Beech Tree Inn -- Bed and Breakfast in Brookline, MA

From the contemporary, chic Inn at English Meadows in Kennebunk Maine, down to the charming country style Beech Tree Inn – Bed and Breakfast in a quiet charming neighborhood in Brookline, MA. Pat and Trina have finally found themselves at their final New England destination within the restful, sophisticated elegance of the Inn at Cape Cod to attend the New England Innkeeping show.

The morning started with an expanded version of a continental style breakfast at the Beech Tree Inn,

containing plenty of homemade goodies, including, but not limited to, homemade butter, granolla, apple spice cake, muffins, fresh fruit bowls and homemade apple sauce. The Beech Tree Inn Bed and Breakfast, unlike The Inn at English Meadows, had one common table where you will find yourself mingling with guests from a variety of locations in the world and having some very interesting conversations.

At the Beech Tree Inn — Bed and Breakfast, one can find comfort within the company of tasteful antiques, hand painted furniture, and turn-of-the-century Victorian architecture. The Beech Tree is walking distance to shopping, many restaurants and pizzerias, historic culture, Universities and most parts of Boston, MA. Beech Tree Inn provides a place for rest and relaxation in the heart of a big, busy city, with gracious hospitality.

Pat admiring Plymouth Rock, MA

Onward, south to Cape Cod, stopping at Plymouth along the way, Pat and Trina had a chance to view the Mayflower replica and the one and only Plymouth Rock. This short stop was a great opportunity to see an important piece of U.S history and really get a feel for the area surrounding New England Innkeepers, not to mention how wonderful it was to sample more Lobster!

Meeting new faces, learning, and sharing in Hyannis, Massachusetts for the 2012 New England Conference & Trade Show

Arriving in Hyannis, Massachusetts for the 2012 New England Conference & Trade Show hosted by the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (paii), the tired InsideOut travelers were excited to set up the booth and get stared with learning, mingling and sharing.

Peter and Suzan from West Hill House with Trina at the InsideOut Solutions booth

The first day went well, and the InsideOut booth was greeted by both new and familiar faces. Among those were Peter and Suzan, the Innkeepers of West Hill House Bed & Breakfast located in Warren, Vermont. InsideOut is launching their brand new website very soon. Trina had an opportunity to show Peter how he will be managing his brand new site with one simple log in, and the easy to use content management system of WordPress. They are very eager to have the new website launch and are very pleased with the beautiful fresh look.

Pat and Trina look forward to meeting new faces on Wednesday’s conference day.

A beautiful Saturday Morning in Maine

After settling in their rooms, Pat and Trina headed on down to the wine bar, ‘Old Vines’,  recommended by Eric and Liz, this place was seconds from the Inn. Starving, they were excited to try out the local eats… and this place was a winner. Plenty of menu choices, delicious New York style thin crust pizza, and an extensive drink menu. Old Vines had a young, hip sophisticated ambiance, perfect for the younger folks The Inn at English Meadows attracts.

The perfect start to a Maine day

After a restful night, morning greeted the new visitors with a beautiful, sunny, mild day. Breakfast was served at your choice of individual tables, or the main table if you prefer. Hot coffee and fine teas were served with homemade bread, then came the delicious apple crisp and the main dish. Everything done with the utmost care and creativity.

Lobsta! Lots of it.

The Landing Store and Deli

Next stop, Boston. Yet, first things first, they MUST get a Lobster Roll.

But, with such a great breakfast, the appetite was just not quite ready and Eric and Liz came to the rescue once again. If you hear a food suggestion from them, listen! They recommended a place called ‘The Landing Store and deli’. A little charming country store, with birdhouses made from old painted buoys outside, a front porch and a cute little deli in the back, this is where a large Lobster Roll was prepared, cut in half and wrapped for the trip back down south. The roll was a wonderful lunch after arriving in New Hampshire off highway 1 (the scenic route).

A quiet country Inn, nestled in in the City

Navigating through Boston after the quiet country setting up north came as a challenge, yet soon Pat and Trina arrived at their second destination, The Beech Tree Inn- Bed and Breakfast (soon to get a new design by InsideOut). A charming country style Inn nestled in a quiet city neighborhood of Boston Massachusetts. The smell of freshly baked goods greets you as you carefully walk on a path through the massive amount of tulips, daffodils and other spring delights.

