Hello Everyone,
I hope this clears the air and puts some of the paranoia and suspicion to rest. I'm a little surprised by the negativity our complimentary subscription offer and announcement has generated on here, I guess I expected a warmer reception from hospitality professionals.
This is Kathy Harris with Affinity Communications. We have invested to date $25,861 into R&D and framework for an industry publication for innkeepers and boutique hoteliers because it was presented to us that there was a need. I suspect this presentation was indeed correct as we have 876 subscribers in just short of a week since we made the announcement. 89% of which are innkeepers. Our R&D campaign went as far back as an industry publication called Arrington's Bed & Breakfast Magazine which appeared to have been very popular during it's time.
We are currently jurying a number of industry professionals, editors, veteran innkeepers, vendors, suppliers and contributors to put together the first publication. Our goal is to unveil an electronic edition, followed by a printed magazine publication. To answer the question surrounding print: yes we're still getting many (hundreds of) requests from people who want to get the publication by U.S. Mail and we want to try to honor those requests, despite the cost concerns.
We saw a need and we have the capabilities to put the project together. Is that a bad thing? Our goal is for the publication to merely pay for itself and if it ends up making a profit while bringing it to you (the innkeeper) for free I would celebrate that. Our goal is to keep it a free source of information and content for you while subsidizing the project with vendor and industry advertising.
Someone here has brought to light some discrepancies surrounding our domain information and I will be addressing those today with our IT manager. Last year we developed ExquisiteInns.com (also free for innkeepers) and we have own a number of directories and printed publication across several industries. Our firm serves as branding, graphic design, marketing and public relations consultants to about 16 boutique properties in the U.S., 3 hotel franchises and an international hotel group.
Perhaps we should have unveiled the finished product prior to making the announcement, but our PR team thought building some hype would be encouraging. I never imagined I'd read responses like this. You're free to sign up on the website if you wish to subscribe, or you can disregard. It's entirely your choice.
If you have any questions, comments or a desperate concerns, you can email me directly at
[email protected], call me at 617-870-3323 ext. 503 or you can contact our editor (tbd) at
[email protected].
Thank you and I wish you a day of bliss, happiness and success!
Kathy Harris.
