Bed and Breakfast Websites from Guest Perspective

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Cherry64 wrote: 2. Good Breakfast. I like eggs and pancakes, but I can make that at home. I want more than the basics. Homemade breads, local favorites, award-winning recipes. Let me know what makes your breakfast the best in town.
What price range are you looking at paying?
We do not offer award winning recipes here. We do not charge an arm and leg either. If the B&B is 'upscale' then the food better be as well.
We have guests who love a nice hearty homecooked breakfast - presented well. If i try to gor-met it too much they won't eat it. Location, price range, whatever it is, they do not expect it and if they get it they typically won't touch it. It is like baked grapefruit - it won't work here for a variety of reasons.
So the breakfast on the website has to do with personal taste - is what you are saying. Example - if i am on a farm stay I better get farm fresh eggs and smoked bacon! That is what I would expect.
If I stay in a B&B and get a continental I would be sorely dissappointed. If the B&B typically does not serve breakfast meats then the website should state that. There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG.

 

[cherry64]

Cherry64 wrote: 2. Good Breakfast. I like eggs and pancakes, but I can make that at home. I want more than the basics. Homemade breads, local favorites, award-winning recipes. Let me know what makes your breakfast the best in town.
What price range are you looking at paying?
We do not offer award winning recipes here. We do not charge an arm and leg either. If the B&B is 'upscale' then the food better be as well.
We have guests who love a nice hearty homecooked breakfast - presented well. If i try to gor-met it too much they won't eat it. Location, price range, whatever it is, they do not expect it and if they get it they typically won't touch it. It is like baked grapefruit - it won't work here for a variety of reasons.
So the breakfast on the website has to do with personal taste - is what you are saying. Example - if i am on a farm stay I better get farm fresh eggs and smoked bacon! That is what I would expect.
If I stay in a B&B and get a continental I would be sorely dissappointed. If the B&B typically does not serve breakfast meats then the website should state that. There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG..

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Cherry64 wrote: 2. Good Breakfast. I like eggs and pancakes, but I can make that at home. I want more than the basics. Homemade breads, local favorites, award-winning recipes. Let me know what makes your breakfast the best in town.
What price range are you looking at paying?
We do not offer award winning recipes here. We do not charge an arm and leg either. If the B&B is 'upscale' then the food better be as well.
We have guests who love a nice hearty homecooked breakfast - presented well. If i try to gor-met it too much they won't eat it. Location, price range, whatever it is, they do not expect it and if they get it they typically won't touch it. It is like baked grapefruit - it won't work here for a variety of reasons.
So the breakfast on the website has to do with personal taste - is what you are saying. Example - if i am on a farm stay I better get farm fresh eggs and smoked bacon! That is what I would expect.
If I stay in a B&B and get a continental I would be sorely dissappointed. If the B&B typically does not serve breakfast meats then the website should state that. There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG..

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

.

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

Thanks. I was just wondering if there is a diff market for each inns BREAKFAST page display. Unfortunately it is hard to do it all as we have all walks of life here. The business guest or the old folks don't want a super fancy breakfast, the honeymooners do.
My thing that I need to let go of when I eat out "Serve it hot or don't bother" as it seems food is never served hot anymore. Cooks/CHefs used to be able to get it done on time together, now you have this one plate for you, and yours is not ready - deal going on. Or they let it sit under the heat lamp to wilt.

 

[Morticia]

Cherry64 wrote: 2. Good Breakfast. I like eggs and pancakes, but I can make that at home. I want more than the basics. Homemade breads, local favorites, award-winning recipes. Let me know what makes your breakfast the best in town.
What price range are you looking at paying?
We do not offer award winning recipes here. We do not charge an arm and leg either. If the B&B is 'upscale' then the food better be as well.
We have guests who love a nice hearty homecooked breakfast - presented well. If i try to gor-met it too much they won't eat it. Location, price range, whatever it is, they do not expect it and if they get it they typically won't touch it. It is like baked grapefruit - it won't work here for a variety of reasons.
So the breakfast on the website has to do with personal taste - is what you are saying. Example - if i am on a farm stay I better get farm fresh eggs and smoked bacon! That is what I would expect.
If I stay in a B&B and get a continental I would be sorely dissappointed. If the B&B typically does not serve breakfast meats then the website should state that. There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG..

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

.

