Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Innkeeping Innternship
If you have ever wondered if innkeeping (or interim innkeeping) is for you, try it out first under the guidance of an experienced innkeeper. Learn the ins and outs of innkeeping by experiencing it first-hand. You will learn the sun-up to sun-down operation of a bed and breakfast plus you will have the opportunity to explore the city and get some well-deserved down time.
Cost: $695 per person (single occupancy); $495 per person (double occupancy)
Your Innternship includes room and breakfast during your stay and you can choose from a 2- or 3- night option for the same rate:
- 2-night weekend (Friday-Saturday) innternship or
- 3-night mid-week (Sunday – Thursday) innternship
- add a 4th-night mid-week: $100 per person (single occ.) or $75 per person (double occ.)
The 2-night option includes a free ticket per paying person for the Gray Line Historic Trolley Tour. The 3-night option adds a free ticket for one of the Asheville Food Tours. The 4-night option adds a free ticket to the Biltmore Estate.
Availability for an Innternship is based solely on room availability. There is no minimum headcount requirements for an innternship and we won’t schedule more than 4 at one time so that you are provided with as much one-on-one instruction as possible.
Call to schedule your Innkeeping Innternship and step into a whole new world of possibilities.
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Although I lived in Florida for 8 years, I never had a chance to visit St. Augustine. What a shame! It wasn’t until this past weekend that I finally went, and although it was technically for business, there was a lot of pleasure involved in the trip.
St. Augustine’s Historic Inns host an annual charity tour of the Association’s 25 B&Bs and my mother and I decided to take the tour this year. The main reason was because the Asheville Bed & Breakfast Association, of which the Blake House Inn is a member, is looking to start an annual tour as well. While the Association has had holiday and garden tours in the past, we are hoping to start an annual event. Since the St. Augustine tour has been going on for 16 years, it’s obvious they have a good thing going down there and after speaking to the Chairperson earlier this year, I felt it would be a good idea to see the tour in action.
Leaving the business aspects for the Association to consider, we had a wonderful time. The tour is over a two-day period and you see half the Inns on the first day and the other half on the second day. The historic district of St. Augustine allows you to walk from B&B to B&B and for those who may not want to, there are two trolley tours that have regular stops near several B&Bs on the tour.
When we arrived in St. Augustine, the weather was chilly and in the 40s and 50s. By Saturday, the first day of the tour, the weather had warmed up a bit, but there was a virtual downpour all day. That did not keep the tour goers away and there were crowds at just about every B&B we visited. Some of the Inns were side-by-side, but the walking tour takes about 2 – 2 1/2 hours to complete.
One very cool thing about this tour is that there was a different restaurant represented at each Inn and besides viewing guestrooms and common areas (all done up in their best holiday finery), tour goers got to sample food from all over the city. It was definitely filling and we went to one of the restaurants from the tour for dinner. We would never have gone to or found this restaurant had it not been for the tour. A few of the B&Bs also had products and items for sale from local artists and stores. We visited several of the stores as well.
The second day of the tour was completely different, weather-wise. The day was sunny and the temperature was close to 80. We were sweating halfway through the second day, but we made it nonetheless. I even snapped a few photos at some B&Bs if they offered something I liked, mainly in their decor or holiday decorations.
Look! Even Florida can have a snowman. This was an ingenious decoration at one of the B&Bs. It looks pretty simple to make. Now why didn’t I think of it?
Oh, and we did stay at one of the B&Bs on the tour. The Casablanca Inn on the Bay met our needs quite nicely. One thing about St. Augustine that I picked up on very quickly as I was looking at places to stay, is that parking is a definite issue. Most places do not have adequate on-site parking so several B&Bs will share a parking lot, and the lot can be 3-4 blocks away from the Inn itself. What I also found to be common is that many of the Inns consist of several buildings (the main house and a Carriage House and/or multiple cottages), possibly connected, but not necessarily. When I came across the Casablanca Inn, I noticed that they offered a Secret Garden which is behind the main house and across a street, but that the Secret Garden Suites each had a parking space on site while parking for the Inn was a block or two away and around the corner. So, we got to park right next to our Suite and didn’t have to search around for a parking spot. I’m sure that parking is a major bone of contention for many innkeepers.
Our Inn overlooked Matazanas Bay and at night, the city is lit up with holiday lights and decorations. The B&B tour coincides with the city’s Nights of Lights and one thing that St. Augustine offers are horse-drawn carriage rides and night ghost trolley tours. This is a city that stays up late.
In all, we had a very enjoyable visit and I have a lot of good information to report back to the Asheville B&B Association. Who knows what we’ll come up with.
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
We are offering FREE Asheville Food Tour tickets to our mid-week guests during December, January & February.
Guests who stay 3 or more nights (Mondays – Thursdays) in December and 2 or more nights (Mondays – Thursdays) in January or February will receive 2 FREE tickets to one of Asheville’s food tours. This $50 value keeps on giving because once you go on a food tour, you receive a 5-day passport to receive 10% off dining at any of the restaurants on the passport.
There are currently 3 different food tours and each tour has different restaurants. Tuesday tours visit Biltmore Village. Wednesdays and Fridays visit one set of restaurants in downtown Asheville and Thursdays and Saturdays visit a second set of restaurants in downtown Asheville.
Each tour only takes up to 12 people so it’s a good idea to schedule your tour early. Please keep in mind that there is a minimum headcount requirement for a tour and it may be canceled due to low headcount, but it will not be canceled due to weather. Tours run rain or shine.
Once you make your room reservation at Blake House, I will ask you what tour you want and will make reservations for you. For reservations with at least 7 days notice, I will have your tickets for you when you arrive for check-in. For reservations under 7 days, you will receive your tickets/passport when you meet for your tour.
Check out the Asheville Food Tours website for additional information. I have been on the Biltmore Village Tour and can say firsthand that it is fabulous! We had so much food to sample between the 7 restaurants visited that we didn’t need dinner that night. The downtown tours feature more restaurants so I recommend that you not miss this opportunity to sample a lot of the good food that Asheville has to offer.
