks Carol et al for your support.
2. Seeing a gorilla walk through the ballroom during our “State of the Industry” general session. It’s one of those things where you had to be there to understand. If you were not there, and you’re curious, drop me an email and I’ll tell you about it. I must have been laughing (on stage during a professional forum) for five minutes after the prank.
3. Having a late-night beer with Tim and Amy Brady, innkeepers extraordinaire from Brattleboro, Vermont, and coming up with some fantastic ideas for PAII.
4. Each evening seeing the Tweets posted on the live Twitter feed at www.innkeepingblog.com. I was pleasantly surprised with the number of conference attendees who were sharing their experiences via Twitter.
5. During the opening key note, listening to an innkeeper tell her story about when she damaged her giant RV in front of one of the Disney hotels in Orlando, which caused the holding tank to spill all over the front entrance…and how wonderfully the Disney staff handled her crisis. The story was priceless and the timing was perfect.
6. Seeing Lynnette Scofield from the William Henry Miller Inn in Ithaca, New York, throw her leg up on the stage during her spin around the dance floor during the Great Innkeeper Idea Fair. Seeing our members dance with professional ballroom dancers was so much fun!

What we hope to accomplish with running a large conference like the Innkeeping Conference & Trade Show is to create memories for those who come. What memories are you helping to create with your guests? I stayed at a handful of B&Bs with my wife before I took the job at PAII, and there is a range of memories that remain with me. Without naming the names of the inns (in some cases I really can’t remember), I’ll mention what I can recall. I don’t know why exactly these are the primary memories, but they are:

· Rock Hill, SC – the innkeeper had a wonderful Southern accent and AMAZING biscuits at breakfast (which she pronounced charmingly as “bre-fiss”)
· Carmel, CA – very clean place and tasty breakfast
· St. Augustine, FL – difficult to navigate around the property with our luggage at night when we arrived
· Long Island – the room felt run down, as though it had not been updated or freshened-up in 20+ years
· Farmville, VA – engaging innkeeper and great suggestions for a jogging route

So I ask you, the innkeeper, vendor or whoever you may be – what memories are you creating? Do you know? Online reviews are one thing, but lasting memories are another.

I had a fantastic time in Atlanta seeing familiar faces and making new friends in this industry. Thanks to everyone who came.

Now that we’re halfway through the last day of the 2009 Innkeeping Show And Conference here in Atlanta, I—as a first-time attendee—am stealing a few moments away from all the activities to log a few observations:
1. You don’t have to eat all the desserts. Of which there are lots and lots to sample. PAII and its sponsors treat you well, but it’s up to you—if you can—to exercise self-control when it comes to the many dessert breaks between workshops, on the marketplace floor, and at Wednesday night’s fabulous Dixieland Dessert Party.
2. The Lenox Mall in Buckhead, Atlanta’s Beverly Hills, is not the place to hunt for bargains. OK, so maybe I shouldn’t be admitting that Pam Hatch, our inn’s General Manager, and I snuck away from the show to shop. But it was only for two hours—honest! And how could we not sample a teensy bit of our host city’s delights. We took the MARTA train from the Hyatt, where the show is located, right to the mall. Quick and easy. The mall is huge, gorgeous and home to every high end apparel purveyor in the nation. None of which seem to be feeling the economic crunch, at least if you look at their price tags. But, it’s fun to window-shop.
3. Innkeepers are great dancers. As evidenced by last night’s amazing Great Innkeeper Idea Fair, which was modeled on Dancing with the Stars. Innkeepers who submitted ideas to share with the audience first had to dance a tango or rumba with a professional ballroom dancer and were then judged on both their dance flair and their ideas. Loads of fun. Brave innkeepers. And really terrific ideas to take home.
4. PAII is a wonderful community. There’s a nice camaraderie here and it’s so much fun to share questions, answers and ideas with innkeepers from all over the country as well as with industry leaders. Although I’ve never been to a PAII event before, I have been to two other trade shows already this year. Because they combine lodging association members with lodging buyers, the pressure is always on to network with an eye toward gaining future business. They’re also fun and informative, but you don’t feel you can relax and learn at the same time like you can here at PAII.
5. There’s LOTS to learn. I’ve taken pages and pages of notes, all liberally strewed with stars, exclamation marks and underlines. Can’t wait to get home and put them all into action.
6. Sharing is fun. It’s so rewarding to discuss issues or concerns newbies in the industry and see the look of anxiety on their faces replaced with one of understanding. And to know that someone else is there to do the same for me. ___________________________________________________

