Innkeepers Resource Library

Some of the files in this Innkeepers area are in Adobe Acrobat® Reader™ for a free download please go to:

Business Information & Reading

PDF Files:

• Effective Telephone Etiquette Maximizes Reservations 
• Email Etiquette & Advice 
• Say it with a Smile - Ideas for instructional signs. Saying the necessary in a nice way
• The Rules: Effective Messaging for your Guests
• You might be an Innkeeper if… thoughts from other innkeepers.

HTML Links

• Aspiring Innkeepers: Is Innkeeping for Me?
• B&B Industry Background
• B&B Industry FAQ
• B-roll: Why bother with it?
• Branding and Promoting Your Inn
• Branding Hospitality
• Business Traveler-Friendly B&Bs
• Credit Card Processing Update
• Distribute a Press Release, How-to
• Does Your Image Represent Your Inn?
• Enhancing Repeat & Referral Business
• Five Foto Fallacies
• Five PR Pitching Secrets
• Funniest happenings
• Getting on National Television Shows
• Gift card/certificate liability, BedandBreakfast.com
• Good photography—it really is that important!
• Hand-crafted Marketing
• High-resolution Photography and B-roll
• Horrible Hurricane Season
• How Do Your Rates and Revenues Compare?
• How to Become an Editor's Pick
• Insider’s Guide to Getting Great Coverage in Magazines, Newspapers, Radio and TV
• Insuring Your Inn: What Kind of Policy is Best for You?
• Market Forecast 2004
• Marketing for Masters
• Marketing Tune-up: A Five-step Action Plan
• Maximizing your Membership
• Maximizing Publicity with Specials
• Media Requests with a Short Deadline
• Multi-Channel Marketing
• Organizing Your Press List
• Packaging
• PAII's Industry Study of Operations and Finance, 2007-2008
• Pay-per-click Marketing
• Password Anxiety
• Photography: Essential Marketing Tool
• Placing a Value on Publicity
• Preparing You and Your Inn for Sale
• Press contact list, how to organize
• Press Releases, Best Time to Send
• Press Releases, Getting the Media to Use
• Pricing & Promoting Rooms for Maximum Occupancy
• Publicity Leads
• Publicity Primer
• Publicity Primer, Part II: Advice from travel writers
• Publicity Primer, Part III: B-roll, the secret to TV coverage
• Publicity: B-roll, once you've got it, flaunt it
• Publicity: Radio/TV advertising for B&B Associations
• Publicity: why bother?
• Recession-Proofing Your Inn: Marketing Guidelines
• Responding to Publicity Leads
• Reviews = Reservations
• Room descriptions, why they matter, how to write
• Surviving & Thriving
• Ten Top Marketing Goals
• The 80-20 Rule
• Too Many Options? The New Realities
• Top 12 Reasons and Misperceptions for Online Reservations
• Track Media Coverage, How to
• Travel writers, how to know they're legit
• Twenty Step Checklist to Guest Comfort
• Websites that Work: Seven Elements of an Effective Site

