Making Muffins for Strangers

Stepping Up, Moving Over

2009-05-05T16:00:00.003-04:00

For various reasons I've decided to integrate my blog into the Inn's website. All of the old posts and comments should be at the new location, it will probably take me a little time to get the links back up. Any of you who have this blog bookmarked or read it in a feed needs to change your settings, as well as anyone who might have this blog linked to a blog or site of your own.

I can now be found here.

Thanks for reading & staying with me!

Social Networking

2009-04-09T11:19:00.002-04:00

It's a connected world out there people!

Are you all aware that I have a Facebook Fan Page for the inn? No? Visit it here. Become a fan! Leave a comment! If you send me pictures from your stay I'll post them for you - or I think you can post them yourself.

You can also follow me on Twitter. I wasn't sure I'd like using it, but I actually do. I love the 140 character limit, it makes me think about my wording and it makes it much easier to go through the posts of the people I follow.

It's a beautiful day today, I'd best make the most of it. Thanks for reading!

Slice of PAII

2009-03-29T20:27:00.005-04:00

I'm off this week to the PAII* conference in Atlanta. It promises to be three days of information-packed sessions, a busy trade show and (I hope) some time spent with innkeeper friends from other parts of the country.

In other news, my occupancy for the first quarter of this year is up slightly from last year, economy not withstanding. Reservations for the summer are coming in steadily as well. Signs of spring are everywhere, even though the weather has remained chilly. When I get back it will be time to start thinking about yard cleanup and spring projects.

A guest snapped this nifty photo of a hawk at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary a couple of weeks ago and sent it, along with permission to use it here:

Thanks, Mia!

If I learn anything worth reporting at the conference I'll post about it when I return. Y'all have a great week.

*PAII is the acronym for the Professional Association of Innkeepers International, the trade association for B&B owners and Innkeepers. It's pronounced "pie".

Holy Sheet

2009-03-13T15:50:00.003-04:00

The long search is finally over; I've found new sheets that will work for the inn and ordered them. The new sheets are just different enough to require new duvet covers as well, I ordered those two weeks ago from another source. I've also decided to put the duvets into storage in the summer and switch to a lighter weight coverlet; that order went in with the sheets. The final piece to the puzzle will be new bed skirts; the ones I'm using now were purchased with and matched the original sheets. They're just enough off the color of the new sheets & duvet covers to bother me.

I wouldn't have thought replacing sheets would be this painful, but as it turns out I have a very specific set of criteria and for various reasons it has been difficult to find what I needed. One of my primary issues is that I wanted sheets I don't have to iron; quite frankly I haven't the space or the time to iron sheets. That meant I needed a cotton/poly blend sheet. When I opened the inn in 2000, there were a couple of American manufacturers making nice blend sheets and that's what I bought. Within about two years, however, all the remaining American manufacturers of sheets closed down and all sheets were being brought in from other countries. Well, guess what? Polyester is pretty cheap in the U.S., cheaper than cotton, but in most other countries like China and Pakistan, where a lot of sheets are now being produced, cotton is much cheaper than polyester. For a long time I couldn't for the life of me figure out why blend sheets had disappeared, until someone made a comment - I've forgotten who and what it was - that made the answer crystal clear. If you didn't know, polyester is a petroleum product; our government was being run by people with interests in the petroleum industry - you do the math. Ergo, 100% cotton sheets became the norm. There were still some institutional-grade blend sheets available, but those were an unacceptable quality for my purposes. It's only in the last year or two that I've started to see a few blend sheets in higher thread counts come back on the market and I finally found ones that I liked.

It's a relief to no longer have to examine the offerings in every linen/home supply/hospitality catalog that crosses my threshold looking for "the" sheet that will work. I've ordered enough sets to get me through 2 - 3 years if I keep an eye out for stains, in a couple of months when my cash flow is a bit better I'll probably order a few more so I can get 4 - 5 years out of this pattern & style. Given how long I've been looking for these, I guess I'll have to start the search all over again in a year. I can hardly wait.

Laugh Therapy

2009-03-05T11:48:00.002-05:00

Have you ever noticed how much better you feel after a good belly laugh? I'm talking about the kind where you just can't control yourself and where tears come out of your eyes. A laugh like that just seems to release a lot of stress and suddenly whatever was bothering me seems a lot less difficult.

I have found a number of websites that make me laugh on occasion, but none so consistently as this site. Go spend a little time there, it's like a mini-vacation. Just one warning: don't have anything in your mouth when you open the site or I guarantee it will wind up on the screen.

Six Word Memoir

2009-02-28T10:45:00.003-05:00

I just returned from my annual February trip to NYC. It was great, I saw a lot of friends and ate some good food. On my way out of the City yesterday I was listening to WNYC and the Leonard Lopate show. I used to listen to him a lot when I was living in Brooklyn and home on weekdays (read: unemployed). His show was always a bright spot in my day.

Yesterday's show centered around a contest to write a personal memoir in six words. It was surprisingly interesting and it inspired me to come up with my own. Here it is:
Living a life I didn't expect.

Two Good Things

2009-02-14T12:22:00.005-05:00

I almost always have guests on President's Day weekend, although it may only be two or three rooms. This year for some reason the stars seem to have aligned and deposited Valentine's Day on the Saturday of the long weekend. As a result, I have a full house for two nights. Woo hoo! I also have a couple of rooms booked for Sunday night, which is a bonus since not everyone gets President's Day off. Most of the reservations were last minute, all but one came in a week or less before the weekend began. That's not unusual for winter reservations; people wait for the weather forecast before deciding to drive anywhere.

Edit: I spoke too soon... my one guest coming for a single Saturday just cancelled. Anyone want a last-minute room for tonight?

Edit part 2: Someone called hoping for a room tonight. They got one. The "No Vacancy" sign is back up and all is right with the world.

There's a couple that has stayed here several days to a week every summer for about five years. They didn't stay last summer and I actually did notice their absence. He called a couple of weeks ago to reserve a room for this summer and I asked him about last year, he told me they'd taken a special trip for a big birthday and hadn't had enough vacation time left to allow for a trip to Wellfleet. He seemed pleased to have been missed. This summer he and his wife want to stay for two weeks! Typically I request a 50% deposit to guarantee the reservation, but since this was going to be a fairly big number and because I know some people are struggling, I offered to break up the deposit into two payments for him. He replied that there was no need; when the stock market began to fall he'd liquidated some investment he'd had and that he could think of no better place to put his money than at The Stone Lion Inn.

Most of the time I like what I do. Sometimes, I love it.

Me/We

2009-02-11T20:33:00.004-05:00

I'm having a bit of trouble with pronouns lately. It took me years of conscious effort to learn to use we and us when speaking of the business because my husband, quite rightly, wished to feel included. Now that he is no longer part of the business, I find that the habit is thoroughly ingrained and I catch myself using the plural where the singular is now correct. This is one of the odd, unexpected consequences of splitting up, I guess.

On a lighter note, reservations are definitely coming in for the summer so I'm cautiously optimistic about the season. If anyone out there is considering staying with me this summer, making reservations early is advised. That is particularly true if you are tied to specific dates for an event or anniversary, or for any time in August.

Breaking the News

2009-01-13T23:17:00.004-05:00

Now that the holidays have passed and apparently despite the economy, people are beginning to think about summer travel plans. Among those people are some of our repeat guests, particularly the ones who come every year. They are the ones who know they need to reserve early in order to get the dates and/or room they want. Because we have established something very close to a friendship with these frequent repeat guests, every one of them, in their call or email, asks me how I am and then asks about Adam. As difficult as it is, I'd rather tell them up front about the split than skirt the issue and have to deal with it during their stay, possibly in front of other guests. Adam has been a strong and constant presence here, making breakfast at least two days a week and interacting with guests. They like him every bit as much as they like me. His absence, and his skill as a storyteller, will not go unnoticed.

It's an awkward thing, telling people about the divorce. I've almost gotten good at saying the words, but I've had some practice and time to get used to the idea. For someone just hearing it I think it's harder. I frequently hear "I don't know what to say." That makes me sad, but it's honest and I appreciate that. Several people have told me they've been through it themselves, which is surprisingly reassuring. I see them with their current spouse and I see how devoted they are to that person and it gives me hope for a future relationship. Not that I'm wallowing in sorrow or actively searching for anyone new in my life, but is good to see that happiness with another person can be achieved. That is something I will never get tired of.

One of my absolute favorite couples arrived for a stay about a week after Adam moved out. When they arrived, my assistant Nancy was covering check-ins and I was at my weekly riding lesson. By the time I got back, the husband had dropped his wife off at the seminar she was attending, so I knocked on their room door to at least greet him in person. The third sentence out of his mouth was "And where is Adam?" Ouch. I knew it was coming, but this was the first time I'd had to actually do this.

"He's not living here anymore" I told him, and I was literally choking back tears. Adam & I both love this couple, we even exchange gifts with them. And then he told me the oddest thing.

"Ah," he said. "I had a dream the other night that we got here and Adam wasn't here."

I was speechless. Fortunately, he was not. And he broke the news to his wife, who I didn't see until the next morning. They were very supportive. I knew they also wanted to see Adam and I knew that Adam was going to feel uncomfortable about seeing people after they were told what was going on, but I did make sure he came to see them before they left and I think all three of them were happy that I did. But that doesn't change the fact that it's awkward all the way around and it will continue to be so for a while.

To 2008

2008-12-31T20:41:00.002-05:00

I bid you adieu, farewell, adios.

It's been a year of ups and downs like most, but it's also been probably the most difficult year of my adult life. I am not sorry to see the end of it.

Here's to a better 2009. Happy New Year, everyone.

Solstice

2008-12-21T16:29:00.004-05:00

I want to wish all my readers (both of them) a happy, healthy, safe Winter Solstice and whatever other holiday you may celebrate this week. May you be warm & dry and surrounded by those you love.

Provincetown's "famous" lobster trap Christmas Tree

Challenging

2008-12-14T23:07:00.003-05:00

I have a guest here who appears to have an extreme case of homophobia. Wouldn't even consider going to Provincetown where, unlike Wellfleet at the moment, there are good restaurants (the topic of restaurant closings is a whole other post). If there is one thing I can't tolerate, it's intolerance - whether it be racial, sexual, social or anything else. This is going to be a long two days of tongue-biting for me in order not to get into an argument with the guest.

I'm resisting the urge to call several of my gay friends and invite them to have breakfast here on Tuesday. It would be fun, though.

Social Networking

2008-12-07T15:35:00.003-05:00

I joined Facebook back in June. I did it because the owner of the Post Secret site started a page there and I wanted access to it. I put up a bare-bones profile, did a couple of searches and "friended" a couple of people. Then I pretty much left it alone on the theory that this was largely a site for the under-30 crowd. Until about five weeks ago. Then, all of a sudden I started getting messages and friend requests as a bunch of my old friends from high school and college - and I mean at least a dozen people, all over 45 - joined the site and started searching for people. I've reconnected with a number of them now. With some I've exchanged just a message or two, with others I feel like I've really resumed a long-dormant friendship. It couldn't have come at a better time.

As a side benefit, Facebook is now allowing people to set up pages for their businesses. I've done one for the inn. I'm not sure if I'll see a benefit from it, but at the moment it's free and it can't hurt. It may help me draw in a younger generation of B&B goers.

I also recently joined Linked In. That site is more for business networking. There is some overlap between the friends I've found there and the ones on Facebook, but I've found a number of people on Linked In who have probably never considered joining Facebook.

If you've been getting invitations to join either of these sites, take a chance and do it. You might be surprised at who you find there. Be warned, though, both can be a bit of a time-suck if you let them.

Winter Light

2008-11-25T21:04:00.007-05:00

The light here is different from anywhere else I've lived. It's most noticable in the winter, when the angle of the sun is so much lower, and particularly near sunset. It can make for some very dramatic scenes.

Here are two photos* that illustrate that beautifully, taken by my friend and sometime-guest, Tom Baratz.

