The Chocolate Turtle, Corrales, NM, a four guest room Lifestyle Inn

according to the PAII industry studies conducted over the last decade and more.  They are the personification of what the leisure traveling public imagines when they hear the term bed and breakfast.

Up until now, Lifestyle Inns, when considering their exit strategies, have had few options.  The most common avenues for selling a lifestyle inn is a FSBO (For Sale by Owner), which has its pros and cons depending on the skills and time availability for the owners, or to list with a local residential real estate agent who usually does not understand how to market a small lodging business, does not know how to value a lifestyle inn, and is not familiar with the intricacies of the unique lodging industry.  I had a local agent representing a buyer call to set up a tour of an inn for 9am on a Saturday morning…convenient for her buyer, but terribly out of the question for the innkeepers up to their ears with breakfast, check-outs, and turning the rooms for that evening’s check-ins.

Limestone Inn, State College, PA, a 5 guest room Lifestyle Inn

But The B&B Team^® has recently announced their Lifestyle Inns Program™, an alternative for Lifestyle Inns that offers the professionalism of industry-experienced consultants and brokers to help with an inn owner’s exit strategy.  Bushnell & Bushnell Services, an affiliate member of The B&B Team^® is proud to be working with a number of Lifestyle Inns across America.

So what’s in it for you?

• You benefit from our deep cumulative experience as innkeepers, brokers, and consultants with our commitment to ethical practices
• You get results-focused professionals…this is our livelihood, not a hobby.  We succeed by helping you achieve the results YOU want
• You receive unvarnished, credible valuations…important for you since an overpriced inn will just sit and sit on the market and an underpriced inn leaves money on the settlement table…both undesirable outcomes.
• Your inn is presented with a superior (we feel the best!) Buyer’s Offering Report to properly represent the quality of your inn
• You receive our Commitment to Client Communications…you will actually hear from us to keep you informed of progress
• You benefit from our leading industry presence
• Your inn will be featured on the most informational websites in our industry.

Finally…an alternative of significant value for the Lifestyle Inns of America!  …especially in the current economy where results-focused professionalism is critical.     Scott

Being smaller usually limits the amount of help the inn can afford.  3-5 rooms often means doing it all yourself.  6-8 rooms may allow for some part-time help with housekeeping and laundry or sitting the desk.  Such intense and time-consuming involvement by the owners in a 24/7 environment can take its toll.  Taking care of yourself to prevent burnout is a topic at nearly every convention.  I received a call yesterday from some lifestyle innkeepers in Kentucky who are nearing the end of their toleration rope.  Advice in this situation?

• Find that “rhythm” of the inn…the daily routine that manages your time for you.  If housekeeping after breakfast and check-outs is done by 1 pm, take a nap, or sit and read, or enjoy a hobby until the check-ins start strolling in that evening.
• Force yourself into days off.  It is an easy temptation to take your “day off” and catch up on emails, or paying the bills, or shopping.  Before you know it, the day is over and it’s time to get back to work!  Get off for the whole day…play golf, visit the museum you send your guests to, or catch a movie with friends.
• Alternate time off. If you are a couple, plan time for one person covering the inn while the other takes some time off.

Answering the phone is not only interrupts your work, it is too important to ignore!  Having a message that promises you will return the call between certain hours not only has the likelihood of NOT losing the reservation, it allows you to exercise good time management in order to get things done.  Some phone services can be engaged who will answer for you and are professional allies in the battle against interruptions.  Dave Balderson, owner of  the 6 room Wayside Inn in Ellicott City, MD., is a strong believer, and user!, of such a service to allow for evenings off.  He’s a believer, and is now way past the average innkeeper turnover rate of 7 years.  Answering 24/7, even if it is not YOU, makes you look big in a small lifestyle world.

Smaller inns may not have the conference room space or facility for corporate retreats and meetings as do the larger inns.  But marketing to the smaller groups, the birders, quilters, scrap-bookers, local garden club, or the Red Hat Ladies offers these smaller groups a venue they cannot afford (or that the larger inns even want) elsewhere.  And it’s a great way to get the big-time exposure in the community of your presence as a lodging alternative for visitors.

