this increase, Acorn continues to offer an excellent value and unsurpassed security and reliability in its hosting services.  Thank you for making a note regarding this change which will be on your first quarter 2007 invoice delivered on April 1.

• Effective January 1, 2007, hosting fees for basic web sites will be $15 per month.
• Effective January 1, 2007, hosting fees for database driven web sites will be $25 per month.  

We regularly coach our Acorn clients to build their links to improve their popularity with Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines.  Following is a

new free directory we have recently been made aware of.  Feel free to contact them directly to add a listing for your inn.  We will also be adding them to the Acorn Tool Kit.

PlanetBnB.com is a free submission Bed and Breakfast Directory. As one of many bed and breakfast directory listing services online, this directory is solely maintained by actual B&B owners (over 200 to be exact) who update and add to their listings on a daily basis. Peter Askew, Principal of Planet BnB advises that they receive over 14,000 visits a month (and growing) from travelers searching for local inns. Follow the steps on their site, and you will be listed within 48 hours.

For the first time, in 2007, Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII) will be holding consecutive annual conferences rather than its traditional

30 years employment. She was hired right out of high school as a Stenographer and after several promotions worked her way up to the Management level.

Patty’s hobbies took front and center after retirement including traveling and wintering in Arizona for a few years.  She dabbles in poetry writing and has had a few poems published.  She helps family and friends with their computers and does Income Taxes for several of them as well as bookkeeping for her brother. 

Working at home on the computer for Acorn is the only thing that could bring Patty out of retirement.   Patty’s current assignments include pulling monthly statistics for MarketWatch Reports, preparing Benchmark Reports for new customers (determining their organic placement prior to commencement of Acorn work), preparing Intell-a-Keeper contracts and most recently learning to build Meta Tags and Technical Editing to support the Acorn design & programming team.

Terri Plummer
Terri Plummer works as a Project Manager on new development projects, and assists with statistics gathering for the variety of PPC and Market Watch Report services Acorn offers to their Customers. Terri joined Acorn in 2006 after being out of the work force the last five years while raising her children.  She and her family enjoy living in Colorado and taking advantage of all the activities Colorado is famous for, including snowboarding and skiing.  In her spare time, she enjoys playing volleyball and loves to travel.  Terri is a graduate of Northern Arizona University, and previous worked for MCI and Intersolv, being responsible for budget coordination and software release management.

your Summer business levels with those of other innkeepers around the country:

Summer Business Survey Results
Many thanks to the 108 innkeepers that responded to our survey about summer business!  We really value your input and appreciate you taking the time to provide us with this useful information.  The more people that respond, the more accurate information we can provide to the media and to you.  Below are the results:

How did your summer business in 2006 compare to 2005?

Better than last year 68.5%
Not as good as last year 17.6%
About the same  12.0%
Not sure 1.9%

If summer business was UP, your approximate revenue increase was: 

If summer business was DOWN, your approximate revenue decrease was:

To what do you attribute the increase or decrease in revenue?

*Internal Changes 56.3%
Economy  34.4%
Weather  19.8%
Gas Prices  22.9% 
Local Activities/Events 16.7%

*Examples of internal changes were special packages, increased marketing effort, updated website, renovations.

Several members expressed the following comments:
- Many more last minute bookings than ever before 
- Website improvements are having a very positive effect for many
- Gas prices boosted occupancy from travelers who stayed closer to home
- Several responding inns were affected by the unprecedented number of hurricanes last year so their numbers may be skewed a bit
- The Empire State Bed & Breakfast Association (NY) reported that Western NY & Finger Lakes region bookings were up 10-20%.  Long Island was also heavily booked.

“Reprinted with permission of the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII) which since 1988 has helped thousands of  innkeepers succeed as professional innkeepers through education, research, networking opportunities, vendor discounts, industry PR and advocacy. For information on membership and services visit www.paii.org or call 1-800-468-7244 .”