Title changed - I'm still dumbfounded tho

[Alibi Ike]

I sincerely apologize to anyone who has taken offense. It was in the news, it is a B&B and I posted it mainly as a "how not to run this kind of business". I know the back story - this is my neighborhood - people talk. This family came in to "save" the Castle. Yes, it was for sale for a very long time, but the owner didn't need saving. He was a very eccentric gentleman who had great ideas (and started the "tree floor" mentioned in the other article about why we should help) - he just had too much money and kept starting projects without finishing them. These new owners have no liquid money evidently and expect the community to bail them out everytime. I find it tragic on many levels..

I don't think I realized you were 'on the spot' so to speak in knowing the backstory. Thanks for the additional info.

 

[JBloggs]

Again, discussing the topic not the individual is recommended.

 

[JBloggs]

Not really sure why we this is up for discussion or debate, other than a story in the news about this inn and innkeepers without commentary.
If we discuss how we ourselves deal with tragedy and debt, that is up to us. Discussing pitfalls in this business, again, talk about it, but not with a face/family or name posted to talk about specifically, which is not our own.

 

[gillumhouse]

The reason it is "up for discussion" is that some people found it necessary to perhaps criticize the Inns circumsyances and that is really unfair, I see this way too often on the forum.
How do you think I felt when someone posted about my foreclosure? Did anyone know I had perfect credit? That my "other job" had cut my pay over 2 years by 35%? That when I asked the bank for help it was even before I was one penny behind (in fact I was overpaid)
If someone asks for advice or comment then yes I think we are here to offer it, but to post about how they should have would have could have and what they did wrong - KNOWING how the press loves to embellish is just not acceptable.
Go ahead and sling mud and critcism at other industries but we are too small an industry to create these types of divisions.

Go ahead and sling mud and critcism at other industries but we are too small an industry to create these types of divisions

I'm again going to say that no business is unreservedly 'pure' and closed to discussion. Every business group is open to change and improvement. It is not divisive to discuss what we see and read and try to uncover where we can avoid the mistakes others make. If, with no other info than what we read, we can call an idea 'brilliant' we can also call it other way- 'lame'.
And from what was posted in the article (with 50% of it probably being wrong) it does seem these folks bit off way more than they could chew and made some horribly mis-informed decisions. That their town bailed them out once and yet they are back with hat in hand says a lot about them in particular, even if nothing about why they are in such dire need. (It is great info for aspirings to note that this ain't gonna happen elsewhere unless the town has known you since an infant and your inn is the center of all of their family events- as this place seems to be.)
I know what it is like to be on the slippery slope to overextending myself on credit in order to make it clear to the next busy season. I am nowhere near out of the hole that last year's precipitous decline in travel put me in. A year like that next year and I will be looking at second and third jobs. But I won't be asking my townspeople to help me out of the hole with donations. Food shelf maybe, but not cash to pay down my debt.
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I know what it is like to be on the slippery slope to overextending myself on credit in order to make it clear to the next busy season. I am nowhere near out of the hole that last year's precipitous decline in travel put me in. A year like that next year and I will be looking at second and third jobs. But I won't be asking my townspeople to help me out of the hole with donations. Food shelf maybe, but not cash to pay down my debt.
I agree with you. I have been trying to climb out of the hole since we put in the new bathroom in 2006. 2007 was the best year ever BUT I was up to my ears and beyond in debt - AND that is the year of the 6-way bypass. We all know what 2008 & 2009 were - PLUS I had a broken rail-trail for 2 seasons crippling my business. 2010 picked up with trail users again when they FINALLY finished the repairs. But the LAST thing I would ever let onto to anyone in this City is that I was in financial difficulty. I never want any perception other than this is the place people want to come stay.
Stopped at the grocery after church today, and one of the employees told me we have a really nice place - his nephew was the groom that stayed here Thursday for their honeymoon. THAT is the peception I want.

 

[One Day]

to the grit of the article.......
It's a business lesson.....do your homework.....know what you are getting into.....understanding what you are getting into......knowledge of finances, etc, etc....
All the personal BS is just that.....BS
In short.........this story is a story of what not to do

 

[Dont tread on me]

I guess because "not for profit" still needs operating capital and there are not many places willling to give or loan money anymore, I am sure they did everything they could, as I have to save the place.