This is Mayo Beach, on the harbor, at sunset:
And this is one of our ocean-side beaches, Newcomb Hollow, also near sunset:

*THESE PHOTOS ARE NOT TO BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION

Want to see it for yourself? We're open through the winter, come on down!

Let Me Clue You In

2008-11-21T14:26:00.003-05:00

If you're a company wanting to do business with me, let me give you two little suggestions:

1) Hire people to make your phone calls who I can understand and who can understand me. Speaking to someone who's English is so heavily accented that I have to ask them to repeat things several times just frustrates me, and I'm sure it frustrates them as well. And it's equally unhelpful if I have to keep repeating myself to be understood.*

2) When I say I'm not interested, thank me and hang up. Do not keep talking. I do not enjoy hanging up on you, but I will.

*I have nothing against people who's first language is not English, but heavy accents are much more difficult to understand on the phone than face-to-face. All I'm suggesting is that when companies hire people to do phone sales, they should conduct a test run on the phone with the candidate to see if there's a problem with making themselves understood/understanding the other person.

End of rant. Thanks for listening.

Yes We Did

2008-11-05T09:40:00.002-05:00

My favorite photo, so far, from this election.

These two people have a long, difficult road ahead of them. This country is quite a mess.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he is as good as the speech he gave last night.

Wildlife

2008-10-30T00:49:00.006-04:00

I thought I'd share two marvelous photos taken earlier this month. The first was taken at the Wellfleet Bay Audubon Sanctuary by a guest staying with us.

Isn't he pretty? The guest, who is from the UK where white tail deer are not found, was thrilled to have seen him and to have gotten this photo.

The next photo was taken by a guest who stays with us on a somewhat regular basis. Thank you, Tom*, for sharing this photo of river otters at Gull Pond.

*This photo is by Tom Baratz. Please do not use it without permission.

October Rituals

2008-10-17T22:57:00.002-04:00

This weekend is the annual Wellfleet Oyster Festival. It started out tiny just eight years ago, now it attracts 20 - 30,000 people to town over the course of the weekend. That's ten times the size of the year-round population! There will be a shucking contest*, live music, various cooking demonstrations, a tour of the oyster flats, a 5k road race and something like 100,000 Wellfleet oysters will be consumed over the course of the two days. It's fun to see that many people in town and the organizers and volunteers do an amazing job with set-up and clean up. On Monday morning there will be no trace that anything unusual happened over the weekend.

A less fun ritual is the annual closing of the seasonal restaurants. As much as we look forward to them opening each spring, we dread them closing in the fall. We know it has to happen, the local population just can't support that many restaurants. Also, the owners and staff are exhausted and many of the buildings that house the restaurants are unheated which makes them unsuitable for year-round use. Still, we miss having the options both for ourselves and as places to refer our guests.

Some of the restaurants closed last weekend, most of the rest that close will do so this Sunday. One or two others will hang on for another week or two, but by the beginning of November we will be down to three or four restaurants in town and that will not improve until April. On the positive side, there is the chance to socialize with some of our friends who own those restaurants and who we don't see during the busy season unless we go out to eat.

I enjoy the rhythm of life here, it is as inevitable and predictable as the tides.

*Congratulations to Wellfleet's own William "Chopper" Young, winner of the World Oyster Shucking Championship.

Green Travel

2008-09-12T20:41:00.002-04:00

There has been a lot of talk lately about "going green". We are all being encouraged to think about our environmental footprint, change our light bulbs, reduce waste, drive less and so forth. There is also a "green" trend in the travel and hospitality industry, and while I think anything that can be done to reduce energy consumption and waste is good, I wonder how many travelers actually choose a lodging establishment based on how "green" it is.

We have been pretty green from the very beginning but I've never advertised it because it's just what I do. To me it isn't a marketing ploy, it's how I want to live my life. And we aren't totally green, there are no solar panels on the house and the property isn't large enough for a windmill so we are forced to use oil and propane for heat, hot water and drying laundry. Only rarely do I hang anything to dry outside. Our electricity use could probably be reduced by putting in power strips for things like televisions and video decks. I haven't yet changed over to a water saving front loading washing machine, although I probably will very soon; our current washer is showing definite signs of advancing age. Still, I think I do more than the average homeowner. For anyone interested, here is a list of our green practices:

- Soap/shampoo/lotion dispensers in the bathrooms save on all those little plastic bottles;
- Navy blue towels and colored bed linens so we don't have to use bleach in the wash;
- Compost almost all fruit/vegetable waste from the kitchen (except in winter);
- Compact fluorescent light bulbs in all lights that burn many hours a day and I'm in the process of changing the bulbs in more places;
- Timers for outdoor lighting;
- Recycling, including bottles, cans, newspapers & cardboard;
- Freecycle(TM) for items we no longer use but that aren't ready for the trash, like blankets & towels that we change out every couple of years. Pillows and linens that are too stained or worn for human use go to an animal shelter;
- Air conditioners are installed in frames that allow us to open the window above the unit. This permits a cross-breeze in all our guest rooms and minimizes the use of air conditioning;
- Ceiling fans in all guest rooms, living room, dining room, kitchen and our personal space to cool without a/c;
- Minimal use of chemical cleaning agents;
- Purchasing larger refill sizes and/or concentrates rather than small bottles where possible;
- Programmable thermostat for the heat which allows us to keep the house warmer during peak guest usage (mornings and evenings) and cooler mid-day and at night without having to remember to set it ourselves;
- Purchasing recycled office supplies as much as possible, including copy paper, our letterhead & envelopes, file folders and clasp envelopes;
- Switched from sending snail-mail confirmation letters to email;
- Switched to paperless billing for as many of my business & personal bills as possible;
- In order to save water on longer stays, sheets and towels are changed after the third night. Requests for more frequent changes are, of course, honored;
- When planting my garden each spring, I specifically look for drought-hardy annuals that don't have to be watered every day.

Wow. Pretty exciting, right? I'm sure everyone who reads this is going to want to book rooms here now.

Let's face it, most "green" practices are pretty mundane. I do these things because they make sense to ME. In some cases they actually make my life easier (less watering, fewer light bulb changes, two or three loads of laundry saved in a busy week), in other cases they increase my workload (rinsing & sorting recyclables, bundling newspaper & cardboard, resetting timers, mixing cleaning agents and filling spray bottles).

Okay, now I'd like to hear from my readers. I have a stat. counter, I know you're out there. Do "green" practices weigh into your decisions about lodging when going on vacation? Do you think there is more I should be doing? And what do you do at home?

Change of Season, Season of Change

2008-08-31T21:50:00.004-04:00

It's hard to believe it's Labor Day already. Another summer, gone. Not that I expect business to slow down much, but the pace of life usually does after this weekend.

This summer has both flown and dragged by. The inn, and I, are going through some transitions. My husband and partner, Adam, and I are getting divorced. He will be moving out some time in October. That means I will need to find help to do some of the things Adam has done here over the years and to that end I have hired and am training an assistant innkeeper. She will take over the two breakfast shifts per week that Adam has been doing and cover check ins some afternoons so I can get out and do the shopping, another of Adam's jobs, and take care of any personal appointments. So that's one piece of the puzzle. There are many others I'm still figuring out.

Although I am sad and sometimes terrified, I do see the possibilities for positive change in all this. For one thing, I have someone to whom I can delegate certain things. Adam was a partner and would not have been a good choice to delegate some of my projects to, since he considered them my projects. Already Nancy has helped me with two small things that I have been wanting to get done but have been unable to motivate myself to do, even though I had everything I needed to do them. And over the winter I'll have her work with me to improve organization in my kitchen and office.

Adam and I have made every effort to keep this all behind the scenes. We're much more sad than angry about the whole thing and we want our guests to have the relaxing vacation they came here for. So far, from the comments in our guest book, we seem to have been successful. I hope arriving guests who read this don't get weirded out by it. The plan is to continue to provide the hospitality we've become known for.

I'm more concerned about the guests who have been here before, some of whom come every year. It will be difficult telling them, but I suppose it'll get easier with practice. Wish me luck.

Should Have Done it Long Ago

2008-08-23T21:24:00.006-04:00

I know it's been a while since my last post. We've been insanely busy and somehow August seems to have nearly slipped by already. It's been a good year for business but I'll admit to being tired. Although we remain busy into the middle of October, the pace of life slows down somewhat after Labor Day and I look forward to that.

One of the difficult parts about summer is that although the ringing phone means business, it also means frustration. The majority of the phone calls in July, August and September are for dates that are already booked. In particular as each weekend approaches there are numerous phone calls from people seeking rooms for Friday and Saturday night. It's no fun for them and no fun for us to have to tell them we're booked. And frequently the caller wants to know if we can suggest another place. We usually can't. As summer wears on and I get more tired, the impulse to be less than my usual polite, helpful self with the callers gets stronger. No good can come of that!

This past week I added an on-line availability calendar to my website. I had my website designer make the link into nice, big buttons that are easy to find. They very wisely put the link on both the rooms and the reservations pages. The result was almost instantaneous. The phone has almost stopped ringing. When it does ring, it's much more often someone looking at nights we do have or it's someone who's already in town who wants a room for tonight. I can't help the latter, but at least I've got a fair shot at helping the former. What a relief.

I think I'll now be able to survive the next two months with my sanity intact.

And Then There Were Two

2008-08-02T18:36:00.002-04:00

I know there's a downturn in the economy, but people are (thankfully) still coming for their beach vacations. Our bookings have been very strong.

The title refers to the number of room-nights we still have available in August. Yes, that's right, two. One room, two nights, August 13 & 14. That's a Wednesday & Thursday.

Anyone want 'em?

I'm Surrounded...

2008-08-01T22:34:00.002-04:00

by pregnant women. Three of our five female guests this weekend are between five and six months pregnant. That has NEVER happened before. We've had lots of pregnant guests over the years, but only one at a time (that we knew of).

I hope it's not contagious.

Puzzling

2008-07-19T23:00:00.002-04:00

A car pulled into my driveway and all the way around to the back of the property today around 1:30. It turned out to be a couple who will be staying with us starting in two days. They wanted to see where they were staying. The room was occupied and I was in a bit of a hurry, so I hope I wasn't too abrupt when I excused myself.

They caught me off-guard and at a bad moment, but it was a bit strange. I've had lots of people stop by wanting to see the place for future reference, but never before someone who is already booked here and due to arrive in just a couple of days. I got the impression they had a bunch of questions, I wish I'd had the time to find out if they had any concerns or if they were really just looking around.

Please Plan Ahead - a cautionary tale

2008-06-29T19:56:00.004-04:00

Dusk, June 29, 2008

A kitchen, anywhere in the Northeast United States. Dinner is on the table, two adults are eating and conversing.

Adult #1: "Honey, don't we both have Friday, July 4th, off?"

Adult #2: "Why yes, we do! Why don't we go away for the long weekend?"

Adult #1: "What a great idea! We should probably make a reservation somewhere. Where would you like to go?"

Adult #2: "I'd like to go to the beach. What about Cape Cod?"

Adult #1: "Great idea. Why don't you get online after dinner and find us someplace nice to stay?"

Adult #2: "I'll do that."

****** Two Hours Later ******

Adult #2: "I found this great little B&B in Wellfleet, I checked it out on Trip Advisor and it's the #1 rated place there. It's got great reviews! Would you call them in the morning and make us a reservation?"

Adult #1: "That sounds great, I'll do it!"

****** Curtain ******

I swear, that little scenario must have played out in hundreds of kitchens in the past couple of weeks because I've gotten literally dozens of phone calls for the weekend of July 4th. A holiday virtually everyone in America gets off. What makes people think they can call a week or less in advance for a holiday weekend and get a room? Especially in a B&B, which has only a few rooms to start with!

