Distinctive Inns of New England Enhances Innsiders Club Rewards

Distinctive Inns of New England is happy to announce that the Innsiders Club Rewards Program has been enhanced! This is exciting news!! The Rewards Program has been enhanced to assist our loyal guests during this challenging economy. Now you can earn rewards of $100 DINE Dollars after you have stayed at three of the Distinctive Inns during a two year period. DINE Dollars can then be used towards your next two night stay at any of our Distinctive Inns properties throughout New England.

For those Innsiders that visited us and have a brochure that requires four nights stay for $100 DINE Dollars, rest assured. Just bring your rewards brochure with you on your next visit and we will be happy to adjust it so that you will only have to stay at three Inns and receive the reward. Now that was easy.

Why wait to take advantage of this offer? Spring is here, rates are still in the off season, and aren’t you tired of staying at home? We look forward to your visit.

New England Country Inn - What Is The Difference?

Many people often wonder the difference between bed and breakfasts, country inns, and historic inns. One kind of bed and breakfast, known as a homestay, is usually a private home with just a few rooms and offers a simple breakfast to its visitors. Homestays are often a part-time operation run as a means of extra family income.

Most bed and breakfasts, however, are professionally run and offer more rooms than homestays. The Camden Maine Stay has nine rooms, while the Cliffside Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, and Captain’s House Inn, in Chatham Massachusetts, have around sixteen. B&Bs are owner managed and operated, and usually employ additional staff to help with cooking, housekeeping, and guest services.

Country inns are bed & breakfast inns that offer dinner service as well as breakfast. Often, their dining rooms are open to the public like Gateway’s Inn in Lenox, Massachusetts, which is an ideal getaway for conferences and weddings. Country inns tend to have between five to thirty rooms and, like the Windam Hill Inn and Rabbit Hill Inn in Vermont, or the Chesterfield Inn in New Hampshire, can have a staff of 20-30 people to maintain the inn and care for their guests. Some inns go one step further by offering on-site spas like those found at New Hampshire’s Manor on Golden Pond and Inn at Thorn Hill.

Many inns and bed & breakfasts are also historic inns as they are located in historic areas or are themselves a National Historic Landmark like the Deerfield Inn located in Deerfield, Massachusetts. The Deerfield Inn opened in 1884, and is part of a 350 year old village that is home to an assortment of 18th and 19th century museum houses.

Whether you are looking to visit a quaint bed and breakfast, a renowned country inn, or an inn that is part of history, New England is your destination and the Distinctive Inns of New England offer it all.

Conde Nast Traveler

The Inn at Thorn Hill & Spa has been selected as the #3 resort in the Continential United States. The New Hampshire spa and luxury small hotel was selected in Conde Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards for the third time in four years. The New Hampshire resort is Mt. Washington Valley's only AAA Four Diamond inn and restaurant.

New England Inns Top 10 -- Travel+Leisure Magazine Names Two DINE Inns New England's Top 10

"Ten special inns whose warm hospitality is guaranteed to take the season's chill out of the air, " is how Travel+Leisure described its early Spring search for the 10 coziest inns in New England. The travel magazine named both Newport RI's luxury bed and breakfast Cliffside Inn and New Hampshire's small luxury hotel Manor On Golden Pond to its Top 10 Inns of New England list.

"Roosted above the Atlantic Ocean overlooking Newport's Cliff Walk, this Victorian manor house and former home of painter Beatrice Turner channels the sort of joie de vivre stylings one might expect in an eccentric artist residence," writes Adrien Glover about Cliffside Inn. "Enjoy afternoon tea surrounded by turn-of-the-century canvases in a living museum." The magazine spotlighted the Governor's Suite with grand king bed, 2 fireplaces, Victorian birdcage shower, whirlpool and iPod sound system.

"Katharine Hepburn and a doddering Henry Fonda may have made Golden Pond famous, but it's this New Hampshire Lakes District inn that keeps Squam Lake (the pond's real name) on the map, " reports Ms. Glover on the Manor On Golden Pond. "Dinners are elaborate candlelit affairs; the kitchen swings in both directions, offering Chateaubriand for Two as well as special dishes for vegans." Featured room blue-and-white Churchill Room with king bed, Jacuzzi tub, and fireplace.

