New England has a number of classic Bed & Breakfast Inns and I keep a close eye on the recognition the travel industry bestows on properties, and the reviews Inns receive to showcase and feature these places.

Many times a new owner can add the missing spark or character to an Inn, or alternatively take a beloved  Bed and Breakfast down a few notches.

Its all in the dedication, expertise, enthusiasm, and reputation the hosts bring to the table.

For awhile I’ve been following the Barron Brook Inn in Whitefield, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and noticing the growing number of wild reviews about the place on Tripadvisor.com.

Recently I had the chance to talk with Jason Cape – one of the owners – about the success of the Inn and how it got started and plans for the future.

Cliff: Hi Jason, can you explain how you came to be the owner of the Barron Brook Inn?

Jason: Sure Cliff. I have always wanted to operate a hospitality operation, really a resort. I like it when I go on vacation to a resort and like the fun things to do. As the son of a successful travel agent, we, my brother and sister, were a little spoiled in the travel department.

From this love of travel, I went to school and received an engineer’s degree. I found I could make money but was not happy. I started talking about owning a resort and with the internet I started looking. I first switched to the field of hotel technology sales selling property management systems and last June bought this small inn in NH because one of my customers told me about it going to auction.

I technically bought it sight unseen and only toured it once I was on the hook. I won the auction in March, visited in April, closed in May, moved in June and opened in July of 2008.

My partner in this endeavor is my creative wife, Beth, who operates as GM.

Cliff: Great story. Can you tell us a little about the Inn as regards number of rooms, meals and what people can expect?

Jason: The inn consists of this small house that was built in the 1890s time frame. It had a front porch entry and side living room added before two wings were built.

One wing added 6 dorm rooms and 2 baths plus a kitchen with rough living quarters, the second addition consists of 20 nice sized hotels rooms with each having their own bath. The 6 dorm rooms and 2 rooms in the upstairs of the small house are used to house local theater workers during their run at the Weathervane Theater over the summer.

The 20 rooms make us more of a small inn than a bed and breakfast. When we have just 2-3 rooms rented, we will sometimes cater to our guests a little more and offer a special breakfast but a continental breakfast is standard here.

We offer English muffins, bagels, raisin bread for toasting, 4 types of cereal and bananas, fresh coffee, plus tea, orange juice and milk. We offer yogurt, oatmeal, and grits. Sometimes, we will have homemade or deli muffins or other treats. It is not unusual for our guests to be greeted on arrival with a sweet chocolate baked good since we often have home baked brownies and cookies ourselves and enjoy sharing.

Breakfast is in our lobby with the fireplace focal point and options are available to eat out on the back deck.

Cliff: What can you share about improvements you’ve made and are planning for the future?

Jason: Beth has updated the linens in all the rooms with plenty of pillows and nice duvets. We put the curved shower rods in many of the bath rooms with nice spa towels.

We also have two ‘Green’ rooms where we have used a natural American Clay on a feature wall and low VOC paints plus other environmentally friendly touches. These rooms are popular these days.

We believe that if we can provide a hot shower, comfortable bed and a high standard of cleanliness at a good price that we are delivering on our primary promise to our guests. We hope to add more amenities in and around our inn as we grow the business.

We have a canoe on our dock now and you can paddle in the brook for 15-20 minutes each direction. We have a nice view on a clear day of Mt. Washington from the brook.

Right now we’re painting the outside of our building from a powdery green and grey color scheme to a rich red with white trim and black shutters plus window boxes. The updated look is really catching the eye of the locals and the comments have been extremely positive.

I am adding a fire pit in the back so that we can have some fires this summer and fall. Eventually we would like to put in a nice pavilion in the back so that we can house family reunions.

Cliff: Thanks Jason. Sounds like you and Beth have poured a lot of resources into making the Inn a success and have great plans for its future. Is there anything else you’d like to tell the readers about your Inn before we finish up this interview?

Jason: Being new to the area, we’re absolutely delighted with all there is to do in the White Mountains and in New Hampshire’s North Country.

The classic New England parks like Santa’s Village, Six Gun City and Story Land are very easy drives for our guests. We are only a mile from The Weathervane Theatre, with its revolving repertory of excellent Broadway styled plays. Music and interesting lectures take place at the top of Prospect Mountain at Weeks State Park where you can see Vermont and Canada from the old rock faced fire tower (just 2 miles from the inn) and there are always street fairs and farmer’s markets every weekend in Whitefield and Lancaster.

We really enjoy helping our guests have the type of vacation they are looking for whether that means being on the go all the time, or relaxing in or around the inn. If our guests are happy, we’re happy.

For more information about the Barron Brook Inn visit their web site at http://www.barronbrookinn.com and don’t forget to tell them where you read about them.

As Jason mentions the White Mountains in New Hampshire is a region rich in activities and experiences and for more information on things to see and do check out our special White Mountains vacations section at our web site.

Another New England post by one of our writers is being prepared right now so be sure to visit again or just subscribe to our RSS Feed here and get notified automatically of events and news.

Cliff Calderwood
Publisher
New England Online Magazine

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