The website of the small inn can level the playing field even against the Big Guys.  The Chocolate Turtle in Corrales, NM, a 4 guest room Lifestyle Inn owned by Dallas and Nancy Renner, won the Best Website competition in all of New Mexico…even beating out the Marriott and other mega-names in the lodging industry.  This is a primary contributor to their incredibly high occupancy rate.  A small inn’s website needs to “think big” in its style, its format, its functionality, its photography and its Search Engine Optimization effectiveness.  Gone are the days of having your website, designed by your high school daughter, with photos of the bed in each room (guests want to see MORE than just a bed), with backgrounds of mauve, harvest gold, and avocado.  Think Big, and up-to-date, with your website.

Lifestyle Inns, and there are about 15,000 of them in the US, have a predominant role in the lodging segment that we all enjoy.  Their success as a smaller inn can depend on them thinking like the big guys!      Scott

Mary's Kicker Quiche

how its use can be a time-saving and headache-solving alternative for some of the daily frustrations of running an inn.  Thank you, Alan…here’s your list:

TECHNOLOGY TIP: A web-based Property Management System allows you to enter reservations from anywhere you have internet access.

OPERATIONS TIP: Alan recommends using a credit card machine instead of an internet credit card processing service if your inn is subject to frequent power outages.  Phone lines continue to work in outages and you will still be able to do business.

TECHNOLOGY TIP:  An iPhone or iPad-type device will give you that internet access capability.   You can take reservations from the grocery store or while away from the inn without worrying about losing a booking by not getting back to your voicemail or answering machine soon enough.

TECHNOLOGY TIP:  Google Calendar allows you to manage your daily schedule and appointments.  If you keep your calendar on Outlook, Google Calendar can be synced with your Outlook calendar.

SECURITY (AND TECHNOLOGY) TIP: Set your wireless network to log all MAC codes and connection times of every device that connects to your service from your account.  This will identify all users on your system and will protect you if any of your users are doing illegal activity on your network (such as downloading pornography or spamming).

TIME-SAVING (AND TECHNOLOGY) TIP: If you use company credit cards and banks (and we all do!), set it up to have them download their monthly statements directly into your financial software package.  Saves a LOT of typing!  (Call Alan on how to do that…not me!)

MARKETING TIP: If you want to get to the top of Google search results, when selecting important keywords, ask a friend with a similar inn that is distant from you for ideas.  Local competition may not be as friendly sharing their secrets.

TECHNOLOGY TIP: On your wireless network, ensure it is secured with a password or phrase.  You can inform your guests of the password but it also prevents the neighbors from downloading movies on your network and slowing your network to a crawl.

TIME-SAVING TIP: If you make a cash deposit to your bank, write the name and reservation number on the deposit slip.  you will be able to query it on the internet a year later when your accountant asks where the money came from.

MONEY-MANAGEMENT TIP: Alan recommends having THREE bank accounts.  One is your personal account for all non-business transactions.  The second is for all deposits from sales…whether credit card deposits, cash deposits, gift shop sales, everything.  This is an INTEREST-BEARING account.  The third account is for expenditures.  Transfer money from the revenue account into the expenditure account on occasion to pay the bills.  This leaves the balance of the revenue earning interest.  A side-benefit of having these two business accounts is that you will have all deposits and all expenses on SEPARATE statements at the end of the month for easy reconciling.

Thank you, Alan.  I would be interested in other innkeepers’ thoughts on any of Alan’s ideas and feel free to send me YOUR tips for making the innkeeping lifestyle and business even more wonderful and manageable.  Scott

First a few facts:  According to D.K. Shifflet & Associates, a travel and research consulting firm:

• Leisure travel surpassed business travel for the hotel industry in 2004
• That gap has widened and by 2009, 54% of hotel travel volume is now leisure travel.
• Corporate travel has been slowly declining, and “it’s not going back” according to Shifflet.
• The Gen X (late 20′s to early 40′s) travelers are replacing the Baby Boomers and are traveling with their young families.

The hotels are watching the changing demographics and evolving to meet the new market.  To entice the leisure traveler to their properties, focus is strengthening on FAMILY travel.  Marriott is:

• Offering a Nickelodeon package to the kids with activity books and Nick bracelets
  

  This is Spongebob for those of you without kids around!