Stay updated for Monday, the big day in Cape Cod, meeting more passionate and amazing Innkeepers of New England!

New Custom Websites:
Port Townsend Food Co-op
Asheville Bed and Breakfast Association
Heart Six Guest Ranch
Historic Tamarack Lodge & Cabins
Jefferson Transit
Goosewing Ranch
Southern Comfort Bed and Breakfast
Remax Fifth Avenue

New Concept Theme Websites:
Annie’s Cottage, using our Modern Theme
Cabin Creek, using our Fade-Inn Theme
Savannah Inns, using our Chameleon Theme
Brightwood Inn, using our Hang Tag Theme
Sleeping Child Farms, using our Hang Tag Theme
Scottish Bed and Breakfast, using our Modern Theme
Peninsula Mortgage, using our Fade Inn Theme

A recipe postcard design is now an effective part of the print marketing for The Wakefield Inn.

Finding new and effective ways to engage your print marketing audience presents a challenge. Sending guests or clients a postcard featuring a recipe is a great way to follow up or touch base with them. This works especially well for B&B inns, cafés and restaurants, since they can feature a favorite dish that guests have enjoyed.

InsideOut Solutions recently worked with The Wakefield Inn, a bed and breakfast in New Hampshire, to design a postcard with Chef/Owner Janel Martin’s pear scone recipe. They chose a 4.25″ x 6″ card, which is the maximum size for the U.S. postcard rate, and it gave us plenty of room for all the elements of a great recipe postcard: the ingredients list, instructions, photos and a design branded with the inn’s logo, fonts and colors. There was even space for a QR code that goes straight to their bed and breakfast website’s Recipes page.

Wakefield Inn is a Branded Sets customer: InsideOut Solutions manages both their website and print marketing.

Postcards are very economical to print and mail, making them a good print marketing value. It’s a unique way to say “Thank You” and get customers to hold onto your contact information after they’ve visited. It’s also a nice memento that creates a positive association with your business every time they make your recipe!

The Inn at English Meadows is build around WordPress which is the top content management system today, giving the site owner access to many very powerful tools.

What do you get with a WordPress site?

• The ability to add and edit posts for your blog feed.
• Power to create blog post tags and categories, increasing your search engine visibility.
• The ability to add new pages or edit existing pages along with menu item control.
• Create image galleries and albums, change images on the site pages and blog posts.
• Makes updates faster if you choose to have us do the changes, thus costing you less.
• Full training and support by  InsideOut’s team of experts.
• A fully functional, top notch site that holds up to the competition, increasing your SEO.

The Innkeepers of The Inn at English Meadows are thrilled with their new site design and can’t wait to begin blogging about their inn!

If you are interested in learning more about establishing a WordPress site, please contact us. We would love to hear from you!

Hacienda Vargas Bed and Breakfast in Algodones New Mexico

We love the flexibility of WordPress and so do our clients.  We recently upgraded the Hacienda Vargas website of Algodones to a fully managed WordPress site.

InsideOut is proud to showcase one of our latest website designs: Azalea Inn. This glorious 19th century, colonial style bed and breakfast is located in the heart of the historic district of Savanna Georgia, located near Forsyth Park and the Savannah heritage garden.

Our design team worked closely with innkeeper Teresa Jacobson to produce a website that works to capture and showcase the romance and southern charm her bed and breakfast has to offer guests. Since the site’s redesign several weeks ago, there has been a significant increase in online reservations.

Features of the website include: beautiful photography, a custom Google map of the innkeeper’s recommended attractions in the surrounding area, such as good restaurants, and nearby shopping, parks, gardens etc. The website is built in WordPress, which allows the innkeepers full access to add photos, videos and edit the content throughout the entire website at a moment’s notice. Also included is a blog for the innkeepers to post recent news, inn specials and packages, and area events; all content that will serve to increase traffic to the website.

Congratulations to Teresa and Micheal on the success of your new website, and for running such a lovely Bed and Breakfast in Savannah Georgia!

New business cards and postcards set the tone for a brochure redesign.

Lookout Point Lakeside Inn was down to their last box of brochures. Co-owner Kristie Rosset decided this was the perfect time to update the design of the piece. InsideOut had recently established a new look for her postcards and business cards. Now we had the opportunity to brand the brochure.

