Thanks for organizing the Vets Day program!

[Samster]

Did anyone have a guest Veteran on this promotion who was a female? Just wondering...........

 

[gillumhouse]

Did anyone have a guest Veteran on this promotion who was a female? Just wondering............

Yes, several did. There was a video out of Philadelphia that featured a female Captain from Delaware.
Oh, and very early on I was contacted by a female soldier in Calif who was having a problem - staff vs owner miscommunication that was resolved quickly. The young lady was sooo grateful. She told me she could never have afforded to go to that B & B otherwise and was so looking forward to it.

 

[Samster]

Did anyone have a guest Veteran on this promotion who was a female? Just wondering............

Yes, several did. There was a video out of Philadelphia that featured a female Captain from Delaware.
Oh, and very early on I was contacted by a female soldier in Calif who was having a problem - staff vs owner miscommunication that was resolved quickly. The young lady was sooo grateful. She told me she could never have afforded to go to that B & B otherwise and was so looking forward to it.
.

That is great! There are a lot of women who have served or currently serve in the Armed Forces and I think a lot of people forget about that. We had young ladies stay with us here that had to go through the same vigorous Infantry training as the guys and are in harm's way, too. I always told them that compared to them, I wasn't in the "real" Army.

 

[Mountain Inn]

Thank goodness for a positive story!! Please post it on the PAII forum as we are seeing all the naysayers - the usual suspects - come out now..

Ditto to all the thanks to Kathleen, Jim and Jeanne. All went well here. See some of our photos at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297494&id=262454050475&l=e16155c00c[/h3]We had three vet couples for breakfast; just one of our planned overnight couples made it...the second had pressing medical matters and cancelled at the last minute. We invited the local US Army Recruiter and his wife - he really added to the comraderie and liveliness of the conversation among all the vets. Our local newspaper sent a reporter, who joined our vet guests for breakfasts and engaged them all in conversation - she also took lots of photos. (3x week paper; can't wait to see outcome.) We had three generations of vets/enlisted persons. The span of service was very broad and they all seemed to enjoy meeting the others and talking. Our oldest vet, 88 year old Lenny, brought along a copy of a novel of which he is a "character" - The pilot and leader of their bombardier Crew 369 in WWII, William C Anderson, went on to write novels of their missions; perhaps his best known novel, later a movie, was Bat 21. Several of our local restaurants joined us in honoring and welcoming the vets by offering deep dinner savings, up to half off price of dinner for two.
Becky in western NC

 

[JBloggs]

Did anyone have a guest Veteran on this promotion who was a female? Just wondering............

Did anyone have a guest Veteran on this promotion who was a female? Just wondering...........

There is a video of a female capt and also inn the news another.

 

[JBloggs]

Becky, and in uniform....ahhhh!
Well done with the pix and description, thanks for much for sharing!

 

[EmptyNest]

Thank goodness for a positive story!! Please post it on the PAII forum as we are seeing all the naysayers - the usual suspects - come out now..

Ditto to all the thanks to Kathleen, Jim and Jeanne. All went well here. See some of our photos at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297494&id=262454050475&l=e16155c00c[/h3]We had three vet couples for breakfast; just one of our planned overnight couples made it...the second had pressing medical matters and cancelled at the last minute. We invited the local US Army Recruiter and his wife - he really added to the comraderie and liveliness of the conversation among all the vets. Our local newspaper sent a reporter, who joined our vet guests for breakfasts and engaged them all in conversation - she also took lots of photos. (3x week paper; can't wait to see outcome.) We had three generations of vets/enlisted persons. The span of service was very broad and they all seemed to enjoy meeting the others and talking. Our oldest vet, 88 year old Lenny, brought along a copy of a novel of which he is a "character" - The pilot and leader of their bombardier Crew 369 in WWII, William C Anderson, went on to write novels of their missions; perhaps his best known novel, later a movie, was Bat 21. Several of our local restaurants joined us in honoring and welcoming the vets by offering deep dinner savings, up to half off price of dinner for two.
Becky in western NC
.

Becky your story is so heartwarming. I am so glad to hear so many wonderful stories from all of you. THis is what it is all about! Thanks to you all!!!

 

[Don Draper]

We had a great time too. I put the flag out and red, white and blue baloons out front. I placed thank you card and a gift bag of candy on the pillows.
Everyone had a great time.
the only 'bummer' we had was one guest who reserved, was late so I called at 8pm. she said oh yes, we are coming, we are running 'a little late' we should be there in an hour or hour and half! When we hung up that sick feeling I suddenly felt was immediately identified; the voice on the other end was the same one who was here two months ago and was extreemly loud, slamming doors etc, and after they left I found her make up poured all over all the towles and her maskara rubbed into everything and she had the gull to go to TA and leave a negative review because i reminded her of the 'quiet time' hours!
You guessed it, she DELIBERATELY never showed up (thank goodness, she would have been turned away). But how RUDE and SELFISH!!!! She took away a gift that was meant for good for someone! So we had a room left empty that could have been used! We had to turn away several people who called and wanted to stay for the B&Bforvets! Like I said: SELFISH!!! oh and ... Immature!!!!!.

