Inns and bed and breakfasts can be a wonderful type of accommodation for a vacation or getaway weekend. Understanding how they work and the pluses and minuses of choosing them over a traditional hotel room is key to making sure your stay is both delightful and stress-free.
In New England, inns and bed and breakfasts are a popular choice and often located in historic homes full of antiques and unique furnishings. In other parts of the country and world the term is more loosely used in describing a place to rest your head for the night and then move on.
In my book, inns are a delightful alternative to hotels and resorts. But they are not for everybody, and here’s the answers to some basic questions to determine if it’s the type of accommodation that’ll work for you…
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INNS AND BED AND BREAKFASTS?
Let’s start by clearing up any confusion on the differences between inns and bed and breakfasts. And it’s not so much in the name as how they advertise themselves.
Firstly, there’s rarely any difference in accommodation. The personality of a bed and breakfast can be every bit as good as the charm of an inn. The difference is in the prepared meals. A bed and breakfast is just that… expect a bed… and a breakfast, but you’re on your own for dinner. But at inns, they’re set-up to provide dinner as well, although it’s usually an option, and not included in the quoted price. The listing will be very clear if dinner is offered. But assume its just bed and breakfast if nothing is mentioned.
In many areas of the world inns and bed and breakfasts are also called guesthouses. If at all possible ask to see a picture of the place, or visit their web site, where one should be posted. A lot can be surmised from a picture of your potential accommodation.
ARE THEY RIGHT FOR MY KIDS?
Many inns and bed and breakfasts don’t accommodate young children. Sometimes the age and furnishings of the place are not appropriate for the fingers and playfulness of kids. But when an inn says kids are welcome, then you’d better believe they really mean they’re kid friendly. Now there’s nothing wrong with that (I have three myself), but don’t expect too much peace and quiet and solitude.
Between those inns that ban children, and those that embrace them, you’ll find a number of listings that put age restriction on children. For example they’ll say something like: 12 or older, or above 6-years old. These places are also catering to a single or couple looking for a chance to unwind and free of noise and high activity. If you’ve got high-action kids then bed and breakfasts may not be ideal for your family.
WHAT SERVICE CAN I EXPECT?
Staying in inns is different than staying at a hotel. You shouldn’t expect a country inn to be like a Hilton, with hordes of staff at your beck and call, and soundproof walls. Also, having a party and playing loud music after 11:00pm won’t win you any brownie points with your host or the other guests.
Remember… the innkeeper or host is there to provide you, and other guests, with a unique experience in unique surroundings, but to do that they’ll need your understanding.
WHAT’S THE USUAL CHECK-IN CHECK-OUT TIME?
Your host will go out of their way to greet you when you check-in. Usually when you reserve you’ll be told when their normal check-in and check-out times are. But most can accommodate your arrival and departure outside those hours.
But you need to let them know if you’ll be late arriving so they can arrange for you to get into the house (yes, the doors are locked after a certain hour), and to your room. It’s one thing to show up at midnight at your hotel – they’re staffed round the clock – but it’s entirely another matter to roll-in after 11:00pm at a bed and breakfast, and expect your host to get out of bed and greet you smiling. After all, they’re probably making an early breakfast for everybody in the morning.
CAN YOU NEGOTIATE PRICE?
Just like hotels the room rate for inns is negotiable. The main difference is unlike a hotel, the person on the other end of a phone is usually the owner of the bed and breakfast, and they can make the decision on the spot. All you have to do is ask in a nice way.
Just remember the innkeeper may only have a few rooms to begin with anyway, and if you’re haggling over the last room then don’t be offended if they don’t give you a price reduction. But on the other hand one room of a four-room inn without a paying guest reduces a host’s profit by 25%. So it’s always worth asking for a reduction!
HOW MUCH CAN YOU REALLY SAVE?
Most inns can book their weekends or popular seasonal period’s weeks in advance. For instance, in New England the fall foliage season makes rooms a premium, and most are booked many months in advance.
But outside these constraints filling the rooms at an inn during the week, particularly off-season, is much more difficult. You’ll get the best deals for bed and breakfasts traveling mid-week and out of season. Now contrast this with hotels that have the opposite problem, because they cater to the mid-week business traveler, but can’t get people in rooms at the weekends.
WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?
Here’s a few extra tips once you’ve decided an inn or bed and breakfast is the right choice for you…
Be sure to get detailed directions to the inn as many are converted homes and blend in with the surroundings, and don’t have neon advertising signs like hotels. When you call make sure you understand the cancellation polices as they are usually much more restrictive than hotels. And don’t forget your host is familiar with the area and can point you to attractions and restaurants not on any tour guide or map.
I love staying in inns. They’ve a lot going for them. Inns are usually very affordable, offer tons more variety than a bland hotel room, and are a great way to meet fellow travelers or vacationers.
Posts Tagged ‘Know’
Inns And Bed And Breakfasts – What You Need To Know
Category Food And Beverage
Small Business Information You Should Know
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What are small businesses?