I try really hard not to laugh when these folks call, but the closer it gets to the 4th, the more difficult that is. I do try to suggest they book for next year, but so far nobody has wanted to do so. Not that I'm surprised. Clearly, these are not plan-ahead people and they may still harbor the illusion that they'll find a room somewhere so they want to get on to the next phone call as quickly as possible. They'll probably play out the same scenario for Labor Day weekend.

If you can't plan to go away on the big holiday weekends well in advance, you should probably learn to enjoy spending them quietly at home. There are plenty of weekends between late October and the middle of June where you absolutely can get a room with only a couple of days notice. Come see us then.

So to answer your questions in advance:

No, we don't have a room for the 4th & 5th. In fact, that weekend typically books up before Memorial Day.

No, I don't know anyone who has a room available. Since you're about the 25th person to call me about it this week, my guess is that you're going to be out of luck, but I'll direct you to the Chamber of Commerce anyway. If anyone has a room, they'll know about it.

No, I don't think there's much of a chance anyone will cancel. If someone does, it'll be the day before they're scheduled to arrive and you'll already have made other plans, so I'm not going to put your name on a waiting list.

Yes, if someone DOES cancel, one of these last minute callers is going to get very, very lucky. But don't count on it.

Missing Wellfleet Lighthouse Found

2008-06-06T15:54:00.004-04:00

This lovely article graced the front page of the Cape Cod Times yesterday (June 5). Surprisingly, today, it was picked up by the AP. My little town has made national news. Yay!

Geographically Challenged

2008-05-28T21:01:00.002-04:00

This was a real phone call earlier this week.

Caller: I saw your inn featured on the Fine Living Network's "Top 10 Vacation Spots"* and thought it was really nice. Do you think you can help me find an inn as nice as yours on Martha's Vineyard?

Me: Let me see if I understand this: You think my inn is really nice but you want to stay somewhere else?

Caller: Well, I only have one day, I'll be in Stamford (CT) on business and it looks like Martha's Vineyard is closer.

Me: It may be closer as the crow flies, but you have to take a ferry to get there.

Caller: I do?

Me: Um, it's an island. It's a 45 minute ferry ride, you have to find the schedule and make a reservation.

Caller: Well, I only have the one day and I didn't want to drive more than about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Me: Where are you calling from?

Caller: Cincinnati, Ohio.

To make a long conversation short, the caller had no idea of the distances involved. Stamford, CT is near the New York border, about an hour from NYC. It's about a 5 hour drive from there to Wellfleet. The closest place she could have picked up a ferry to the Vineyard is New Bedford, about a 4 hour drive. I'm not sure how long the ferry ride is from there, the 45 minute time is from Hyannis. At any rate, the caller finally decided, with a little prodding from me, that her best bet for a quick getaway would be to drive to New London, CT, and take the ferry from there to Montauk, Long Island. It's also a beach resort area, but not as nice as Wellfleet, at least in my opinion :)

*The show on which the caller saw my inn was filmed about six years ago. It still airs at least once a year and has been picked up by local stations in some markets now and then in between. It was one of the best pieces of publicity I ever got, and it was totally free!

How To Get Rid of Fruit Flies

2008-05-23T20:58:00.003-04:00

From an email exchange between two innkeeper friends:

Innkeeper #1
"Anybody have a way to get rid of the buggers?"

Innkeeper #2
"Our standard is to drink almost all the wine from a bottle, then set the bottle with a little wine in it on the counter near where the fruit flies congregate. They'll go for the wine (smart little buggers) and then can't find the way out of the bottle (dumb little buggers)--but at least they die happy."

Innkeeper #1 (late the next day)
i hav dlunk the wyine, and cnnott see any moorre floot fries. It wroks!

I Couldn't Resist

2008-05-10T12:18:00.002-04:00

Bed Linens: Proof of an Alternate Universe

2008-05-02T22:13:00.002-04:00

For those of you who go about your lives buying the occasional set of sheets, a blanket or quilt here or there, perhaps a bed skirt or duvet cover once or twice in your lives, you've probably never really pondered some of the oddities of bed linens. For those of us who buy linens in quantities and make multiple beds each day, there are far more opportunities to discover/question/curse the bizarre inconsistencies and randomness of the bed linen industry.

Here are some of the things I cannot explain:
- 100% cotton sheets. Okay, they feel nice but even if you pull them out of the dryer before it finishes spinning and put them right on the bed, they're still wrinkled. Okay for home, not so much for a B&B. Life is too short to iron sheets.

- Blanket sizing. A queen size mattress is 60" x 80". A queen size blanket is 90" x 90". How, exactly, does one tuck in the blanket at the bottom? I'm on my third batch of blankets, the current ones are "King" size. I can't even imagine using anything smaller.

- Duvets & Duvet Covers. Same issue. My queen size duvet covers have a lot more fabric than a queen size duvet will fill. Last year, as an experiment, I replaced the queen size down comforter on my personal bed with a king size one. Wouldn't you know, it filled the queen size duvet cover perfectly. When I replace the comforters for the inn bedrooms, the new ones will be king size.

It's as if mattresses, sheets and duvet covers come from one planet with one set of standards and blankets & duvets/comforters come from a different planet with a different set of standards.

When we were getting ready to open the inn I made the decision that all our beds would be the same size (queen) and that all of the linens would be the same. I just don't have the patience to match sets of sheets to decor and I wanted to not have to take an entire set of sheets out of service if one piece got stained or torn. I found a sheet that I liked and bought in case quantities. A year or two later, realizing that linens go out of fashion and these would not always be available, I called the manufacturer and purchased most of the rest of the existing stock. They were already discontinued by then, I was lucky to have gotten what I did.

Coming into our 9th year of operation, we really need new sheets. I don't have enough still in service to do a full-house changeover, which is a problem. I've been on the hunt for new sheets for two years and still haven't found one that meets all my requirements. I actually thought I had found sheets I could live with and ordered them but when they arrived they were a totally different color from the swatch I'd been sent and they looked simply awful in the rooms. I sent them back. This week I requested samples of another sheet that I thought might work; the samples arrived and the fabric is SHINY. Not only that, despite being labeled as having a 55% cotton / 45% polyester content, they feel as if they're 100% poly. Ew.

I am in sheet hell.

The Psychology of Muffins

2008-04-21T17:09:00.002-04:00

I make really good muffins. I'm not bragging, it's just fact. And it's my job, or part of it. Granted I still haven't figured out how to get them to reliably dome on top, but they taste really, really good. They're made from scratch with real butter from recipes I've adapted or developed.

About a year ago I tried an experiment with my banana coconut muffins. The recipe calls for two cups of all-purpose flour, I replaced one cup with a cup of whole-wheat flour to add some fiber/nutrition to the mix. There was no change in taste or texture, so I deemed the experiment a success and have continued to make them that way. It wasn't something I mentioned to guests, I just did it.

One morning last fall, after watching several guests look at the muffins on the buffet and pass them by, I spoke up. "These muffins are made with whole-wheat flour" I said. Immediately two or three of my guests got up and got muffins, which they proceeded to ~~inhale~~ enjoy. Interesting. I had thought a lot of my guests pretty much left their diets at home and ate what they wanted on vacation, but clearly the desire to eat healthy will stop some from enjoying a treat unless they think there might be some nutritional value to it. Since I was making them with the whole wheat flour anyway, I've started letting guests know. Muffin consumption has definitely increased. This morning, seven guests ate ten peach muffins.

For anyone wanting to make this substitution, whole wheat flour is darker than all-purpose so if there's already something in the batter that makes it dark, like bananas or mashed peaches, it works fine. I wouldn't add it into my blueberry muffins, which are white except for the berries (and I like them that way), but if you don't care about the color then go right ahead.

A Few Random Things

2008-04-08T20:02:00.003-04:00

I know I've been a bit lax about posting lately, my attention has been pulled in too many directions to compose a coherent post. We've been very busy for this time of year, which is good, and I still have some winter projects to complete and some supplies to order before the busy season really rolls around. None of this is terribly interesting, however, so I'll invite you to read a couple of things I've found recently on some of the blogs I read when I have the time.

A while back I posted a bit of a rant about weddings. They have a way of getting seriously out of control that I just don't understand. My own wedding was a backyard clambake, very casual and a lot of fun. But then, I just didn't have the "big wedding" dream. Big or small, the details can be mind boggling. I found this post at a blog on organizing. It should be required reading for anyone planning a wedding.

I now take you to a completely unrelated topic: Jacuzzi tubs. We don't have any, primarily because there was a) no way to fit them into our bathrooms and b) the way this house is constructed, there would be no way to isolate the vibrations, meaning that everyone in the house would know when someone was using a jetted tub. Many of my innkeeper friends, however, do have them. Guests seem to enjoy them. Here's a story of a guest enjoying one in a way none of my innkeeper friends ever envisioned (perhaps that's for the best).

And finally, I leave you with this. It is an utterly useless site, but I'll bet it'll make you smile.

Customer Service

2008-03-21T23:14:00.002-04:00

I actually received good customer service this week. Kudos to the tech support folks at HP who helped me out.

Back in December I discovered that my HP OfficeJet All-in-One printer wasn't working. Not only wouldn't it print, it appeared to be dead. As in a giant paperweight sitting on my desk, performing no function whatsoever aside from collecting dust. Things at the inn were slow that month, so the printer might have been dead for a day or two (or three) before I even noticed.

I popped over to HP's tech support page and selected live chat, since that is free. I'm pretty sure the guy at the other end of the line is in a country on the other side of the world and has a pretty specific script from which he has difficulty deviating, because the first thing he suggested I do made it clear that he hadn't really been paying attention when I said the printer had no power. Once I repeated that for him, he suggested I check to see if the power supply (external on this printer, thankfully) was warm to the touch. Bingo! It was not, and a properly functioning power supply should be. I thanked him, ended the chat session and popped over to parts & supplies where I ordered a new power supply. It was around $40 plus shipping, but that's a lot cheaper than a new printer. Since the printer was 2 years old, I figured it was a good investment - I'm not ready to replace it. The power supply arrived about three days later, I plugged it in and the problem was resolved. Because things were so slow that month, I really didn't suffer from having no printer for nearly a week and I was pleased that the solution had turned out to be a simple one.

All was well in printer-land until this past Tuesday night. It was late and I was about to head up to bed when I noticed that the power light on my printer was off. "Uh-oh" was my first thought, as I hopefully pressed the "on" button and waited, in vain, for it to light up. Damn. Checked the power supply immediately. Room temperature. Double-damn. Looked in my credit card bills to confirm December order date. It's too late at night for me to be able to do much else, but I know I've got to get a new power supply ASAP because I have guests checking in the next day, the day after and then a full house checking in on Friday. I use the printer to print out my check-in sheets, invoices if necessary, notes for late-arriving guests, etc. This is NOT the same situation as December, when I didn't really need the printer.

Before even having coffee the next morning (Wednesday) I called HP tech support. We went over the problem and the history. The tech looked up my order and sent me over to the parts department. The person in the parts department who took my call quoted me a price on the part. I remained calm and told him that since I was replacing a power supply that was 3 months old, I expected them to send me a new one for free. I also made it clear I expected nothing less than free shipping, next day if possible. It took a little time, but I eventually got approval for a free replacement and shipping, although I was given a Monday delivery date - best he could do, he said. Okay, I figured that was as good as I was going to get and I'd figure something out for the weekend's printing needs. My phone time invested: 48 minutes (by the timer on my handset).

Later that day, after an unsuccessful attempt to hook up a fairly old printer and an equally unsuccessful attempt to access my husband's printer off our home network, I got a shipping notification email from HP. When I looked at it I discovered that the part had, in fact, been shipped FedEx next-day. It arrived and it solved the problem. I was pleased enough to email HP and thank them for the help.

Now let's keep our fingers crossed that this power supply doesn't quit on me after another three months, because that will put me smack in the middle of my busy season.

