Annual Holiday Inn Tour

We were on the tour the past two years. This year, I didn't participate, but I did buy a ticket.
I learned: Our decorations are very good, not best. But some places had just a tree. One place had beautiful garland in every room color coordinated to the room and ornaments hanging from every window and chandelier in addition to the standard trees and vignettes. So I give us a B+.
Our rooms are bigger than most. But the furniture is still a little more 'Grandma's house' than 'lovely inn.' So I give us a B. I'm thrilled to see that our smallest room is bigger than most of the rooms we toured. But we could use some time spent on antiquing over the next few years.
Our bathrooms are FINE!!!! Very pleased to see that most of the rooms we toured also have small showers and vinyl floors. Doesn't mean we can't continue our plan to spruce up the bathrooms. But we get an A.

Very good! I do the same thing when I go thru other inns.

Presentations were interesting.
One place had nice munchies like brie with a raspberry sauce and apples with goat cheese. Another place had a bottle of cranberry juice and a bottle of sparkling cider on the counter with paper cups. One place had no munchies, but offered her breads and jams for sale!
I was happy with mine of years past. Mini muffins and hot cider.

TheBeachHouse said:

Presentations were interesting.
One place had nice munchies like brie with a raspberry sauce and apples with goat cheese. Another place had a bottle of cranberry juice and a bottle of sparkling cider on the counter with paper cups. One place had no munchies, but offered her breads and jams for sale!
I was happy with mine of years past. Mini muffins and hot cider..

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I used to do cookies and warm cider. But I did use paper cups because people walked out with the drinks!

You mean to tell me that this is the only time you've seen other inns in your area? That's completely foreign to me.
Our group must be the exception. Here, because there are so many of us (180+ in the county), we're always up on what everyone has to offer. We even do 'fam' tours occasionally so that new innkeepers can become familiar with other inns. It's primary purpose is to help guests who call or contact an inn that might be booked or if the guest is in need of some amenity that one inn might not have, they can offer referrals.
Our local association (35) just had a Christmas tour. Very successful! We sold over 250 tickets and the participating inns reported 150+ visitors over two days.

Aussie Innkeeper said:

You mean to tell me that this is the only time you've seen other inns in your area? That's completely foreign to me.
Our group must be the exception. Here, because there are so many of us (180+ in the county), we're always up on what everyone has to offer. We even do 'fam' tours occasionally so that new innkeepers can become familiar with other inns. It's primary purpose is to help guests who call or contact an inn that might be booked or if the guest is in need of some amenity that one inn might not have, they can offer referrals.
Our local association (35) just had a Christmas tour. Very successful! We sold over 250 tickets and the participating inns reported 150+ visitors over two days..

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Aussie Innkeeper said:

You mean to tell me that this is the only time you've seen other inns in your area? That's completely foreign to me.
Our group must be the exception. Here, because there are so many of us (180+ in the county), we're always up on what everyone has to offer. We even do 'fam' tours occasionally so that new innkeepers can become familiar with other inns. It's primary purpose is to help guests who call or contact an inn that might be booked or if the guest is in need of some amenity that one inn might not have, they can offer referrals.
Our local association (35) just had a Christmas tour. Very successful! We sold over 250 tickets and the participating inns reported 150+ visitors over two days.

Click to expand...

I tour when I can. My husband is the innkeeper. Our association has a meeting each month during which the host inn will give a tour but I have a 9-5 job and can't go. I'm the decorator, so, although I value his opinion, I also like to see for myself.
The other issue is, the two inns I toured yesterday are thought to be the 'best' in town. And rightfully so. They've been in the business for generations. We are in our third year.
There are two more that I've seen in the couple years and both are comparable to ours. I was interested to see the two 'best.' I will say, the most surprising thing I noticed was the size of the rooms. They were very small and ours are quite spacious. That made me feel very good about our house.