We asked innkeepers…

• How have you networked with area inns, local corporations and educational institutions to increase publicity and reservations?
• What is the funniest thing that ever happened at your inn?
• What are you doing to enhance repeat & referral bookings?
• What are you doing to attract guests within driving distance of your inn?
• What has been your biggest innkeeping challenge?
• Do you allow pets at your inn?
• Please share your thoughts on hosting guests with pets—what works and what doesn't.
• How are you coping with the increased demand for Internet access?
• Comments about the "Golden Rule for Innkeepers"
• How are you responding to the last-minute travel trend?
• What have you learned by staying at other B&Bs?
• What are your pet peeves about your guests?
• Are innkeeping conferences worth the time and money?
• Coping with email
• Pencil and paper and/or computerized guest management software?
• What have been your experiences with niche marketing?
• What percent of total revenues do you spend on advertising? Read more.
• How have you used guest feedback to improve your inn
• Tell us your best Thanksgiving and Christmas stories
• If you could magically change one thing about your inn, what would it be?
• Tell us about hosting weddings at your inn
• Top ten reasons I like being an innkeeper
• Top ten reasons I like being an innkeeper, con’t.
• Do you welcome children at your B&B?
• What highlights your day as an innkeeper?
• What are your favorite getaways?
• What’s the most romantic thing that ever happened at your B&B?
• Have you hosted any military personnel before or after Iraqi deployment?
• Innkeepers' stories about Hurricane Katrina
• How do you handle "problem guests"—those who are loud, rowdy or don’t follow the rules?
• What is the nicest/funniest thank-you gift you've ever received from a guest?
• What are your best housekeeping tips for removing stains, scratches, nicks and tears?
• Tell us when you realized you were really an innkeeper.
• What can you do when nothing you do makes a guest happy?
• Have high gas prices affected your summer reservations? If so, what have you done about it?
• Have you had any wonderful – or horrible – Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday experiences with your guests? Tell all!
• How do you answer the question, "Is it a quiet room?"
• Do you remember your “first time?” What was most memorable about the first time you hosted people at your inn?
• Do you think attending innkeeper conferences is worthwhile? Why or why not?
• Many B&Bs are leading the way with environmentally friendly practices; what do you do to promote a green environment?
• What's the silliest question you've ever been asked by a guest?
• What are some of your breakfast-time triumphs and disasters?
• When did you know you were really an innkeeper?
• Why did you take the plunge into innkeeping?
• What was your most embarrassing moment as an innkeeper?
• What have you done to soundproof your guest rooms?
• What are some stories of romance – touching, funny, or anywhere in between – experienced at your inn?

Time for a Smile

• Did we write that? On hospitality
• Did we write that? On accommodations
• Did we write that? On food
• Did we write that? On location and setting
• Dodgy translations
• English: Asylum for the Verbally Insane
• From a frequent inn-goer
• Guests say and do the darndest things
• Innkeepers' thoughts on their least favorite guests
• You might be an innkeeper if...
• More of "You might be an innkeeper if…"
• Murphy’s Laws of Innkeeping
• Overheard in the office
• Twas the Night Before Christmas, Innkeeper-Style
• Some of the most entertaining urban legends
• What were they thinking?
• Yiddish for innkeepers

Recipe of the Month

• Apple Brunch Biscuits
• Artichoke Three Cheese Breakfast/Brunch Casserole
• Cherry Chocolate Brownies
• Chocolate Chip Cookies, Best Ever
• Chocolate Fantasy Fondue
• Coffee Cake
• Ginger Crunch Cake with Strawberry Sauce
• Irish Soda Bread
• New England Blueberry Cake
• Orange Blossom Cookies - Orielletes
• Pear Puff Pancakes
• Pumpkin Chiffon Pie
• Springtime Frittata
• Strawberry Cream Cheese French Toast
• Summer Baby Green Salad with Buttermilk Honey Dressing
• Summer Veggie Pie
• Woolverton Inn Pumpkin Pancakes

From the consumer's point of view

• Advice for first-time inngoers
• B&B Bonuses
• B&B Traveler survey, results
• B&B Travel Tips for Seniors
• B&Bs for Business Travelers
• Can you pick an inn from its website?
• Choosing the Right Inn
• Christmas Travel
• Effective Complaints
• Family-friendly inns
• Fifteen Commandments of Vacation Travel
• Finding Allergy-free B&Bs
• Finding Allergy-free B&Bs
• Finding a B&B for a Romantic Getaway
• Finding last-minute getaway deals
• Less is more Luggage Lessons
• Pet-friendly inns
• Top Do's and Don'ts for Business Travelers
• Value Quotient Test for Inns
• When Inn Doubt

Book Reviews

An Innkeeper's Discretion
Breakfast with Tom: The Stories
The Experts Speak: The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation
Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry
PAII Industry Marketing Study
Spam Not in a Can
Traveling Curmudgeon

Innkeeper area

Aspiring Innkeepers

Membership Support