• Toddler care packages are awaiting the arriving family with squirting bath toys, fitted crib sheets, baby shampoos and nightlights.
• Spongebob backpacks with matching sheets and pillowcases are for sale in the gift shop.

The younger demographic is also demanding VALUE, a concept more wide-spread than just the Gen X-ers.  Homewood Suites by Hilton (typically a corporate traveler mecca has seen a 50% increase in its leisure travel this past year) is revising its free meals program, and Kimpton Hotels will give away free sangria drinks and Wii video games in the lobby this summer…something for the parents AND the kids.

So what does that have to do with US in the Bed and Breakfast Industry?

Everything, if you are ready to keep your business growing!

B and B owners often cater to only a certain slice of the traveling market.  They rely on the romance getaway, or traveling couple, typically Baby Boomers, to fill rooms.  But this AGE-SEGMENT of the traveling market is declining and we must target the NEXT generation as well…and they’re traveling with their kids. Some target the corporate traveler if the inn is fortunate enough to have several large businesses or a college within a mile or two.  But this segment is also in decline, and mid-week rooms are going to go empty.

Some ACTION Items for your Next Planning Meeting

• Is your Inn ready for a Tune-Up? Do your rooms and bathrooms appeal to the NEW demographic of the traveling public?  Do you have Ipod docking stations, and have you replaced gramma’s old furniture with clean lines and Pottery Barn-type styling?  People want to visit museums, not stay in one.
• Is your website ready for updating?  Anything 2 years or older is a dinosaur that won’t be found by the new search engine algorithms.  Do you have video of area attractions, or still relying on static photography of a bed?  The next generation is ultra techno-savvy and will find you in ways OTHER than your organic website, IF you embrace social media (May 7 posting) marketing and email marketing.
• Are you still illegally restricting kids to age 12 or older?  Talk to those inns who willingly accept children and find out what they do to make the family experience memorable.
• If all the inns in your area still restrict children, think of the ADVANTAGE you will have when they send all their family-travel referrals to you!
• Targeting and marketing for mid-week bookings in addition to your current corporate travelers will prepare to replace those declining mid-week business guests with others…such as quilting groups, elder travel with grandkids, or scrapbookers.  I’ll bet there’s an inn in your area already capitalizing on this new trend.

The B&B Team is ready to help you with your Evolution Planning when you are finally disgusted with negative growth of your inn’s performance.  The traveling market is evolving, and we BEG each of the inns in this industry to evolve with it.  And it’s fun!  And more satisfying than watching Spongebob!

Scott

Top of Mind…Top of Market: I unshamefully (is that a word?) stole that line from a friend of mine, Ted Foti, who is a marketing consultant in the Baltimore area.  Worthy of this petty theft, the concept works for our B&B industry as well.  When someone asks “Where’s a good place to stay around here?”, the answer should be on the top of the mind of your guerrilla marketer…the gas station attendant, the restauranteur, the college admissions office, your past guests.  These are the ambassadors of YOUR inn.  The goals of your marketing exposure includes the frequency and quality of your message.

Although video is an advantage to your website and can be RSS linked to Social Media networks, email is STILL the preferred media the communcating world wants.  Arlene Satchell in her article “Social Networks’ Popularity Doesn’t Hurt E-Mail Marketing’s Success”, (RISmedia, May 15), states that according to Forrester Research, “90% of online Americans currently use e-mail as a mainstream communication channel”.  And the relatively inexpensive costs, when compared to the potential results, yields a return on the investment that cannot be ignored.  E-Mail is still the central hub for pushing communications to people.

Constant Contact, among others, offers a templated service to make email marketing a snap.  I currently use this service for both Newsletters and E-Mail “blasts”…short notices going out to targeted folks.  I categorize my database by groups (e.g. aspiring  innkeepers, current innkeepers), by state, and demographic groupings.  I can send a newsletter to all, or to a select few, depending on which groups I select.  Be sure to put links in your newsletters and emails BACK to your website to encourage traffic to your online booking features.  For a couple of bucks more, I can use their survey feature.  And so can you! Imagine the worthwhile feedback you can get from your past guests by sending out a thoughtful, well-positioned survey!

