More about B&BInnterchange. First question: "What's it for?"

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And it's a good question, the first of many.

Since we started in the inndustry (sorry again!) in 2003 -- hardly a lifetime ago, but time enough to learn quite a few useful lessons -- we have found that too many B&Bs tend to operate in something of a vacuum, isolated not just from each other, but from potentially symbiotic businesses within a mile or two of their front door.

The focus is always on guests: Bringing them in, keeping them in, hoping they will come back. And that makes sense, as long as interaction with guests is not a blinkered process that neglects other important aspects of the business.

Business is a word that keeps coming up, because however much we might like to talk about fun, and pleasure and job satisfaction and the joys of having strangers become friends, the purpose of it all is to make a little money along the way.

Like anyone else (and given their long hours and limited vacation opportunities, perhaps even more than almost anyone else) innkeepers need a break now and then.

For some, the idea of visiting another B&B during a well-earned spell of down time is anathema, like a lifeguard trying to relax at a swimming pool. But for many others, the prospect of getting up in the morning without having to worry about making the bed, and then being waited on at the breakfast table, is sheer heaven.

A bed and breakfast is, after all, intended to be a haven, an oasis, a sanctuary...all of those things. The one where you live and work may not be that for you, because there are always things to fix, fret over or fiddle with. Someone else's place should be another story!

Visiting other B&Bs is also a nifty way of discovering how other people handle the job you do seven days a week, week in and week out, and quite possibly learning a thing or two. It is, after all, a career you enjoy that holds your interest and keeps you from complaining too much about those long hours.

B&BInnterchange is not just about room swaps, not by any means, but providing a means by which innkeepers all over the country can exchange hospitality and get to know each other better is the engine that keeps all the other aspects of the service in forward motion, too.

Participation in the service is free to owner-innkeepers or to managers whose membership has their boss's blessing, and to non-industry visitors to the website, it serves as a unique source of information about some of the best B&Bs in the USA...along with an array of unbeatable bargains.

Industry outsiders -- potential guests -- have to pay an annual subscription fee to qualify for those special deals, but it is an attractive proposition because they can recover their dues in the form of dramatic savings within their first two or three weekend getaways. They are guaranteed at least a 30% savings over the regular room rate with every reservation they make.

B&BInnterchange is about creating the best possible deal for all concerned: Innkeepers, B&B connoisseurs, and lastly, the creators of this unique new vacation service and their staff.

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