Back and Busy

2008-03-16T23:47:00.002-04:00

I had a great vacation, an unprecedented almost two weeks away from the inn. Adam, unfortunately, had to head back after less than a week to finish some projects he had to deliver. He has a custom furniture business in addition to being my partner in the B&B and he's got quite a few projects in his shop at the moment. We also had guests coming in for the weekend, so he was going to be taking care of them as well.

While in New York we were able to see some good friends, eat great food and see a show. Our plans for dinner at Gramercy Tavern didn't work out, it turns out that we couldn't get a reservation for any time between 6:00 and 9:30 on a Tuesday evening! Adam even spoke to them that afternoon and they'd had no cancellations. Hard to believe. Instead we took a chance and wound up at Tabla instead. It was lovely. We spent the day on Tuesday going to museums. We started at the Transit Museum, which I'd always wanted to see, then headed uptown to the Guggenheim to see this exhibit. If you're in New York between now and the end of May, go see it. Afterward we headed across the park to the American Museum of Natural History. Adam has done a lot of work there over the years and he knows most of the exhibit department staff. I know a few of them, in particular a guy I worked with at my first job in NYC who now works as the project manager there. Adam & I went to the Water exhibit and the Butterfly Conservatory, then we met Dean at a bar on Columbus Ave. for drinks and to catch up. Did I mention that Adam built the Butterfly exhibit ten years ago? Pretty cool, huh?

Thursday 2/28 was the final concert in a series of three at Madison Square Garden that I really, really wanted to see: Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton. I didn't have tickets but figured what the heck, I'd go down to the Garden and see if anyone had a couple of extras they were willing to sell. I've done this before with Broadway shows and it works just fine. I was a bit surprised at the number and general sleaziness of the scalpers outside MSG, but New York's Finest were doing a decent job of keeping them a good distance from the entrances. Since I don't look anything like a scalper, I positioned myself near one entrance and quietly asked people as they went by if they had extra tickets. After about 15 minutes a gentleman turned at my question and asked "Are they for you?" I assured him they were and he handed me two tickets (a friend was meeting me there). I asked him how much and he said "I just want to give them to someone who will enjoy the concert." I looked at the tickets, they had a $250 face value. Holy sh*t. And they were legit (yes, people sell counterfeit tickets) - my friend and I got in no problem. These seats were on the floor. Right next to the mixing board. Aside from 10th row center, this is the best place to be. The concert was just incredible. I felt like the luckiest person in the world that night.

The last few days of my vacation were spent in Maryland at The Brampton Inn, hanging out with some innkeeper friends. We ate & drank well, traded horror stories of renovations and furnace melt-downs, shopped and had a lot of laughs. Danielle and Michael, our hosts, gave us a tour of their gorgeous property, including the two new luxury rental cottages they're building. It was wonderful and affirming to be with other people living this crazy life.

I got back on 3/6 to a busy weekend and two old friends visiting. There are still winter projects to do and paperwork to organize. I'm back to it in full force but I'll try to post again soon.

In Which the Innkeeper Takes a Vacation

2008-02-22T00:55:00.000-05:00

I returned on Sunday, 2/10, from a lovely relaxing week in Vieques and Puerto Rico with three friends. We stayed here, which I heartily recommend, had some wonderful meals, swam at some incredible beaches and in a bioluminescent bay, which was pretty amazing. The last day we flew to Fajardo and hiked in the El Yunque rain forest. Adam stayed in Wellfleet to work on some furniture projects he needed to finish and take care of the inn on the days there were guests here.

As soon as I got home I dove into tax paperwork. Nothing more fun than that! Once that was completed I did some more work on the winter projects list and we had guests to take care of for several nights.

Today we're off to New York City for a week. We have tickets to a show on Sunday and reservations at Gramercy Tavern for my birthday. Adam returns on 2/28 but I will be staying for a couple of extra days then heading down to Maryland for a few days to meet up with some innkeeper friends. We'll share ideas, kick back, drink a lot of wine and have some laughs. I return on 3/6. That will be the longest stretch of time I will have been away from the inn since we opened.

Water, water all around

2008-01-27T22:13:00.000-05:00

There has been a lot of ink lately devoted to the issue of why Americans, who have some of the best and safest drinking water in the world, consume so much bottled water. Indeed, all those bottles create a series of issues including resources used to make those bottles (plastic is made from petrochemicals and requires additional energy - from fossil fuels - in the manufacturing process), fuel for transporting the bottles and the disposal problem of all those bottles once empty. The vast majority of states do not include bottles from still water in their deposit programs, so they are thrown away after a single use.

Although we don't advertise it, we try very hard here to reduce waste and recycle wherever possible. We would probably fall into the category of a "Green" lodging establishment. We compost all vegetable matter from the kitchen in the months where the compost isn't likely to freeze, we make extremely limited use of chemical cleaners preferring natural products as much as possible, and we sort and recycle as much material as we are able.

Our town does not make recycling easy. We are required to sort glass from plastic and metal, returnables from everything else, remove caps and rinse everything so it does not attract critters. We then bag them and take them to the transfer station, where they must be removed from the bags and placed in the appropriate bins. Newspapers must be bundled and cardboard flattened. We do it because I feel it is my duty as a responsible citizen to recycle and reuse to conserve energy and resources. I pull bottles and cans from guest room trash baskets (unless they are truly icky), rinse when necessary and sort them.

It does not bother me at all when guests bring beer, wine or soda to drink during their stay. Even a couple of bottles of water aren't a big issue. It does, however, distress me when guests bring cases of 1-liter or smaller bottles of water with them. Do people really think we don't have good water here? Or is it just a habit?

Our water comes from a private well. There are no additives; no chlorine or fluoride. There is no mineral or sulfur smell to our water. We test it monthly in the busy season as required by the town and the test results are consistently fine. The only thing we test slightly high for is sodium, which is not surprising considering our proximity to salt water. And even that is not something that would bother anyone unless they are on an extremely low sodium regime for some reason.

A couple of years ago we installed a water cooler with a hot water spigot in our dining room. We did it for our own convenience so that we don't have to put out a pitcher of water in the mornings (a pitcher that would have to be washed) and so that guests desiring a hot beverage in the evening could make one without us having to put out either an electric kettle or an insulated pitcher of hot water. Several guests have asked me if the cooler is there because our tap water is not good to drink and my guess is that quite a few more just make that assumption. Truly, that is not the reason. And if you want your water cold, all you have to do is let it run for a minute and it'll come out cold from the tap - another advantage of a well.

So I put the issue in your hands, folks. Leave the water bottles at the store. Bring ONE you can re-use and fill it from the tap. If you absolutely must, you can even refill it from the cooler. But help me out here. Those small plastic water bottles make up about 70% of my recyclables in the busy season. I shudder to think of what happens to the ones people bring to establishments that are less conscientious about recycling.

Two by Two

2008-01-16T09:19:00.000-05:00

Winter business is so very different from summer business here. It makes sense when you think about it... this is, after all, a summer vacation area. People come for sun, surf and fried seafood. The fact that any come in the winter at all is somewhat amazing, really.

When they learn that we are open all year, the next question guests ask is almost always "Do you have any guests?" Followed by "Why do they come?" Here are the answers:

Yes, we do have guests. We are rarely full in the winter, but there are few weekends that we have nobody here. They come for very specific reasons:
1) Visiting family (but want their own space);
2) Looking for property - either to rent over the summer or to buy;
3) They own a 2nd home here and it is being renovated so they can't stay there;
4) A quiet getaway.

Nearly all our winter guests are last-minute reservations. Sometimes they call a day or two in advance, sometimes they call in the morning on the day they wish to arrive. Many are coming just for one night, although the ones visiting family usually stay two or three nights if they've traveled any real distance to get here and especially if there are grandchildren. Why so last-minute, you ask? Weather. They are waiting for the weather forecast to make sure they're not going to be driving in snow or ice. It took a couple of winters for us to figure this out, but it makes perfect sense.

This past week we had guests Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, one couple each night. In all honesty I would much prefer to make breakfast for a full house than just two people, but it is what it is and we adapt.

I'm handling breakfast a little differently this winter when we have only two guests. Normally, our breakfast is set up as a buffet with fresh fruit salad, yogurt, bread for the toaster, scones or muffins and a main dish. For a number of years we've used a simple form to help us plan a scaled-down breakfast when we've had just one couple in the house, which has helped, but I'm making further improvements on the system. For one thing, I've started to do some more interesting things with fruit that become individual servings rather than a buffet item. This allows me to take better advantage of the best of the winter produce and it cuts down on waste. Two of my new offerings are broiled grapefruit with brown sugar and coconut, and poached pears with creme fraische. Both have been hits. I've also been making more egg dishes in individual ramekins. I still set scones, bread, butter, jam and yogurt on the buffet if any of these items are requested. So our winter guests are getting some things that our summer guests will never see and a little extra personalized attention as well. Not bad for the time of year when our rates are lowest as well!

Are you thinking about a winter visit? Call us! The weather out here is typically 5 - 10 degrees warmer than in Boston, the beaches are deserted and lovely for walking, a few good restaurants are open and Mother Nature saves her most spectacular sunsets for the colder months.

Omissions

2008-01-01T23:37:00.000-05:00

Two things I forgot to mention:

One, I will spare you the customary list of resolutions. Nobody, including me, ever follows through with them anyway. I simply hope each year is better than the last, not just for me but for everyone.

Two, a friend of mine left town this holiday after living here for nearly a year. I feel oddly bereft despite the fact that we weren't terribly close nor did we manage to see very much of each other due to our extremely bizarre and conflicting schedules. His departure is not so much going to leave a hole in my social life as it leaves me missing just knowing he is here in town. The connection we shared was through college which was a difficult time and one that isn't easily understood by anyone who didn't go through that particular department at that school during that period in time. He was two years ahead of me in school and we weren't even particularly friendly with each other back then (twenty years ago - ouch), but we had this shared experience that gave us a bond of sorts. I don't know if he thinks of it that way, but I do. Until he came back into my life last year I hadn't realized how deeply I felt bonded to a few people I knew so briefly and so long ago. I wish him luck in his next venture and hope we will stay in touch.

And so it begins...

2008-01-01T22:36:00.000-05:00

New year, new post. This one is a little unfocused, please bear with me. Think of it as a buffet.

Before I get rolling, happy new year to anyone who actually reads my ramblings. Post a comment now and then so I know you're there, okay?

We had a lovely New Year's eve. We hosted a party at Adam's mom's house so as not to disturb our inn guests. It was a nice mix of local and out-of-town friends, good wine and way too much food. Oddly, the party really coalesced around a game brought by one of our guests. It was a lot of fun and it didn't seem to matter to anyone that we simply left off where we were at midnight to ring in the new year and we never got back to it.

The sky last night was gorgeous. The quarter-moon was low in the sky and the stars stood out in such clear relief against the inky blue-black of the night it looked like you could prick your finger on their sharp points.

Driving home at an hour that was far too late for someone who had to get up and make breakfast this morning, I saw a coyote trotting down the middle of our street. I've seen them a number of times before on side streets or along the state highway, but this is the closest I've ever seen one to the house. It got out of the road when I switched on my high beams about 30' behind it, but didn't seem particularly concerned about me until I stopped my car to get a good look at it. At that point it bounded off behind a house and I continued home. Adam followed about an hour later. I'm not sure how he got up at his usual hour of 6 a.m., but he did.

Inn guests and out-of-town friends had all left by about 12:30 this afternoon, leaving us free to attend a New Year's day brunch hosted by some friends. Late in the afternoon I indulged in a much-needed nap. Room cleaning will wait until tomorrow since we aren't expecting anyone for a few days.

Today marks a bleak two-week period in which NOT ONE restaurant in Wellfleet is open. I find this distressing both for myself and for any potential guests. In order to hold a year-round liquor license in this town, restaurants must stay open all year (sounds logical, right?). They are permitted to close for up to four weeks for "renovations". I put the term inside quotation marks because it is interpreted pretty loosely by the local population and the Selectboard that governs the town. Everyone understands that restaurants are barely breaking even in the winter and nobody begrudges them a period of downtime, but in the past few years it seems that several of the restaurant owners have begun to take advantage of local goodwill in this matter.