The cost is almost irrelevant and can fit any budget. It starts at about $15 per month for up to 500 addresses.  And there are features to help LOAD your email database into the Constant Contact database (a typical excuse I hear for not getting started).  You can send as many emails or newsletters as you want, although being prudent is always advisable.  Your messages are more memorable , and less likely to be “opted-out”, if they are not annoyingly too frequent.  Once a quarter is a good goal.  Perhaps sending a newsletter quarterly and an email (of specials and area attractions) quarterly on off months from your newsletter.

I am not a paid sponsor of Constant Contact!  I’m just a user.  There are other services as well in about the same price range such as YMLP (Your Mailing List Provider).  My point is the ease and low-cost that this alternative offers to your marketing plan’s completeness.

Social Media offers an alternative channel, for sure.  One more technique for staying on Top of Mind.

Your quality Website is important…probably THE MOST important.  But it is passive…guests have to find YOU.  E-mail marketing offers a proactive alternative to talking to your guests…to stay on Top of Mind.

Anybody out there currently using Constant Contact?  Like it?  Like other services?

Scott

Marilyn and I know Dallas and Nancy Renner from our corporate life McCormick days.  Now they are the owners of The Chocolate Turtle, a 4 guest room B & B in Corrales, NM.  This top rated TripAdvisor recommended gem was Googled on the Blackberry of a producer of the Sean Hannity show, on assignment covering the Tea Party Express in Albuquerque.  They needed to find a location where they could transmit their story over to the internet back to New York.  And they were in a hurry…on their way to Las Cruces to film the Tea Party event for the Greta Van Susteran show.  They needed access to the internet right now!

Because The Chocolate Turtle has adapted their website to PDA devices, and they promote their property as business friendly with high speed internet access, the Sean Hannity team inquired about the possibility of using the B & B as their transmission point.  Of course the Renners obliged and were repaid for their kindness by a news blurb on the Sean Hannity Great American Blog, with video.  Check it out!  And now the success story is on the PAII blog, and on this blog and…  well, people just can’t stop talking about the Turtle!

Proof positive that it is worth the investment to learn (like at the PAII convention?!), and then take advantage of, this technology stuff.      Scott

But when searching for an inn, or developing or strengthening an inn’s

marketing plan, the repetition has 3 distinct implications:

Location #1: Think of the inn’s macro-location first.  Is the inn located within easy reach (2-3 hours) of major metropolitan areas?  Having major population meccas from which to attract guests is a major asset of any inn.  A great example includes Pheasant Field B & Bin Carlisle, PA.  Within 3 hours of the inn includes such metro-megacenters as the NYC metro area, Philly, Baltimore, DC,, Pittsburgh, and only a few miles away, the capital of PA, Harrisburg.  That’s gotta be about 16 bazillion potential “one-tankers”  (guests that only want to spend one tank of gas for their mini-vacation).

For aspiring innkeepers, keeping Location #1 in mind when building a profile will ensure an advantage from the get-go.  For a current innkeeper, analyzing Location #1 in your SWOT  (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is an important step to strengthening your marketing plan.

Location # 2 is the immediate region around the inn.  What will bring the 16 bazillion people to your area?  It is NOT just to visit you, as much as we innkeepers would like to believe!  Having a variety of area attractions that appeal to multiple interests, great restaurants, and soft adventures will offer a one-stop shopping itinerary for any guest looking to get away.  Take the Pennsbury Inn, for example, in Chadds Ford, PA.  Within a few short miles of the inn is something for everyone:  Longwood Gardens and its world-reknown topiary gardens, Winterthur (the DuPont country house) for the antiquers and hortoculturists, Simon Pearce glassworks, the River Museum and its Andrew Wyeth Gallery, the Brandywine Revolutionary War battlefield for history buffs, and, of course, the Wine Trail and great restaurants of the region.

This vast array of attractions appeals to most any interest…with plenty to do for any visitor to the region.  For the aspiring innkeeper, what will bring guests to the area around YOUR future inn?  For the current innkeeper, which of these attractions can I package with, and build relationships with, to capitalize on THEIR popularity?

Location # 3 is an easy one, and the one most innkeepers, aspiring and current, focus.  This is the inn itself, its curb appeal, and the attractiveness of the surrounding neighborhood.  When a guest rounds the corner and sees the inn for the first time, we hope their eyes widen and they mutter the “ooooooh!” that we work so hard to achieve.  Many inns know how to achieve this look.  The example here, Brampton Bed & Breakfast Inn near Chestertown, MD., is noteworthy for its curb appeal.