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

Thanks. I was just wondering if there is a diff market for each inns BREAKFAST page display. Unfortunately it is hard to do it all as we have all walks of life here. The business guest or the old folks don't want a super fancy breakfast, the honeymooners do.
My thing that I need to let go of when I eat out "Serve it hot or don't bother" as it seems food is never served hot anymore. Cooks/CHefs used to be able to get it done on time together, now you have this one plate for you, and yours is not ready - deal going on. Or they let it sit under the heat lamp to wilt.
.

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

Thanks. I was just wondering if there is a diff market for each inns BREAKFAST page display. Unfortunately it is hard to do it all as we have all walks of life here. The business guest or the old folks don't want a super fancy breakfast, the honeymooners do.
My thing that I need to let go of when I eat out "Serve it hot or don't bother" as it seems food is never served hot anymore. Cooks/CHefs used to be able to get it done on time together, now you have this one plate for you, and yours is not ready - deal going on. Or they let it sit under the heat lamp to wilt.

I've sent cold/cool meals back. Yeah, I know, don't annoy the cook staff. I'm always checking to be sure the food is hot here. If something goes 'wrong' (burnt toast or whatever) the food already plated goes into the oven to wait for the toast. If it's particularly cold in the kitchen (there's no heat in my kitchen) then we'll pre heat the plates. But we serve 'basic' breakfast foods and that's what we show on the website. Most of our guests say they only eat brekkie on the weekends so they like just having someone else make the food! Pancakes are the most requested item, along with the waffle. And presentation is important.

 

[Copperhead]

Cherry64 wrote: 2. Good Breakfast. I like eggs and pancakes, but I can make that at home. I want more than the basics. Homemade breads, local favorites, award-winning recipes. Let me know what makes your breakfast the best in town.
What price range are you looking at paying?
We do not offer award winning recipes here. We do not charge an arm and leg either. If the B&B is 'upscale' then the food better be as well.
We have guests who love a nice hearty homecooked breakfast - presented well. If i try to gor-met it too much they won't eat it. Location, price range, whatever it is, they do not expect it and if they get it they typically won't touch it. It is like baked grapefruit - it won't work here for a variety of reasons.
So the breakfast on the website has to do with personal taste - is what you are saying. Example - if i am on a farm stay I better get farm fresh eggs and smoked bacon! That is what I would expect.
If I stay in a B&B and get a continental I would be sorely dissappointed. If the B&B typically does not serve breakfast meats then the website should state that. There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG..

There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG.

Yes this is very true. Where we stayed on our little getaway canNOT serve a hot breakfast. They did have a very elaborate continental one though. The website did not go into much detail just basically stating breakfast was continental. When I called to make the reservation, the innkeeper reinterated that it was continental and gave more detail as of what to expect. - Now this was important as it did seperate them from the others, but it should be more detailed on the site.
Regarding this B&B, well small Inn, the website did little to 'sell me' to book there. No details on the rooms, only a snippet of info on each room catagory and few pictures. The reason for my booking there was where it was located in the town. We wanted to be on that street.
I know that there are several of us working on our websites at this time. This topic is very eye opening. Made me really think about what I looked for when shopping around and NOW more inlightened to what my website needs.

 

[springlady]

Cherry64 wrote: 2. Good Breakfast. I like eggs and pancakes, but I can make that at home. I want more than the basics. Homemade breads, local favorites, award-winning recipes. Let me know what makes your breakfast the best in town.
What price range are you looking at paying?
We do not offer award winning recipes here. We do not charge an arm and leg either. If the B&B is 'upscale' then the food better be as well.
We have guests who love a nice hearty homecooked breakfast - presented well. If i try to gor-met it too much they won't eat it. Location, price range, whatever it is, they do not expect it and if they get it they typically won't touch it. It is like baked grapefruit - it won't work here for a variety of reasons.
So the breakfast on the website has to do with personal taste - is what you are saying. Example - if i am on a farm stay I better get farm fresh eggs and smoked bacon! That is what I would expect.
If I stay in a B&B and get a continental I would be sorely dissappointed. If the B&B typically does not serve breakfast meats then the website should state that. There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG..

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

.

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

Thanks. I was just wondering if there is a diff market for each inns BREAKFAST page display. Unfortunately it is hard to do it all as we have all walks of life here. The business guest or the old folks don't want a super fancy breakfast, the honeymooners do.
My thing that I need to let go of when I eat out "Serve it hot or don't bother" as it seems food is never served hot anymore. Cooks/CHefs used to be able to get it done on time together, now you have this one plate for you, and yours is not ready - deal going on. Or they let it sit under the heat lamp to wilt.
.

