bed and breakfasts

Hello, I am a reporter from a financial magazine and am looking to
speak to people who regularly stay at bed and breakfasts. Has anyone
gone to B&Bs with business centers. Have they been useful or up to
par? Have you ever been able to negotiate a price? Have you ever gone
to a place that was child-friendly - if so, has it been accommodating
to children? Have you ever been to a small in or B&B that's hosting a
wedding? How have they handled it? What about breakfast -- does it
live up to expectations?

If you would like to be interviewed about any of the above points,
please e-mail me at . Any help would be
greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much.
Best, Sarah

Sarah Robertson wrote:

Hello, I am a reporter from a financial magazine and am looking to
speak to people who regularly stay at bed and breakfasts. Has anyone
gone to B&Bs with business centers. Have they been useful or up to
par?

Not B&B, but I have never yet found a "business centre" to be of
any use for business, especially in hotels. They often charge
as much as $10 a page for faxes (min 2 pages), $1 (or GBP1/min)
for local calls, and exhorbitant internet charges. It's the
world's second biggest rip-off zone. [First being cell phone
"roaming" charges].

Have you ever been able to negotiate a price?

Is this still only about B&B with business centres? If not,
yes, I have negotiated B&B price.

What about breakfast -- does it live up to expectations?

...errr... usually, yes. One interesting case was a B&B in a
S.African guidebook that waxed lyrical about their breakfast.
It sold us on it, and the breakfast was in fact great. The
loquacious owner said he hated the entry, however, and couldn't
understand it because when the writer visited he didn't think
they had a particularly good breakfast.

The owner wanted the entry changed because it is (in his opinion)
invariably better to exceed expectations if you're going to give a
good breakfast. Get people's hopes up, and it's a battle to meet
them. Breakfast is seldom a draw, always expensive if you're aiming
to dazzle (your prime variable cost), and expensive if you end up
disappointing. B&Bs are most often promoted by word-of-mouth, so
better to give people a nice breakfast but make sure you aren't
seen to brag about it.

--
Ken Tough