Lion Manor Vision

My Vision for Lion Manor Bed & Breakfast.

I want to offer the first (and to this date only) hybrid Upscale Luxury B&B in the Berkshires. We will be a cross between a Luxury Boutique Hotel in both decor and efficiency of service and the personal attention and tailor made services of a B&B.

Because the B&B will also be our home there will be a sense of pride that is missing in most hotels and a degree of service that is missing is most B&B‘s.

I want to design a place that makes people’s jaws drop when they step in the front door. I want glamor and elegance and quite frankly I want it to scream cash. I want a cross between Versailles and a Paris apartment with a little bit of punk rock thrown in.

When you check into a hotel room it feels like a hotel room.
No matter where you go, no matter how elegant or upscale it is it doesn’t feel like home. Our guest rooms will feel like home. I want them to feel like a guest room at a really good friends house.
The highest thread count sheets and a soft squishy feather bed and down pillows (a mix of hard and soft please) and a beautiful duvet cover all tossed lightly over a beautiful French Bed. (See photo 1 for my ideal dream setup) Under the bed would be a Flokati Rug
Each room would have either a chaise or a sofa that you actually wouldn’t mind sitting in. Something nice and overstuffed and comfortable.

The guests will be treated not unlike a “whale” at a casino.
Each hotel has what is called a Casino Host and it’s his or her job to be sure the Whale’s stay is top notch and all their needs are met. The hosts make a large impersonal casino, personal.
That’s what I want to do. I think most people when they think of B&B’s they think lace doilies and gaudy ugly Victorian décor and overdone floral wallpapers that make your eyes hurt and beds with handmade quilts. The hosts are almost always retired couples with grown kids.
I want to attract the Hampton’s crowd. The Nyers with expendable income looking for a place to pamper and cater to them.
I also want to host events, and weddings at the house.
Obviously the major difference between a B&B and a hotel is that this would be our home.
Our family (Me, the boys and Mike) would take over the entire 3rd floor of the house as our residence.
Mike who strongly dislikes the idea of Bed and Breakfasts and rejects them in their entirety would never ever have to see a single guest If he didn’t want to. He could, in theory park the car, go in through the basement take the elevator to the 2nd floor (bypassing any of those pesky guests) and walk to the 3rd floor. Since the kitchen will be off limits to guests he wouldn’t have to worry about them there.
If he should feel the urge however, he would be more than encouraged to give chess lessons, start a poker game or play video games in our game room.
He could also hide out in the basement where I will be installing a mini gym for our family use only.
He could also hang in our apartment areas on the 3rd floor and watch our enormous 72” television or he can play Warcraft on his wireless keyboard and mouse with the 32” flat screen monitor. (Yes, I’ve thought of amenities for my family too…)
I’m keenly aware of two important stumbling blocks that everyone is going to mention to me.
A bed and breakfast usually requires breakfast and D, you don’t cook!
I know that I don’t but if you look at the budget in it I have hired a part time chef. We will serve breakfast in the dining room for our guests from 9:00am to 10:00am on weekends and 7:00am Monday to Friday. Chef will prepare custom breakfast orders off of a planned menu (we will have the menu posted in the common areas for guests the evening before and will double check for food allergies or if there is something special the guests might want) We will always have a special French Toast, Pancakes, Waffles, Eggs and Toast.
Every breakfast service will have NYC bagels from H&H (They ship!) homemade cinnamon rolls, milk from Crescent Creamery (A local Dairy) maple butter, maple syrup and breads from local Berkshire vendors.
Some B&B’s don’t offer full breakfast during the week but rather do a continental breakfast. I’m undecided but think since I’m looking to go high end I will offer the full breakfast no matter what the day.
2. D, you have two small boys. How are you gonna deal with them and run this place?
I’m a dreamer but I’m not a dummy. I haven’t left them out or forgotten them. Also in my budget is an Assistant Innkeeper. The boys will be in school come the fall and the schools in the Berkshires have bus service so my plan is that I will work from 6:00am to 6:00pm. At 6:00pm the assistant Innkeeper will come in and take over handling the cocktail hour, making any last moment reservations and before bed handling the cookie hour. Check in for guests will be at 4:00pm which means I will anticipate them at around 2:30pm…
For the nights that we have press events or host holiday parties I will have a sitter for the boys and will schedule the events to begin after their bedtime.
The B&B will be kid friendly and I will be upfront with guests about the boys and that it’s their home too. There will be times when I have the boys with me when I’m checking a guest in. Since we all know how charming PJ can be I don’t think this will be too much of an issue.
The bottom line is, how does any working mom do it? She has help. I too will have help. I might even look into an extended day program for PJ.

I have also budgeted for 2 housekeepers to assist with the upkeep and turning of the rooms.
I do not anticipate guests 7 days a week (thought it would be great if there were) so there will be downtime too.
Most reservations are made in advance so I can work on making staff and childcare arrangements as the needs arise.

As I’ve said before I want this to be a second home to our guests so to that end in the dining room we will have a never ending cookie jar. At breakfast on the weekends we will also offer our guests a “goodie bag” with brochures and bottles of water and fruit, cookies and a disposable camera. In their rooms they will find a mini fridge stocked with bottled water (bottled and sold by a company in the Berkshires) candy, chips and assorted snacks. We will also have a welcome basket for them and when they leave us I’d like to work on arranging a partnership with a local vendor that makes jellies and jams and honey like Berkshire Berries. I’d have them put a Lion Manor label on the containers.
In the winter we will have ski lockers for guests to put skis in, we will have complimentary snow shoes and in the yard we will have an inflatable igloo, snowball makers, sleds and an inflatable skate rink. (We will also offer complimentary skates for the smaller set)
In the summer we will do tea parties on the lawn, host croquet parties and have a firepit with marshmallow roasts. We will also look into purchasing an inflatable 12’ outdoor movie screen and show movies on the lawn.
I’m looking for this to not only be a place to stay but a place you want to come back to.

