innkeeping: Expansion Plans: Advice and Information Wanted

[Stonecroft <stoncrft@concentric.net>]

After attending the PAII regional conference in Avon that covered "The 
Luxury Experience", we are revising our plans to expand into our 6600 
sq. ft. barn.

To get an idea of our current four room B&B operation, visit our home 
page at www.localnews.com/buspages/stoncrft/

The advice and information I'd like to get from you starts with our 
assumption that adding six luxury rooms will probably be better than 
adding eight somewhat smaller rooms.  This assumption was a direct 
result of both formal and informal discussions at the conference.

Here in the Mystic, CT area our market is the New York metro area 
followed by Boston and Providence.  Our rooms are currently priced at 
the high end of the area B&Bs (top 15% roughly).  The market can support 
the offering.

Using the PAII zoning material as a starting point, we wrote new zoning 
for our town that was unanimously approved (to the disbelief of many of 
our colleagues in surrounding towns).  As a "Country Inn", we can expand 
to up to sixteen rooms, have a sixty four seat dining room, and offer 
conferences, weddings, etc.

The first phase will be the six additional rooms, commercial kitchen, 
dining room, and conference room.  We will initially continue to operate 
as a B&B, using outside caterers to handle conferences, weddings, etc.

Questions:

How big should a room be (excluding Bath) to be a "luxury room"?  	
Is it worth it to use a divider of some sort to have a small suite-like 
appearance. (Is 12'6" x 23' sufficient?)

We have half king and queen beds now.  Queens are easier to deal with.  
Do you feel that luxury demands king beds?

What size bathrooms should we have?  We're planning whirlpool tubs, 
should we go for the doubles?  We liked the material from the Bath Tec 
exhibitor at the conference and their prices.  Any users out there with 
product experience willing to offer a comment?  How about noise level 
with whirlpools in general?

We're also thinking of including bidets in the bathrooms, ...opinions?

We'll  certainly have zero clearance gas fireplaces in the bedrooms and 
particularly like the literature from Vermont Castings.  Any other 
vendors you like?  Does anyone make a large gas fireplace suitable for a 
large dining area?

By our choice, we don't have television in our current bedrooms and the 
on in our Great Room is hidden.  This has not, we believe, hurt our 
business, though many people ask if we have them.  Our thinking is to 
install the cabling and have some available if it is a sale breaker.  
What is your opinion?

Similarly with phones; we have a common phone in our library for guests 
which seems to be adequate for now.  I'm thinking of running two lines 
to each room for phone & computer use (conference/meeting business)but 
perhaps only putting phone sets in the rooms by request.  
Opinions?

We look forward to your comments in the forum or to us at our email, 
stoncrft@cris.com