TheBeachHouse said:

Aussie Innkeeper said:

You mean to tell me that this is the only time you've seen other inns in your area? That's completely foreign to me.
Our group must be the exception. Here, because there are so many of us (180+ in the county), we're always up on what everyone has to offer. We even do 'fam' tours occasionally so that new innkeepers can become familiar with other inns. It's primary purpose is to help guests who call or contact an inn that might be booked or if the guest is in need of some amenity that one inn might not have, they can offer referrals.
Our local association (35) just had a Christmas tour. Very successful! We sold over 250 tickets and the participating inns reported 150+ visitors over two days..

Click to expand...

Aussie Innkeeper said:

You mean to tell me that this is the only time you've seen other inns in your area? That's completely foreign to me.
Our group must be the exception. Here, because there are so many of us (180+ in the county), we're always up on what everyone has to offer. We even do 'fam' tours occasionally so that new innkeepers can become familiar with other inns. It's primary purpose is to help guests who call or contact an inn that might be booked or if the guest is in need of some amenity that one inn might not have, they can offer referrals.
Our local association (35) just had a Christmas tour. Very successful! We sold over 250 tickets and the participating inns reported 150+ visitors over two days.

Click to expand...

I tour when I can. My husband is the innkeeper. Our association has a meeting each month during which the host inn will give a tour but I have a 9-5 job and can't go. I'm the decorator, so, although I value his opinion, I also like to see for myself.
The other issue is, the two inns I toured yesterday are thought to be the 'best' in town. And rightfully so. They've been in the business for generations. We are in our third year.
There are two more that I've seen in the couple years and both are comparable to ours. I was interested to see the two 'best.' I will say, the most surprising thing I noticed was the size of the rooms. They were very small and ours are quite spacious. That made me feel very good about our house.
.

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Always fun to see what other B&Bs/inns are doing at any time. Glad you got to see that you have some new ideas to make your place everything that YOU want it to be!

Aussie Innkeeper said:

You mean to tell me that this is the only time you've seen other inns in your area? That's completely foreign to me.
Our group must be the exception. Here, because there are so many of us (180+ in the county), we're always up on what everyone has to offer. We even do 'fam' tours occasionally so that new innkeepers can become familiar with other inns. It's primary purpose is to help guests who call or contact an inn that might be booked or if the guest is in need of some amenity that one inn might not have, they can offer referrals.
Our local association (35) just had a Christmas tour. Very successful! We sold over 250 tickets and the participating inns reported 150+ visitors over two days..

Click to expand...

That's a great turnout!
We've had so many new innkeepers here in the past 3 years that I don't think most of them have been inside any of the other inns. We used to meet once/month in different inns but we haven't done that regularly for awhile.

TheBeachHouse said:

Aussie Innkeeper said:

You mean to tell me that this is the only time you've seen other inns in your area? That's completely foreign to me.
Our group must be the exception. Here, because there are so many of us (180+ in the county), we're always up on what everyone has to offer. We even do 'fam' tours occasionally so that new innkeepers can become familiar with other inns. It's primary purpose is to help guests who call or contact an inn that might be booked or if the guest is in need of some amenity that one inn might not have, they can offer referrals.
Our local association (35) just had a Christmas tour. Very successful! We sold over 250 tickets and the participating inns reported 150+ visitors over two days..

Click to expand...

Aussie Innkeeper said:

You mean to tell me that this is the only time you've seen other inns in your area? That's completely foreign to me.
Our group must be the exception. Here, because there are so many of us (180+ in the county), we're always up on what everyone has to offer. We even do 'fam' tours occasionally so that new innkeepers can become familiar with other inns. It's primary purpose is to help guests who call or contact an inn that might be booked or if the guest is in need of some amenity that one inn might not have, they can offer referrals.
Our local association (35) just had a Christmas tour. Very successful! We sold over 250 tickets and the participating inns reported 150+ visitors over two days.

Click to expand...