Kristie Rosset
Lookout Point Lakeside Inn
Hot Springs, AR

It’s been my pleasure to serve as a Buddy for the PAII conference, checking in with a couple of newbie innkeepers or folks attending the PAII conference for the first time. The trade show has been a buzz of excitement and conversation, not to mention darn good desserts. (Today, the afternoon break included huge canisters of grande malted milk balls, popcorn, sweet & sour balls, and gummy worms–how fun!). How fun to watch the expressions of first timers as they explore the vendors, mingle with innkeepers, and absorb all of the terrific information. One of my new friends is Gary, from Auburn, Alabama. After two days of sessions and workshops, he was FIRED up! When asked what were the two best things about the conference so far, he thought first, and then replied “learning how to better package the inn & weddings, and just being around all these wonderful innkeepers who truly understand our lives!” Gary was grinning from ear to ear. Tonight at the Great Idea Innkeeper Fair, with Dancing With the Stars Judge Impersonators, each innkeeper danced with a professional dancer to the rumba or samba. Wow! Do some innkeepers have two left feet (or maybe just too many knee or hip replacements.) But you should have seen Lynnette from Ithaca show a bit of leg, trying to improve the judge’s scores! The crowd was hysterical! Jan’s idea for the sample itinerary won the most votes. Congratulations for ALL the great ideas! My brain is tired and overloaded, I’ve eaten too many great desserts, my face hurts from laughing so much, and I’m energized and excited about innkeeping. Can’t wait until tomorrow–learning more and enjoying the satisfying company of terrific innkeepers. If you weren’t able to attend–put it on your calendar and in your budget for 2010 in Austin!
___________________________________________________

Sarah Wilcox
Mountain Laurel Inn
Mentone, AL

“April Fool’s Day at the PAII Conference”

Another wonderful day in Atlanta at the PAII conference. Although the weather wasn’t inviting outside until later, the day inside was bright with ideas and information. The day started off with a panel discussion titled Mastering Online Reviews and Reputation management. It was the hot topic referred to all day so it is definitely a session to receive a copy of if you missed the wisdom today. The Super Session I attended was Customers For Life by Dr. Gloria Wright who is a southerner who knows how to entertain and to inform. Following this session, I had signed up for a one on one appointment with Acorn Internet Services. Several of the vendors offered this service this year. It was great to have uninterrupted time with a professional that I could discuss any aspect of my website/marketing needs. As always, the vendors were very helpful and informative. After my time with Acorn, I headed down to the Trade Show to make some purchases with some vendors that I had been contemplating overnight. It is time to replenish my gift shop with giftware from several of the vendors such as DNJ specialties and Demean Pottery. Let’s all remember to support our PAII vendors. I also just chatted with vendors that I use but don’t necessarily need any items from at this time such as Burco and James Wolf. It was also a good day to run into some innkeepers that I had met in the past from Tennessee and one from Alabama that is new to the business. Of course, the desserts and afternoon snacks helped me to see these people. I even had the chance to speak to PAII’s chief: Jay Karen while I was picking up my commemorative Deneen Mug. As always, PAII conferences give me so many ideas to consider. The afternoon sessions: Increase business during the slow season and the next level of Marketing gave me lots of homework as I try out new ideas and tweak the old ones. Both sessions allowed innkeepers to offer their ideas too which was very beneficial. If you are not here in Atlanta, don’t be a fool and order the tapes. Need to go rest my brain and my feet before the gala tonight!