Is my budget huge? Yup. Are the loans I need outrageous? They sure are but I truly see this working partly due to the way I want to market it.
As I’ve said before most B&Bs are owned by retired couples with grown kids and their homes are all just so and not comfortable or welcoming in a way I want mine to be.
When we were younger we went to Florida every Christmas and Easter. Every trip I had to go to a place called the Kapok Tree Inn. They had these elegant gardens and grounds with fountains and statues. I remember the feeling I always got walking around there was that I was elegant and classy and special and lofty and a total aristocrat. It was a special magical place and if 20 something years later I can still recall how it made me feel they did something right. THAT’S what I want this place to be. I want our guests to leave with a lingering sense of a special place. I want the everyman to feel like aristocracy and aristocracy to feel like this is the right place for them. I also want to find the balance of making it feel like home. I want to find the warmth and relaxed vibe that will make our guests comfortable to walk around without shoes or come to breakfast in their pajamas. I want them to be okay with the boys around because it’s a home and it’s their home.
I’m going to be charging $400 per night and the research I’ve done over and over and over again show me that the area can support it. In fact by some hotels that’s cheap.
Guests will gladly fork over that kind of money to stay if you give them above and beyond what a normal hotel or even a normal B&B would.
As is typical with a B&B we will require 2 night stay for weekend reservations.
My marketing ideas are to be aggressive and smart.
We will push the house for weddings and events.
Place a full page ad in Martha Stewart Wedding Magazine. We will charge $6,000 for the use of the house. That will include 2 nights of all 7 rooms, use of the grounds and parking, a champagne welcome reception for all guests and welcome baskets.
MARKETING IDEAS
Marketing will start long before the B&B is open. We will place teaser ads in the local paper heralding the impending arrival of something new and special.
We will place a full page color ad in Berkshire Living magazine.
We will host a cocktail party for press and media and local mayors. (Hire a lion to help with the buzz. Yes, a REAL Lion. It can be done. Come on, how cool would that be? Each guest can pose with the lion and will get a Polaroid of themselves and the king of beasts. As the photos develop we will place a sticker with the B&B‘s name, email address and phone number on the bottom -the white frame area - and they will be able to take it home with them as a reminder.)
We will hire a freelance writer to develop articles for submission to regional newspapers
We will submit our press kit to travel magazines, websites, television show and blogs.
We will create a B-Roll of footage to submit to television shows and news broadcasts
We will hire a professional photographer to shoot the grounds and the house itself. We will shoot in both black and white and color. Newspapers prefer black and white photos
We will design a comprehensive easy to navigate website
We will attempt to set up a corporate relationship with companies like KB Toys and General Electric. We will implement an incentive program for the key travel secretaries. After they refer a certain number of bookings to us we will reward them with a gift certificate either to a spa day or dinner or a shopping spree.
For the events and pre press we will hire a PR firm to assist us.
We will keep a mailing list of our guests and at the holidays we will send them a card. We will also remember birthdays and send them then as well.

Okay so D, why in the hell do you want to do this? Where is this coming from?
I’m not really sure. I have always had a thing for older homes and huge historical structures. I’ve always enjoyed the hospitality end of things. I sat down and thought about what I’m good at. Where are my strengths and where are my weaknesses. I realized that all my life the one theme that has been consistent is my desire to help people.
I’m happiest when I’m doing things for someone else. Think about all the jobs I’ve ever had and you will see that they have all been in the hospitality field in some form or another.
Lately not much excites me. I’m passionate about almost nothing. This, the prospect of a project and the potential success with Lion Manor gives me butterflies. I can’t stop planning it or thinking about it and even when I tell myself it is never going to happen I can’t really convince myself of it and I can’t let it go.
Ruth Ross said “We won't even attempt to achieve what we do not believe at a deep level we can have or deserve.” I think I’m believing that.
Is this whole thing a risk? Yes. A large risk that could backfire and blow up in my face. After all to break even and make a small profit I need to fill 85 rooms per month. That’s roughly 2 rooms per night.
Winter months are the most worrisome and will be the time when we must market aggressively and put together creative packages.
Stoneover Farm in Lenox has been my model for the business plan and pricing. If you go here:
http://www.stonoverfarm.com/availability_frameset.htm
You can see their availability. They only have 5 rooms. If you look at their winter months they are very very very slow. But if you jump ahead to summer they are slammed.
I need to make over $30,000 per month to just cover the expenses of the place.
I know I can do it though. I know I can make this work and work well. I think that most B&B’s make the mistake of marketing only to local chambers of commerce and online advertising and they don’t treat the business like…well like a business. I’ve read message board after message board of posts from innkeepers and 90% of them are relying on the internet or local chambers of commerce only. From what I’m reading most of them have very thin skins as well. (Some lady got her nose bent out of shape because one guest emptied the cookie jar)
Will this be hard work? It sure will. I thought I knew what hard work was before the boys, now I think I can say with confidence that there isn’t much that is going to shake me.