Kristie was happy with the current format–an 8″ x 9″ piece which folded in half to 4″ x 9″–but she was also open to other options. Staying with a finished size of 4″ x 9″ made the most sense since it would fit both standard display racks and business envelopes. But which format would work for Lookout Point? Rack card, trifold or bifold?

Rack cards: small but mighty

A 2-sided 4″ x 9″ rack card was the most economical option. Although on the small side, a rack card still has enough room for good photos, a map and short-but-sweet text. For most small inns, a rack card is the best choice.

The old bifold brochure was dark and blocky.

Trifolds: a multi-tasker with impact

The trifold format (12″ x 9″ folded to 4″ x 9″) would work if it was important to emphasize multiple aspects of the inn. In Lookout Point’s case, the main aspect was the excellent accommodations (12 guest rooms and a condo), but the inn also hosted business meetings, weddings and fine dining events.

Bifold: right in between

The current bifold was a happy medium for fitting text and photos. As far as impact and cost, it was right between the rack card and trifold. After thinking it over, Kristie decided to stay with the bifold. The format had already proven itself and, with focused writing and design, we could still showcase the main aspects of the inn.

The design: making it all work

The new version showcases the inn's best qualities and matches the other print pieces.

The secondary aspects, such as gatherings and fine cuisine, also made their mark on the piece with small inset photos and short captions. The back panel was the place to put quick reference information. It’s a hard-working panel that features contact info, a locator map, a list of amenities and other highlights of the inn.

The same fonts, colors and photo treatments used in the previous print pieces were used in the bifold. As a result, all the pieces work well together and reinforce the established branding. Since InsideOut was already familiar with Lookout Point, the design process went quickly and smoothly.

“You’ve made this process so easy. Thank you! - Kristie

InsideOut managed the printing of 5,000 brochures to ensure low cost, high quality and timely delivery.

See a pdf of the complete set of branded print pieces.

New rack card design for The Croff House in Hudson, NY.

The Croff House is a Victorian home with a beautiful and comfortable updated decor. Owners Duncan Calhoun and Russell Gibson worked with InsideOut to create a great web site that captures the contemporary feel of the inn and showcases its luxurious amenities. With the web site completed, it was time to create a print piece that could do the same job in a much smaller space. Again, they turned to InsideOut — this time, for the design of their 4″ x 9″ rack card.

Strong branding with matching marketing pieces:
Print designer Jennifer Lozada transferred the logo, colors, fonts and layout of the web site to the much smaller 4″ x 9″ print format. Rather than cramming the space with text, she let the photos do most of the talking. Open spaces (“white space”) in the layout draw the eye to the most important information. White space is key if you want to convey elegance and sophistication. Even with the “blank” space, text and photos, there was still room for a helpful locator map. Good feedback from the owners helped refine the map, text and photo selections.

The result: The web site and rack card are a match, conveying a consistent message. The owners decided on a quantity of 5,000 cards. InsideOut managed the printing to ensure quality, affordable cost and speed of delivery.

“It’s perfect!!!!” – Duncan

“The rack card looks great.” – Russ

He has been speaking with lawmakers about House Resolution 2935, a.k.a. the Travel Promotion Act. The goal of the bill is to create America’s first “destination marketing organization”. This group would be a non-profit organization called the “Corporation for Travel Promotion”, and would manage the tourism promotion of the United States to international travelers.

Learn about the Travel Promotion Act

If you didn’t know, international travel to the United States is down significantly in the last 8 years. We have fewer tourists today than in 2001. As far as keeping up with the competition, we are the only nation in our “competitive set” that does not have a budget for promoting our nation as a travel destination. It seems, with all of our breathtaking National parks and natural beauty, we would encourage an income that allowed us to keep these spaces open and wild. Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are just some of the wonders of our continent that have drawn visitors for years, and can continue to do so.  The average international tourist spends $4500 during a visit to the US. These are important numbers to a struggling economy.

The bill is also set-up to allow the Corporation to pay for itself. It includes a $10 entry fee for visitors that would fund the Corporations’ efforts.

There are things you can do to support this bill, and help to bolster travel from our neighbors and friends abroad. Contact your House of Representatives Official via the US Travel Association. Let them know that this bill effects you. After all, we know how much international visitors enjoy the bed and breakfast experience!