Saw the previous owner last night

[Jcam]

I am the PO, and live right next to the Inn we owned. I deliberately stepped out of many of the organizations I volunteered for, including the town visitors center, to give the new owners space and distance. We have a not-close but good relationship and share 'ownership' of our last two feral outside cats. I innsit for them when they go to conferences or on trips if I can. I think it helps that we didn't move into our house next door until 18 months after they bought the Inn.
I have personally been in too many situations (not with our PO, whom we have no relationship with) where the previous 'jobholder' won't let go, to the point of undermining me to business partners via emails. I vowed not to be that person when we sold our Inn. We have guests we still see as friends, but we are very clear as to our boundaries..

See this is a situation I have come across today with my chum - did have 1 B&B which she sold to her brother and bought a smaller one up the road - people before her basically gave away the farm to guests free drinks and all sorts to regulars and if anyone did a bad review they rang and did the pitty us dance and gave them a free stay to remove it - guests came who were previous guests of theirs last weekend and were just about horrified to find my friend in charge and their "friends" no longer there and were shocked as "they had never been told they were selling" and so on and so on. I find this ironic as as soon as the sale was agreed with my friend they told anyone that rang for forward bookings that they couldn't take them as it would be up to the new owner so feel these people were virtually the only ones who didn't know! Did her a bad review for being not their friend!
On the other side of this another property sold to a very nice couple and the previous owner also our friend did ring all his regulars and told them who then all cancelled! and left the new people in a mess! felt he did not handle it very well. I would have said if they were regulars of long standing "We have had to sell for health reasons but we are lucky enough that we have found a really nice couple to take over who will look after you like we would have done and your reservation is secure but we didn't want you to be surprised when you came" or something similar.
.

We got the same thing here. The PO's told a few of the regulars that the inn had sold. The others were insulted when they arrived and found out they hadn't a clue.
There were a lot of hurt feelings. Guests who thought they were 'special' felt horrible.
Others demanded to know 'who the hell are you? Where's the innkeeper?'
Our plan is to send an email announcement and put it on Facebook once the sale is final. Introduce the new folks and bow out gracefully.
We saw a big drop in repeat biz the first year. Lots of callers asked on the phone where the old innkeepers were then wouldn't book. Then, after a year or two, we started hearing a different story. How the PO's used to hide after 7 pm, leaving the keys on the desk and letting guests find their own rooms, how he was always sniping at her, how nothing was being fixed because they wouldn't hire anyone and they didn't know how to do it themselves.
So, we got some of the old guests back and got a whole new set of our own.
.

See for me I would give it a whirl - not as if they have gone somewhere else you could go to is it? new people might be just as nice you just don't know. As long as its not going to be turned back into a house its worth a shot where as if you go to a completely different place you certainly won't be any better of? just weird.

 

[Morticia]

I am the PO, and live right next to the Inn we owned. I deliberately stepped out of many of the organizations I volunteered for, including the town visitors center, to give the new owners space and distance. We have a not-close but good relationship and share 'ownership' of our last two feral outside cats. I innsit for them when they go to conferences or on trips if I can. I think it helps that we didn't move into our house next door until 18 months after they bought the Inn.
I have personally been in too many situations (not with our PO, whom we have no relationship with) where the previous 'jobholder' won't let go, to the point of undermining me to business partners via emails. I vowed not to be that person when we sold our Inn. We have guests we still see as friends, but we are very clear as to our boundaries..

See this is a situation I have come across today with my chum - did have 1 B&B which she sold to her brother and bought a smaller one up the road - people before her basically gave away the farm to guests free drinks and all sorts to regulars and if anyone did a bad review they rang and did the pitty us dance and gave them a free stay to remove it - guests came who were previous guests of theirs last weekend and were just about horrified to find my friend in charge and their "friends" no longer there and were shocked as "they had never been told they were selling" and so on and so on. I find this ironic as as soon as the sale was agreed with my friend they told anyone that rang for forward bookings that they couldn't take them as it would be up to the new owner so feel these people were virtually the only ones who didn't know! Did her a bad review for being not their friend!
On the other side of this another property sold to a very nice couple and the previous owner also our friend did ring all his regulars and told them who then all cancelled! and left the new people in a mess! felt he did not handle it very well. I would have said if they were regulars of long standing "We have had to sell for health reasons but we are lucky enough that we have found a really nice couple to take over who will look after you like we would have done and your reservation is secure but we didn't want you to be surprised when you came" or something similar.
.

We got the same thing here. The PO's told a few of the regulars that the inn had sold. The others were insulted when they arrived and found out they hadn't a clue.
There were a lot of hurt feelings. Guests who thought they were 'special' felt horrible.
Others demanded to know 'who the hell are you? Where's the innkeeper?'
Our plan is to send an email announcement and put it on Facebook once the sale is final. Introduce the new folks and bow out gracefully.
We saw a big drop in repeat biz the first year. Lots of callers asked on the phone where the old innkeepers were then wouldn't book. Then, after a year or two, we started hearing a different story. How the PO's used to hide after 7 pm, leaving the keys on the desk and letting guests find their own rooms, how he was always sniping at her, how nothing was being fixed because they wouldn't hire anyone and they didn't know how to do it themselves.
So, we got some of the old guests back and got a whole new set of our own.
.

See for me I would give it a whirl - not as if they have gone somewhere else you could go to is it? new people might be just as nice you just don't know. As long as its not going to be turned back into a house its worth a shot where as if you go to a completely different place you certainly won't be any better of? just weird.
.

That's what's scary about buying a place that's been around for awhile. We took into consideration that some guests might give us a miss. We took the occupancy numbers and knocked them down by 35%, which was what we thought the bounce rate might be as new owners. It was more like 15%, but at least we were prepared.
Lots of guests didn't like us. But enough did.

 

[Lee2014]

Grin! First my Grandpa ran it, then my uncle, and now my aunt and I... My Grandpa died in 2000. My Uncle loves to come and visit his favorites guests. He and I have a system. If a guest ask about him, we let him know by text, then he can decide whether he wants to see them. He will answer any questions but don't plan on him to help do it.