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

Thanks. I was just wondering if there is a diff market for each inns BREAKFAST page display. Unfortunately it is hard to do it all as we have all walks of life here. The business guest or the old folks don't want a super fancy breakfast, the honeymooners do.
My thing that I need to let go of when I eat out "Serve it hot or don't bother" as it seems food is never served hot anymore. Cooks/CHefs used to be able to get it done on time together, now you have this one plate for you, and yours is not ready - deal going on. Or they let it sit under the heat lamp to wilt.

I've sent cold/cool meals back. Yeah, I know, don't annoy the cook staff. I'm always checking to be sure the food is hot here. If something goes 'wrong' (burnt toast or whatever) the food already plated goes into the oven to wait for the toast. If it's particularly cold in the kitchen (there's no heat in my kitchen) then we'll pre heat the plates. But we serve 'basic' breakfast foods and that's what we show on the website. Most of our guests say they only eat brekkie on the weekends so they like just having someone else make the food! Pancakes are the most requested item, along with the waffle. And presentation is important.
.

I think you need to let your market area dictate what you serve. If I were in a lovely Victorian house in Fredericksburg I would want to pull out all the stops with a gourmet breakfast, silver cutlery, nice china. I think that's what the market would want since it's a shopping destination town that's a great "girl trip" destination.
The place I'm targeting has cabins and the potential for two in-house, traditional B&B rooms. It's a family/couple/hunter/biker/motorcycle destination so I'm thinking a hearty, traditional breakfast might be in order since most tourists here make it a day on the road or the river and skip lunch. Farm fresh eggs if I decide chickens are worth the trouble (so much wildlife that there's bound to be coyotes), find a really good ham or locally smoked bacon, maybe a local German or venison sausage, have a hearty potato casserole. Develop a killer biscuit recipe. Private label a jelly selection to go with the biscuits, find a source for local honey, have both available for sale.
I think the wonderful breakfasts I had at my last B&B stay would be lost on this crowd - curried fruit, baked eggs with cream, lavender bread. I can hear the good ol' boys now, "what the h*ll is that thang?".

 

[Morticia]

Cherry64 wrote: 2. Good Breakfast. I like eggs and pancakes, but I can make that at home. I want more than the basics. Homemade breads, local favorites, award-winning recipes. Let me know what makes your breakfast the best in town.
What price range are you looking at paying?
We do not offer award winning recipes here. We do not charge an arm and leg either. If the B&B is 'upscale' then the food better be as well.
We have guests who love a nice hearty homecooked breakfast - presented well. If i try to gor-met it too much they won't eat it. Location, price range, whatever it is, they do not expect it and if they get it they typically won't touch it. It is like baked grapefruit - it won't work here for a variety of reasons.
So the breakfast on the website has to do with personal taste - is what you are saying. Example - if i am on a farm stay I better get farm fresh eggs and smoked bacon! That is what I would expect.
If I stay in a B&B and get a continental I would be sorely dissappointed. If the B&B typically does not serve breakfast meats then the website should state that. There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG..

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

.

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

Thanks. I was just wondering if there is a diff market for each inns BREAKFAST page display. Unfortunately it is hard to do it all as we have all walks of life here. The business guest or the old folks don't want a super fancy breakfast, the honeymooners do.
My thing that I need to let go of when I eat out "Serve it hot or don't bother" as it seems food is never served hot anymore. Cooks/CHefs used to be able to get it done on time together, now you have this one plate for you, and yours is not ready - deal going on. Or they let it sit under the heat lamp to wilt.
.

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

Thanks. I was just wondering if there is a diff market for each inns BREAKFAST page display. Unfortunately it is hard to do it all as we have all walks of life here. The business guest or the old folks don't want a super fancy breakfast, the honeymooners do.
My thing that I need to let go of when I eat out "Serve it hot or don't bother" as it seems food is never served hot anymore. Cooks/CHefs used to be able to get it done on time together, now you have this one plate for you, and yours is not ready - deal going on. Or they let it sit under the heat lamp to wilt.

I've sent cold/cool meals back. Yeah, I know, don't annoy the cook staff. I'm always checking to be sure the food is hot here. If something goes 'wrong' (burnt toast or whatever) the food already plated goes into the oven to wait for the toast. If it's particularly cold in the kitchen (there's no heat in my kitchen) then we'll pre heat the plates. But we serve 'basic' breakfast foods and that's what we show on the website. Most of our guests say they only eat brekkie on the weekends so they like just having someone else make the food! Pancakes are the most requested item, along with the waffle. And presentation is important.
.