I tour when I can. My husband is the innkeeper. Our association has a meeting each month during which the host inn will give a tour but I have a 9-5 job and can't go. I'm the decorator, so, although I value his opinion, I also like to see for myself.
The other issue is, the two inns I toured yesterday are thought to be the 'best' in town. And rightfully so. They've been in the business for generations. We are in our third year.
There are two more that I've seen in the couple years and both are comparable to ours. I was interested to see the two 'best.' I will say, the most surprising thing I noticed was the size of the rooms. They were very small and ours are quite spacious. That made me feel very good about our house.
.

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Given the locality, maybe you want to use 'spacious' in your descriptions. Anyone who has started at the other places might appreciate being able to spread out a bit.

Christmas decorations. We get a B.
One house was so beautifully decorated it looked like Martha herself had been through. Each room had garland on the fireplace with colors that coordinated with the room. So pretty.
Another house had a tree and nothing else. I was so surprised.
My house has a lot of decorations!! But not much in the rooms.

Morticia said:

TheBeachHouse said:

Aussie Innkeeper said:

You mean to tell me that this is the only time you've seen other inns in your area? That's completely foreign to me.
Our group must be the exception. Here, because there are so many of us (180+ in the county), we're always up on what everyone has to offer. We even do 'fam' tours occasionally so that new innkeepers can become familiar with other inns. It's primary purpose is to help guests who call or contact an inn that might be booked or if the guest is in need of some amenity that one inn might not have, they can offer referrals.
Our local association (35) just had a Christmas tour. Very successful! We sold over 250 tickets and the participating inns reported 150+ visitors over two days..

Click to expand...

Aussie Innkeeper said:

You mean to tell me that this is the only time you've seen other inns in your area? That's completely foreign to me.
Our group must be the exception. Here, because there are so many of us (180+ in the county), we're always up on what everyone has to offer. We even do 'fam' tours occasionally so that new innkeepers can become familiar with other inns. It's primary purpose is to help guests who call or contact an inn that might be booked or if the guest is in need of some amenity that one inn might not have, they can offer referrals.
Our local association (35) just had a Christmas tour. Very successful! We sold over 250 tickets and the participating inns reported 150+ visitors over two days.

Click to expand...

I tour when I can. My husband is the innkeeper. Our association has a meeting each month during which the host inn will give a tour but I have a 9-5 job and can't go. I'm the decorator, so, although I value his opinion, I also like to see for myself.
The other issue is, the two inns I toured yesterday are thought to be the 'best' in town. And rightfully so. They've been in the business for generations. We are in our third year.
There are two more that I've seen in the couple years and both are comparable to ours. I was interested to see the two 'best.' I will say, the most surprising thing I noticed was the size of the rooms. They were very small and ours are quite spacious. That made me feel very good about our house.
.

Click to expand...

Given the locality, maybe you want to use 'spacious' in your descriptions. Anyone who has started at the other places might appreciate being able to spread out a bit.
.

Click to expand...

Morticia said:

Given the locality, maybe you want to use 'spacious' in your descriptions. Anyone who has started at the other places might appreciate being able to spread out a bit.

Click to expand...

Good thought and I will. The space is surprising when compared.

TheBeachHouse said:

Christmas decorations. We get a B.
One house was so beautifully decorated it looked like Martha herself had been through. Each room had garland on the fireplace with colors that coordinated with the room. So pretty.
Another house had a tree and nothing else. I was so surprised.
My house has a lot of decorations!! But not much in the rooms..

Click to expand...

I never did much in the rooms (except once that was done as a fundraiser for the Food Bank and a local craft store decorated them) because #1 - I did not want to put up/take down; #2 - took up guest space; #3 - not all guests are going o appreciate having Christmas everywhere they turn.
So I say, give yourself an A on that one.

gillumhouse said:

TheBeachHouse said:

Christmas decorations. We get a B.
One house was so beautifully decorated it looked like Martha herself had been through. Each room had garland on the fireplace with colors that coordinated with the room. So pretty.
Another house had a tree and nothing else. I was so surprised.
My house has a lot of decorations!! But not much in the rooms..

