Silvia and Bruce Kleeberger
Bellevue House in White Rock.

Colin and Debra Perriman
 Forest Reflections Luxury B&B
 Cobble Hill

Carl and Donna Perry
 Kelowna Apple Tree B&B
 Kelowna

Kris Stewart
Mill Creek Manor Kelowna

Georgia and Hugh Humphries
Point Grey Guest House
Vancouver

Please remember to include them when referring your extra guests this summer.   

 

Whether you need a new bed, financial planning, innsitting services, insurance, Internet exposure or help selling your B&B,  all you need to do is go to the Associate Members page of BCsBestBnBs.com

If you're an aspiring artist wanting to learn more about colour and paint, Nanci Cook of 

 You must contact them and cancel the "Free membership."

Do you know what it means? It's pronounced poh-coh-cur-AHN-tee. It's from Italian poco (little) and curare (to care). It's a noun or adjective used to describe an indifferent or uncaring person.

Of course always-caring B&B owners would know nothing about that.

 

I've found myself starting to relate to those crying people in the Expedia "Escape from Winter" commercials. Here it is April and it is still cold; hopefully spring will bring out more guests.

This may be a challenging year and marketing is a priority. One of the Guild's primary marketing tool is our 2009  brochure, which most of you should have or will receive shortly. Contact your Regional Representative if you have not received any by mid-month. We need the brochures to be on display in your B&B and to be offered to every guest.

A major round of applause to the Brochure Committee for doing a great job on this year's brochure. The committee, chaired by Sue Willis (A View to Remember), was new at the job this year, but this edition looks great and made a profit. They've already got some ideas to make it even better next year.  Many thanks to Sue; Jim Straker (Willow Beach), who looked after the advertising; Louise Komick (Creek Edge), who was responsible for the cover; and Ed Monster (Abbaes), who co-ordinated between the committee and the designer, who happens to be wife Brigitte and their company B-Zign.  Also many thanks to Ian MacPhee, who was the Board's eyes and ears to the Committee. He was a fount of knowledge for them and was also our leading ad seller.
          
Your Board and Marketing Committee are continuing to increase the profile of the Guild by placing advertisements in key publications, often partnering with members in a particular region. Do you know of advertising/promotion/marketing opportunities in your region? Tell Us because if we work together, we can have a big impact.

I encourage everyone to take the time to attend our 2009 conference/trade show/annual general meeting.

I hope all of you have a great season, but don't forget to stop and smell the flowers and look after yourselves, too.  I can always be reached by e-mail.

Credit Card Rates
Are you tired of escalating fees and mystery charges for accepting customers' credit cards?  Non-qualifying cards, corporate cards, foreign cards -- how do you actually know what it's costing you to accept these payments?  BC Innkeepers has been negotiating with the financial company Desjardin to offer a flat-rate package for our members. We'd like to hear your experiences and concerns regarding credit cards. So Tell Us.
 
Tour Operators
BC Innkeepers has asked Tourism BC for an opportunity to represent our members' properties to tour operators this fall at Canada's West Marketplace. The B&B industry currently has no representation at this important trade show in Victoria. If you are working with a tour operator, we need your help. We need to convince Tourism BC that there is networking potential between tour operators and quality B&Bs. Tell Us about your experiences with tour operators so we can let TBC know how strong we are!

Julie Griffiths