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.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Omissions
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.
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...
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.
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.
Friday, December 28, 2007
So you're planning a wedding...
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.
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.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
On Being a Good Guest
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!
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!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving
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.
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.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Recovering
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?
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