Looking Back on Our First Full Season as Innkeepers

On July 19th, 2013, I went from being a high school English teacher and a military retiree to being an innkeeper.  Although Tim and Ted were absolutely wonderful about showing me the ins and outs of the trade, I felt woefully unprepared for my new calling.  Those first few months passed by in a flash - thank heavens for our marvelous summer worker, Ionela, the gracious availability of the prior owners, the always-helpful Marti Booth, and most of all Karine, who kept me buoyed up despite her own trials and tribulations in completing the sale of our home, wrapping up her job in Britain, and negotiating through the immigration process.  By the time the season ended, I had learned so much, but knew there was so much more I could do to make our business a success.

As 2014 began, Karine (now here permanently (thank God!) and I began the process of trying to improve what was already a great inn.  Karine, dedicated coffee drinker that she is, felt it essential that coffee and tea were available to our guests whenever they wished.  Our two Keurig stations accomplished that aim.  A completely new range of ammenities both improved our product and helped fulfill our desire to improve the eco-friendliness of Bayberry House.  We also received numerous positive comments from our guests about our new, more luxurious towels.  Creating a guest information booklet for each room, expanding our breakfast offerings to include more restricted diet selections, and an improved website with online booking capability hopefully improved the quality of our guests' experience.  Our new summer worker, Ramona Bratu, was a joy.  I have never met a more hard-working and congenial young lady, the countless compliments concerning the spotlessness of every nook and cranny of the inn can be largely attributed to her efforts.  Combined with a diverse range of fantastic guests, who were often more like friends than customers, our experiences in our first full year completely validated our decision to buy Bayberry House.

What will 2015 bring?  Well, Karine is already working overtime to make each of our rooms a bit more comfortable and homey.  As for me, I've been researching some new recipes and ordered a new kitchen gadget (an ebelscriver pan!) that I can't wait to try out.  We're also taking some time for us to recharge our batteries.  Hopefully, 2015 will find our guests even happier with their decisions to stay at Bayberry House.  We can't wait!