I think you need to let your market area dictate what you serve. If I were in a lovely Victorian house in Fredericksburg I would want to pull out all the stops with a gourmet breakfast, silver cutlery, nice china. I think that's what the market would want since it's a shopping destination town that's a great "girl trip" destination.
The place I'm targeting has cabins and the potential for two in-house, traditional B&B rooms. It's a family/couple/hunter/biker/motorcycle destination so I'm thinking a hearty, traditional breakfast might be in order since most tourists here make it a day on the road or the river and skip lunch. Farm fresh eggs if I decide chickens are worth the trouble (so much wildlife that there's bound to be coyotes), find a really good ham or locally smoked bacon, maybe a local German or venison sausage, have a hearty potato casserole. Develop a killer biscuit recipe. Private label a jelly selection to go with the biscuits, find a source for local honey, have both available for sale.
I think the wonderful breakfasts I had at my last B&B stay would be lost on this crowd - curried fruit, baked eggs with cream, lavender bread. I can hear the good ol' boys now, "what the h*ll is that thang?".
.

I think you need to let your market area dictate what you serve. If I were in a lovely Victorian house in Fredericksburg I would want to pull out all the stops with a gourmet breakfast, silver cutlery, nice china. I think that's what the market would want since it's a shopping destination town that's a great "girl trip" destination.
The place I'm targeting has cabins and the potential for two in-house, traditional B&B rooms. It's a family/couple/hunter/biker/motorcycle destination so I'm thinking a hearty, traditional breakfast might be in order since most tourists here make it a day on the road or the river and skip lunch. Farm fresh eggs if I decide chickens are worth the trouble (so much wildlife that there's bound to be coyotes), find a really good ham or locally smoked bacon, maybe a local German or venison sausage, have a hearty potato casserole. Develop a killer biscuit recipe. Private label a jelly selection to go with the biscuits, find a source for local honey, have both available for sale.
I think the wonderful breakfasts I had at my last B&B stay would be lost on this crowd - curried fruit, baked eggs with cream, lavender bread. I can hear the good ol' boys now, "what the h*ll is that thang?".

What I don't get is where the money comes from for these elaborate breakfasts? Unless you own the house outright, the mortgage will kill you. Or, you charge $200/night. Our guests last week said they stayed at a place charging $100/night where they had a 7 course breakfast that lasted 2 hours. They are still talking about that breakfast 3 years later. But who can afford that sort of thing?
Anything grown locally around here is at least $1/unit more than in the store. So, fresh eggs are $1/dozen more than grocery store eggs. In the summer, that's around $10/week more in egg costs. Fresh fruit? heaven help me. We have a 3 week fruit season here, everything else is imported or frozen from last year. It is by far cheaper for me to buy Smuckers than to put up preserves.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Cherry64 wrote: 2. Good Breakfast. I like eggs and pancakes, but I can make that at home. I want more than the basics. Homemade breads, local favorites, award-winning recipes. Let me know what makes your breakfast the best in town.
What price range are you looking at paying?
We do not offer award winning recipes here. We do not charge an arm and leg either. If the B&B is 'upscale' then the food better be as well.
We have guests who love a nice hearty homecooked breakfast - presented well. If i try to gor-met it too much they won't eat it. Location, price range, whatever it is, they do not expect it and if they get it they typically won't touch it. It is like baked grapefruit - it won't work here for a variety of reasons.
So the breakfast on the website has to do with personal taste - is what you are saying. Example - if i am on a farm stay I better get farm fresh eggs and smoked bacon! That is what I would expect.
If I stay in a B&B and get a continental I would be sorely dissappointed. If the B&B typically does not serve breakfast meats then the website should state that. There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG..

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

.

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

Thanks. I was just wondering if there is a diff market for each inns BREAKFAST page display. Unfortunately it is hard to do it all as we have all walks of life here. The business guest or the old folks don't want a super fancy breakfast, the honeymooners do.
My thing that I need to let go of when I eat out "Serve it hot or don't bother" as it seems food is never served hot anymore. Cooks/CHefs used to be able to get it done on time together, now you have this one plate for you, and yours is not ready - deal going on. Or they let it sit under the heat lamp to wilt.
.

I am willing to pay more to get what I want. That being said, a breakfast does not need to be gourmet to be special, interesting, or different.
I am also interested in fresh, local products. Playing up the eggs that the inn's own chicken's would have laid that morning or butter made at the dairy down the road is unique in it's own way too. And catches my attention in diffenent ways. I don't have my own chickens to lay eggs for me.