Click to expand...

I never did much in the rooms (except once that was done as a fundraiser for the Food Bank and a local craft store decorated them) because #1 - I did not want to put up/take down; #2 - took up guest space; #3 - not all guests are going o appreciate having Christmas everywhere they turn.
So I say, give yourself an A on that one.
.

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Thank, I guess I will!
We put one thing in each room. Most rooms get a nutcracker. Two rooms get a Styrofoam decorated mini-tree. All have a stocking on the door.
I agree with you that cleaning up garland in every room sounds like way too much work.

TheBeachHouse said:

gillumhouse said:

TheBeachHouse said:

Christmas decorations. We get a B.
One house was so beautifully decorated it looked like Martha herself had been through. Each room had garland on the fireplace with colors that coordinated with the room. So pretty.
Another house had a tree and nothing else. I was so surprised.
My house has a lot of decorations!! But not much in the rooms..

Click to expand...

I never did much in the rooms (except once that was done as a fundraiser for the Food Bank and a local craft store decorated them) because #1 - I did not want to put up/take down; #2 - took up guest space; #3 - not all guests are going o appreciate having Christmas everywhere they turn.
So I say, give yourself an A on that one.
.

Click to expand...

Thank, I guess I will!
We put one thing in each room. Most rooms get a nutcracker. Two rooms get a Styrofoam decorated mini-tree. All have a stocking on the door.
I agree with you that cleaning up garland in every room sounds like way too much work.
.

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I have nutcrackers and little wooden snowmen for the rooms. I swap them out from year to year because we get the same group coming in for the weekends in Dec. Stockings on the doors.
The mantels stay the same - lighted garland with some sort of extra decoration, depending on what I have on hand.
Lighted garland on the stairs. Wreaths on the doors (outside) and one huge one on the house.
Little decor items on shelves and side tables.

Morticia said:

TheBeachHouse said:

gillumhouse said:

TheBeachHouse said:

Christmas decorations. We get a B.
One house was so beautifully decorated it looked like Martha herself had been through. Each room had garland on the fireplace with colors that coordinated with the room. So pretty.
Another house had a tree and nothing else. I was so surprised.
My house has a lot of decorations!! But not much in the rooms..

Click to expand...

I never did much in the rooms (except once that was done as a fundraiser for the Food Bank and a local craft store decorated them) because #1 - I did not want to put up/take down; #2 - took up guest space; #3 - not all guests are going o appreciate having Christmas everywhere they turn.
So I say, give yourself an A on that one.
.

Click to expand...

Thank, I guess I will!
We put one thing in each room. Most rooms get a nutcracker. Two rooms get a Styrofoam decorated mini-tree. All have a stocking on the door.
I agree with you that cleaning up garland in every room sounds like way too much work.
.

Click to expand...

I have nutcrackers and little wooden snowmen for the rooms. I swap them out from year to year because we get the same group coming in for the weekends in Dec. Stockings on the doors.
The mantels stay the same - lighted garland with some sort of extra decoration, depending on what I have on hand.
Lighted garland on the stairs. Wreaths on the doors (outside) and one huge one on the house.
Little decor items on shelves and side tables.
.

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sounds festive.!
In addition to the room decorations, we have a big tree on the first floor and a small tree on each of the second and third floors. Garland and lights on the porch, wreaths, some decorations, and kissing balls on the porch and on the sign.
We actually have 6 stockings hung in various places in the front entry room.
I love stockings. Not sure why, but I just do.

