The Innkeeping Blog

Attendees at the Nebraska Association of Bed and Breakfast conference earlier this month

Would you cook an omelet without the egg?  Would you offer morning coffee without cream and sugar to your guests?  You could do the above things, but it just wouldn’t work as well, would it?  The same can be said for trying to run a state, provincial or local B&B association, or even PAII, without input and involvement from the membership.  There is a disturbing pattern at many B&B associations, from what I observe – a critically few members do all of the work to keep the organization going, and these folks are getting burned out.  This causes a bit of a “vicious cycle” to occur –association members complain they’re not getting enough out of their association and might not renew (or non-members will say the same about not joining) > association tries to involve members in regional meetings, state meetings, board meetings, ANY meeting to discuss how to improve the work and value of the association > the same few people attend everything > the same few people end up DOING everything > the association tends to lack progress they need or desire > same uninvolved association members complain or stay silent > same burned out association volunteers try again.  I believe strongly in the value of local B&B associations – I’d love to see all of them succeed, be progressive and have strong membership bases.

More and more, association members view their involvement in associations simply as consumers – I will pay dues only if you can clearly show me a financial return.  The problem is … associations (especially those run exclusively or mostly be volunteer members) are not like retail shops or typical corporations.  If an association doesn’t have legions of staff to do all the work and stimulate necessary progress and innovation, then the responsibility falls to the membership and volunteers.  Customers don’t volunteer to help keep a retail operation alive.  Your own B&B guests don’t convene to determine ways to make sure you stay in business.  But when associations are prescribed to change leadership every few years, there is a need for people to rotate into those leadership positions to make sure the organization stays on course.

I apologize for the negative bent of this post, but oftentimes peers tend to be overly polite with each other and may not draw attention to the fact that their friends and colleagues aren’t helping to carry the water of the organization.  My hope for all B&B associations is for more members to get involved and answer the call when volunteers are needed…to support the organization through your dues even if every dollar can’t always be traced back to a reservation…to encourage other innkeepers to belong to the association.  Remember – the whole point of having an association is to accomplish in a collective way what you cannot accomplish as an individual.  The operative word in that sentence is “collective.”  You cannot have a collective effort when only four or five are doing everything…every year.

Read more »

With Maybelle Beasley, executive director of the Bed and Breakfast Association of Mississippi, just before I judged the Innkeeper Cook-Off.

I just love coming to Mississippi and Louisiana to visit with the innkeepers in these two states.  Fortunately for my travel schedule, they host a combined annual conference, and this week it was in Natchez, Mississippi.  Thank you to Peter Sharp (President of BBAM and innkeeper at the Fairview Inn in Jackson, MS) for having me as the opening speaker and for allowing me to judge the Innkeeper Cook-Off.  What a blast!  It wasn’t easy tasting 10 dishes.

I was thrilled to present some of the most important and interesting findings of our newly released 2009-2010 Industry Study of Innkeeping Operations and Finance.  We’ll have a press release soon with some highlights, and innkeepers who contributed data to the study should already have their free copies by way of email.

Read more »

I’ve asked some folks at the INnkeeping Show here in Atlanta to “guest blog” about their experiences. These are being cross-posted to the PAII member forum.

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.

Read more »

That’s not a typo. It’s just a long acronym. It stands for “what have you done for me lately?” I suppose we’re not always best at tooting our own horn, but we have some fantastic things going on I want to share with everyone – a few things we’ve already announced and others that will be news to members. As I travel to state association meetings throughout the country, I’m often asked by non-members (including many former members) about what PAII is like today and what we are doing. Similarly, when we talk to busy members about renewing their membership, we find many have been too busy to really pay attention to what’s happening. You pay dues to PAII – so you should know what’s happening. Here’s a short list of what’s happening now. There’s a lot more in the on-deck circle, so stay tuned for more!

Prescription Drug Program
Soon PAII members will be receiving in the mail a letter and two cards that give you access to discount prices on prescription drugs at nearly all major pharmacies. We know being self-employed doesn’t always afford you the best health coverage, including many times weak or no pharmacy coverage. With this card, you and your family can enjoy attractive savings. If you don’t want to wait for the direct mail piece, simply go to http://www.sunrxdiscount.com/paii to print your own card now. At this web site you can go ahead and check the prices you’ll pay for your prescriptions – both over-the-counter and mail order. This is not an insurance program, but rather a nationwide discount program. If you have good prescription coverage, this program might not benefit you – but do yourself a favor and check it out! I’ve been using the card myself, and have enjoyed the savings.

IQ Circulation

Beginning this January, Innkeeping Quarterly magazine will be circulated to all innkeepers throughout the United States, not just PAII members. To date we’ve been sending this leading trade publication to members every quarter, as well as a different group of 3,000 non-member innkeepers. The advertisers want the greater reach, and we believe the entire industry should be reading the timely content in this publication. We’re looking for a few good writers! If you have significant writing experience and want to contribute to the industry’s only trade magazine, please email Ingrid Thorson at ingrid@paii.org

Read more »