There have been other days honoring mothers since the 1870′s but nothing official. Anna Jarvis trademarked “the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day”. President Woodrow Wilson made the day official by an act of U.S. congress. Other countries adopted this “special day” not on the same date but with their own name and dates, typically falling on a Sunday. There are some great Mother’s Day traditions around the world to check out on the Internet.

Down to the “oh, what am I going to do for my mother on Mother’s Day” and the day is quickly approaching? Check out these lovely B&B’s.

Mother’s Day at the Lady Neptune B&B/Inn in Hampton, Virginia is offering a family special. Cozy comfortable rooms, delicious breakfast and buffet await you.

New England’s Captain Fairfield Inn (a luxury Boutique B&B) in Kennebunkport, Maine offers an absolutely elegant weekend for any occasion. You have to check the amenities, lodging, food, packages and the Keene area. Chef Jed’s prepared breakfast, wine list, and afternoon and evening snacks are a special treat. Choose a Special Package today at the Captain Fairfield luxury Boutique Hotel. Call Alana today at 1 800 322-1928.

The Beacon House in Carolina Beach, North Carolina is offering special Mother’s Day packages. Is mom ready for the beach? Call 910.458.6244.

Mother’s are special and a weekend away may be just the thing to put a smile on her face and to know how much she is appreciated will make you happy too.

Happy Mother’s Day from The Aardvark Team

Accommodations at Bed and Breakfast Inns are almost always beautifully decorated, cozy and comfortable and many offer afternoon teas, event packages, dining, business conferences and for the really daring, with a significant other, maybe a wedding or vow renewal ceremony all at affordable rates. Enjoy a massage and spa day, golf nearby with your partner or if you’re alone, let your Innkeeper know you would like to enjoy meeting new friends. If you just want to visit to be alone, many B&B/Inns have great libraries full of movies and books for your enjoyment. It does not matter where you live; tax time is here and we do hope you have or will be receiving a nice sum to allow you to enjoy yourself. A day or two of rest and relaxation to be pampered is a gift to yourself. Visit our www.BedandBreakfastNetwork.com and you will find yourself knowing that this is the perfect way to relax and enjoy all that work you did last year.

The Aardvark Team

Avenue Inn Bed and Breakfast in New Orleans welcomes you to partake in their holiday celebration. Saturday, March 16 starts the Tracey’s St. Paddy Day Party in New Orleans, LA. At noon, the Irish Channel Parade begins and on Sunday, the entire afternoon and evening is a great celebration. Avenue Inn Bed and Breakfast hosts weddings, anniversaries, reunions, retreats, small meetings and a great St. Patrick’s Day celebration. The guestrooms at Avenue Inn are not only beautifully decorated and comfortable but also affordable. Special packages are available upon request.

St. Patrick’s day In Savannah, Georgia is remembered by a small group of immigrants who marched the streets of Savannah for their own country against political persecution and potato famine. The traditional parade, going on now for over 200 years, has a Grand Marshal, Greening of the Fountain in Forsyth Park, Celtic Cross Mass and so much more. Check Savannah Bed and Breakfast Inn online at www.savannahbnb.com for their St. Patrick’s Day three day Celebration. Call the Savannah Tourist Information Center at 912-644-6400 or consult the official website for St Patrick’s Day at www.savannahsaintpatricksday.com for more of Savannahs best. Don’t forget: Savannah is the home of Paula Deen’s Lady and Sons Restaurant which is worth stopping in to visit while you’re in Georgia.

Wherever you choose to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day will be a wonderful celebration for family, friends and new acquaintances. Great fun, food, singing, dancing and dedication to wonderful St. Patrick’s tradition should be expected. To all the innkeepers, owners and guests of Bed and Breakfast Inns celebrating, Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the Aardvark Team.

Make your new web site unique and consider adding a blog that feeds to RSS and social network sharing buttons on all pages. Landing pages with important keyword phrases are another must. Make sure that your new web site has a call to action so visitors don’t have to hunt down a way to give you their busines.

Make your web site about what your clients or guests will want, not about you. Write about who will be using your services, what makes you unique and how this can benefit your guests or customers. Do not copy your competitors website as this can hurt your position in the search engines.

Knowing that your web site looks great is not the answer; it is all in how it works and how you communicate your information to guests and customers. Not redesigning your website for many years and having duplicate content is worthless. The search engines now work harder than ever to filter out what is irrelevant, stolen or black hat marketing tactics and will ultimately ignore or blacklist your website.