One year-round restaurant closed for a major kitchen overhaul a few years ago that lasted about three months. That was completely understandable as the project was large and delays do happen, but something changed after that. Up until then they had adhered pretty carefully to the 4-week rule but in years subsequent to the kitchen renovation they have closed after New Year's eve and not reopened until Valentine's day; far more than four weeks by my calendar. Another restaurant with a year-round license closed for a full winter for the first time three years ago because the owners decided they were tired and they wanted to sell. I'm not quite sure why they felt they had to close other than burn-out - which I do understand - but the restaurant did not sell that year or the year after or this year, yet they have closed each of these years in October and not reopened until April. This really seems like flaunting the rules to the detrimient of the locals. If it were up to me, I'd yank their year-round liquor license and make them reapply for a seasonal one. A third restaurant, one of our favorites, kind of arbitrarily decided to take six weeks off this winter. A fourth is taking the permitted four weeks and no more and doing it at exactly the same time he always has, it just happens to coincide with all the other closings.

It used to be that the year-round restaurants would coordinate with each other so that at least one restaurant would be open at all times - possibly not seven days a week, but at least Thursday through Sunday. This is the first time in eight years I've seen all the restaurants in town closed at the same time. We've had discussions with several friends about having pot-luck dinners and that could be a lovely way to pass some of these evenings; I hope one or more come to pass. Unfortunately that won't help anyone from out of town. If anyone calls us for a reservation during this time we will have to explain that they will need to plan their dinners in Orleans or Provincetown unless they're here visiting friends or family who will cook. That's liable to loose us a couple of reservations, but we'll see what happens. I'm not too happy about it in any case.

I've rambled on enough for one post. Tomorrow is back to work on winter projects; more about that another time.

So you're planning a wedding...

2007-12-28T01:07:00.000-05:00

Get comfortable, this is going to be long.

We get a lot of these calls because Wellfleet is a popular place to get married. Usually it's the bride inquiring about the number of rooms and/or how many people we can accommodate. More often than not, someone - either the bridal couple or the parents - wants to rent all our rooms for the wedding weekend. Here's the thing: we won't do it. We did do it for several years but after careful consideration we've stopped.

To the bride (or parents), this makes no sense. After all, you're doing us (the inn) a favor by renting all the rooms, right? Unfortunately, that's not really true. When I made the case to my husband & business partner to stop doing full-house rentals I wrote out a list for him that outlined why it just wasn't working for us. Here is the list, in no particular order:

1) Weddings are inevitably scheduled for weekends we'd be full without them.
2) Because they're taking all the rooms, they think we should give them a discount. Since we could rent the rooms anyway, that's not going to happen.
3) There is frequently a problem getting all the names of the people who will be staying here when a single person handles a group reservation. Call me silly, but I like to know who is showing up at my door and staying in my house. Not to mention that if we get a call for someone we need to know what door to knock on or if the party is staying here at all.
4) More often than not, the entire group arrives and checks out on the same days. That means two whole-house changeovers, which is a lot of work.
5) Because the inn is fully booked for a 2-day weekend we always find ourselves turning away guests who would have stayed 3, 4 or even 5 nights if a room had been available. In July or August we'd very likely rent those weekday nights anyway, but in September or June that is pretty unlikely so a weekend group rental winds up costing us money.
6) Additional traffic/wear & tear on the house; friends and family staying at other lodgings around town drop by to visit the friends/family/bridal couple at the inn. I find people who are not registered guests wandering in and out of the house and sometimes have been given the code to the front door. On several occasions a guest here has invited friends attending the wedding but not staying with us to use their room here to shower & change before the wedding, resulting in a lot of extra towel use and extra cleaning.
7) People coming to a destination wedding are probably not coming back to this area. They are not going to become repeat guests and are not necessarily going to be a tremendous source of word-of-mouth advertising for us since their primary memories will, understandably, be of the wedding. There have been a few exceptions to this one, but by and large it's true.

There are a few other points, but you get the idea. None of this behavior is malicious and certainly the people we have had here as part of a wedding group have all been very nice but overall the reasons not to take group bookings during our busy months far outweigh the reasons to take them. Many places that take wedding groups also host the wedding and/or reception on the property, so they are getting a facility fee which helps make up for some of the revenue lost on longer bookings. We are far too small to accommodate the event itself. We are happy to accommodate people who are attending a wedding as individual reservations and I encourage the brides to go ahead and put us on their "places to stay" card or web page, but we treat them like individual reservations, not a group.

Now if you happen to be planning a wedding or some other event for some time between November and May we would be DELIGHTED to accommodate your group. We might even work with you on price.

On Being a Good Guest

2007-12-23T16:33:00.000-05:00

We don't have house rules. Our guests, with very few exceptions, have been lovely people who are respectful of our property, enjoy interacting with our other guests and chatting with me and my husband. Usually people arrive during our regular check-in times and as innkeepers we are committed to being on the property during those hours to greet you. We make ourselves available for late check-ins when required or we give our guests the information they need to do a self-check-in when we know they're going to be late. If we find we are going to be out during some part of our check-in period or if we have dinner plans for the evening we try to get in touch with our guests to make sure they're going to arrive while we're here or tell them to look for a note if they're not. In our opinion, that is a courteous way to conduct business.

Unfortunately there is an occasional guest who does not feel that courtesy runs both ways. I am waiting for one such guest this afternoon. This guest called to make the reservation just two days ago and I specifically asked for an estimated time of arrival because a) I had tentative plans for this afternoon and b) I had no other arriving guests so having an arrival time means I can plan errands, etc. around it. This guest was planning to arrive about an hour before our the beginning of our usual check-in time (2 - 6 p.m.), but that was fine with me since I knew the room would be ready and my tentative plans were for the hours of 2 - 4. I'm pretty certain I even mentioned to this guest that I had plans for the afternoon and to please call me if there was going to be a change in arrival time.

When the guest had not arrived by 2 I called the cell phone number I had. No answer. I left a message, then called again at 3:30. Still no answer. As I write this, it's nearly 5 p.m. and I have heard nothing. My plans for this afternoon are obviously shot and I am a bit frustrated. It is going to be a bit difficult for me to greet this guest with my usual enthusiasm, although I will do my best to hide my irritation.

I certainly understand that plans change, departure times shift, road conditions can be unpredictable - especially at this time of year - and that emergencies can come up. Weather is not the issue today so perhaps there was an emergency but unless the guests is physically incapacitated it would be appropriate to call and let me know what's going on. I may not be a relative, but my life is impacted by the events in my guests' lives just the same, especially on the day of arrival.

So I guess the point is this: if the innkeeper asks you for an arrival time and you are able to give one, please call if something changes. And if the innkeeper asks you for the cell phone number you use when you travel, please either keep it on or check it periodically; your innkeeper may be trying to reach you.

Lastly, a word of apology for my long silence. I've been shaking off a bit of this year's burnout by getting out of town for a few days and trying to work on winter maintenance projects when I'm not traveling.

I hope everyone has happy & healthy holidays. I hope to see you in the new year!

Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T22:48:00.000-05:00

It always amazes me how quickly this holiday rolls around. It seems as if Labor Day was just last week, but here we are just five weeks away from the New Year. Yikes.

So these are some of the things I'm thankful for this year:
- Our wonderful guests, especially the ones we see every year;
- The beautiful place I live, surrounded by water and pine forest;
- Our terrific neighbors Mark & George who cooked Thanksgiving dinner this year and allowed my parents to attend;
- Our terrific neighbors on the other side, Patty, Fred & Jeremy at The Holden Inn, whose friendship means so much to us and with whom we can share ideas, tools and tales;
- My husband, who aside from all the other things he does has been doing breakfast solo three mornings a week the past five or six months, allowing me to get a little more rest;
- The good health of the people we love;
- My foot being sufficiently healed in time for me to wear sexy shoes tonight!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday surrounded by people they love.

Recovering

2007-11-10T12:14:00.000-05:00

I had minor foot surgery this week, not for anything life threatening but to take care of an annoyance that has been growing more so over the past few months. I'm a bit laid up in that I'm supposed to have the foot elevated to prevent swelling. I was hoping to be more mobile by the weekend than I am, but walking around is uncomfortable. My husband is being wonderful about keeping me fed and dealing with the weekend guests. I'm trying to spend a little time doing paperwork each day and then go back to being a good patient so I can be fully recovered by next weekend. This is a difficult profession in which to schedule health-related procedures, but if we don't take care of our health, how can we take care of our guests, right?

Sleepwalking

2007-10-27T12:42:00.000-04:00

Among the many odd things that happen in places of lodging, this is a story from our first or second summer in business.

It seems that one of our female guests wandered out of her room late at night without a stitch of clothing and wandered into another guest room where the sleeping couple had apparently forgotten to lock the door. The couple in this room were there for his birthday, the stay was a gift to him from his wife. The man awoke first, saw the naked woman in the room and thought "This is the best birthday present EVER! My wife is soooo cool." Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending on your perspective) at this point the wife woke up but before she could react the sleepwalker turned and exited the room. I gather she headed downstairs.

My husband & I, despite the fact that we live in the house, were totally oblivious to this entire escapade until the next morning when the guests from the 2nd room told us about it after breakfast. They thought it was extremely funny. Adam & I were astonished that they had managed to have breakfast at the same time as the sleepwalker and her husband and remain totally cool about it, not saying a word while they were still in the house.

Both couples were there a 2nd night but I'm pretty sure the birthday boy's wife made sure their door was locked before going to bed!

Oyster Festival

2007-10-13T14:55:00.000-04:00

It's Oyster Festival Weekend!

As busy as August is here in Wellfleet, the Oyster Festival brings in more people than there are on an average day in that busy month. Last year the estimated attendance was 20,000 people over the two days with about 13,000 attending on Saturday. Approximately 100,000 Wellfleet oysters were consumed at the festival. Projections this year are for 25,000 people to attend. Since the weather is beautiful and each year there seems to be more publicity about the festival, I'd say that's a pretty fair projection.

Opinion in the town is somewhat divided between those who think the festival is great and those who would like it to go away. Not surprisingly, most of us in the business community think it's great. It brings in tons of people who spend money on lodging, food and souvenirs and it's a week later than the traditional "end" of the season, which was Columbus Day weekend.

The festival organizers have been pretty well organized as far as parking, restroom facilities and clean-up are concerned. Considering the festival is only in its seventh year and the growth between years 2 & 3 was HUGE, I've been pretty impressed at how well the logistics have been handled. Year 3, which had the first really big influx of people for the festival, was a bit rough but the organizers clearly took the lessons learned that year to heart. Kudos to them. On Monday morning it will be difficult to tell that anything out of the ordinary happened in the center of town.

We have a great group here for the festival. Most of them were here last year and they really enjoyed each others' company. Most of them are staying a third night this year, which is lovely as well. As for me, my cleaning chores are done and I hear the oysters calling...

You Know You Live in a Small Town When...

2007-10-03T00:08:00.000-04:00

Your appliance guy walks in your open back door, replaces the part that caused the breakdown and leaves a note hanging on your door saying the appliance is fixed, all without you even seeing him. Happened today.

Your UPS guy just leaves your boxes in your kitchen. Happens all the time.

Your bank calls to remind you to come down and sign some papers. That would never happen in New York City.

One of the waitresses at a restaurant you get to about three times a year in a different town (!) knows you make amazing scones, even though she's never had them. I guess we'll have to do something about that.

Moving from the biggest city in the country to a really small town was certainly full of surprises. Most, like the above, have been good and make me smile.

