Just because you have out-of-town guests coming to visit this holiday season, doesn’t mean that they all have to stay at your house. Your best bet is to politely steer them in the direction of a nearby bed and breakfast inn.
According to the second annual hotels.com Hospitality@Home survey, 87% of people want at least some of their relatives to stay in a hotel. Grandma and Grandpa are almost always welcome to stay with the family, but aunts, uncles and cousins are much lower on the totem pole.
Sending your relatives to a bed and breakfast inn is a much better option than a hotel. Not only will your family be staying in a comfortable home environment, there are many more benefits to a bed and breakfast inn. And, you reap the benefits of less stress and an overcrowded and noisy house.
Bed and breakfast inns can be interesting estates, farms or manors that are converted to inns. Your family won’t have to endure the industrial chain hotel experience or a sub-par continental breakfast (if it is even offered) every day. Your relatives will probably receive more attention than if they stayed with you!
Individually decorated rooms will be waiting for your family when they arrive. Friendly hosts will help them settle in and will take the time to get to know more about them. Your family might not be the only one that is staying at the inn and B&B guests usually form a sense of community very quickly. Families soon find something to talk about with other guests in the common areas of the inn – by the fireplace, or in the library, or around the breakfast table.
The innkeepers will take on the responsibility that was formerly yours—making beds, preparing meals (at least breakfast), and entertaining people of all ages. Bed and breakfast owners are usually experts about the area and will be happy to act as your family’s own personal concierge. While you’re at home worrying about how to entertain grandparents and children, your other extended family members are probably planning an adventure that you hadn’t even dreamed of!
When your family comes back to your house and tells you of the wonderful bed and breakfast experience they are having, then perhaps you should propose a trade-out. You go to the bed and breakfast and have your relatives all stay at your house this year!
Still undecided? Log onto www.iloveinns.com and browse through the 19,000 B&Bs and country inns that specialize in other events and locations that may interest you.. ILoveInns also offers Bed and Breakfast Gift Certificates, a perfect solution to help celebrate any occasion.
About American Historic Inns and iLoveInns.com
American Historic Inns, Inc. (www.iloveinns.com), founded in 1981, is the leading publisher of bed & breakfast guidebooks, with more than 2.5 million bed & breakfast guidebooks sold, and runs iLoveInns.com, a top bed & breakfast and country inns directory.
Note: For photos or interviews, please contact Deborah Sakach at 949-497-2232, ext. 308.
