You can read a helpful article in today’s Baltimore Sun on this same topic by clicking here, and see photos of the Inn at Peralynna Manor, a Best of BedandBreakfast.com Awards winner by clicking here.

Happy Guests Mean Happy Holidays: Tips in Guest Comfort

The holidays are coming and your challenge is to create a comfortable home away from home for your guests.  Even though (or perhaps because) they are family and old friends, you want to make a good impression. You want the house to look great, the meals to be faultless; it’s easy to forget that if your guest room isn’t comfortable, nothing else matters.  If your guests include parents or grandparents, just remember, “if Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!” Let the hospitality experts at BedandBreakfast.com, the leading online B&B directory and reservation network worldwide, provide tips for ”B&Bing” your home.  A few thoughtful touches can make all the difference in everyone’s comfort levels.

Sandy Soule, BedandBreakfast.com’s editor and former B&B guidebook author, has visited more B&Bs than anyone else in the country, learning hospitality tricks from innkeeper experts.  “As hosts, we focus so much energy on making the house look picture perfect that we lose sight of what is means to be a great host,” explains Soule.  “Instead of obsessing about decorative details, consider the key factors that will make your guests’ overall experience a great one.”  Here are five great tips from BedandBreakfast.com on creating a B&B environment for your guests this holiday season:

•  Make your guests’ sleeping quarters as comfortable and inviting as possible. When you’re setting up the room, create some space in the closet (including empty hangers of decent quality) for them to hang their clothes, as well as a few empty drawers or shelves for folded clothes. The more you can distance them from their suitcases the better. Make sure their sleeping quarters offer a place to get away when needed.
•  “Comfortable bedding is always a top priority because over-tired guests are not happy campers. For many people, adjusting to a different bed or pillow is difficult, so ask ahead of time whether your guests are allergic to feathers, sleep with one or two pillows, and so on. If your pillows are flat or your mattress is sagging, invest in new pillows and ideally a new mattress, or at least a bed board.
•  “If needed, add a bedside table by simply using a TV tray table next to the bed with a clock radio and reading lamp. Special touches like extra blankets for sleeping, handy throws for reading or naps are equally thoughtful touches.
•  “If your guests are sharing a bathroom with other members of the household, provide fresh towels and make hooks or a rack exclusively available for them to hang wet towels If possible, providing robes is a thoughtful touch. Be sure to provide a place for guests to put their toiletries. If guests are flying in (or tend to be forgetful), fill a basket  with toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioners, and lotions, so they won’t have to worry about airport security.
•  “Remove personal items that have piled up in your guest room, then add a bud vase with fresh flowers and a dish of candies to create the welcoming feel of a B&B.”

“In the end, you want to make guests feel at home while avoiding some of the stress involved with holiday hosting,” says Soule. “It doesn’t take a lot to make the people you care about feel appreciated and welcome, just a few thoughtful gestures and a good night’s sleep.”

If there’s simply no room to accommodate all the guests coming for the holidays, or they’d rather stay nearby, choose a B&B to accommodate them.  It’s the next best thing to being in your home – and some would say it’s better! 

Fuel-conscious holiday shoppers will let their fingers do the driving this holiday season, making gift cards more popular than ever this year. According to Deloitte's 23rd Annual Holiday Survey of retail spending and trends recently announced, for the fifth straight year, gift cards are expected to be the top gift purchase.  66% of consumers surveyed in 2008 plan to buy them, just slightly below last year’s 69% of consumers. Businesses will be giving employees gift cards more than any other category of gift this year, according a recent American Express Business Gifting survey. From the employee perspective, gift cards rival a day off as a desirable gift, and are bested only by cash and vacation time.

This holiday season, join savvy gift card shoppers who are turning to The Getaway Gift Card from BedandBreakfast.com, welcome at nearly 4,000 B&Bs across the United States and Canada.Everyone loves that that there are no fees, no taxes, no expiration or blackout dates, and unlike other online gift purchases, free shipping is always available. Online buying in minutes means that shoppers can give a no-strings gift that offers complete flexibility. It’s the perfect holiday gift for adult kids to give their parents and grandparents, and equally appropriate for parents to give their grown children, along with a promise to babysit the grandkids! Add a customized photo of the whole family, and you have a gift that’s perfect for those who have everything but time to relax.

Photo shows snow covered Mount Washington from Pinkham Notch, NH. 

Up here in the North Country, the foliage is about as spectacular as anyone can remember for years.  We've had a rainy summer, contributing to healthy trees.  The foliage is at peak right now in Northern New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, and will continue to brighten in the southern parts of Maine, New Hampshire, and certainly in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts as October continues. 

This is the time to visit a New England B&B.  Brilliant foliage promises not to disappoint.  Welcoming innkeepers, with fire roaring and cider simmering in the pot will welcome visitors...well they may not all have cider simmering, but our studies show that 95% of innkeepers welcome guests with complimentary afternoon or evening refreshments. 

Some hot spots for B&B foliage getaways include Mt Washington Valley, Sugar Hill, and Londonderry, NH, plus Woodstock, Stowe and Waitsfield, VT.  Look for beautiful foliage on Cape Cod too, where you find hundreds of B&Bs too.

Photos here were taken in Mt Washington Valley, NH by my colleague Jesse Mosston.  We hope this will be the year for your New England fall foliage getaway this year.

By the way, I paid $2.81 per gallon for gas in Rockland, Maine yesterday.  The cost of gas has diminished by 35-cents just last week alone in Maine, and gas prices are going down throughout the country, so this is the time to jump in the car for a leaf peeping getaway!!

Fog lifting over Lake Chocorua in Chocorua, NH.

I receive a number of email newsletters from innkeepers throughout the country.  I thought it might be fun to start sharing some tidbits of news from innkeepers.  Here's one from Terry Hammer at Herman Hill Inn in Hermann, MO, who has spent a great deal of effort to create an eco-friendly haven for his guests.

Breakfast Makeover at Hermann Hill Inn

For the past two months, guests at the Hermann Hill Inn have been sampling new breakfast entrees. Their responses have been overwhelmingly positive.

In addition to more entree choices, Hermann Hill has expanded their breakfast menu to accommodate individual diets and special requests.

Breakfast menu enhancements include:

• The addition of soy and skim milk to your dairy choices
• Vegan and vegetarian options
• More Belgian waffle choices, including plain, blueberry, pecan, and chocolate chip. Waffles are topped with seasonal fruit and served with your choice of mango, raspberry, maple or sugar-free syrup.
• Five new egg entrees, including omelets made to order. Omelet choices include whole eggs or egg beaters; swiss, cheddar and pimento cheeses; ham, bacon, onions, tomatoes, green peppers, and mushrooms, served with salsa or sour cream.
  

Breakfast is a special occasion at Hermann Hill. Visit the recipe page on Hermann Hill's website for more guest-inspired ideas for breakfast.  Bon appetit!