Refrigerator update

2007-09-29T23:12:00.000-04:00

My appliance guy came by this afternoon, disguised as a fire chief (he IS the chief in a nearby town - almost everyone out here has two jobs). The problem turned out to be a fan blade that had detached itself from its mount. Simple fix, no moving of the refrigerator required. I am SO relieved. He is concerned that the blade will come off again, so he will bring a new one by in the next day or two. Meanwhile we can reload the refrigerator. Since the fan is in the freezer behind the rear panel, I'm leaving that empty for him until he installs the new blade.

Who knew such a thing could happen? We are so lucky to have a great repair guy nearby. He sells new appliances as well, but I'd much rather repair than replace as long as the economics of doing so make sense.

What's up with this?

2007-09-28T16:37:00.000-04:00

I've never had such a difficult year for appliances. Usually we'll have a problem with one appliance over the course of a season, but this year it's been ridiculous. First it was the washing machine which was working but was clearly not happy and turned out to be a fairly easy fix of a broken spring. Then the dishwasher bit the dust. A few weeks ago we had to have a repair call for the refrigerator in the kitchen to fix one of the doors. Then the washing machine DIED right in the middle of the first wash cycle this past Sunday, a day when every room in the house had checked out. Thankfully I'm on good terms with my next-door neighbors who have a 26 room guest house and three washing machines. I was able to get enough stuff washed to get me through the next couple of days and my appliance repair guy sent his crew to me on Monday. The problem turned out to be the transmission and they either fixed or replaced it - I wasn't home to see.

You'd think that would be enough appliance trouble for one season, but this morning when I was making breakfast I discovered that my 2nd refrigerator - the one we store most of the B&B supplies in - was not all that cold. A thermometer showed temps in the 50's. I put a call into my repair guy around 8:15 but they weren't able to get to us today. We got the thing emptied out and all the important stuff is chilling away in the refrigerator in the cottage, but the unit in question is going to be a bear to move because it's really wedged into a spot in my office/laundry room. So on the one hand I'm really hoping the repair crew can get here tomorrow, but on the other hand it's going to be ugly when they do. Wish me luck.

Notable Guests

2007-09-23T21:53:00.000-04:00

A lot of our guests are interesting, but we've had two especially interesting guests in the past ten days or so. Sadly, both had to leave before breakfast so my other guests never got to meet them and I barely got to chat with them myself.

The first was Ruby Dee Davis, who was in town for a fundraiser at the local theater. She's a sweet, lovely lady who arrived at about 5 p.m. on the evening of the event and was picked up at 7:45 a.m. to return to the airport in Boston. She was already packed and in the living room when I came down to prep breakfast at 7 a.m., although she was dozing on the couch. I was impressed that she'd gotten her suitcase down the stairs on her own, since she's quite petite and in her 80's. That suitcase was at least half her size! At any rate, she was snoozing on the couch so I let her be for a while. When I woke her, about 20 minutes before her limo was due, she asked me if there was anything she could do to help me. So cute!

The second notable guest I checked in yesterday. His name didn't ring a bell, but after I checked him in I noticed that his address was 5th Avenue in NYC. That's a pretty high-rent neighborhood, so I Googled him. He turned out to be an architectural luminary, someone who's work I knew but who's name I did not. One of his partners is even more famous. I was extremely sorry I didn't get a chance to speak with him at greater length. Sadly, my husband, who studied architecture, was out of town this weekend and didn't get to meet him at all. He left at about 8 a.m. to head back to New York.

Well, so it goes. Perhaps one or both of them will return and stick around for a few days.

Very Cool

2007-09-02T15:38:00.000-04:00

I flew a plane today!

One of my husband's friends from the fire department owns two planes, a single engine and a twin engine, and was planning to take another guy from the department flying today, so he invited Adam along. Adam was committed to handling breakfast at the inn today (our Sunday ritual), so he offered me the spot. Despite having to get up a little earlier than I might have, this kind of opportunity doesn't come along often so I grabbed it.

I met Peter at his home at about 8:45 this morning. Moe and his two kids - six and around five years old - were already there. We drove to the little airport in Chatham where we boarded Peter's twin-engine Piper Seneca, similar to the one in the photo above, and took off. Peter gave us all headsets with microphones so we could talk to each other and we could also hear the information from small airports from Provincetown to Newport, RI.

Moe sat in the back with the kids and I got the co-pilot's seat. We flew past Monmoy Island hoping to see seals but there weren't many. Judging from the number of fishing boats out, there must have been lots of fish around today so we assumed they were all off feeding. Then we headed up the bay side of the Cape, getting a peek at the target ship off of Eastham, circling Moe's house, then the inn, then up to Provincetown. After we rounded the tip of the Cape at Provincetown, Peter asked me if I'd like to take the controls. Hell, yeah! I flew from Provincetown all the way back down to Chatham, made a second pass around Monmoy (still no seals) and aimed us towards the airport. The plane has a light touch at the controls, which sort of surprised me. It was remarkably easy to gain or loose a hundred or more feet in altitude, particularly while making turns, so holding steady took a little practice. Don't worry, I let Peter do the airport approach and landing!

Peter has been flying for 27 years and has been a flight instructor for 14, so I felt quite safe in taking the controls. He talked through the takeoff procedure, showing me all the various switches, levers, gauges, etc. That stuff fascinates me, someday I'd love to learn to fly.

The weather today was perfect: clear, sunny and low humidity. We could see all the way to Boston. The tide was low and that allowed us to see the old target ship off Eastham and what's left of Billingsgate Island here in Wellfleet, as well as all the flats where local shellfish are farmed. It was a terrific morning. I was back at the inn by 11:30 feeling pretty good.

Aaaaahhh

2007-08-29T18:32:00.001-04:00

My husband and a helper took care of the inn today, including breakfast. I slept late, had a bite to eat and went to the beach where I took a quick swim (the water was pretty cold for this late in the summer, although it was beautiful) and read for a couple of hours. The humidity is gone, crowds noticeably smaller, traffic much lighter. I didn't answer the phone or the doorbell, or even see any of our guests today. Tonight we're hosting a bonfire on the beach for some of our local friends.

I realize I've been sounding a bit cranky lately. That's pretty normal for August. I think the toughest part of the summer is over. We now return you to your regularly scheduled cheerful innkeeper.

Update on Smokers

2007-08-27T12:17:00.000-04:00

The smoke smell was gone before the smoking guest and I didn't need to borrow the ozone machine after all. Just as well, because I don't think the owner found it. The current occupants of that room are a lovely Italian couple. They're also smokers, although they say they would never consider smoking indoors at a B&B. The good thing is that if any odor had lingered they wouldn't notice it. Anyway, I'm breathing a big sigh of relief.

By the way, fabric freshener spray rocks!

Another First

2007-08-23T21:39:00.000-04:00

In eight years we've never had a guest smoke in one of our rooms. It happened last night. She didn't read the sign stating "we are a no-smoking establishment". She told me she assumed it was alright because of the ashtray in the room. It's not an ashtray, it's a candy dish. And it had candy in it. I guess people see what they want to see.

I had two big fans running in there all day and I sprayed the curtains with fabric freshener. When they check out in a few days I'll strip out all the linens and change the pillows. I think I can borrow an ozone machine from one of the motels. She's agreed to smoke outside for the rest of her stay, so with luck I'll be able to clear the smell out of there.

Surprisingly few of our guests have been smokers. Usually I can smell it when they are and am able to mention our policy when I check them in. In this case, I wasn't here when she arrived. She's from a southern state, where smoking is still permitted in a lot of public places. Guests from New York and most of New England pretty much assume smoking isn't permitted indoors. I'm sure it wasn't malicious, it's just aggravating.

It's just a little thing...

2007-08-17T14:48:00.000-04:00

A few days ago I managed to make a woman angry. No, it was not a guest and yes, perhaps I could have handled the situation a little better, but perhaps she also over-reacted a bit.

Here's how it happened:
There's a knock at the door and I go to answer it. Two women are standing in the vestibule. I said "I see you missed the doorbell" and proceeded to point it out to them. A lot of people miss it, which is why we installed a knocker. With guests it's actually important that they know where it is, it's one of the ways to get a hold of us if they need us. We can't hear the knocker from the third floor where we live but there is a chime for the doorbell up there. Since I had never seen these ladies before I guess I could have skipped the doorbell lecture, but I actually thought at the time one of them might be checking in that day.

Anyway, one of the two ladies informs me that friends of hers will be staying with us beginning in two days and she has something she wants to drop off for us to put in the room for them. She then pulls a wrapped package out of her bag. I told her that I really didn't have any place to store it and could she please come back on the morning of the friends' arrival to drop it off. I thought I was fairly polite, but it's possible I was a bit short with her. She was clearly not happy at my lack of cooperation. She grumbled something about being on her way to the market to buy lettuce and not wanting to put wet lettuce in a bag with the wrapped gift. I got her a plastic bag in which to place the gift so it would stay dry and sent her on her way. I could see she wasn't happy when she left.

When she returned on the appointed day my husband answered the bell. I happened to walk by as she told him she was quite angry at the way she'd been treated by me and I did apologize to her, although I was in a hurry at that moment so I really don't know how well my apology was received.

After she left it was clear that my husband was furious with me. He saw no reason why I couldn't have taken the package and since we're in the "hospitality" business it is our job to go out of our way to be nice to people. He's not entirely wrong, but to what extent do we have to accommodate requests from non-guests? We really do bend over backwards to honor special requests from our guests; reheating leftovers for them, loaning a jacket for a whale-watch, providing a cutting board & knife to dress a fish they caught - all sorts of things that are unusual and out of our routine. But this woman was not our guest, nor were her friends currently staying with us.

My husband's point was that this lady is a local and she will probably not refer her friends to us in the future because I had refused her request and she had thought me rude.

Unfortunately, this lady was largely a victim of circumstance:
- I had no help on the day she dropped by, so I was busy;
- I was/am hot and overtired;
- I really did not want the responsibility for this package;
- I was concerned that I'd forget to put it in the room;
- the previous week we had received three fairly large boxes in advance of a guest's arrival and had stored those. In that case, the guest had contacted me in advance to ask if it was okay to have something shipped to her at our address and I had told her it was but please try to have the delivery timed for as close to her arrival as possible. The box arrived two days before she did, which isn't bad. I was, however, somewhat irked when the second two boxes showed up - from another store and via a different delivery method - later that day. I felt somewhat taken advantage of and clearly that was part of my reaction to this new request.

In my own defense, I typically do not allow the drop-off of items days before a guest arrives. We frequently have guests who are coming for weddings and often the bride drops by with bags of goodies for them; a few times they've tried to do so a day or two before arrival. I have always requested that they return on the day of arrival. We really do have very limited storage space. I made the exception for the above guest because she was arriving from Canada and wanted to have a birthday gift for her niece, who is living in town, delivered.

I could and should have handled this differently, but in what other business do people just assume you'll do this sort of thing? For example, if her friends had made a restaurant reservation for one night of their stay, do you suppose she would have thought it was okay to bring a package to the restaurant two days before the reservation and ask them to present it to the couple when they arrived for dinner? I doubt it.

August

2007-08-12T14:40:00.000-04:00

I guess it's been a while since my last post. I have a couple brewing, I'll try to be a bit more diligent this week.

It's August. The weather is hot & sticky and so am I. I'm also tired. I'm having a difficult time getting into bed before midnight because the only quiet waking hours are after 10:30 or 11 at night and I need that time. Of course someone called at 2:30 a.m. last night to see if we had a room next week. When I asked him if he had any idea what time it was he said "Oh, don't you have a 24 hour desk?" Sir, if you're reading this, I do not apologize if I was a tad short with you last night.

Local traffic is heavy, beaches are crowded, it's difficult to park on Main Street and there are long waits at restaurants. This is all normal. So are my fraying nerves. Thank goodness my guests are all really, really nice.

Although September is on track to be our busiest September ever, the lower humidity, cooler nights and lighter traffic will go a long way towards calming my soul. Meanwhile, I just keep exercising those smile muscles!