For the aspiring innkeeper, does your candidate inn have curb appeal, or can you give it great curb appeal?  Is it in an attractive and safe-looking neighborhood?  For the current innkeeper, taking a look from the road to ensure a great first impression should be a part of every capital expenditure plan.

Three separate interpretations for the same word…Location.  But each having distinct meaning

to ensure the success of an inn.

Consultant’s Advice: Aspiring innkeepers, ensure the profile of your candidate inn has ALL 3 location criteria met.  For current innkeepers, look at all three definitions, assess and take advantage of the strengths of your location, and develop plans to strengthen those weaknesses or take actions for those opportunities that your location offers.

What are the strengths and weaknesses with YOUR location, location, location?

Age-Related Conditions

An Inn, like any retail product or industry, goes through a Life Cycle from infancy to death. It starts as a glimmer in its parents’ eyes, a dream of a lifestyle healthy and productive. It grows with careful nurturing, education, and aspirations, matures into a productive adult, capable of self-sufficiency and satisfaction. Physical and financial ailments will emerge someday, some sooner than later, but eminently all will experience the pain and, without exception, a slow (or sometimes cancerous) downhill slide (or plummet) to demise.

Doctor: “Which do you want to hear first…

the good news or the bad news?”

How cold and ugly a picture…how uncaring to express such a prognosis without apparent feelings or emotions! But without a continued regimen of properly prescribed vitamins, medications, and regular health check-ups, an inn’s health WILL decline. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that there are fountain-of-youth-like medications that can extend an inn’s life expectancy well into the future…perhaps to immortality!

Let’s examine each stage of the Life Cycle to see where YOUR INN resides…

NEWBORN: A start-up inn, whether from the ground up or the conversion of an existing structure, is a difficult and risky time of life. This inn has NO sales yet and is starved for cash flow. It needs basic but regular feedings of vitamins and nutrients (and cash!) to stay alive and start growing.

Prescription for Good Health

• A professional website, with Search Engine Optimization strength, is more than a well-baby checkup, it is life-giving.
• The Inn industry internet directories are the friends, though distant, that will provide support and baby-shower gifts.
• Building those personal relationships with local businesses and attractions which are the family and relatives close at hand providing needed nourishment. Invite a BUNCH of them over for a visit.
• Send out Birth Announcements to the paper, your family and new-found friends.
• A trusted consultant, like a good pediatrician, can help you with your marketing plan for growth.

YOUTH: A youthful inn is realizing growth, slow but surely at first, and is learning how to walk with its policies and procedures and talk with its guests and neighbors. Still immature…still inexperienced, but full of ideas and energy. Feed this youngster, model good habits, teach right from wrong, and give lots of love.

Prescription for Good Health

• Don’t relax the Care and Feeding prescription of the Newborn.
• Buy life insurance now. Extend the personal relationships to the Chamber of Commerce, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and those networking opportunities that broaden the exposure of your baby.
• Youth doesn’t have to be wasted on the Young. It is wise to take advantage of public relations opportunities with inn birthdays, events and milestones.
• Listen to the good advice of family and friends (i.e. guests). Keep this youngster clean behind the ears and well dressed for a good first impression.

ADOLESCENCE: Ahhh…those troublesome teenage years! This inn, perhaps not really yet a teenager, demonstrates strength in its financials. Occupancy is growing at a satisfying rate, perhaps even starting to earn a living and starting to pay some of the expenses around here. But this inn can eat you out of house and home. Watch your budgets for danger signs. It is easy for him to hang out with the wrong people (such as marketing efforts that don’t work) or spending wastefully on frivolous whims.

Prescription for Good Health

• Put your tracking devices to work on your website and directories. Fire the slackers and find new friends.
• Take a parenting class so that you can educate the Inn skillfully. Attend the conferences and conventions that will expand your horizons, try new techniques and question outdated ways of managing the Inn.
• Compare the Inn’s budget with the PAII survey data to see where he’s been hanging out and on what he has been wasting money.
• Consider elective courses to learn new marketing skills as pay-per-click, blogs, internet-issued newsletters, and email marketing.

