Two years ago when Oprah Winfrey temporarily moved her production operations from Chicago to Amarillo during her court battle with the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, the talk show host decided to set up residence at local inn. It�s pretty safe to assume the millionaire media maven could have chosen any number of lodging options for the duration of her stay in Amarillo. Why then did she select the nine-suite Adaberry Inn as her base of operations?

While he can�t speak specifically about Oprah�s tenure at his inn (confidentiality and all that jazz), innkeeper Kyle Adams is at liberty to report that roughly 80% of his guests are corporate travelers. In fact, he says business travelers are often pleasantly surprised by the service and amenities offered at the five-year-old Adaberry Inn.

�Most of our clients to date are repeat clients,� says Adams. �Often, corporate guests are hesitant about staying in an inn, but discover our corporate accommodations are superior to most typical hotels and still as comfortable as home.�

B&Bs targeting business travelers with updated amenities

Make no mistake. The Adaberry Inn is no country-bumpkin lodging facility. It�s one of a new breed of B&Bs designed specifically to appeal to the business traveler. Standard in-room amenities include telephone with voice mail, two separate phone lines, modem port, television/VCR, comfortable recliner and perhaps most important, private bath.

The importance of making private baths a standard amenity at inns interested in attracting business travelers is a point cited by innkeepers across the country. That�s particularly true in light of the widely held assumption by business and leisure travelers not familiar with modern inns that a stay at an inn or B&B almost always means sharing a bath with other guests.
 

�Of course, it goes without saying that every room has a private bath,� says Innkeeper Jeff Archuleta, who runs Napoleon�s Retreat Bed & Breakfast in St. Louis. �Today�s business traveler won�t even consider sharing a bath.� It�s interesting to note that many of the inns surveyed for this report said business travelers account for about half of their annual overnight stays. The percentage of annual revenue generated by business travelers was usually slightly less than the reported overnights due to the application of lower room

Napoleon�s Retreat Bed & Breakfast  St. Louis

Savvy innkeepers who realize it�s lucrative to capitalize on that market are making adjustments to ensure their properties appeal to business travelers. Some have even banded together to set standards and are marketing themselves en masse. Innkeeper Carole Ballard, who runs the Thurston House in Maitland, Florida is a driving force behind a recently launched website, inn-businesstravel.com. The website is designed to identify properties equipped with amenities that appeal to the business traveler. Ballard reports that 15 inns across the country have registered to be listed on the site, launched this month, and dozens more are currently reviewing membership guidelines.

Lydia Pena Simone, GM at The Dupont at the Circle in Washington, DC, was one of the first innkeepers to sign on with www.inn-businesstravel.com. She says a number of her frequent guests are travelers on business �who prefer to stay with us over the larger hotels in the DC area.�

�As for hard statistics, 58% of our guests from 1999 were here on business or business/leisure mix,� Pena Simone says. �Of our new business guests from 1999, 87% became repeat guests and have stayed with us at least one more time, though 62% have stayed with us three or more times.�

Setting up shop in corporate markets

His experience as a business traveler during more than three decades as an employee of Phillips Petroleum Company came in handy when Fred Smid and his wife, Sherry, decided last year to become innkeepers. Smid reports that statistics to date suggest 66% of all overnights at Pettigru Place Bed and Breakfast in Greenville, South Carolina, can be attributed to business travelers. That translates to about 60% of total revenue.

�Greenville is not a tourist area,� says Smid. �There are nearly 200 international companies with something like 13,000 employees in three companies alone--BMW, Michelin, and Hitachi. Business and conventions are easily the largest draw for this area.�

Smid, who estimates he was on the road somewhere between 25% and 40% of the 31 years he was employed by Phillips, cites the following features as being key to meeting the needs of business travelers: private baths, flexible cancellation policy to accommodate last-minute changes in travel plans, flexible check-in/out times to accommodate flight schedules, private key access so guests can come and go as they please and a policy prohibiting children and pets. Other key services and amenities include firm mattresses, desks, private telephones, dataports, and fax and copy service.

One of the most important services an innkeeper can offer a business guest, though, is privacy. 

�Innkeepers must know when to back off,� says Smid. �They have to allow the customer the level of privacy they want when they want it.�

Five years ago as they were in the process of planning their 12-room inn, Carol Ruddick and her husband, Jim, did a bit of research. The data they collected suggested they should market the property to business travelers. 

�We found that more and more business travelers were seeking out B&Bs as an alternative to the anonymity and sameness of hotels and motels,� says Ruddick, explaining their decision to include private baths, in-room telephones with dataports, television/VCRs, and on-site fax and copy services in design plans for The Cypress Inn, Conway, South Carolina. The result? In 1999, 60% came from overnights by business travelers. Better yet, 40% of that was repeat business. 

So, it appears inns and B&Bs can compete with large hotels for corporate business if innkeepers make a commitment to comfort and service.
 

�Business guests love B&Bs if they have the amenities to match hotels,� says Kaye Caster, who with her husband, David, owns and operates the Old Town Guest House in Colorado Springs, Colorado. �That includes phones, message machines, cable television, VCR, fax, copier, ice on demand, hassle-free check-in/out, breakfast when they need it, flexible cancellation policy and exercise equipment. �To sum it up, if a B&B is, indeed, a

Old Town Guest House Colorado Springs, Colorado

�Bottom line is we spoil �em rotten.�

Lisa Matte is a travel and business writer based in South Weymouth, Massachusetts.  Lisa can reached at: [email protected]