Middle of the Busy Season

2007-08-01T12:27:00.000-04:00

It's full-on summer here in Wellfleet. People everywhere, restaurants mobbed, tons of kids at the beach and all the business owners hunkered down in summer mode. We have a number of friends who own restaurants, we see them only when we go eat at their establishments. Other friends we sometimes bump into when we go to the local theaters (movie or live), which is about once a month. We make noises about getting together for dinner or something, it doesn't always happen. Everyone understands. Winter is for socializing with our friends.

The population difference in our town between winter, when only the year-round residents are here, and summer, when all the 2nd home-owners are here is approximately 3,000 vs. 17,000. Add to that the transient visitors - those who are staying at motels, B&B's or renting cottages - and there are probably 20 - 24,000 people in Wellfleet on any given day in July and August. It's kinda crazy and certainly it's easy to loose sight of things and start grousing about all the extra people in town, but let's face it, the summer tourists are the only reason this town still exists. Nearly every year-round resident who is not retired owes their ability to make a living in some way to tourism. We all know this, but sometimes the sheer number of people and the unrelenting sameness of the days (no such thing as a "weekend" for us in the summer) can make us a bit grumpy. It becomes an art to keep that to ourselves - part of the skill set one must develop as an innkeeper.

Thankfully all our guests since the "incident" have been lovely and interacting with them has been a pleasure, but August does tend to bring a certain type of vacationer to our town. There is an undercurrent of tension in this type, and they seem to be in a hurry - for what I'm not sure. It puzzles me when I see people who are on vacation leave a restaurant in a huff because their food isn't coming fast enough. What's the rush? And where do they think they're going to go and not have to wait to be seated?

Occasionally we do get guests here who seem to try to pack a week's worth of vacation activities into two or three days. Usually they're mid-twenties and either live or work in large cities. If they seem open to it, I'll suggest they pare down their to-do list somewhat and try to relax. After all, who wants to get home from a vacation needing a vacation?

I Love My Dishwasher

2007-07-19T08:57:00.000-04:00

I didn't realize how much I loved it until it died on me last Friday. We purchased it in 2004 and bought the extended service contract, but since we live at the end of the universe Sears only has service out here on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I called a local repair person, he told me he couldn't get there any sooner than Tuesday, either, so we might as well wait and get the service we didn't have to pay for. So for five days we washed all the dishes by hand. Granted, I grew up in a house where we had no dishwasher, so washing dishes is not a foreign concept to me, but there were only four of us!

The good news is that the service tech did come on Tuesday, the culprit was the motor. If we hadn't purchased the extended service the repair would have cost nearly $400. We're now back up and running and life is good.

Unclear on the Concept

2007-07-17T16:37:00.000-04:00

Bed & Breakfasts are, pretty much by definition, small businesses. They are individually owned and the owners often do a lot of the work themselves. Some B&B's have assistant innkeepers, a few even have full-time, live-in innkeepers who are not owners. Each establishment reflects the personality of its owners. Decor varies widely, breakfasts run the gamut from continental to multiple-course gourmet, amenities may be quite simple or they may rival the large hotel chains. I've heard of B&B's that have themes, made-to-order ice cream sundaes, all sorts of romance packages, various types of animals on the property and so forth. The point is that if you can think it up, there's probably a B&B out there somewhere that has it. There's only one thing I've never heard of a B&B having: a 24-hour reservation desk.

Anyone who has ever stayed in a B&B can plainly see how it works. The innkeeper is up early, makes breakfast, helps guests with plans for the day, checks people out, cleans up from breakfast, cleans or supervises the room cleaning, does laundry or supervises staff doing it, does all the paperwork, greets and checks in new guests, sets up for the following morning and goes to bed so they can get up and do it all again. Somewhere in there they may have time for a meal or two. It's pretty clear to the guests that it would be inappropriate to call for a reservation in the middle of the night, so when we do get calls like that it's pretty obviously someone who has never stayed in a Bed & Breakfast.

Fortunately this isn't a nightly occurrence. It happens a few times a year. It happened twice last night, once at about 11 p.m. and once just after midnight. Fortunately (or not) we were still awake, but we usually explain that we're in or heading for bed and ask them to call back the next day. I kind of wish I'd tracked these calls to see if any of them ever call back, but if I had to guess, few if any do.

Some B&B's do not answer the phone at night. We feel strongly that we must, since someone may be calling with an emergency for one of our guests or for us, since it's the number most of our family & friends have for us. In eight years, however, we've never had a late night call that was an emergency - they've all be people calling for reservations. I'm guessing none of them has ever stayed in a B&B before. I'm also guessing that they won't be staying in mine.

Don't even get me started on the ones who ring the doorbell after midnight...

A First

2007-07-16T15:33:00.000-04:00

It isn't a good first, either. Last week, for the first time in our eight years of innkeeping, we had to ask a guest to leave.

This was a last minute reservation that took a 3-day slot, two days of which had been a cancellation so we were glad to get the booking. They arrived early (see my previous post on this subject) but I needed to get out of the house for an appointment so I agreed to check them in. Fortunately my husband arrived home when I was about halfway through the process and took over; they seemed to want to chat and I didn't have the time as I was rushing to get rooms cleaned. We both agreed the couple was a little "odd", but other guests have struck us that way and have turned out to be perfectly nice people. Not so this time.

At breakfast the first morning I asked the couple where they had gone for dinner the night before - a standard conversation opener around here. The answer I got back started out as a rant. He was unhappy that the restaurant/club they had been to for lunch had closed their kitchen at 9 p.m. and before the music started. They had wanted to have a late dinner and hear the band. He expressed surprise that nobody had told them about this policy at lunch (why would they?). I mentioned that most of the restaurants around here stop serving around nine and named the exceptions, all of which stop serving at ten. Also the fact that as far as I knew, the places that offer live music in this town all close the kitchen prior to the band starting. I don't know why that is, it's just local custom and I've never thought to question it.

The guest would not drop the issue and became angrier and angrier. He accused me of being "argumentative". It was starting to get ugly when another guest came to my rescue and changed the subject. I stepped into my office for a few minutes to cool off and thought seriously about asking the couple to leave right then and there, but when I returned to the dining room a lively conversation on another topic was going on and everyone seemed happy, so I let it go. When my husband returned in the afternoon to spell me for a bit I mentioned the incident to him just so he'd have a heads-up. He told me I should have called him and he would have asked them to leave, but at that point I thought it was overkill and that everything would be fine.

I left the inn for a couple of hours and when I returned I discovered that this same guest had gotten in my husband's face less than an hour before and for a different reason. He'd then called me "rude" and his girlfriend had agreed. That was pretty much the last straw for my husband, who immediately issued them a refund for the remaining two nights of their stay and sent them packing. The result was some lost room revenue but peace of mind and peace in the house. A worthwhile trade-off, but one I hope I don't have to face again. By far the majority of our guests are lovely people who make us want to stay in this business. I don't know if I'd feel that way if this sort of thing happend more often.

As a side note, the guest's choice of club and music that had set off his morning rant was an unusual one. During the day it's a restaurant/bar popular with families. At night it's a popular and well-known local music spot, but mostly for the 20's and early 30's crowd, as the music rarely starts much before 11 p.m. I've been there a couple of times and felt old (I'm in my 40's). This couple is at least twenty years older than I am. So strange.

I know I'm early but...

2007-07-10T17:24:00.000-04:00

It doesn't happen every day, but it happens often enough. I'm in the middle of cleaning rooms, or worse, still cleaning up from breakfast, when the doorbell rings. A couple is standing inside my vestibule and I open the door.

"Can I help you?"

"Are you Janet? We're xxxxx. We know we're early, but we wondered if our room was ready...?"

Um, no. Not usually.

Okay, I really do get it that most people have very limited vacation time, that traffic is lighter early in the day, it's perfect beach weather and my guests want to get as early a start as possible. I sympathize with that, I really do. But please understand the math.

Breakfast here starts at 8:30 and goes until 10. That's nominal. Sometimes people linger, sometimes I'm engaged in conversation with them. It can easily stretch to 10:30. Check-out is 11 a.m. Yes, people often leave earlier but not always. It takes me a half-hour minimum to clean up from breakfast - that's bare minimum: clearing the dining room, loading the dishwasher, putting away the perishables, clearing the sink. I usually need to eat something myself. Then I start rooms. It takes roughly 40 minutes for me to get a room ready for new guests. I may have several rooms to change over. Check-in starts at 2 p.m. which is actually quite early. Many places don't start check-in until 3, 4 or even later. Each time the doorbell rings, it interrupts my rhythm and everything takes longer. It can be quite frustrating, particularly on a day like this past Sunday where every room in the house changed over and the guests for all but one room rang the bell between 11:30 and 12:30.

I really can't check you in that early. Check-in is a process and it takes a little time. I also may get to chatting, which I enjoy but it's keeping me from finishing the rooms. Occasionally my husband is home and if the room is ready he can take care of checking in an early guest while I continue to work, but it doesn't happen often. Even on days where I have help, it's important for me to have that time between 11 and 2 just to feel ready to greet my new guests.

Here's what I can do before 2:
- let you use the first-floor bathroom;
- get you a proof-of-stay so you can purchase a beach sticker and go to the beach;
- direct you to a restaurant where you can get lunch.

Feel free to ask me for any of these things. I will be as polite as I possibly can while asking you to come back after two.

It's a small, small world

2007-07-02T11:11:00.000-04:00

This small world story actuall pertains to me... well, more specifically, my husband.

I was conversing with one of our guests this morning at breakfast and she was telling me about her grown sons, who have rented a house nearby with their families and who she is here to visit. In passing she mentioned a town in New Jersey where one of her sons lives. It turns out to be the town my husband grew up in, and with which I am somewhat familiar, so I asked where in this town. She named a section of the town, which is the same as where my husband grew up, so I asked the street name. She couldn't remember but she said it was near [local landmark]. Just for grins, I asked "It isn't [name of street my husband grew up on], is it?" You know where this is going. She knew the house number and I called my husband to double-check. Her son owns the house my husband lived in from the age of six until he was eighteen. They bought it from my mother-in-law. How very strange.

I don't have the connection to that house my husband does, obviously, but I did spend a fair bit of time there the first few years of our marriage. We held our wedding reception in the back yard of that house and there was a huge family & friends party there in June of every year until it was sold, so I know the house pretty well.

We're hoping to meet him later in the week, I'm sure they have questions about the house my husband will be able to answer. We already know my mother-in-law wants to ask them about "her" apple trees and a few other things.

Four Questions

2007-06-19T21:58:00.000-04:00

When we first opened our doors as innkeepers in June of 2000 there were some things we expected, and a lot we didn't. We expected, correctly, that our guests would mostly carry cell phones, so we did not put phones in the rooms. We expected, correctly, that a lot of our guests would come from the New York City area. We did not expect the fact that we named our rooms after neighborhoods in Brooklyn would actually make people decide to book with us. That was a happy surprise. And we did not expect that we would wind up answering the same four questions every single day.

And what are the questions?

1) How old is the house/what year was it built? (Around 135 years/1871.)
2) Was it an inn before you bought it or did you renovate? (Yes*)
3) Has it always been your dream to own a Bed & Breakfast? (No, it was a way to live in a place we love but where the major industry is tourism & hospitality. That is not to say we don't like what we're doing, we just didn't have that romantic dreamy thing going for years and years; we knew it was going to be a lot of hard work.)
4) What are the winters like? (Peaceful.)

There are other questions that come up a lot, but these are the ones nearly every single guest asks us. Not that we mind answering them, we enjoy chatting with our guests, but sometimes it's hard not to smile when these questions do crop up.

* The woman from whom we purchased the house did run what we call a "loose interpretation" of a B&B, which is to say she rented rooms and prepared breakfast for her guests, but all the rooms shared just one bathroom. We did the renovation that gave every room its own bathroom and generally brought the place up to modern standards... and codes.