Thanks. I was just wondering if there is a diff market for each inns BREAKFAST page display. Unfortunately it is hard to do it all as we have all walks of life here. The business guest or the old folks don't want a super fancy breakfast, the honeymooners do.
My thing that I need to let go of when I eat out "Serve it hot or don't bother" as it seems food is never served hot anymore. Cooks/CHefs used to be able to get it done on time together, now you have this one plate for you, and yours is not ready - deal going on. Or they let it sit under the heat lamp to wilt.

I've sent cold/cool meals back. Yeah, I know, don't annoy the cook staff. I'm always checking to be sure the food is hot here. If something goes 'wrong' (burnt toast or whatever) the food already plated goes into the oven to wait for the toast. If it's particularly cold in the kitchen (there's no heat in my kitchen) then we'll pre heat the plates. But we serve 'basic' breakfast foods and that's what we show on the website. Most of our guests say they only eat brekkie on the weekends so they like just having someone else make the food! Pancakes are the most requested item, along with the waffle. And presentation is important.
.

I think you need to let your market area dictate what you serve. If I were in a lovely Victorian house in Fredericksburg I would want to pull out all the stops with a gourmet breakfast, silver cutlery, nice china. I think that's what the market would want since it's a shopping destination town that's a great "girl trip" destination.
The place I'm targeting has cabins and the potential for two in-house, traditional B&B rooms. It's a family/couple/hunter/biker/motorcycle destination so I'm thinking a hearty, traditional breakfast might be in order since most tourists here make it a day on the road or the river and skip lunch. Farm fresh eggs if I decide chickens are worth the trouble (so much wildlife that there's bound to be coyotes), find a really good ham or locally smoked bacon, maybe a local German or venison sausage, have a hearty potato casserole. Develop a killer biscuit recipe. Private label a jelly selection to go with the biscuits, find a source for local honey, have both available for sale.
I think the wonderful breakfasts I had at my last B&B stay would be lost on this crowd - curried fruit, baked eggs with cream, lavender bread. I can hear the good ol' boys now, "what the h*ll is that thang?".
.

I think you need to let your market area dictate what you serve. If I were in a lovely Victorian house in Fredericksburg I would want to pull out all the stops with a gourmet breakfast, silver cutlery, nice china. I think that's what the market would want since it's a shopping destination town that's a great "girl trip" destination.
The place I'm targeting has cabins and the potential for two in-house, traditional B&B rooms. It's a family/couple/hunter/biker/motorcycle destination so I'm thinking a hearty, traditional breakfast might be in order since most tourists here make it a day on the road or the river and skip lunch. Farm fresh eggs if I decide chickens are worth the trouble (so much wildlife that there's bound to be coyotes), find a really good ham or locally smoked bacon, maybe a local German or venison sausage, have a hearty potato casserole. Develop a killer biscuit recipe. Private label a jelly selection to go with the biscuits, find a source for local honey, have both available for sale.
I think the wonderful breakfasts I had at my last B&B stay would be lost on this crowd - curried fruit, baked eggs with cream, lavender bread. I can hear the good ol' boys now, "what the h*ll is that thang?".

Thanks for your perspective.
One thing I can confirm is that MOST of your guests - does not matter what location - are typically well traveled people. Whether they arrive on a Harley or are there/here to hike. Traditionally those who are not are the one night stays that someone purchased for them like an anniversary gift scenario, or like someone mentioned Valentines day. So for that purpose - a great breakfast is in order! Nothing over the top unless the prices dictate that - $450+ imo.

 

[springlady]

Cherry64 wrote: 2. Good Breakfast. I like eggs and pancakes, but I can make that at home. I want more than the basics. Homemade breads, local favorites, award-winning recipes. Let me know what makes your breakfast the best in town.
What price range are you looking at paying?
We do not offer award winning recipes here. We do not charge an arm and leg either. If the B&B is 'upscale' then the food better be as well.
We have guests who love a nice hearty homecooked breakfast - presented well. If i try to gor-met it too much they won't eat it. Location, price range, whatever it is, they do not expect it and if they get it they typically won't touch it. It is like baked grapefruit - it won't work here for a variety of reasons.
So the breakfast on the website has to do with personal taste - is what you are saying. Example - if i am on a farm stay I better get farm fresh eggs and smoked bacon! That is what I would expect.
If I stay in a B&B and get a continental I would be sorely dissappointed. If the B&B typically does not serve breakfast meats then the website should state that. There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG..

