jkarennj said:
Shared baths are incredibly uncommon in the US, but they are prevalent "across the globe."
But it is a heck of a lot easier to get the media to notice the positive attributes of our industry than it is to get some innkeepers to evolve.
The resistance or disinterest in evolving to make our product more appealing to a wider and/or younger audience is what keeps the stereotypes alive and well.
We can only work on B&B's in our own country. We cannot and should not make other countries follow what we consider to be 'modern' or 'appropriate' to the B&B experience. If B&B's in other countries have shared baths, that's part of the exepperience of travel.
It is much easier to get media attention for the bad than the good. Given some of the blogs we've read lately about B&B's it's just a lot of the same thing. 'It was like this. I didn't bother to read the website info so I didn't know it was like that so I am complaining in this public space about my inability to read. And, besides which, they're all like this anyway.'
I don't think we're 'uninterested' in changing. I think a lot of us have done a lot to change how we do things to make the experience better for ALL the guests, not just the young ones. We have to take into account everyone who comes thru the door, not just a certain segment of the market.
Because I am older, and an entitled baby boomer, I resent being thrown out with the bath water because the younger generation wants a sleek, chrome, modern experience when they travel. If they want a hotel, then stay at a hotel. The idea behind a B&B is that you are staying IN the community, in someone's home and that someone might like the same decor as the guest or they might not. (That's what website photos are for.)
I do know one B&B that is almost exclusively 20-30-somethings for their clientele. So, I look at what they have that I do not and I ask myself, 'Do I want to clean and sanitize jetted tubs every day to get this crowd? Do I want to run a short order kitchen that serves untill checkout to get this crowd? Do I want to have big, flat screen TV's and all of the electronics in every room to get this crowd?' And the answer is always no. So I do not get that crowd, the other B&B does. I get those old, dying off geezers who also don't want or need all of that
while they are on vacation. Let's never assume they don't have all of this at home, they just don't need it when they're traveling.
How about we stop trying to change all of us and let us be the place we want to be? You know, the unique experience.
Because of my location and the competition in my area, I am NEVER going to have high occupancy rates even if I turn this building inside out and make every room a 'spa' expereince. My area doesn't really support the high end $400/night experience. And to pay for all of the spa amenities takes a lot of money. A lot more money than we earn in a year. And a lot more than we can charge.
Cart before the horse? Spend the money first and hope for the best?
And, if I take to heart the B&B Team's latest tract on what I should provide for the guests, I may as well just close now. Change the mattresses every 3-4 years? What planet do they live on? Do they have ANY idea what a mattress set costs? Even at 100% occupancy (my own bed), I would not change the mattress every 3-4 years. How about every 20?
Perhaps one day we will turn a profit running this business, but it's not happening anytime in the foreseeable future. This year alone our health insurance will cost us $18,000. That's a substantial percent of my yearly revenue. We may end up having to drop one of us from the insurance plan and hope for the best. There is no room in the budget for a complete revamp of the inn to MAYBE draw in more guests. And that is why on one of your next questionnaires you should ask how many innkeepers hold down a second job just to make ends meet. We're very proud that thus far we have not had to find second jobs, that we've done exactly what we set out to do in that this biz lets both of us 'work at home'. We're not getting paid, but we're also not punching someone else's clock everyday.
Instead of trying to get us to change, why not show the guests that there's something out there for everyone. Explain we are all different and THAT is the allure. If the push is to get us all to change to be some standardized model where only the colors and the location are different, then more and more of us will close until all that is left will be the fringes- the places you are REALLY trying to encourage to upgrade and the high end places that are already there but that no one will go to unless it's a special occasion and they want to splurge. This push for change will push the middle of the road places out. Places like mine that are a good, happy, enjoyable experience for the guest but that will never meet the new goals of BWTS.