SEO has changed a lot recently. Giving your guests a reason to move through your website will decrease your bounce rate and keep them going deeper into your website. Have your web master check for broken images. A professional web site is what you should be going for and your web master can provide that for you. Keep your blog up to date. Submit a new idea once a week or at least twice a month. Make your content interesting and improve navigation. Your designer will ask for a lot of content so please try to provide as much as you can. The designer will know when to use information pages. Please understand a professional designer knows how to enhance photos and organize your information.

Breakfasts can be served at a long dining room table or a small one in which other guests are being served. Should you not want to interact just let your innkeeper know and other arrangements can be made. Should you have special dietary needs be sure to tell your Innkeeper when making your reservation so he or she can accomodate you.

An Innkeeper who has more than 10 rooms cannot be at the front desk 24/7 as there is a lot to do such as shopping for tomorrows breakfast, checking the rooms after the maid has been there to clean and keeping up with day to day operations. As a guest, try to arrive on time or at least call and make sure your Innkeeper knows how late you will be. As a business traveler you will have all the amenities a hotel will have but in a better atmosphere. Many B&B/Inns cater to the business traveler.

B&B/Inns who host weddings usually have a wedding coordinators on staff.

Chef owned Bed and Breakfast Inns cater all kind of events. Weddings, family reunions, receptions, business meetings and more. Call a B&B/Inn near you today and ask.

If you are considering purchasing a Bed and Breakfast Inn please remember you will be dealing with all kinds of people. You will have to use your best judgement in all situations. We all want to have guests who do not complain or criticize but sometimes it comes with the business you have chosen. Always be thankful for the guests that are sweet and generous with their compliments.

1. A fresh coat of paint is a must. Bright bold colors are not as attractive to the buyer who are looking to purchase your property as natural colored walls.
2. Make sure the bathrooms are not just clean but immaculate and freshly painted. If mold is an issue, spray the surfaces with one part water and one part bleach and the mold will be gone. Shower doors must be clean and can be scrubbed with one part muriatic acid and 10 parts of water. They will be sparkling clean now. If the vanity is old, replace it with a new, updated sink. New towels and accessories are a must.
3. Pack away any photos or personal items. This is important because the buyer wants to imagine themselves in your bed and breakfast inn with their own ideas for decorations. It will also make your B&B/inn look larger.  There is nothing more that will deter a potential buyer than a cluttered property. You may even consider renting new furniture to make your B&B/inn look better.
4. If you have squeaky doors, make sure they are oiled. If the front door squeaks when your potential buyer comes up, that may be the only thing they remember from their visit. You want everything to be perfect.
5. Shampoo your carpet, buff your hardwood and treat your tile grout. Flooring will be one of the first things your potential buyer looks at when they walk in the front door. After all, they have to look where they’re stepping when they walk in. Black grout joints that obviously should be white will tell your buyer that cleanliness is not number one on your priorities list. You want your floor to sparkle or in the case of carpet, look like its brand new with a few shampoos from a rented carpet cleaner or by a professional carpet cleaning crew.
6. Make sure that your furniture and bedding matches and has that “new look”. Make sure the master bedroom is designed for both sexes and the bedding and decorations reflect its gender neutrality. New bedding and sheets can really perk up the look of a bedroom. This goes the same for your living/family room. If needed, buy covers for your sofas.
7. Make sure there is plenty of light turned on when your potential buyer visits and make sure everything is spotless. This lets the potential buyers know you have kept your B&B/inn in a condition that they will want to purchase it as-is. If you need to replace old light fixtures, you can find them at any hardware store.
8. What about the outside look of your B&B/Inn? Cleaning your windows, pressure washing the outside walls and walkways, replacing plants that are not thriving, fixing loose brick or stones, trimming trees and adding new potted plants can make a world of difference when your potential buyer drives up and walks to your front door. Don’t send them running for the hills with an unkept lawn and dead shrubs.
9. Make sure you or your realtor advertises in as many online bed and breakfast inn directory websites as possible. The exposure you get from listing your property on sites like www.InnsForSale.com can be the difference in whether or not you sell your property. From our experience, the potential buyer may have seen your property on one site and then found you again on another site. Having your B&B on multiple resources can help keep your property on the front of a buyers mind. And be sure that these websites have professional looking photos on them. No matter how beautiful your bedrooms might be, a scan of a polaroid picture with a timestamp from 1999 on it does not show professionalism and can be enough to have your inn passed right over by a potential buyer.
10. So in short, remember: sparkling clean, new paint, definitely no clutter and if need be, call a professional staging company to help you.