YOUNG ADULT: This inn is ready to head out on its own. It is suddenly viable, not only employed and making enough to cover the expenses, but also making enough to even pay back Mom and Dad for their kind parenting. These are the glory years…satisfying and productive. With a little cash left over after the bills and mortgage are paid, it offers the opportunity to reinvest back into the health of the family, er, I mean inn.

Prescription for Good Health

• Start investing in the Inn’s future. Upgrade those rooms and baths that may be starting to show some wear and tear, add a room feature or two and adjust the pricing to reflect the added value.
• Keep the stethoscope on the marketing tracking devices. Look for failing practices and expenditures and cure them now…before they are nothing but expense drains. Expand those marketing efforts that are paying off.
• Your past guest and repeat guest lists are growing. Treasure these trusted friends. Don’t be distant with those who mean the most to you even if you haven’t seen them for a while.
• Keep active…keep exercising. Take time off (you’ve earned it). Keep exercising your minds with educational opportunities and activities
• It’s timely to consider revamping the website to show off the changes you’ve made, keep up with newer technologies, and preventing a stale look.

MATURE ADULT: When sales start to level off from the previous years, productivity and growth remain viable and healthy, but there is no more need for new shoes for growing feet and pants that are too short. Reaching maturity can be satisfying and last for dozens of years with preventive medicine and caution. Now is the time to consider your future.

Prescription for Good Health

• If you feel young, energetic, and still have the zest for the innkeeping lifestyle, go for it! Stick with the prescriptions that have been successful to date…they seem to be working fine!
• Give back to your community. Expand your marketing exposure with volunteer and educational activities. Lead a PAII workshop!
• It is timely to be planning the reinvention of the inn. What surgeries and facelifts are needed to extend healthy adulthood well into the future? Expansion? Adding a spa? Redefining the demands of the markets and changing polices (pets?) and procedures (social events?). Did you fail to revamp your website last year?
• If you are feeling the financial and energy aches and pains, plan your retirement. Develop your exit strategy. Remember, it usually takes YEARS to prepare, so start now. Your primary care consultant can help with your strategy.
• Continue to monitor your health records, financial and marketing. It is important to catch health issues early, before they are life-threatening.

SENIORITY: A senior inn is one that is feeling failing financial health. Sales have peaked and are now heading south (not to Florida!). The value of the inn, although still viable and paying the bills including debt, will continue to decline the longer the condition goes unremedied. It is time for action NOW.

Prescription for Failing Health

• Commit to retirement (selling) or reinvention of the inn. Inaction toward either goal will allow untreated conditions to worsen.
• Take care of yourself…treat the symptoms. Deferred maintenance on the inn is a sure sign of Alzheimer’s-like denial. The downward spiral will steepen if allowed.
• Find a specialist, one strong in what ails you…a consultant who can guide you through the process. You are not alone in the struggle.
• Keep up with the prescriptions of the past, healthy years. If you stop taking your marketing pill, ignore your blood pressure tracking devices, plop down on the couch and only pray for healing, the pain will get stronger.

THE GERIATRIC INN: The old timer of all inns is the one who has ignored the prescriptions of the inn-medical community and now sees sales BELOW the viability line. There is no commitment or money for improvements or maintenance, attitude is slipping into inhospitable senility, the retirement nest-egg is being drained, friends and neighbors don’t visit anymore, and the new inns on the block are throwing rocks through our market-share windows.

The Last Will and Testament Diagnosis

• Make your own arrangements. Pass the inn on to the kids or family who, with less long term debt, may be able to rejuvenate the ailing reputation and reverse the deteriorating growth.
• Contact an industry hospice consultant to ease the financial pain with short term, morphine-like, sedatives and help plan for a distressed sale. Don’t expect too much. The car is not worth much with that many miles on it.

Perhaps a bit too much analogy here, but the message is the same. Knowing where YOUR INN lies on the life cycle graph, and understanding what marketing, financial, and long-term planning actions need to be done, is as important as the day-to-day routines that monopolize our schedules. Reflect on the Life Cycle…and build its principles into your business plans.

Please let me know WHAT YOU ARE DOING to take good card of your Baby!