There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG.

Yes this is very true. Where we stayed on our little getaway canNOT serve a hot breakfast. They did have a very elaborate continental one though. The website did not go into much detail just basically stating breakfast was continental. When I called to make the reservation, the innkeeper reinterated that it was continental and gave more detail as of what to expect. - Now this was important as it did seperate them from the others, but it should be more detailed on the site.
Regarding this B&B, well small Inn, the website did little to 'sell me' to book there. No details on the rooms, only a snippet of info on each room catagory and few pictures. The reason for my booking there was where it was located in the town. We wanted to be on that street.
I know that there are several of us working on our websites at this time. This topic is very eye opening. Made me really think about what I looked for when shopping around and NOW more inlightened to what my website needs.
.

What are the regulations in Florida that prohibit a hot breakfast? Does everything have to be packaged?
I stayed at a lovely place in Bristol, Indiana last year that had the most fabulous breakfasts - lovely waffles, wonderful stuffed French toast, really good food. The crazy thing was that she did it all with electric griddles and toaster type ovens because she couldn't use her stove - she didn't have a "commercial" hood so the local code wouldn't let her use the stove top.

 

[egoodell]

Cherry64 wrote: 2. Good Breakfast. I like eggs and pancakes, but I can make that at home. I want more than the basics. Homemade breads, local favorites, award-winning recipes. Let me know what makes your breakfast the best in town.
What price range are you looking at paying?
We do not offer award winning recipes here. We do not charge an arm and leg either. If the B&B is 'upscale' then the food better be as well.
We have guests who love a nice hearty homecooked breakfast - presented well. If i try to gor-met it too much they won't eat it. Location, price range, whatever it is, they do not expect it and if they get it they typically won't touch it. It is like baked grapefruit - it won't work here for a variety of reasons.
So the breakfast on the website has to do with personal taste - is what you are saying. Example - if i am on a farm stay I better get farm fresh eggs and smoked bacon! That is what I would expect.
If I stay in a B&B and get a continental I would be sorely dissappointed. If the B&B typically does not serve breakfast meats then the website should state that. There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG..

There are those many many locales where they cannot COOk the food for guests - like in FLA and guests tell me how dissappointed they were, as they expected a hot B&B breakfast! I ask them what the website said, they usually reply it never said either way. RED FLAG.

Yes this is very true. Where we stayed on our little getaway canNOT serve a hot breakfast. They did have a very elaborate continental one though. The website did not go into much detail just basically stating breakfast was continental. When I called to make the reservation, the innkeeper reinterated that it was continental and gave more detail as of what to expect. - Now this was important as it did seperate them from the others, but it should be more detailed on the site.
Regarding this B&B, well small Inn, the website did little to 'sell me' to book there. No details on the rooms, only a snippet of info on each room catagory and few pictures. The reason for my booking there was where it was located in the town. We wanted to be on that street.
I know that there are several of us working on our websites at this time. This topic is very eye opening. Made me really think about what I looked for when shopping around and NOW more inlightened to what my website needs.
.

What are the regulations in Florida that prohibit a hot breakfast? Does everything have to be packaged?
I stayed at a lovely place in Bristol, Indiana last year that had the most fabulous breakfasts - lovely waffles, wonderful stuffed French toast, really good food. The crazy thing was that she did it all with electric griddles and toaster type ovens because she couldn't use her stove - she didn't have a "commercial" hood so the local code wouldn't let her use the stove top.
.

I don't know about Florida, but I believe they don't allow them to cook on Cape Cod, and I know that in the town of Sonama, near where we lived in Napa CA they were not allowed to cook in town.
Riki

 

[NW BB]

The recent PAII article said that the prospective guest didn't think that listing accolades on your website was important. I really disagree strongly. If the accolade you've received has anything to do with your niche, then definitely use it! I hear it over and over again from my guests. Just last night, our guest told me the reason he chose us over another inn was because we were "voted Most Romantic Hideaway" (Arrington). It's one of the first things prospective guests see on our website. These type of awards, reviews, or whatever you can use to promote your niche is a good thing to show. Whether the prospective guest realizes it or not, it helps you create your brand.

 

[EmptyNest]

The recent PAII article said that the prospective guest didn't think that listing accolades on your website was important. I really disagree strongly. If the accolade you've received has anything to do with your niche, then definitely use it! I hear it over and over again from my guests. Just last night, our guest told me the reason he chose us over another inn was because we were "voted Most Romantic Hideaway" (Arrington). It's one of the first things prospective guests see on our website. These type of awards, reviews, or whatever you can use to promote your niche is a good thing to show. Whether the prospective guest realizes it or not, it helps you create your brand..

