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Well, now that I know we're too small to be listed, methinks that giving a AAA discount would be silly for us. My gut instinct is not to give discounts, period. But I am thrilled with the NightForNight concept. :-)

We are less than 15-20 minutes from most downtown skyscrapers, but there is also a lot of business and light manufacturing "out here in the County." We do have a written marketing plan, which I have been following to the letter thus far. Thanks for the clarification about AAA. We elected to...

I suppose that the good news is that Google's new indexing patent will punish sites like the one noted. I've been designing and hosting web sites since 1994--and all the old tricks we used to use for getting good rankings are now held against the site. Nowadays, getting a good position is...

Obviously, Klaus and I are new to this fascinating world-- so we REALLY appreciate all the advice in these forums! Many of the things y'all said were things I had not yet thought about--but now I am. I love the idea of swapping nights with other innkeepers one knows. Since we do plan to focus...

Wow... quite a variety of opinions... thanks! So, what I'm hearing as general guidelines are: 1) Don't invite guests, unless you really like them. 2) Do the entertaining in a way so as to minimize intruding on "guest/common space" I wonder how this will play out since we are a single-room...

The emails to which I am referring are the "notices" sent by the forum system to notify me of new additions to posts I wrote or to which I subscribed. The email comes in to my fully-HTML enabled mail client and proceeds to display as plain text with all the HTML tags showing in the text. Makes...

Well, since posting this, I remembered that we bought the "insurance" from our power company on all plumbing-- so I think we'll be able to get it repaired completely for free. :-) We are marketing to Europeans, specifically to the German populace (since Klaus is from Germany), so it will be a...

We can't use retractable awnings because our deck is freestanding. :-( If it was next to the house, I'd do something like that. The one thing I am certain of is that some sort of shade needs to be provided for any outdoor seating that is used in the daylight. There are so many lovely...

I'm not sure where to post this, but could someone ask the administrators to have the forums send out their emails in HTML format. It's a bit annoying to have to read around all the HTML tags that appear in my email. Thanks, Eriks

There is currently a bidet in our guest room and it is in need of repair. The parts are special order. Do guests even care if there is a bidet or not? I had never seen one in person until we bought this home.

What is the current tradition or expectation (if any) in terms of courtesies amongst innkeepers? In our travels, many innkeepers would ask us specifically whether we were travel agents or innkeeprs, but they didn't explain what would happen if we had said "yes" to either. Also, what is the best...

Riki, Good points, and yes, we're in Chesterfield County. We have a whirlpool tub in the guest room, so I know what you mean about "it's nice to have, but not always used" amenities. Perhaps we'll "try" marketing it and if people care--great, it's worth the money. If they don't, we can always...

We have never run our pool heater because of the cost, but we are considering heating our in-ground/outdoor pool this Winter for our guests. Does anyone have insight into whether this is a "draw" for guests, or is just a silly waste of natural gas costs?

We are considering how to improve our outdoor deck areas and are wondering whether to go with a very large cantilever/offset patio umbrella or whether I should build a wooden frame which can be covered with a canvas roof in Summer and left open as a trellis in Winter. Our back garden is long...

Kids today are missing out on something else-- discipline. A female friend was at a partry recently and was coming out of the restroom. A 12 year old girl had been waiting for her turn and when the door opened, she shoved my friend out of the way while saying, in a demanding/impudent tone...

What is the best way to handle guests when innkeepers want to have an event of their own--say a dinner party or barbecue--that is for the friends of the innkeepers and not for the guests? Should the guests be invited as a matter of courtesy, or is it simple enough to say, "the dinner party we're...

A little off topic, but do guests actually care whether eggs are from a local farm versus the local Martin's or Kroger?

Speaking as someone who has actually arrived at 1:30 am to "check in" to a B&B before (lateness caused by railroad delays), I was grateful the innkeepers had left me a note and key. I was ultra-quiet as I looked for my room since I felt like it was far too late to make any noise. The next...

Wow! So many nice welcomes! Glad I stumbled upon this forum! Klaus and I are brand new to innkeepeing and we're still getting our touches together. I'm sure this forum will be highly valuable and we hope we can help others, too!

I think the nicest touch I've seen was a BNB we stayed at previously where they bought all their glasses from IKEA (inexpensive!) and got the etched by a local guy to have their logo on each glass. They also had pre-printed paper covers for the glasses. As new Innkeepers, I think we will opt...