B&Bs welcome recession-weary travelers By Laura Bly, USA TODAY
When the Great Depression
forced wealthy summer residents of this bucolic New England enclave to
abandon their opulent, late-19th-century "cottages," the homes'
transformations to bed-and-breakfast inns gave city-weary,
romance-minded travelers a vicarious glimpse of the Gilded Age.
Now, even as the Great Recession prompts
mainstream hotels to slash rates in a scramble to fill rooms, most of
Lenox's two dozen B&Bs look to October's explosion of color in the
surrounding Berkshire Mountains — and a corresponding influx of leaf
peepers — with guarded optimism.
"There was a lot of panic earlier this year, but
I can't remember a single weekend this summer that all inns didn't sell
out," says Stan Rosen, head of the Berkshire Visitors Bureau lodging
committee and owner of Hampton Terrace Bed and Breakfast in Lenox.
Bookings at his 14-room, 110-year-old inn are up by nearly a third this
year, with an average nightly rate of $200.
According to a recent study by the New
Jersey-based Professional Association of Innkeepers International
(PAII), bed-and-breakfast occupancy rates held steady last year, while
their average daily room rate of $150 was up 3.4% from 2007.
Print to Page
Email to a Friend
