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Tuesday, June 26,
2007
Volume 2, Issue 25
PAII
News & Announcements:
Members Receive Innkeeping Quarterly (IQ)
Our new four-color magazine, Innkeeping Quarterly (IQ)
has been mailed to all members so be sure to look for it! IQ was
mailed in bulk, so please allow some time for delivery. However,
if you do not receive your copy by the end of this week please email
Laura Middleton at laura@paii.org
and she will forward another copy. You won't want to miss it!
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PAII
Membership Minutes:
Spring Business Survey, 2007 PAII Convention Success Story, &
2007 PAII Convention CDs on Sale until June 30th
Spring Business Survey
Would you like to know how your spring business compared to
other inns across the country? Just click on the link below before
July 10th and complete a 5 minute anonymous survey. The results
will be posted in INNfo so you can gauge your business against
other PAII members nationally, this year versus last year. It's
important for all of us to know how the industry is doing as a whole
so please participate!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=oRktgdOuZeHZLaEvgKJK8g_3d_3d
2007 PAII Convention Success Story
"I learned that I have much more to learn about converting
incoming calls into room nights from Don Farrell, presenter of It's
No Mystery: Converting Callers to Guests. Both Dan Brown and I took
action by hiring Don and having him come to work directly with our
staffs. He spent an entire day with the front line staff of The
Inn at the Round Barn and the nearby Swift House Inn, and we are
both taking advantage of his services. Just today one of my staff
was the subject of a mystery shop call. After the call, the trainer
called back offering feedback as to how we could have converted
the call into more dollars for the inn. It's been great working
with Signature Worldwide, and without attending the 2007 PAII convention,
we would have never made the connection."
- AnneMarie DeFreest, Inn at the Round Barn Farm, VT
2007 PAII Convention CDs on Sale until June 30th
Get the entire PAII Convention on one CD set for only $169.95 (regular
price is $199.95). Listen to sessions you missed and have your staff
listen to sessions as part of their training. This is the only educational
product of its kind on the market: sixty educational sessions on
current topics, tailored specifically to the needs of innkeepers.
To order, go to 2007 Convention CDs. To take advantage of the special
sale price of $169.95 for the entire Convention CD set, enter a
Redeem Code under Discount Coupons during checkout: PAIIDeal.
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PAII
Forum Digest:
Sneaky Credit, & More!
If you have not had time to log on to the
Forum located in the Members
Only section of www.paii.org,
here are some of the interesting topics that have been discussed
this past week.
Sneaky Credit
Just got a "credit card" in the mail from Five Point Capital
which appears to be a bank. The "credit card" has my name
and business name plus instructions on the activation procedure.
Very similar to the instructions a credit card has. Difference is
the card does not have a magnetic strip. This prompted me to read
the verbiage which the card was stuck to. Turns out that this is
a leasing company not a bank and clearly states that the card is
not a credit card.
Separate LLCs to Own Property and B&B Business
We are considering setting up an LLC to own the property and another
LLC to own the B&B business to protect ourselves from potential
lawsuits. Is this necessary or is owning the property in our individual
names with an LLC business sufficient protection? Creating an LLC
to own the property will have significant tax consequences due to
capital gains on the value of the property.
Warning! Spam/Virus from your Webmaster?
Be on the lookout for e-mails which look like they come from your
webmaster/web hosting company but are actually spam or worse. We
received an email with 2 attachments. The email from field was a
legit looking address as it appears in all of our emails. I shudder
to think what might have happened had we clicked on one of the attachments
thinking it was safe as it was from our webmaster. I didn't recognize
the email so I checked it out and found out it was bogus.
Waffle Iron and Mix
I am looking for a self timing waffle iron and mix for my guests
to use something simple and safe. If anyone has any source for something
of that sort, please contact.
Kudos to PAII Staff for "IQ" Premier Edition
Words evade me, trying to express appreciation and admiration for
this first issue. Layout-outstanding. Words from PAII Chair, Debbie
Mosimann. Inspirational article on Ellen Chenaux ("Yes You
Can"). Another on Ray and Kris Rosset (Mixing B& B with
a Marriage). Featuring a state association, North Carolina Bed and
Breakfasts and Inns (how important our state associations are).
