“Hospitality: It’s more than just a smile”
—Jim Kuhns
This quote from veteran industry consultant and longtime American Express VP perfectly describes the necessity of addressing hospitality first when discussing this industry, even in a book focused on marketing. And it’s really simple why. Everything that one does in providing a cozy place to stay, delicious food, and a comfortable atmosphere hinges upon the success of conveying to one’s guests the spirit of welcome, open-mindedness, and the desire to help, which are of the essence in this endeavor.
In Steve Pinetti’s introduction, he expresses this concept well, having learned it from Bill Kimpton a hotelier noted for his business smarts, real-estate genius, and low-key charisma. The first thing Bill expressed to me when I first met him was that his mission was hospitality. Not his business credo. Not his bottom line. Not even his mission statement. It was his personal heartfelt mission to provide a special brand of hospitality to a diverse and inclusive clientele that illuminated all aspects of Kimpton Hotels as it developed. From human resource policies, groundbreaking and ever expanding green practices, and their unparalleled success in promoting their hotels in ways that have more to do with creativity than traditional big budget marketing.
To give a little background, as a communications major in college, I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work closely with the innovative Marshall McLuhan who coined the phrase and was the first to really internalize the message “the medium is the message.” Starting from that premise I synthesized what I learned both in college and in my younger years working in a family business into a marketing-based communications concept. I’d had the privilege of traveling with my parents for one month every year, and both my folks knew how to appreciate, utilize, and enjoy the facilities and services of small independently owned lodging.
A post-college trip to Europe introduced me to European style pensiones, B&Bs and zimmer frei, and as a young woman traveling alone, I quickly realized I would be safer in a hosted environment, where my gracious hosts could direct me on where (and where not) to go. My hosts—almost without exception—were genuinely interested in sharing their culture, cuisine, and family celebrations with me, and I had a truly remarkable and life-changing trip. At that time—pre-internet— guidebooks reigned as the way for travelers to find like minds and somewhat tried and true accommodations. Train stations had kiosks with booklets describing local accommodations, usually through Rick Steves’ guidebooks or the Let’s Go series, and as a solo, independent traveler, I appreciated having these places pre-vetted for me.
When I returned to the United States, I looked for similar guidebooks and came up with a very limited, highly regional and idiosyncratic selection. Yet, in taking road trips around northern CA, I was seeing signs popping up for Bed & Breakfasts all over. Even in the weekend Sunday paper, Richard Paoli, a like-minded independent traveler and the editor of SF Examiner’s travel section, regularly wrote about the exciting new phenomenon popping up around the Bay Area and in East Coast resort enclaves such as Bucks County, Pennsylvania and Woodstock Vermont, and a small sprinkling almost everywhere else. I had the good fortune to know a publisher and rather out of the blue I proposed a European-style independent lodging guidebook to them. This was John Muir Press, internationally renowned for teaching “idiots” how to repair their Volkswagen and a couple of travel books such as the iconic People’s Guide to Mexico. To my utter shock, while I was walking down the beach from dinner one night, near Manzanillo, Mexico, John and Eve Muir said “We like this idea, go get started. When can you have it ready?” I quickly agreed, claiming research was underway (a file folder with 10 of Richard and other’s news clippings) and I, with a great deal of help from the sensational librarians at the Oakland Business library, began a massive data-gathering endeavor. Much to our amazement, after about 3 months, we had a list of over 2,000 independent properties. My initial proposal only called for a few hundred, so we decided to compile a database. My librarian friends insisted, “No file cards,” so from the very beginning, the foundations of the book were properly digitized.
Much to our amazement, of the over 2,000 properties we found, around 1,200 innkeepers took the time to answer our questions, fill out the form, stamp it, and send it back to us. So the first editions of The Complete Guide to Bed & Breakfasts, Inns and Guesthouses featured over 1,200 properties. Now a directory, when it was released in 1983, it was among the first fully digital publishing projects in the United States. Since then, there have been 28 fully revised editions, with over 8,500 B&Bs, inns, and guesthouses joining its pages. Four years later, we also published a coffee table style directory, with an entire page devoted to each property, named Elegant Small Hotels: Boutique and Luxury Accommodations to serve the growing trend toward boutique hotels, a larger but still personally designed hospitality. Elegant Small Hotels is now in its 25 anniversary edition.
Right from the first edition, the B&B guidebook took off and we could tell that we had tapped into a growing demand from Americans, many of whom had traveled abroad, to move beyond the often sterile experiences of motels and large-scale chain hotels and experience a more immersive, individualized form of hospitality.
Many people want that now, more than ever, which is why hospitality has to come first in any business consideration of the small lodging market.
Included in this book are ideas I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest from thousands of innkeepers and hoteliers, some of which we have developed together as time has passed and technology has developed. I’ve made presentations at over 100 of statewide or regional tourism stakeholders’ conferences over the years, but it’s the feedback from the audience, that helps me discover the best marketing practices for the real-life independent innkeeper.
—Pamela Lanier