BUt plastering a dozen tacky looking award signs all over a website is the PITS! IT really turns me off because most of them have no real meaning...unless you are in the top 10 of TRiPADVISOR ..then you have something to really brag about!

 

[Copperhead]

I do think that the location / region does dictate what type of breakfast you should serve - to a degree! It also depends on the type of market you are catering to or want to attract.
I do serve a gourmet breakfast. This is one of my trademarks and is a nitch that only we fill in the area. The big city B&B's near us can not (local law) serve anything but continental, some of the other neighboring town B&B's serve a breakfast but not like ours. Our breakfast is our most commented amenities and one of the top reasons people return. I do make my on preserves, buy local fresh fruit - every day or two, and most of my recipes are based on local flair.
Do I have those that skip breakfast, you bet - I posted about that last week. I do a lighter style breakfast for early (business) breakfast people during the week and most will say, wow if this is your simple breakfast, I must come back and enjoy the real thing. Do I have those that see what I serve and the next day say - can I just have a simple scramble - yes! But for the most part, the gorumet breakfast is working for me. I have calcuated my average breakfast cost to be around $1.00 to $1.50 per person depending on what I serve, this only is based on grocery costs*. My room rates ave. $110 per night.
Again, I am not saying that every B&B in every city should serve a breakfast like mine. -

 

[Morticia]

The recent PAII article said that the prospective guest didn't think that listing accolades on your website was important. I really disagree strongly. If the accolade you've received has anything to do with your niche, then definitely use it! I hear it over and over again from my guests. Just last night, our guest told me the reason he chose us over another inn was because we were "voted Most Romantic Hideaway" (Arrington). It's one of the first things prospective guests see on our website. These type of awards, reviews, or whatever you can use to promote your niche is a good thing to show. Whether the prospective guest realizes it or not, it helps you create your brand..

BUt plastering a dozen tacky looking award signs all over a website is the PITS! IT really turns me off because most of them have no real meaning...unless you are in the top 10 of TRiPADVISOR ..then you have something to really brag about!
.

BUt plastering a dozen tacky looking award signs all over a website is the PITS! IT really turns me off because most of them have no real meaning...unless you are in the top 10 of TRiPADVISOR ..then you have something to really brag about!

Quite often these are very distracting, too, because they are all different sizes and colors (sometimes clashing with the beautiful color scheme of the site) and some of them are animated. I used to be impressed by those awards (Top 10 B&B...) until I realized how they were being chosen. Now they're meaningless.
When I added all the member organizations I beloned to, I did them all in greyscale so they were all the same color and all the same size and then I loaded them all at the bottom of one page (and not the home page) so they were not distracting.
Now I totally get if the inn has won an award chosen by their PEERS, that that is an honor. But to get an award based on the sheer number of reviews you can pull in? Nope, sorry. That means nothing other than you are very persuasive which may mean I spend my vacation dodging you and your incessant requests for me to be sure to remember to write a review.

 

[Copperhead]

The recent PAII article said that the prospective guest didn't think that listing accolades on your website was important. I really disagree strongly. If the accolade you've received has anything to do with your niche, then definitely use it! I hear it over and over again from my guests. Just last night, our guest told me the reason he chose us over another inn was because we were "voted Most Romantic Hideaway" (Arrington). It's one of the first things prospective guests see on our website. These type of awards, reviews, or whatever you can use to promote your niche is a good thing to show. Whether the prospective guest realizes it or not, it helps you create your brand..

The recent PAII article said that the prospective guest didn't think that listing accolades on your website was important. I really disagree strongly. If the accolade you've received has anything to do with your niche, then definitely use it! I hear it over and over again from my guests. Just last night, our guest told me the reason he chose us over another inn was because we were "voted Most Romantic Hideaway" (Arrington). It's one of the first things prospective guests see on our website. These type of awards, reviews, or whatever you can use to promote your niche is a good thing to show. Whether the prospective guest realizes it or not, it helps you create your brand.

These 'awards' so to speak are nice for the novice B&B guest. Once they find out how these awards are granted, they really loose their meaning, for the most part. But a few accolades in general I think are nice on a website. I did not read the PAII article but I do understand where they are coming from...Most viewers in general would know that you have chosen what accolades are listed on your site. You are not going to have anything but glowing 'ataboys' on the site you are using to promote your place.

