Thanksgiving

[Willowpondgj]

We are open for Thanksgiving, but not doing any dinners, except our own- and this year, we are foregoing the turkey and ordering a pizza since it's just us! We'll do the big dinner when the family is out over winter break...
We also are only putting out a continental on Thurs & Fri...to spend more time with our kids...
Last year, the guests were never here, they didn't really even want brekkie...They were up and out- to be with their families and didn't get back 'til late....

 

[Samster]

We are full this weekend. Thanksgiving week we have 3 out of 5 rooms booked for the week. I have to find out what restaurants here are serving a traditional dinner this year. We'll be having our dinner in the kitchen. Can only serve breakfast & snacks to guests here.

 

[YellowSocks]

After much discussion and changes of plans we are hosting Thanksgiving for dh's grandparents, then popping in on my sister and bil for dessert. The day after we are driving to Michigan to have Thanksgiving with my cousin, and my brother and sil will also be there. I blocked off Friday night, and I also blocked off the first floor room on Thursday so Grandma can use the bathroom there.
No one has booked. If someone did, I'd let them know we're having dinner here midday on Thursday, but my guess is that if they were coming it would be to visit their own family and they'd be there instead of here.
November is our deadest month so far. I've already got more reservations on the books for January than I've had for all of November. (Thanks to a seminar held nearby... Yay for seminars!!)
=)
Kk.

 

[egoodell]

We closed by Thanksgiving. Most of our local B & B's sent folks to our local restaurants for dinner as we by law are required to have a commercial kitchen to do meals other than breakfast..so no one here does dinners.
To me..it would be a hassle. Now, if you are doing dinner for yourselves, and your health dept allows it....and want to just include your guests.. I say go for it. Me personally..no way:-(.

In WV, 6 rooms or less does not need a commercial kitchen. I can do dinners for registered guests.
.

You are lucky you can do it. I see no reason why VA can't do the same...you cook just as much for breakfast as you do for dinner in the same kitchen!!!
Some counties just "look the other way" if B &B's do dinners. But it is a state rule.

We also just got hit with an increase in the license fee. $100 a year..up from $40!!! And of course no one knew it was changing...and the GOV will not roll it back either because we are in such a sad economic state here in VA.
Plus is you are on a well, you must have it inspected annually. Our county made one B & B do a well inspection quarterly. I told them to complain loudly because that is requirement for restaurants..not B & B's...so they said ok..only 1 now.
.

Wow I thought it was just a County rule. There are B&B's here in Virginia that have restaurants! How did they do it - I guess they are inns, not B&Bs?
RIki
.

Not being familiar with VA rules, I would guess that the difference is whether they have a commercial kitchen.
I could serve non-guests if I had a commercial kitchen - I would have a restaurant. I do not want to work that hard.
.

When we were trying to get all the information to build, they told us we could not serve any meal other than breakfast without a commercial kitchen. Since we were building, I wanted to know if their requirements were any different from California, whose regs we were familiar with. Our county said they didn't have any regs printed to give us - to just build it and they would come inspect it - sure!
Just like our sign fiasco, I'm sure. That took 3 months to get straight and if they had told us from the beginning the proper information we could have avoided that mess. They hemmed and hawed and finally "after much discussion" told us we could have a sign up to a certain size, much bigger than we ever wanted. It also required inspections and incorrect approval so Chris had to dig two holes and put it set back so far you can easily miss it.
Did they tell us in the beginning that if the sign was less than two feet wide there were no restrictions as to where we could put it? No.
We have a big space in our walk-out basement level which is NOT part of our licensed B&B. This means when we get that far, we can put in a function room, and with a local caterer do wine dinners using a day license when we wish. That's what I would like - the caterer does all the work and takes the dirty dishes home to wash, not my well water.
Riki

 

[gillumhouse]

We closed by Thanksgiving. Most of our local B & B's sent folks to our local restaurants for dinner as we by law are required to have a commercial kitchen to do meals other than breakfast..so no one here does dinners.
To me..it would be a hassle. Now, if you are doing dinner for yourselves, and your health dept allows it....and want to just include your guests.. I say go for it. Me personally..no way:-(.

