We spent our first night visiting at the opening party. Christian Giannelli snapped a picture of us with many of the individuals we work with for our state association sites. It was fun to see all of them!

From left to right, Beth Logan, Pat Detwiler of Florida association, Jeff Logan, Sara of New Mexico and Adobe Nido, Steven, Jeanna of Nebraska, Pat Fischbeck from Wisconsin Association and Speckled Hen Inn, and our Pat.

Steven, Jeff and Katie did a joint presentation on Beginning and Advanced Blogging, broken into two sessions over two days. The sessions were well attended, and we were able to share some of our favorite techniques on how innkeepers can make a blog successful.

We enjoyed the “night on the town” where we toured the BedandBreakfast.com offices while enjoying margaritas and cold Lone Star beer. There was a BBQ dinner and dancing at the spectacular Long Center, which was just across the river and had one heck of a view of the city! As Northwesterners, it was fun and refreshing to be out in the warm night air – compared to home where you can never go outside at night without your sweater.

We shot off to the famed 6th Street for some local culture after the dinner with Niles and Annie Deneen of Deneen Pottery, along with some of the PAII staff and David Hiler of Hiler Hospitality. We had a hilarious evening watching “live band karaoke”. David was even brave enough to go up onstage and for a couple songs. Way to go David!

Overall, it was a great trip and a wonderful show. We look forward to next year in Charleston South Carolina!

New Site Design for the William Miller House

Beth Logan, our award winning lead designer, maintained the color scheme of their old site while modernizing the look and internal structure. Of course, all website designs at InsideOut are made with Cascading Style Sheets, and optimized for Search Engine Placement.

They have a different style of photo gallery, one that allows them to include descriptions of the photos. When a visitor clicks on the photo, it is pulled into a lightbox for better viewing. Try this feature on the breakfast page and click on the smaller inlay photos to view them larger.

The innkeepers of this Richmond lodging are active bloggers, and we made the RSS feed from their blog a prominent section of their footer.

The site is also loading very quickly as we work to improve some of our internal mechanics for even faster service of web sites. This means storing common Javascript and CSS files on a super fast server.

Mike has already told us the website has improved his business. How can we help you? Give us a call at 1-800-500-8401 or fill out our online contact form.

Our lead designer Beth Logan worked with Innkeepers Rebecca and Burt Powell to maintain some of the stylistic attributes of the original site while creating something completely new. As we remind innkeepers over and over again, your website is your most important marketing tool, so it is not something that should become rusty or outdated. As you can see from the screen shots below, Rosevine’s old site was designed before screens had started to become larger, and it’s slim width shows it’s age.

The Old Rosevine site

Our new design for Rosevine bed and breakfast

Rosevine has both bed and breakfast rooms, as well as extended stay suites. They asked us to design a web site that would allow visitors to clearly learn the difference between the two, and feature them both in an attractive and user-friendly manner.

The Rosevine property has a variety of amenities and facilities for guests to enjoy. This Tyler Bed and breakfast also has a game room inside of a large red barn, an outdoor hot tub, and various field sports/outdoor recreation.

We created a web site that would easily navigate the visitor through all the information they would need before coming to stay at the inn or suites, and what was included in these different lodging options. The site is also current with the most recent web standards for great Search Engine Placement.

The John F. Craig House, a Cape May Inn in one of the most
historic towns on the Eastern seaboard, has stiff competition in the very popular tourist destination of Cape May New Jersey. Innkeeper Barbara wanted a site that would reflect not only the look of the inn, but the energy and atmosphere of her very unique bed and breakfast. Through new pictures of the site, specialty photos of specific items in her inn and a very collaborative design process between the innkeeper and our designer Beth Logan, we arrived at the lovely final product.

Barbara shared with us how much her guests rave about the new large photos of her inn and the Cape May area. We think that having great photos can really help the visitors to your site get a sense for your property and your location. The old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” still holds true! So, if you are wondering why the phone isn’t ringing in your inn as often as you like, you may want to take a look at your site and ask yourself; “Is it engaging, intriguing and attractive?” After all, your web site is the gateway to your inn & the very part of the guests’ experience. Your web site will be there first impression of your business, so make sure it’s a good one!

InsideOut knows that associations are made of small B&B owners. We strive to create great Bed and Breakfast marketing for all of our clients, regardless of the size of the inn. River Haus in the Pines, a Bed and Breakfast in Leavenworth WA, is one of our most recent custom site designs.

The innkeepers, Mike & Cindy, say: “We like the way the web site looks and operates, the colors & the clarity of the pictures. We are still working on a new logo and the art work is being prepared now. The team we worked with in creating the changes was very responsive and other than a few things relating to search engine requirements we were basically happy with the experience and result.”

Our custom site for River Haus in the Pines maintained some of the old artwork from the original site, and incorporated the all-important photography of their location in the Cascade Mountains. Their site includes several InsideOut features, including a web cam, a photo gallery and a gift certificates page.

As we continue on in our efforts to build better and more beautiful web sites, we will keep you informed of our newest tools and techniques.

“We wanted to choose someone to design our website who had a proven track record, but also who would be prepared to work closely with us to achieve the website we wanted. Inside Out Solutions were our choice, after many months of research, and we were delighted with their professionalism and dedication to the art. Beth Logan, our designer, was very patient with us during the design process and offered us many great suggestions to enhance our own ideas, creating a quite magnificent website which our peers have nothing but praise for. Last year, when we had our old website, our potential guests would call with a room enquiry and would say they would call back, but 90% did not. This year, the difference is staggering, and that is all down to our new website. We estimate that 90% do call back and make a reservation. We feel we have a website to be proud of; after all, it is our shop window, and we want people to come in and to buy……..now that happens most of the time. Thank you Inside Out Solutions!”

- Mike and Helen

The new web site

The old web site