Frictionless Innkeeper Podcast

Remaining competitive in the innkeeping arena is no small challenge, especially in the face of multiple accommodation offerings, and Airbnb growing in popularity.

However, now is actually a great time for innkeepers to adapt to the changing tourism landscape by pursuing new revenue streams. For example, rather than swimming against the tide of short-term rentals, innkeeping consultant Megan Smith suggests that many innkeepers consider embracing this change by putting some of their rooms on the Airbnb platform.

She also asserts that there are many great strategies that can help innkeepers greatly improve revenue generation. These include hosting events, mixers, concerts, and weddings, as well as partnering with golf courses, transportation providers, wineries, museums, and art galleries on referral arrangements.

Another idea is to co-brand and sell local products, as well as focus on your passions – offering surfing lessons as an example.

In this podcast, Megan, who also co-owned and operated The Vermont Inn for 13 years, and served as Vermont's State Tourism Director, discusses how innkeepers can increase their revenues, improve their operations, and remain competitive.

Our podcast is presented by the Frictionless Guest App, the digital concierge that helps your guests live like locals. To learn more, visit frictionlessguest.com.

The Association of Independent Hospitality Professionals (AIHP) is a nonprofit organization that represents, supports, educates, and advocates for independent hospitality professionals to enhance their personal satisfaction and business success. Founded in 2015, AIHP has seen phenomenal growth over the last four years with Rob Fulton as its CEO and continues to gain traction as a key voice for independent lodging.

Last year, the organization issued its in-depth "B&B's UNBOUND – The State of B&B's in the U.S." study, and is gearing up to launch 2019 version of this study. The updated report will dive deeper into topics around everyday operations, occupancy levels and financial efforts at B&Bs – to allow AIHP members to benchmark and compare their businesses to their peers.

AIHP is also working to help B&Bs best manage some of the most significant changes impacting the future of the industry. For example, the organization is continually seeking to level the playing field for B&Bs with it comes to short-term rental providers, as well as providing educational resources to help properties enhance direct bookings.

In this podcast, Rob shares insights into the upcoming State of B&Bs Study, the future of the industry, and how owning the localized guest experience is important.

Our podcast is presented by the Frictionless Guest App, the digital concierge that helps your guests live like locals. To learn more, visit frictionlessguest.com.

The southern United States has some of the most interesting and colorful aspects of our nation's history. The Biltmore Greensboro is a prime example of a property that took on many lives – from being an office, apartment building and even a location for making illegal moonshine.

In the 1960s, the property underwent a facelift and became the Greenwich Inn with female and male quarters. For every two male guests, they had a butler and there was a maid for every two female guests. The property became a popular destination for notables like Clark Gable, Richard Nixon, Gloria Vanderbilt, Elvis Presley and others. Now the 26-room historic landmark is the only independently-owned and operated boutique hotel in downtown Greensboro.

This storied past and a history of top-notch service to guests lives on today through the efforts of GM Brian Coleman. And while he always pushes a high human-touch service approach – removing automation and technology that gets in the way of interacting with guests – Brian has recently become a passionate user of the Frictionless Guest App.

In this podcast, Brian shares details about his service mentality and why continually pleasing guests is vital to the success of a boutique hotel like The Biltmore Greensboro.

Our podcast is presented by the Frictionless Guest App, the digital concierge that helps your guests live like locals. To learn more, visit frictionlessguest.com.

The Association of Independent Hospitality Professionals (AIHP) is a nonprofit organization that represents, supports, educates, and advocates for independent hospitality professionals to enhance their personal satisfaction and business success. Founded in 2015, AIHP has seen phenomenal growth over the last four years with Rob Fulton as its CEO and continues to gain traction as a key voice for independent lodging.

In 2018, the organization issued its in-depth "B&B's UNBOUND – The State of B&B's in the U.S." study, which focuses on how independent hoteliers and B&Bs fit into the larger travel industry. In the face of the impact of OTAs and short-term rentals, the study found that the sector is actually growing overall, despite these disruptive trends.

In late March of this year, AIHP held its highly successful 2019 Knowledge Sharing Summit & Marketplace in Cincinnati. With events like this, a forward-thinking belief that technology and innovation is essential for helping innkeepers enhance the guest experience, and its commitment to educate its members, the organization is positioned to continue playing a key role in representing the independent hospitality sector for many years to come.

In this podcast, Rob shares insights into the mission of AIHP, its annual 2019 Summit, and key sector trends.

Our podcast is presented by the Frictionless Guest App, the digital concierge that helps your guests live like locals. To learn more, visit frictionlessguest.com.

The secret sauce to being an award-winning B&B often comes down to a wide-range of ingredients. From achieving positive online reviews due to continually pleasing guests to becoming heavily involved in area chambers of commerce to being environmentally friendly, the West Hill House B&B checks off all of the boxes.

As a result, the Vermont Chamber of Commerce recently named Peter MacLaren the 2019 "Innkeeper of the Year." This is quite a tremendous accolade because there are more than 400 B&Bs and boutique hotels in Vermont, and the state is internationally known for being a destination for travelers seeking an off-the-beaten-path inn experience.

In addition, Peter and his wife Susan focus on providing guests with insider knowledge on all of the skiing, restaurants, cheese makers, rafting, craft beer festivals, and other outdoors activities in the area. They also offer group breakfasts, which create opportunities for guests to get to know each other better.

In this podcast, Peter shares his innkeeper story, and how they offer an award-winning guest experience.

Our podcast is presented by the Frictionless Guest App, the digital concierge that helps your guests live like locals. To learn more, visit frictionlessguest.com.

