If you enjoy doing a good job, it shows. But that doesn't mean "It's so easy!"

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I added a couple of "Exhibit A" pictures to the last post because I recognize that this forum is one-sided. I have to a degree ranted about B&B owners Jen and I have encountered, and even if they read this blog and choose to add comments in their own defense, their remarks won't get the same exposure as mine!

It is strange, though, that all of the owners we have worked for, and several others we have encountered in our travels, seem to have an "us and them" attitude to guests that overlooks the critical importance of "heads in beds" (a popular industry term that I don't much like because it conjures up nasty images of Tudors-style decapitation!).

An innkeeper who resents having to deal with guests seems to me about as realistic as a chef who hates to touch food. I am also a big believer in the notion that if something cannot be avoided, you should figure out a way to enjoy it rather than endure it--an attitude that Jen says explains the pile of magazines and crosswords that I keep in a corner of the bathroom! (Not that I am equating guests with a call of nature, you understand...).

At the Artists Inn, Pat's constant comment about the work of innsitting while the regular innkeepers were away was "It's so easy!" and of course any job that does not require personal commitment or input is exactly that.

But success as an innkeeper demands an evolving interest in what guests want and how customer satisfaction can be translated into profit without guests feeling that they are being held upside down by their ankles and shaken until their pockets are empty! Directions, restaurant recommendations, tips on where to shop, discount coupons for other businesses where available...all of those make visitors feel at home, and when they're happy, they are much easier to deal with than when they're not.

Dennis's "This is a Yes business" mantra has always echoed in our ears, and the irony is that some of the regular AI guests moved to comment on the couple who preceded us would let slip that Dennis could be cold and distant, and sometimes downright rude. Make no mistake, some guests do push hard enough to try the patience of the most saintly of innkeepers (I remember in particular a woman who banged hard on our kitchen door at 11pm, long after our bedtime, demanding to put her dinner leftovers in the fridge) but they are in a very tiny minority.

Here's the bottom line: Most B&B guests are very nice people. By the time Jen and I left the Artists Inn, we had sold a minimum of 2,400 room-nights and "interacted" with at least 4,000 people. Try as we might (and we're positive people, so we didn't stress about it!) we could think of barely a handful of problem guests. We came to the conclusion early on that somehow staying in bed and breakfasts brings out the best in people. And treating them kindly and making them laugh and feel at home requires no more effort than keeping them at arm's length. Dennis had suggested that guests should never be allowed in either the kitchen or the office, but I doubt he enforced the rules very often. Reuben used to point at a spot on the carpet in front of his desk and say "Wait here, please" while he processed check-in paperwork - and somehow he never made the connection between that kind of behavior and the fact that guests only rarely came back a second time!

None of this rambling is meant to suggest that Jenny and I are somehow geniuses at the B&B biz. We're not. We just feel that success in any "people business" is about common sense and common courtesy as much as anything else, followed half a step behind by comfort, cleanliness, cheerfulness...and bloody good food!
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