I am completely speechless on this! WHERE do people get the idea that they can/should act this way???? Just wow.

 

[Joey Camb]

It is the selfish ness of the no shows they are taking a gift away from their own colleagues and wasting it you would think people would at least think of what their own colleagues go through and a gift for them and cancell.

 

[Alibi Ike]

Did anyone have a guest Veteran on this promotion who was a female? Just wondering............

Did anyone have a guest Veteran on this promotion who was a female? Just wondering...........

Almost. She couldn't make it at the last minute. She was giving a speech! There was a nice story about a WAVE who went to a B&B. JB posted it in the 11/11 news thread.

 

[gillumhouse]

I had a call from a worried innkeeper. She was set up by a group called People For E qu al Jus tice. She had a call from a woman asking about ser vice animals. The innkeeper explained her policy of no animals and she could hear a man in the background telling the woman what to say. She asked who was that talking in the background and the man took the phone and chewed her out, gave a name and phone number and said he was with the above named group. He gave her a name and phone number when she asked for one.
She then contacted PAII and did a bit more research and discovered the favts about that. So she tries to call back and gets the message that the phone number does not exist. Later that night (Wed) she had a no-show and when she called the number for that person, it was the above named office. The room was booked under a different name than she was given with the set-up call. She was in knots. Told her to relax because she never turned anyone awy, no reservation was attempted to be made and refused, just relax and enjoy the good thing she had done.
Where does it end. When do these creeps stop trying to trip up the "little guy" and stop ruining things for others. So sad.

 

[birdwatcher]

Our couple was wonderful too and so thankful we even got a thank you card and a tip-which by the way was not necessary. If this where our own Inn we would have given more rooms away-but its not at least we did get permission to give one room Maybe next year the owner will be more generous.
Thanks again to K and J and J-no we did not take a cc.

 

[Mountain Inn]

Thank goodness for a positive story!! Please post it on the PAII forum as we are seeing all the naysayers - the usual suspects - come out now..

Ditto to all the thanks to Kathleen, Jim and Jeanne. All went well here. See some of our photos at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297494&id=262454050475&l=e16155c00c[/h3]We had three vet couples for breakfast; just one of our planned overnight couples made it...the second had pressing medical matters and cancelled at the last minute. We invited the local US Army Recruiter and his wife - he really added to the comraderie and liveliness of the conversation among all the vets. Our local newspaper sent a reporter, who joined our vet guests for breakfasts and engaged them all in conversation - she also took lots of photos. (3x week paper; can't wait to see outcome.) We had three generations of vets/enlisted persons. The span of service was very broad and they all seemed to enjoy meeting the others and talking. Our oldest vet, 88 year old Lenny, brought along a copy of a novel of which he is a "character" - The pilot and leader of their bombardier Crew 369 in WWII, William C Anderson, went on to write novels of their missions; perhaps his best known novel, later a movie, was Bat 21. Several of our local restaurants joined us in honoring and welcoming the vets by offering deep dinner savings, up to half off price of dinner for two.
Becky in western NC
.

Our local newspaper sent a reporter, who joined our vet guests for breakfasts and engaged them all in conversation - she also took lots of photos. (3x week paper; can't wait to see outcome.) Becky in western NC

Followup: Our 3Xweek newspaper was delivered in time for breakfast today. One vet couple who stayed a second day was both pictured and quoted in the article. All three vets were pictured and quoted, in fact. DH ran out and picked up several additional copies for them. Article appeared with a color photo on page one of very front page, then continued with additional large colored photo on interior page and two columns of copy. And it was well done. Our WWII vet, Lenny, was pictured on the front page. I gave the reporter a copy of the original news release from Kathleen, which was quoted on the front page in an early paragraph of the article: "The free room is a part of a program started by the West Virginia Bed and Breakfast Association, in which participating bed and breakfasts offer a free night's stay during Veteran's Day to men and women who have served in the military."
Thanks again Kathleen, Jim, and Jeanne. Kathleen, did I read somewhere that participating inns need to send you some $ to offset your out-of-pocket costs associated with the project?