 

[NW BB]

The recent PAII article said that the prospective guest didn't think that listing accolades on your website was important. I really disagree strongly. If the accolade you've received has anything to do with your niche, then definitely use it! I hear it over and over again from my guests. Just last night, our guest told me the reason he chose us over another inn was because we were "voted Most Romantic Hideaway" (Arrington). It's one of the first things prospective guests see on our website. These type of awards, reviews, or whatever you can use to promote your niche is a good thing to show. Whether the prospective guest realizes it or not, it helps you create your brand..

BUt plastering a dozen tacky looking award signs all over a website is the PITS! IT really turns me off because most of them have no real meaning...unless you are in the top 10 of TRiPADVISOR ..then you have something to really brag about!
.

Everything on your website should be tasteful. Your website is a direct reflection of your inn. If your website is disorganized, scatteredand unattractive, then you can bet that those people looking at your site will assume that your B&B will be just that too.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

CH wrote: But for the most part, the gourmet breakfast is working for me. I have calcuated my average breakfast cost to be around $1.00 to $1.50 per person depending on what I serve, this only is based on grocery costs*.
1.00 to 1.50?

 

[Morticia]

I do think that the location / region does dictate what type of breakfast you should serve - to a degree! It also depends on the type of market you are catering to or want to attract.
I do serve a gourmet breakfast. This is one of my trademarks and is a nitch that only we fill in the area. The big city B&B's near us can not (local law) serve anything but continental, some of the other neighboring town B&B's serve a breakfast but not like ours. Our breakfast is our most commented amenities and one of the top reasons people return. I do make my on preserves, buy local fresh fruit - every day or two, and most of my recipes are based on local flair.
Do I have those that skip breakfast, you bet - I posted about that last week. I do a lighter style breakfast for early (business) breakfast people during the week and most will say, wow if this is your simple breakfast, I must come back and enjoy the real thing. Do I have those that see what I serve and the next day say - can I just have a simple scramble - yes! But for the most part, the gorumet breakfast is working for me. I have calcuated my average breakfast cost to be around $1.00 to $1.50 per person depending on what I serve, this only is based on grocery costs*. My room rates ave. $110 per night.
Again, I am not saying that every B&B in every city should serve a breakfast like mine. -.

Copperhead said: I have calcuated my average breakfast cost to be around $1.00 to $1.50 per person depending on what I serve, this only is based on grocery costs*.
HOW???? How can breakfast possibly only cost you $1/person? I have guests who drink that much coffee! We had 11 guests for breakfast Sunday morning. Fruit ALONE was over $20. Meat was another $5. Bread another $8. Eggs another $2. Juice another $5. Then there's the butter and the syrup and the milk, etc, etc.
Our average breakfast cost is around $5/person. In the summer we are spending $30-$40/day for groceries for the next morning. Staples not included in that price. (No ha, ha, we don't serve tacks and staples for breakfast!)

 

[Morticia]

The recent PAII article said that the prospective guest didn't think that listing accolades on your website was important. I really disagree strongly. If the accolade you've received has anything to do with your niche, then definitely use it! I hear it over and over again from my guests. Just last night, our guest told me the reason he chose us over another inn was because we were "voted Most Romantic Hideaway" (Arrington). It's one of the first things prospective guests see on our website. These type of awards, reviews, or whatever you can use to promote your niche is a good thing to show. Whether the prospective guest realizes it or not, it helps you create your brand..

BUt plastering a dozen tacky looking award signs all over a website is the PITS! IT really turns me off because most of them have no real meaning...unless you are in the top 10 of TRiPADVISOR ..then you have something to really brag about!
.

Everything on your website should be tasteful. Your website is a direct reflection of your inn. If your website is disorganized, scatteredand unattractive, then you can bet that those people looking at your site will assume that your B&B will be just that too.
.

Everything on your website should be tasteful. Your website is a direct reflection of your inn. If your website is disorganized, scatteredand unattractive, then you can bet that those people looking at your site will assume that your B&B will be just that too.

Like Swirt's comment that he checks B&B sites for clean code?

 

[swirt]

CH wrote: But for the most part, the gourmet breakfast is working for me. I have calcuated my average breakfast cost to be around $1.00 to $1.50 per person depending on what I serve, this only is based on grocery costs*.
1.00 to 1.50?.

Seriously, I've got to see the numbers on this.

Copperhead I trust you but this seems too impossible to be true. I think if we served only Coffee, cream, and orange juice we'd already be over $1.50 per person.