No, they did not do "everything they could" have to save their business.

 

[Dont tread on me]

I sincerely apologize to anyone who has taken offense. It was in the news, it is a B&B and I posted it mainly as a "how not to run this kind of business". I know the back story - this is my neighborhood - people talk. This family came in to "save" the Castle. Yes, it was for sale for a very long time, but the owner didn't need saving. He was a very eccentric gentleman who had great ideas (and started the "tree floor" mentioned in the other article about why we should help) - he just had too much money and kept starting projects without finishing them. These new owners have no liquid money evidently and expect the community to bail them out everytime. I find it tragic on many levels..

And there it is: It is "tragic on many levels". Thank-you, neighbor. What most B&B/Inn owner/operators on here do not realize is the fully unethical manner and way in which the citizens of Kalamazoo and beyond have been asked and tricked into donating money to this for-profit business on the false pretense of it being a 'community center', ad naseum. I could go on and on and on about the myraid ways in which this isn't simply just another news article on a failing business in the hospitality industry, but in how this specific owner has made things EVEN WORSE FOR EVERYONE, either in the business or as a potential guest anywhere, by the unethical mechanisms (fueled by the Kalamazoo Gazette's own shoddy journalism) that he feels so entitled to your money- to burn it -or pay off his OWN PERSONAL DEBT that HE HIMSELF INCURRED and is RESPONSIBLE for. I find it reprehensible that anyone even postulates in this forum that this is somehow off-limits (censorship?) when in fact it needs to be discussed just for these very reasons. But the key problem being is that one would be hard-pressed to find or have any reference of common business sense upon which to measure ANY of the many things that went wrong and were done wrong in this scenario as opposed to the "normal" litany of issues that may occur as enumerated above by one of your fellow owners.

 

[swirt]

I sincerely apologize to anyone who has taken offense. It was in the news, it is a B&B and I posted it mainly as a "how not to run this kind of business". I know the back story - this is my neighborhood - people talk. This family came in to "save" the Castle. Yes, it was for sale for a very long time, but the owner didn't need saving. He was a very eccentric gentleman who had great ideas (and started the "tree floor" mentioned in the other article about why we should help) - he just had too much money and kept starting projects without finishing them. These new owners have no liquid money evidently and expect the community to bail them out everytime. I find it tragic on many levels..

And there it is: It is "tragic on many levels". Thank-you, neighbor. What most B&B/Inn owner/operators on here do not realize is the fully unethical manner and way in which the citizens of Kalamazoo and beyond have been asked and tricked into donating money to this for-profit business on the false pretense of it being a 'community center', ad naseum. I could go on and on and on about the myraid ways in which this isn't simply just another news article on a failing business in the hospitality industry, but in how this specific owner has made things EVEN WORSE FOR EVERYONE, either in the business or as a potential guest anywhere, by the unethical mechanisms (fueled by the Kalamazoo Gazette's own shoddy journalism) that he feels so entitled to your money- to burn it -or pay off his OWN PERSONAL DEBT that HE HIMSELF INCURRED and is RESPONSIBLE for. I find it reprehensible that anyone even postulates in this forum that this is somehow off-limits (censorship?) when in fact it needs to be discussed just for these very reasons. But the key problem being is that one would be hard-pressed to find or have any reference of common business sense upon which to measure ANY of the many things that went wrong and were done wrong in this scenario as opposed to the "normal" litany of issues that may occur as enumerated above by one of your fellow owners.
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Ok, please, you've had your say. It obviously is close to your heart on all this. But really this is not the place for airing all the laundry of the town. I'm sure there are town forums and town newspaper sites where it can be kept specific to Kalamazoo. Here it is more a vignette of a B&B dream run aglide. Please feel free to join in on other topics on this forum.
Thanks for picking up the slack for some of the cast-off guests from this tragedy.

 

[Dont tread on me]

Did I actually read $180,000 in credit card debt? Maybe they know something I don't, or have an interest rate under 5%, but that is sheer lunacy. And refinancing properties that were maybe making money to buy this place? It's gorgeous and I can see why anyone would want to own it, but it sounds, from afar, like they weren't really thinking about it clearly..

He bought the Castle as a birthday present to himself.

 

[toddburme]

Seems like case of too much debt for too few rooms. Just my opinion with my limited experience.