We’ve been to nearly every PAII conference in the past 11 years and this is one of the best, the most needed, or both! As a vendor we’re enjoying meeting or reconnecting with so many innkeepers as well as the other vendors committed to this industry. The camaraderie and enthusiasm are infectious and just what we all really need in these uncertain economic times. For the innkeepers who are not here, you are missed; however, I recommend you contact PAII and consider ordering tapes of the sessions because the feedback from innkeepers is fantastic.

_______________________________________

David Lifson
waffl.com
Brooklyn, NY

Hi everyone! This is Dave from waffl.com. We just launched our new website for innkeepers yesterday at the Innkeeping Show. (Really – we turned the website on at 11am yesterday, it was a great first day.) I just wanted to say how great it’s been getting to meet so many innkeepers in person, and to finally be able to introduce ourselves here on the PAII forums. 40 innkeepers signed up with us yesterday (about 10 an hour) because, hey, who doesn’t love free stuff? (Really, it’s free, we don’t make any money. We will one day – by offering upgrades to your account – but the website you build and list on waffl.com is yours for free, forever. )

Also, a big thank you to Marlene from PAII, who has been AWESOME. Everything is going so smoothly.

Finally, I saw some posts about Twitter – we’re @waffl on Twitter (http://twitter.com/waffl). If you need some help signing up or have some questions, we’d be happy to send you an invitation and chat with you about it. You can email me at dave@waffl.com.

So long for now… if you want to follow along, check out our twitter or our blog – http://blog.waffl.com.

Amy and I took the trek to our second PAII conference this year. We arrived yesterday evening and luckily caught one of Jay Karens “tweets” about taking the MARTA which saved us $36… When we got off the train it was all uphill (literally) when at the top we found a Chick-fil-a (none of those in VT and the sweet tea rocks!).

Checked in and got all signed in and set up with the folks from PAII (friendly as always). Nice hotel, well appointed contemporary room, with a reasonable $6 bottle of water perched next to the 36 inch LCD… (actually the furnishings and tech appointments are really nicely done here, but its pricey…the internet access I am using is costing me $15 per day…so score 2 for our small inns! I won’t even mention the $19 bagel with lox on the room service menu!)

The keynote speaker (Dennis Snow) brought us back to Disney with a funny and informative session on dealing with difficult guests. Peppered with humorous life experiences from his times working in the Disney trenches, his message was a perfect mix of inspiration and practicality.

After the keynote we went our separate ways (I am the geek – Amy is the cook) and I headed to the Super Session on getting inside the heads of our guests with Peter Yesawich. The session set a good tone for the conference, taking a look at the economy and its impact on our industry, introducing some new concepts and sharing some good forecast data for the coming year.

Plus there was this gorilla….

Next we perused the trade show floor, planning our purchases for the year while enjoying some snacks and some more sweet tea (a nice touch).

The first afternoon session was one I presented for, Automating your inn, which I thought went well – but I suppose the feedback forms will tell all… hopefully those $5 bills i passed out helped…

The last session of the day I attended was Marti Maynes PR For Masters. I attended this last year as well and gained more from each experience. Marti really knows her stuff and I really think that a 3 hour session with her would only double the amount I took away. Luckily she offered a copy of the presentation so I can read it more closely – it was filled with great links and information on creative marketing and dealing with the press. So come on media – I’m ready for ya!

Finally we wrapped the day up back on the trade show floor for another quick once over, some shopping and more snacks (really, nice touch).

Tonight we had the great pleasure of meeting up with some guests who stayed at our inn in Vermont last year. They saw on our blog that we were headed to their turf (Atlanta) and invited us out. There really is nothing more rewarding about this profession than a moment like that. Complete strangers turned friends in a matter of days. The perfect wrap to a great first day at the 2009 PAII conference in Atlanta…