 

[wendydk]

I had sent an email about the program with links to the bnbforvets website early on, encouraging my member Inns to participate.
Just rec'd this email from a member:
"We had 22 rooms full for the Veterans Free Night and 25 at our buffet. Celebration was complete with Live DJ Art Barber..who is 80 and teaches tango and is a professional DJ..playing lots of WWII hits. The breakdown in ages/service was 2 Iraq war vets..most from Vietnam Era..3 from WWII. and the rest from the Korean war.
They loved their social hour and the buffet and sitting around the fireplace chatting..they all turned in pretty early around 8:30 p.m. and said they all slept great."
Patty R.
Patty Rasmussen
Owner and Innkeeper
www.theterraceinn.com
www.khardomahlodge.com

 

[gillumhouse]

Thank goodness for a positive story!! Please post it on the PAII forum as we are seeing all the naysayers - the usual suspects - come out now..

Ditto to all the thanks to Kathleen, Jim and Jeanne. All went well here. See some of our photos at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297494&id=262454050475&l=e16155c00c[/h3]We had three vet couples for breakfast; just one of our planned overnight couples made it...the second had pressing medical matters and cancelled at the last minute. We invited the local US Army Recruiter and his wife - he really added to the comraderie and liveliness of the conversation among all the vets. Our local newspaper sent a reporter, who joined our vet guests for breakfasts and engaged them all in conversation - she also took lots of photos. (3x week paper; can't wait to see outcome.) We had three generations of vets/enlisted persons. The span of service was very broad and they all seemed to enjoy meeting the others and talking. Our oldest vet, 88 year old Lenny, brought along a copy of a novel of which he is a "character" - The pilot and leader of their bombardier Crew 369 in WWII, William C Anderson, went on to write novels of their missions; perhaps his best known novel, later a movie, was Bat 21. Several of our local restaurants joined us in honoring and welcoming the vets by offering deep dinner savings, up to half off price of dinner for two.
Becky in western NC
.

Our local newspaper sent a reporter, who joined our vet guests for breakfasts and engaged them all in conversation - she also took lots of photos. (3x week paper; can't wait to see outcome.) Becky in western NC

Followup: Our 3Xweek newspaper was delivered in time for breakfast today. One vet couple who stayed a second day was both pictured and quoted in the article. All three vets were pictured and quoted, in fact. DH ran out and picked up several additional copies for them. Article appeared with a color photo on page one of very front page, then continued with additional large colored photo on interior page and two columns of copy. And it was well done. Our WWII vet, Lenny, was pictured on the front page. I gave the reporter a copy of the original news release from Kathleen, which was quoted on the front page in an early paragraph of the article: "The free room is a part of a program started by the West Virginia Bed and Breakfast Association, in which participating bed and breakfasts offer a free night's stay during Veteran's Day to men and women who have served in the military."
Thanks again Kathleen, Jim, and Jeanne. Kathleen, did I read somewhere that participating inns need to send you some $ to offset your out-of-pocket costs associated with the project?
.

Thank you for thinking of it. I had no real out-of-pocket costs (have not looked at the phone bill yet but that is immaterial). What I was hoping for was to collect some money to pay the PR guy who worked his butt off for us - even while his wife was in the hospital he ws pitching the story. The AP reporter was all his doing. So far with what I put in as I had it during the build up and what was sent, I have $475 to give to him as of now. He normally charges $125 an hour.

 

[Alibi Ike]

Thank goodness for a positive story!! Please post it on the PAII forum as we are seeing all the naysayers - the usual suspects - come out now..

Ditto to all the thanks to Kathleen, Jim and Jeanne. All went well here. See some of our photos at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297494&id=262454050475&l=e16155c00c[/h3]We had three vet couples for breakfast; just one of our planned overnight couples made it...the second had pressing medical matters and cancelled at the last minute. We invited the local US Army Recruiter and his wife - he really added to the comraderie and liveliness of the conversation among all the vets. Our local newspaper sent a reporter, who joined our vet guests for breakfasts and engaged them all in conversation - she also took lots of photos. (3x week paper; can't wait to see outcome.) We had three generations of vets/enlisted persons. The span of service was very broad and they all seemed to enjoy meeting the others and talking. Our oldest vet, 88 year old Lenny, brought along a copy of a novel of which he is a "character" - The pilot and leader of their bombardier Crew 369 in WWII, William C Anderson, went on to write novels of their missions; perhaps his best known novel, later a movie, was Bat 21. Several of our local restaurants joined us in honoring and welcoming the vets by offering deep dinner savings, up to half off price of dinner for two.
Becky in western NC
.

