Did you get the last bandb.com poll? What are you doing specifically to cater to the Gen X/Y crowd? They go on to list things we all do for all of our guests with the exception of catering to afternoon breakfasts and completely redecorating to cater to someone whose decorating style is reminscent of 1960.
The problem with addressing 'issues' is that you then give validity to what is NOT an issue. The whole breakfast thing frosts me. Yes, you are going to be served what I make unless you tell me IN ADVANCE that you cannot eat it. This is NOT a restaurant, it is my home. If my kids had to eat what they were served (and they are Gen X/Y) then you can too. Geez louise, since when are your taste buds so sacrosanct that you can't step outside your comfort zone for a DAY? You want a menu? Go to a friggin' diner. Stay at a hotel with a full service menu and pay $20/person for the privilege.
You have to eat with strangers? Poor you. Again, stay at the hotel and eat with 100 of your best friends and their screaming children at a table that hasn't been cleaned since 6 AM.
READ the damn website of the place you stay. Do they state there is a charge for 'extra' guests? Then they probably allow children. Or maybe they actually stated somewhere in their policies that children are welcome (or not).
I am totally sick of organizations letting guests know that it's not what they think WHEN IT IS WHAT THEY THINK! How about we accept the differences? Embrace that we each are not a cookie cutter B&B? That we do things differently and IT IS OK TO BE DIFFERENT!.
While I am not perfectly happy with the way Calif answered the myths...I must say this IS an issue. So I disagree with most of you. The fact that someone would not consider staying at my b&b for any of these reasons is lost revenue for me.
Now, could CABBI have improved on their answers? You bet, and they could have monopolized on the diversity of us all. Incidently - another study was done by - dare I say - Trip Advisor - and the number one answer for why someone has never stayed at a b&b was - they never thought of it.
And yes - they DO have to eat with strangers at my B&B, give me their food prefs or eat what I cook, or go hungry - and leave their kids and pets home, but I would rather they called me so I could point them to a b&b that WILL put up with this stuff rather than send them to a hotel. My goal is that they have a good B&B experience and never stay in a big box hotel again. CABBI could do a better job of educating the public, but really, it was a press release to drum up more business in a crappy economy, not anything else.
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Here's something that annoys me...the first place mentioned- Laurel Inn is a chain hotel, it is not a 'B&B' as we know it. States right on their own site that it is a hotel. OK, out of the running as far as I'm concerned.
We'll be fending off that bathroom question until the cows come home. No one can convince guests that ALL B&B's don't have shared baths if they find ONE that does.
Elk Cove is also way out of the league of a B&B. 15 rooms, buffet breakfast, it is not a B&B. So, they are not using 'B&B's' to debunk the myths. So far they've use a hotel chain and a spa that serves a continental breakfast.
The curfew thing escapes me. I've never stayed anywhere that told me I had to be in the house at a certain time so I think people get that from TV.
The kids and pets stay home idea? Why is this bad? (And that wasn't # 5 either, they skipped that guests think B&B's are overpriced.)
Who did they ask anyway? Because they trotted out all of the usual suspects.
My point is that to get more guests into B&B's they should stop trying to debunk myths (which just serves to perpetuate them) and focus (like they did in the responses) on the positive things the accommodations do provide. Skip the neg and only focus on the pos. Of course, debunking myths probably gets more column space than 'look at this wonderful B&B.'
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