When getting into the B&B business, it's all too easy to get caught up into the romantic vision of being an innkeeper in a bucolic place far away from the hectic pace that dominates life in major urban areas.

To be an aspiring innkeeper, the key is understanding if this business model actually works for you, and if so, develop the right strategies for ensuring long-term success. By taking off the "rose-colored" glasses, prospective innkeepers understand the realities behind running a successful inn or B&B.

Tim Piper offers in-depth business valuation and processes that help both B&B buyers and sellers either find, or sell, their properties. He also offers his popular Aspiring Innkeeper seminar series to help prospective buyers to fully understand how to succeed in this business.

In this podcast, Tim provides detailed insights into the consultancy services he offers for both B&B buyers and sellers.

Our podcast is presented by the Frictionless Guest App, the digital concierge that helps your guests live like locals. To learn more, visit frictionlessguest.com.

As with other corporate professionals entering the innkeeper arena, there is much to be drawn from prior work experiences that can help to differentiate a property on many levels.

For Wendy Collins and Laura Shaddock, this means fully leveraging technology for both pleasing guests, and effectively running The Mission Inn.

After acquiring the property in 2016, Wendy and Laura quickly automated pre- and post-stay emails that provide insights on their favorite events around town, and encourage guests to leave positive online reviews, respectively. They also use a new cloud-based guest booking engine that allows them to manage guest bookings from their mobile devices.

In addition, Wendy and Laura have expanded their 2,000 Facebook followers into Instagram, which allows them to appeal to younger guests. The property also has an email database of more than 5,000 people for their ongoing e-blasts, which have an open rate of 40 to 45 percent – whereas the industry email open rate is only 10 percent.

Another way The Mission Inn differentiates itself is through its in-house concert series – where they have top musical talent perform at the property. Wendy and Laura use these concerts as a great way to draw people to the property during the winter months, and it enhances overall word-of-mouth marketing – with people actually booking their stays when there is a concert.

As a result of these efforts, The Mission Inn has built a loyal following, which allows them to do 100 percent of their bookings direct – without needing to rely on OTAs.

In this podcast, Wendy shares her innkeeper story, and how they truly focus on providing specialized guest experiences.

Our podcast is presented by the Frictionless Guest App, the digital concierge that helps your guests live like locals. To learn more, visit frictionlessguest.com.

While we assume that all innkeepers own and operate their properties, there are B&Bs out there that rely on outsourced talent to manage the day-to-day work.

This is the case with the Wallingford Victorian Inn, which is a property that is taking advantage of a talented young professional who has a deep passion for hospitality and pleasing guests.

For the past two years, Kenni Ball (who is currently 25 years-old) has managed the property for the owners, but she is not your run-of-the-mill employee. Since the age of 13, she has worked in the B&B arena, and officially became an innkeeper at the ripe old age of 19. She also did a brief stint at a larger hotel, but found the B&B lifestyle more suited to her personality and work style.

As a result, she enjoys interacting and helping Wallingford Victorian Inn guests to build great memories from their stays, and be the face of the property.

She also believes that her real world experience – as opposed to studying hospitality in a university setting – has allowed her to better advance her career. In terms of growth, she ultimately wants to own and operate her own B&B.

In this podcast, Kenni shares her innkeeper story.

Our podcast is presented by the Frictionless Guest App, the digital concierge that helps your guests live like locals. To learn more, visit frictionlessguest.com.

In having conversations with other innkeepers, we have learned that property owners can come from a variety of professional backgrounds, and some bring a wide range of business experiences that can be leveraged successfully in the B&B arena.

Former marketing communications and financial services executives, Isabelle and Karim Houry are great examples of this. When these professionals decided to leave the corporate world but weren't sure what type of business to pursue, they took a business-like approach to help them decide to become innkeepers.

Their business background also helped them use an analytical and strategic approach in determining which property to buy and operate. This led them to Woodstock, Vermont and the purchase of the Woodstocker B&B in March 2018.

After a brief apprenticeship at another B&B and then opening last summer, the couple dove right into the local community and fully embraced their new professional lifestyles. For example, they have designed specialized, season-specific guest experience packages for hiking and other outdoor activities, and are involved with the Woodstock town council regarding policies for short-term rentals. They have also developed a strategy for effectively using Airbnb and OTAs to improve their booking volume and revenue stream.

Our podcast is presented by the Frictionless Guest App, the digital concierge that helps your guests live like locals. To learn more, visit frictionlessguest.com.

Innkeepers often come from diverse backgrounds and Linda Smith is a prime example of a professional who underwent the transformation to becoming an innkeeper, bringing with her a high level of business savvy. As a former telecommunications executive, her previous experience provides her with the skills to effectively market and manage her property, as well as to help influence legislation to positively impact her industry.

She has been involved with the recent legislation in Baltimore that requires hosts using short-term rental platforms to register with city authorities and pay the equivalent of a hotel tax on Airbnb-style stays.

Linda notes that the main goal of the legislation is to prevent investors from offering a large number of properties on Airbnb, HomeAway and other websites. As we highlighted in a former podcast interview, these types of home-stay offerings can damage communities – with South Haven, Michigan, being a prime example.

She also discusses the realities of using OTAs to bring new guests to her property while working toward getting return guests to book directly.

In this podcast, Linda shares her candid insights into Baltimore's new legislation and how she uses OTAs to her best advantage.

Our podcast is presented by the Frictionless Guest App, the digital concierge that helps your guests live like locals. To learn more, visit frictionlessguest.com.