In WV, 6 rooms or less does not need a commercial kitchen. I can do dinners for registered guests.
.

You are lucky you can do it. I see no reason why VA can't do the same...you cook just as much for breakfast as you do for dinner in the same kitchen!!!
Some counties just "look the other way" if B &B's do dinners. But it is a state rule.

We also just got hit with an increase in the license fee. $100 a year..up from $40!!! And of course no one knew it was changing...and the GOV will not roll it back either because we are in such a sad economic state here in VA.
Plus is you are on a well, you must have it inspected annually. Our county made one B & B do a well inspection quarterly. I told them to complain loudly because that is requirement for restaurants..not B & B's...so they said ok..only 1 now.
.

Wow I thought it was just a County rule. There are B&B's here in Virginia that have restaurants! How did they do it - I guess they are inns, not B&Bs?
RIki
.

Not being familiar with VA rules, I would guess that the difference is whether they have a commercial kitchen.
I could serve non-guests if I had a commercial kitchen - I would have a restaurant. I do not want to work that hard.
.

When we were trying to get all the information to build, they told us we could not serve any meal other than breakfast without a commercial kitchen. Since we were building, I wanted to know if their requirements were any different from California, whose regs we were familiar with. Our county said they didn't have any regs printed to give us - to just build it and they would come inspect it - sure!
Just like our sign fiasco, I'm sure. That took 3 months to get straight and if they had told us from the beginning the proper information we could have avoided that mess. They hemmed and hawed and finally "after much discussion" told us we could have a sign up to a certain size, much bigger than we ever wanted. It also required inspections and incorrect approval so Chris had to dig two holes and put it set back so far you can easily miss it.
Did they tell us in the beginning that if the sign was less than two feet wide there were no restrictions as to where we could put it? No.
We have a big space in our walk-out basement level which is NOT part of our licensed B&B. This means when we get that far, we can put in a function room, and with a local caterer do wine dinners using a day license when we wish. That's what I would like - the caterer does all the work and takes the dirty dishes home to wash, not my well water.
Riki
.

This means when we get that far, we can put in a function room, and with a local caterer do wine dinners using a day license when we wish. That's what I would like - the caterer does all the work and takes the dirty dishes home to wash, not my well water.
That would be MY choice too. I absolutely HATE doing dishes!

 

[Samster]

After much discussion and changes of plans we are hosting Thanksgiving for dh's grandparents, then popping in on my sister and bil for dessert. The day after we are driving to Michigan to have Thanksgiving with my cousin, and my brother and sil will also be there. I blocked off Friday night, and I also blocked off the first floor room on Thursday so Grandma can use the bathroom there.
No one has booked. If someone did, I'd let them know we're having dinner here midday on Thursday, but my guess is that if they were coming it would be to visit their own family and they'd be there instead of here.
November is our deadest month so far. I've already got more reservations on the books for January than I've had for all of November. (Thanks to a seminar held nearby... Yay for seminars!!)
=)
Kk..

I think November will prove to be our BEST month since opening! Obviously, I haven't run the numbers since the month isn't over with yet. That includes blocking out last weekend so that our son could treat me to a birthday weekend in the "big city".

Fall is definitely a great season here whereas the end of Summer just dies off. We already have our vacation booked next year for mid-September.
Some people are waiting to book until a week to two weeks out. Some return guests are booking far in advance for next year which makes me think that they're afraid that there won't be any room at the Inn! Yippee! We're lucky that we have some recurring events here & people are finding out about us for that.
Health inspection was just done & we got 100 again. Yay! So, that won't be done again for awhile...no stress about that during the holidays. Makes me feel good about all our hard work

Maybe someday we'll make some $$$ from this. haha!