Our local newspaper sent a reporter, who joined our vet guests for breakfasts and engaged them all in conversation - she also took lots of photos. (3x week paper; can't wait to see outcome.) Becky in western NC

Followup: Our 3Xweek newspaper was delivered in time for breakfast today. One vet couple who stayed a second day was both pictured and quoted in the article. All three vets were pictured and quoted, in fact. DH ran out and picked up several additional copies for them. Article appeared with a color photo on page one of very front page, then continued with additional large colored photo on interior page and two columns of copy. And it was well done. Our WWII vet, Lenny, was pictured on the front page. I gave the reporter a copy of the original news release from Kathleen, which was quoted on the front page in an early paragraph of the article: "The free room is a part of a program started by the West Virginia Bed and Breakfast Association, in which participating bed and breakfasts offer a free night's stay during Veteran's Day to men and women who have served in the military."
Thanks again Kathleen, Jim, and Jeanne. Kathleen, did I read somewhere that participating inns need to send you some $ to offset your out-of-pocket costs associated with the project?
.

Thank you for thinking of it. I had no real out-of-pocket costs (have not looked at the phone bill yet but that is immaterial). What I was hoping for was to collect some money to pay the PR guy who worked his butt off for us - even while his wife was in the hospital he ws pitching the story. The AP reporter was all his doing. So far with what I put in as I had it during the build up and what was sent, I have $475 to give to him as of now. He normally charges $125 an hour.
.

Let everyone know what the total bill is when you get it, please.

 

[Country Girl]

Unfortunately it was not a good experience for us.

Too many details to list. Suffice to say I don't think this particular couple will be together a year from now.

 

[gillumhouse]

Thank goodness for a positive story!! Please post it on the PAII forum as we are seeing all the naysayers - the usual suspects - come out now..

Ditto to all the thanks to Kathleen, Jim and Jeanne. All went well here. See some of our photos at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297494&id=262454050475&l=e16155c00c[/h3]We had three vet couples for breakfast; just one of our planned overnight couples made it...the second had pressing medical matters and cancelled at the last minute. We invited the local US Army Recruiter and his wife - he really added to the comraderie and liveliness of the conversation among all the vets. Our local newspaper sent a reporter, who joined our vet guests for breakfasts and engaged them all in conversation - she also took lots of photos. (3x week paper; can't wait to see outcome.) We had three generations of vets/enlisted persons. The span of service was very broad and they all seemed to enjoy meeting the others and talking. Our oldest vet, 88 year old Lenny, brought along a copy of a novel of which he is a "character" - The pilot and leader of their bombardier Crew 369 in WWII, William C Anderson, went on to write novels of their missions; perhaps his best known novel, later a movie, was Bat 21. Several of our local restaurants joined us in honoring and welcoming the vets by offering deep dinner savings, up to half off price of dinner for two.
Becky in western NC
.

Our local newspaper sent a reporter, who joined our vet guests for breakfasts and engaged them all in conversation - she also took lots of photos. (3x week paper; can't wait to see outcome.) Becky in western NC

Followup: Our 3Xweek newspaper was delivered in time for breakfast today. One vet couple who stayed a second day was both pictured and quoted in the article. All three vets were pictured and quoted, in fact. DH ran out and picked up several additional copies for them. Article appeared with a color photo on page one of very front page, then continued with additional large colored photo on interior page and two columns of copy. And it was well done. Our WWII vet, Lenny, was pictured on the front page. I gave the reporter a copy of the original news release from Kathleen, which was quoted on the front page in an early paragraph of the article: "The free room is a part of a program started by the West Virginia Bed and Breakfast Association, in which participating bed and breakfasts offer a free night's stay during Veteran's Day to men and women who have served in the military."
Thanks again Kathleen, Jim, and Jeanne. Kathleen, did I read somewhere that participating inns need to send you some $ to offset your out-of-pocket costs associated with the project?
.

Thank you for thinking of it. I had no real out-of-pocket costs (have not looked at the phone bill yet but that is immaterial). What I was hoping for was to collect some money to pay the PR guy who worked his butt off for us - even while his wife was in the hospital he ws pitching the story. The AP reporter was all his doing. So far with what I put in as I had it during the build up and what was sent, I have $475 to give to him as of now. He normally charges $125 an hour.
.

Let everyone know what the total bill is when you get it, please.
.

He will not send me a bill. He will take whatever I write the check for. I just feel I am stealing his services. You know how we feel when we get all those sweet letters telling us how lucky we are going to be to give them a freebies weekend at our inn so they can promote us.... I have that grungy feeling as the letter writer. But hey, at least this year I have some money to give him thanks to the generosity of a lot of innkeepers who sent $5 (what we figured would generate enough if everyone sent) and the several who were even more generous (last year he did it pro bono because for some reason I cannot fathom, he likes me - and he believed in what we were doing). He proved I knew what I was talking about when I said I had a great PR guy.