For more tips or with help on selling your bed and breakfast inn, visit our B&B/inn sales directory at www.InnsForSale.com.

We wish you much success with the sale of your property.

Article featured on www.InnsForSale.com – Affordable rates for selling your bed and breakfast inn

After over a decade of running restaurants in some of the top hotels around the world, traveling the globe and running an award-winning boutique hotel in London, Ramsay knows firsthand the crucial importance of surpassing guests’ highest expectations. In the series, Ramsay and a team of hospitality experts will travel across the country to help turn around struggling hotels, resorts and inns!

Season two of FOX’s “Hotel Hell” is now casting. “Hotel Hell” is the fourth series featuring Ramsay to air on FOX, following “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Kitchen Nightmares” and “Masterchef.” Season one performed solidly through its first four episodes, averaging 5.3 million viewers.

If you are an owner who would like to apply for HOTEL HELL, please log onto www.TheConlinCompany.com and complete the application. Call (310) 313-9100 or email hotelhell@theconlincompany.com for more information

Please make sure you include your name and contact info (including a phone number), name and location of your property, website (if you have one) and most importantly…WHY you deserve Gordon’s help!

To nominate a hotel: Call (310) 313-9100 or email hotelhell@theconlincompany.com Please make sure you include your name and contact info (including a phone number), name and location of the property, website (if you have one) and most importantly…WHY they need Gordon’s help!

Most B&B Inns offer elegant, beautifully decorated rooms with comfortable beds and wonderful views. Morning breakfasts are prepared by your innkeeper or it may even be a personal chef and owner of the Inn which is spectacular. The preparation that goes into these elegant full breakfasts makes you feel really special and the cost is included in the room so there are no hidden prices. In some Bed and Breakfast Inns you may even have coffee and your breakfast delivered right to your room.

In the evening your Innkeeper may offer a snack, coffee, tea or wine before going out for dinner. A great number of B&B/Inns offer dinner created by a chef right there at the B&B/Inn. There may be a charge but well worth the cost. A sherry may even be served before turning in.

Your host will be happy to provide concierge service. They know where there are theaters, museums, antiquing, winter and summer sports, golfing, fishing and so many other activities in the area to make your visit interesting and fun. They also know the best fine dining restaurants should they not serve dinner at the B&B/Inn and you will want to know this information.

Should you be visiting for business be sure to ask if they have special prices for long term stay or mid-week discounts. Also if you have a special friend or relative you need the perfect gift for and know they would like to visit the B&B/Inn, most offer gift certificates for that special someone.

These elegant B&B/Inns want you to return or tell friends that they have done their best to make you comfortable so please write a lovely review about them and tell your friends. Many B&B’s are relying on your word of mouth to get them their next guest.

We did not mention hotels because of their cost factor and hidden fees, we really wanted to focus on how enjoyable it is to stay in a Bed and Breakfast Inn and how much you will enjoy your time there (you will want to return again and again). Innkeepers do give you much time to yourself with a TV to rest and relax. The pools, Jacuzzi’s, gardens and places for a long stroll or walk into town will be memorable. All this for a very modest cost. Always be sure to check with the innkeeper first to see if children are allowed, if the inn is handicap accessible or if you can bring your pet. We hope you will choose a Bed and Breakfast Inn for your next business or romantic getaway.

As you can see, I have removed the information from our client that received this letter to protect his personal information but all other pertinent info related to the “bill” is still intact. Of importance, if you look at the bottom of the image, you can see I enlarged a portion to show that they themselves are even noting that “DNS Services Inc. is not affiliated with your current name server provider”. This should be a red flag for any hosted website; if you receive an “invoice” like this from DNS Services or any other company attempting to follow in its footsteps, DO NOT PAY IT and call your hosting provider. If you own any websites, make your DNS record private so that your information cannot be retrieved from the public DNS records using a WHOIS lookup. We have the ability to keep our info safe and stop this from happening in the future and I feel all web hosting providers have a responsibility to do so.

Should you receive one of these letters, report it to your hosting company right away and DO NOT PAY IT. They will tell you the best course of action in reporting it. If you have sent them money, STOP PAYMENT ON THE CHECK! They are noted on other reputable websites as not answering their phones or responding to any sort of correspondence with their company whether by phone, e-mail or snail mail.

UPDATE (1/9/2013): We informed OpenSRS of this issue and they created a blog post as well which can be viewed at http://www.opensrs.com/blog/2013/01/beware-of-dns-services-invoices/. Everyone who owns a website should be aware of this.