Several articles on food-with recipes (highlighting "culinary
tourism"). An article explaining Select Registry, about which
we often wondered, "Should we, or should we not?" And
finally, a really super article about marketing our web site by
Scott Seaman. Thanks PAII staff for an outstanding job. Keep up
the good work.
OpenList.com
Marchex operates a website openlist.com which is a local guide that
includes comments and reviews from across the Web. Someone who had
never seen or visited our property put up a misleading and malicious
review on Trip Advisor. Trip Advisor subsequently removed that review.
Marchex should have removed it as well. Over the past several months
we have repeatedly attempted to contact Marchex to get the situation
corrected. Our emails have gone unanswered.
Spa Services on Premises
We are looking at converting one of our rooms to spa services. We
have talked to an owner of a spa in a different city, she is in
more of a resort type, and we are in a city with 400,000 and are
located in an urban area. We have offered packages with massages
through one of the local spas. We have had a few takers on the massages
not a lot. In our conversations with her she suggested we package
all our rooms with a massage on the weekends and during the week
as an addition to the room. Has anyone done this, any other ideas?
PAII Conference Location Question
Who decides where the conference is going to be held from year to
year? Does PAII ask the membership in a survey for preferred locations?
Aspiring Innkeeper Seeks Shadowing Opportunity
Do you have a small inn? An eco-groovy inn? If any current innkeepers
are open to it, I would interested in coming out to your inn and
spending some time helping out to learn firsthand about being an
innkeeper. I have a flexible schedule an am willing to pay my travel
costs and my personal expenses while there. I would love this kind
of opportunity.
Wood Burning Furnaces
It "seems like an eternal" quest to find the right property.
We came across a B&B that uses an outdoor wood furnace to heat
their house. What is really interesting is it sits outside, burns
up to 5 ft lengths of wood, in dead of VT winter, needs to be stoked
about once a day (every few days as the weather warms up). She said
it burns really clean too—not a lot of dust that most wood
heat brings. Anyway thought if people were looking to replace their
heating systems might be worth looking at.
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PAII
Food Feature:
Iced Coffee Slush from WelshSpirit Coffee Company
Let us feature a recipe from your
inn!
Please send your submission (and a photo of the dish if available)
to Laura@paii.org.
Linda J. Welsh, Founder / Owner, of WelshSpirit Coffee
Company (www.RabbitsRunJava.com)
offers this recipe for Iced Coffee Slush. You can keep this coffee
in the freezer and serve anytime. Yields 12 servings
Ingredients:
3 cups hot strong brewed coffee
1 ½ - 2 cups sugar
4 cups milk
2 cups half and half
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
Directions:
- In a freezer-safe bowl, stir coffee and sugar until sugar is dissolved.
- Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
- Add the milk, cream and vanilla.
- Freeze. (Freeze in smaller containers so you don't have to thaw
it all at once.)
- Remove from the freezer several hours before serving.
- Chop mixture until slushy, serve immediately.
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PAII
Pointer:
Guests with Allergies
For
those guests with allergies and asthma conditions, minimize the
number of toss pillows to decorate the bed. They collect a lot of
dust and allergens. Also, when cleaning use natural, unscented cleaning
products—along with natural alternatives such as baking soda
and vinegar.
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About INNfo
INNfo is published weekly. Annual subscription is included
in the price of membership.
Publisher
Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII)
Editor-in-Chief
Laura Middleton
Production Coordinator
Laura Middleton
Editorial Staff
Laura Middleton, Karen Hudgeons, Jeanine Zeman
Editorial Suggestions and Contributions
Editorial comments and suggestions are welcomed. In addition, if
you have a suggestion or would like to contribute news and announcements
for INNfo, please contact INNfo’s Editor-in-Chief,
Laura Middleton, at 856.310.1102 or Laura@paii.org.
Advertising Rates & Information
Weekly sponsorship ads are available. Please send all inquiries
to Marlene Sapir at marlene@paii.org
or 856.310.1102. MC/VISA/AMEX/DISCOVER accepted.
Editorial Offices
c/o PAII
207 White Horse Pike
Haddon Heights, NJ 08035
Phone: 856.310.1102 • Fax: 856.310.1105
membership@paii.org •
www.paii.org
Title Image
Courtesy of Jumping Rocks
©2007INNfo, all rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means without written permission from the editor.
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