Lima Beans

2007-06-11T15:36:00.000-04:00

All new ventures come with a learning curve. Over the years we've been in business we've tweaked many of the things we do to make them work better. Sometimes it's to make them work better for us, other times it's for our guests. Actually, that's for us as well, since anything that makes our guests happier is good for us and the business.

One of the things that has evolved and changed over the years is our check-in speech. We've added or deleted certain things when it's become clear that guests weren't understanding what we were asking or telling them. Part of the procedure when checking in new guests is to tell them what time breakfast is, then find out what they drink in the morning (coffee, tea or decaf coffee) so we know what and how much to prepare. We also at this point ask about dietary restrictions. What we're trying to find out is whether our guests have specific food allergies or are vegetarians, we're actually not that interested in what foods our guests don't like to eat or if they're on the diet du jour. We serve breakfast as a buffet so if there's something a guest doesn't like or isn't supposed to eat it's easy enough to avoid.

Over the years we tried phrasing the question a number of different ways because guests were giving us answers that made it clear they didn't understand the question correctly. The number one answer I seemed to get when I asked the question the wrong way was "I don't like lima beans". My husband seemed to get "I don't like raw shellfish". Okay, folks... we're not serving lima beans and raw shellfish for breakfast. We want to know if something we might actually use in a breakfast dish is going to make you sick or kill you!

We have finally settled on "Do you have any dietary restrictions that might affect breakfast?" as the phrasing that most often gets us the answers we are looking for. I'm grateful to add that the vast majority of our guests don't have any serious dietary issues. The few that do, we've been able to handle easily. Vegetarian? No problem as long as you eat cheese & eggs. Nut allergies? We use nuts only rarely and we cook & bake from scratch so we know what's in things. Wheat gluten issues? We have a very good friend with Celiac disease, so we understand that, too.

Of course it would be lovely if guests could let us know about issues like this in advance of their stay, and a few do. But as long as we know before we actually start cooking we can deal with almost anything. That's been part of the learning curve as well. We rarely stress out about dietary restrictions because we've been doing this long enough to know how to adapt our dishes when necessary.

The Kindness of Strangers

2007-06-04T11:54:00.000-04:00

I regularly communicate with a number of other innkeepers from around the country. A story from this B&B in Pennsylvania was so wonderful I wanted to share it here (with permission from the other innkeeper, of course).

We have guests on their honeymoon this weekend. Groom is over from Iraq for a few days to attend the wedding before he goes back (Army...patrols the streets). Two different rooms came to me privately after breakfast this morning asking to put a night for the honeymoon couple on their bill. Honestly, I still tear up thinking about the generosity of our guests. The honeymooners were stunned! I will, of course, be writing to each of the guests to tell them how surprised and grateful the honeymooners were at these "random acts of kindness."

Help!

2007-06-01T23:21:00.000-04:00

The first year we were in business I did all the housekeeping myself. My husband pitched in a lot with the laundry and prepped breakfast with me almost every morning, but housekeeping was pretty much mine alone. In some ways it was necessary. I learned a lot about what cleaning products worked best, the most efficient way to clean our showers (and which soaps I dreaded finding in them), how to fold sheets in such a way as to minimize the number of trips I had to make around a bed when I put the sheets on alone and so forth. This was all to the good, but it was a very long summer.

Since then I've tried to get help at least a few days a week with cleaning during the busy season. Some years I've had pretty good luck with consistent help but most years it's a moving target and I find I have to hire and train three, four or even five kids over the course of a summer. Some have only ended up working for a week or two.

Last year I had two local highschool kids working for me. One of them is unable to continue this summer because her family is moving right after school gets out at the end of this month but I thought the other would be with me all summer and perhaps for the next couple of years until she graduated. She's a great worker and pleasant to be around and I was planning to train her to do a lot more, even to make her my assistant. Alas, it is not to be. On Wednesday she failed to show up for work and despite my pleas to call and discuss the problem and her future employment with me she has maintained radio silence. Her mom says she's embarrassed, but she (the mom) understands that two days is long enough to wait and that I'm done.

I'm sorry about loosing her; she's had some difficulties at home over the past month but until this week has been very reliable about showing up for work. An apology and a plan for getting here in the future was all that was required but I guess at sixteen embarrassment is still considered a terminal illness. I'm also sorry that I now have to start from scratch finding help and training them. This is going to be a busier than usual June and now it's going to be that much more difficult.

Interruptions, the Catch-22 of innkeeping

2007-05-18T15:02:00.000-04:00

Between the phone and the doorbell, my day is one of interruptions. This is both bad and good. While they can make it difficult to get anything done, a lot of those interruptions mean reservations.

Such is the life of an innkeeper. I suppose many other types of business owners have this same problem, people who have shops, restaurants, galleries, any business that deals with the general public rather than select clients. We spend a lot of time, energy and money making our place of business look attractive and welcoming, both physically and with our web presence. I suppose we should not be surprised when people want to come in and look around or call to ask questions. In fact, we both need and want them to do so. It just makes it difficult at times to get through some of the non-guest tasks that need to be done.

New Website

2007-05-18T14:55:00.000-04:00

We've just completed a major website redesign. This one was a complete overhaul; we basically have a completely new site. Our old site was done by someone local and I think he did a nice job, he was lovely to work with and he has a good sense of design, but the internet world has changed substantially and a good lodging website must be optimized to come up on the first page of a search. Our new designers are a continent away so I've never met them, but they specialize in lodging sites and are much more tech-savvy than our local designer.

I guess there was something about the old site that really appealed to some people; we got compliments on it all the time. Unfortunately it wasn't doing anything for us as far as search engine rankings. I'm really hoping the new site speaks to people as much. If anyone is reading this, please go to our site at http://www.stonelioncapecod.com/ and let me know what you think.

Surprises

2007-05-05T15:39:00.000-04:00

The first surprise came yesterday. The high school gal who cleans for me was helping me in the garden. We were cleaning the skeletonized remains of last year's petunias out of a raised planter bed when she said "Hey, there's some sort of animal nest over here!" I looked and there was indeed a tangle of dry stems and sticks. Thinking it was a bird's nest that had blown out of a tree, I picked it up. It was much looser than a bird nest and I noticed it had a lot of grey fuzz woven into the structure. I poked around some more and found a hole and as I peered into it a little brown bunny head popped out of it! It popped back down and I saw more little brown bodies in there. I called my helper over and she fearlessly reached in and grabbed one - it was about the size of my fist. Another made a break for it and then I grabbed one. She grabbed two more and the last one also got away from us.

Rabbits are really not my favorite animals. They do tremendous damage to my garden every year and I can't seem to get rid of them. Left to me, the fate of these six little bunnies would have been... um... bleak? Lucky for them, my young employee offered to take them home. We found a 5 gallon bucket, easily caught the remaining two they are now bunking with her gunnea pig. I'll try to get a picture later in the week.

Surprise number two came this afternoon. I had come inside to change the laundry and the doorbell rang. I was expecting one couple to check in so I grabbed the clipboard with their information and headed for the door. There stood the man I worked for the last 4.5 years I lived in New York and his new fiancee. Honestly, I never really expected to see him again. Not that we didn't part on good terms, but I just never thought he'd make the drive this far out onto the Cape. Turns out his fiancee has some ties to Wellfleet so I may well see him again, but this kinda threw me.

Lucky for me I have had seven years of dealing with all sorts of people at my door. I just put on my best Innkeeper smile and recovered my composure pretty well. We had a nice visit, then they left to get some lunch and head into P-town. They did not ask for a room.

Busy

2007-04-28T15:28:00.000-04:00

Somehow even though it is still early spring I manage to be very busy. Weekends we seem to be filling up with guests, which is great, but even when we don't have guests to take care of there is always a lot to do: catching up on laundry, paperwork, paying bills and PROJECTS. There always seems to be a list of projects. As if just having a business isn't enough, the buildings have to be kept up. Currently on my list:

- Finish a new wall in our rental cottage (sheetrock is up, sanding, trim and painting are still pending)
- Install new grills on the vent fan/light units in the guest bathrooms; the old ones have yellowed beyond acceptability
- Turn on the outside water (keeping my fingers crossed there are no leaks this year)
- Reinstall the pump and filters for the fish pond
- Plant the rest of my spring bulbs
- Work on the text for our new website (watch for the launch in a couple of weeks)
- Order business cards and other office supplies
- Inventory tee shirts and other logo items we sell, reorder if necessary

There's more, but you get the idea. Anyone who thinks owning a B&B would be a nice thing to do when they retire should talk to an innkeeper before they buy. Not that I'd trade it for any other profession right now, but it's real work.

Dove Update: Mama bird hung on longer than I expected, but at some point in the past week she finally abandoned the nest. I don't know if it was due to all the rain or whether another critter got her egg. Add to the list above: remove the remains of the nest from the gutter.

Doves

2007-04-19T19:16:00.000-04:00

Each spring we, like many people, enjoy the return of many bird species to our little town. One of my favorites is the mourning doves. These plump little birds have a sizeable population here but I never get tired of their soft call or the unique sound they make as they take off.

My husband is not quite as much of a bird lover as I am. He calls the doves "fancy pigeons" and would prefer if they didn't nest on our property. Inevitably, though, one pair will take a liking to one of our structures. Many years it is the gazebo, which offers good cover for the birds as they nest and fledge their young. This year, about two weeks ago, we noticed a pair of birds building a nest in a gutter, right over the downspout. Even I agreed this was not a good thing, but when my husband went up on a ladder to remove the nest he noticed an egg in it. Now he may not be a fan of the birds, but he is soft-hearted and he couldn't bring himself to take the nest down with the egg. There was a fairly large rainstorm in the forcast and he assumed that the nest would get flooded and the birds would abandon it then.

Brave momma bird sat on that nest all through that storm, breast deep in water. She sat through the nor'easter this past weekend and the subsequent days of cold rain. She's still there today. I have no idea if that egg is still viable, but if it doesn't hatch it won't be for lack of maternal attention.

I'll let you know what happens.

Check Your Room

2007-04-12T16:12:00.000-04:00

Dear Guest:

Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, check your room before you leave our (or any) inn. Don't forget to check next to the bed and between the sheets. So far this week I've found two pairs of socks and a pair of boxers. And this has been a slow week.

If you get home and find you've left something behind, please call and ask for it back, we're glad to sent it. And don't be surprised if we ask you to reimburse us for postage, it takes time and money for us to pack your item, drive to the post office and get it mailed.

Signed,
Your Innkeeper

If anyone is wondering, some of the other things that have been left behind over the years include a box of jewelry, flip-flops, an iPod charger, numerous cell-phone chargers, sunglasses, a robe, swimsuits, jackets, hats, and once, a laptop computer.

Connections

2007-04-08T15:05:00.000-04:00

We're one of those Bed & Breakfasts where everyone sits around a common breakfast table in the morning. Breakfast is served from 8:30 to 10 a.m. and although it has happened that the guests stagger themselves in such a way that there's only one couple at the table at any one time, more often than not at least two couples find themselves sitting together and sometimes as many as four couples do. One of the great joys of innkeeping is watching people make new friends and find connections with each other.

This morning I got to watch two couples learn they had much in common. They even went so far as to exchange addresses & phone numbers. I hope they stay in touch.

Credit where credit is due

2007-04-06T11:05:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I stumble on a blog name that piques my interest but when I look I can find no explanation for the name. So for those of you who might be wondering where I got the title for this blog, here's the story:

Before moving to Wellfleet and opening the B&B, I worked in an office in New York City. My plans to make the move weren't a secret, but I had been pretty quiet about my leaving, a lot of our clients had no idea it was imminent. On my second to last day of work one of our long-time clients called to speak to my boss and before I turned her over to him I said to her "In case I don't get another chance to speak to you, I just wanted to say goodbye." She wished me luck and then said "I just don't know how you're going to do it."

"Do what?" I replied.

"Get up in the morning and make muffins for strangers."

And there you have it. It was such a great line I knew I just had to use it somewhere, somehow. So thank you Laura, wherever you are.