Small businesses are businesses with less staff. The staff limit is different for different areas. These businesses are generally owned by individuals or are started in partnerships. Other criterions to decide small businesses are the turnover and profit. The less is the turnover or the profit, the smaller is the business. The smallest businesses are called as ‘micro businesses’ and those managed by families are called as ‘mom’s and pop’s business’. These smaller businesses generally have employees in number from 0 to 10. Many a times, the owners are the workers in these businesses.
Advantages in small business:
The basic advantage of starting a small business is that you need less capital and money to start the business. Also, one can start a small business on part time basis. The basics of a successful business are the regular modifications that one does to it. In small businesses these modifications can be easily done as one does not need to follow any trend or face any compulsions in small business unlike in big businesses. Also, a small business can give much more to its customers than a big one as they have the power to provide each and every customer the required personal attention and take into account all the suggestions and even implement some of them. Small businesses provide daily bread to many a people and thus are very important.
Marketing small businesses:
The most common methods of marketing small businesses are customer referrals, mouth publicity, radios, newspapers, internet, directories, boards, etc. Television ads can be a bit expensive for advertising small businesses. Internet marketing is considered the most cost effective and result oriented method of marketing small businesses. The ads can be placed on websites or even search engine web pages. The costs are decided on the size of the ad and thus can be easily moderated.
Small business ideas:
- Franchisee business: this is one of the extremely profitable ideas of a small business. The only things that you need to start this business are a place and some capital. The best part of this business is that the things that you sell are already quite famous in the market and thus you need to do very little expenses on the marketing.
- Event planner: if you know the knack of organizing things perfectly, then you can become an event planner. You need to plan out meetings, parties, weddings and other such get-together for your customers in the given budget. The best part of this job is that it is extremely interesting and your work does the marketing for you.
- Computer repair: if you have done any hardware or software course or have learned any computer language then you can start the work of computer repairing. You just need to sort out simple problems in computers. The best part of this job is that you get to learn a lot more than you have about computers. But, you should do only the work that you can manage and avoid doing any guess work.
Smart Words on Fashion and Art From the People Who Know it Best
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Anyone can give advice on fashion. However, for some matters, it’s best to leave opinion to the experts. After all, they’re the ones who managed to make a living out of this zany industry we call fashion, managing to endure day in and day out the trials and tribulations of one of the craziest businesses in the world. But it’s those experts who know fashion the best. So when it comes to tips and words of wisdom, it’s pretty much best to just listen to them. No list of quotes on fashion would be complete without the reigning queen of it all, Coco Chanel. Practically the most powerful woman to ever exist in couture, Chanel understood what it meant to work hard, and also understand what it was that made a woman beautiful. She also always had something to say about style, like this famous and often-repeated quote: “A style does not go out of style as long as it adapts itself to its period. When there is an incompatibility between the style and a certain state of mind, it is never the style that triumphs.”For designer Issac Mizrahi, fashion just wasn’t enough–he had to have a television show, too. After years in the business, he’s got more than enough insight and zany quotes to fill several books, let alone a single article. Here’s one: “I don’t like people to feel completely described by the clothes they wear of mine. I want them to feel that they’re describing themselves.”Part model, part musician, part actress, Grace Jones was one of the seminal figures of the 1970s downtown New York scene. Her influence in the modeling world is still felt, and she was one of the few performers who did a truly decadent job of dressing herself: “Models are there to look like mannequins, not like real people. Art and illusion are supposed to be fantasy.”You can’t really talk about fashion without talking about Madonna. Though she might be all grown up now, her 1980s attire launched a thousand teenage girls to run around the mall and copy her style. On making it: “I think the ultimate challenge is to have some kind of style and grace, even though you haven’t got money, or standing in society, or formal education. I had a very middle, lower-middle class sort of upbringing, but I identify with people who’ve had, at some point in their lives to struggle to survive. It adds another color to your character.”Once a fixture of the explosive after-hours seen in 1980s London, Simon Foxton still lives and works as a stylist today. He was one of the first stylists of the 1980s to make it from the club flyers to the glossy magazines of Milan and New York. Famous quote: “For the last three or four decades it has been the streets [setting trends], and maybe now it’s gone back to the designers again and they’re the ones who are coming up with the goods and setting the trends.”Fashion designer Jeremy Scott is known for his hilarious and fabulous fashion shows in Paris. Since relocating to Los Angeles, he’s managed to grab the attention of major States-side celebrities. Famous quote: “I’ve never met someone that I thought, oh my god what the — is she doing with my clothes? It’s always cute kids and that’s the most flattering. It’s people I would like to know or would like to talk to, people who have similar interests too. That’s the whole thing about fashion: it’s not only about the clothes but also about the people.”A man who knows what it’s like to turn a name into a brand, Ralph Lauren set the bar for accessible yet proper fashion and what it means to create a lifestyle instead of just a garment. Famous quote: “I’d like to believe that the women who wear my clothes are not dressing for other people, that they’re wearing what they like and what suits them. It’s not a status thing.”