DH went to the innkeepers' group meeting yesterday. Apparently the inn tour got a great deal of negative feedback.
Mostly because many of the places weren't really decorated. Just a tree. I was also surprised by that. If you book your house on a Christmas stroll tour, don't you decorate the heck out of it? Also, people were surprised that some inns had baked and canned goods for sale. Suggestion was made that the inn have a large sign saying that proceeds go to the fund raiser. Last bad review was that the signs identifying the homes were hard to find. I had to agree with that one as well.
Next year, DH is the innkeepers' liaison with the school on this fundraiser. We will do more to make sure the participants understand what is expected of them.

TheBeachHouse said:

DH went to the innkeepers' group meeting yesterday. Apparently the inn tour got a great deal of negative feedback.
Mostly because many of the places weren't really decorated. Just a tree. I was also surprised by that. If you book your house on a Christmas stroll tour, don't you decorate the heck out of it? Also, people were surprised that some inns had baked and canned goods for sale. Suggestion was made that the inn have a large sign saying that proceeds go to the fund raiser. Last bad review was that the signs identifying the homes were hard to find. I had to agree with that one as well.
Next year, DH is the innkeepers' liaison with the school on this fundraiser. We will do more to make sure the participants understand what is expected of them..

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The neg feedback came from the strollers or the innkeepers?
Funny how you nailed all the negs in your first post!

Morticia said:

TheBeachHouse said:

DH went to the innkeepers' group meeting yesterday. Apparently the inn tour got a great deal of negative feedback.
Mostly because many of the places weren't really decorated. Just a tree. I was also surprised by that. If you book your house on a Christmas stroll tour, don't you decorate the heck out of it? Also, people were surprised that some inns had baked and canned goods for sale. Suggestion was made that the inn have a large sign saying that proceeds go to the fund raiser. Last bad review was that the signs identifying the homes were hard to find. I had to agree with that one as well.
Next year, DH is the innkeepers' liaison with the school on this fundraiser. We will do more to make sure the participants understand what is expected of them..

Click to expand...

The neg feedback came from the strollers or the innkeepers?
Funny how you nailed all the negs in your first post!
.

Click to expand...

Morticia said:

The neg feedback came from the strollers or the innkeepers?
Funny how you nailed all the negs in your first post!

Click to expand...

from the strollers. the kids (hosts) were handing out feedback forms.

We used to do an open house tour but no one wanted to pick a charity. The tour was free, more to get folks in the door to look around. We pretty much got zip for attendance and stopped.
The first year it was all folks who used to know the people who used to live in the house. That was fun because they told us stories we didn't know.
Maybe we could think about it for next year but it's really hard to do a tour when the rooms are all taken, or in the middle of check in.

TheBeachHouse said:

DH went to the innkeepers' group meeting yesterday. Apparently the inn tour got a great deal of negative feedback.
Mostly because many of the places weren't really decorated. Just a tree. I was also surprised by that. If you book your house on a Christmas stroll tour, don't you decorate the heck out of it? Also, people were surprised that some inns had baked and canned goods for sale. Suggestion was made that the inn have a large sign saying that proceeds go to the fund raiser. Last bad review was that the signs identifying the homes were hard to find. I had to agree with that one as well.
Next year, DH is the innkeepers' liaison with the school on this fundraiser. We will do more to make sure the participants understand what is expected of them..

Click to expand...

One of our houses (where we live) was on the Christmas tour here when we were open as a B&B. I did it up really BIG with lots of floral decorations. We have 7 mantels and they were all decorated with fresh cut seasonal greens and had stockings hung. Had professional centerpieces for the dining room table (as opposed to my usual creations for guests...haha!) Poinsettias everywhere. All 3 porches were decorated with cut greenery and ribbons, etc.
The table was set very fancy for the holidays with holiday china and linens, Christmas poppers, and place cards.
We had punch and treats on the buffet in the dining room (although it was not required).
It was a ton of work but I had fun with it and wanted to really show off this house and all the work that we've done on it! People paid to go on the tour and it was a big fundraiser for a non-profit.