Both properties are founding members of the Distinctive Inns of New England and both are AAA Four Diamond rated. Check availability for Cliffside Inn or Manor On Golden Pond. Travel+Leisure Top 10 Slide Show

Gain up to $400 off from Innsiders Club

Guests of the Distinctive Inns of New England (DINE) save significantly when they become members of the DINE Innsiders Club. All they need to do to enjoy the Innsider benefits is to pick up a DINE brochure during any stay at a DINE inn and use it to keep track of their visits.

Each time Innsiders stay at four different DINE inns, they receive $100 off their next DINE visit of two nights or more. They can do this up to four times, for a total off of $400. This allows Innsiders to explore new inns while also returning to inns they enjoy particularly well.

All DINE inns offer all the services of the finest bed and breakfasts and luxury inns. Their guests enjoy opulent accommodations and a wide variety of recreational activities. The inns themselves are located in historic buildings set in lovely New England settings.

DINE Innsiders already get their money’s worth in comfort and relaxation, plus the inns offer getaway specials, romantic packages, and other lodging discounts. The Innsiders Club provides a bonus savings to recognize Innsiders’ loyalty to the 10 DINE inns.

The inns are (in Rhode Island) Cliffside Inn, (in Vermont) Windham Hill Inn and Rabbit Hill Inn, (in New Hampshire) Chesterfield Inn, Manor on Golden Pond and Inn at Thorn Hill and Spa, (in Massachusetts) Captain’s House Inn, Gateways Inn and Deerfield Inn, and (in Maine) Camden Maine Stay Inn.

The fine print to the Innsider offer is minimal. Some blackout periods and restrictions may be applied by the individual inns. Only $100 DINE dollars can be redeemed at a time. Innsiders need to present their DINE Innsider Card, which is part of the brochure, and have it stamped when they visit inns. There’s no cash value to this offer, and the card expires two years after its issue date.

Innsiders who already use their Innsiders Club card find it an easy process and rewarding too. That extra hundred dollars can buy a special bottle of wine, an afternoon of spa treatments, or some other treat that will make their time away particularly memorable.

Tips for Inn Owners: Youth is no deterrent for good innkeeping

James and Jill Meyer of the Captain's House Inn are not your usual innkeepers. They did not spend long years in other careers before their dream of owning an inn came true.

Since dating in high school in New Jersey, Jill and James vacationed with James' family in Chatham on Cape Cod, where the idea of becoming innkeepers took hold. But first there was college, with James majoring in hospitality management and Jill entrepreneurial studies and marketing.

James went to work for the prestigious Boston Harbor Hotel, becoming the manager of three departments. Jill held corporate positions, sharpening her skills in Internet marketing, a key to today's innkeeping.

Four years ago, when James was only 27 and Jill only 25, they bought a small inn. Jill says, "We worried that guests would be apprehensive about booking because of our ages, but luckily that wasn't the case." Last year, they were able to sell their first inn and buy the four-diamond Captain's House Inn, located in their beloved Chatham.

Although they are young, they know the age-old key to good innkeeping -- great hospitality. Says James, "Customer service is what the Captain's House Inn is built on. We provide twice daily housekeeping, gourmet breakfasts, and afternoon cream tea. Our concierge services include booking day trips and dinner reservations. Our rooms are well-appointed and include everything we can think of to make our guests' stays as comfortable as possible."

The previous owners of the Captain's House had joined DINE, and the young couple continued the membership. "When we went to our first meeting," Jill says, "we saw that it was a good network of innkeepers to be a part of."

Innkeeping comes with surprises

As soon as Jim & Ibby Cooper crossed the covered bridge to Jackson, New Hampshire, and saw the Inn at Thorn Hill, they knew they wanted to buy it. Hospitality is in Jim's blood, being from a family in the business and working for 20 years for various hotels. Ibby was a teacher whose skills would be applied to training staff and developing programs.

Yet there were surprises to come. the Coopers had three children in college and one in seventh grade when they bought the inn, and shortly after, Ibby became pregnant with their fifth. Their new son was popular with their guests, as Ibby waited tables with him on her back.

"I thought I could do this for five years," Ibby says, "but it's now been 16 years. New England was an adjustment, as we'd lived before where it was warmer. But we've learned to enjoy the four seasons."

An even bigger surprise occurred on October 13, 2002, when a fire destroyed the inn. All guests and staff were safe and sound, but the Coopers faced a decision, whether to walk away or rebuild. They chose to build a new inn like the original but with a long-range vision for growth.

Now the main building at the Inn at Thorn Hill and Spa has 16 guests rooms (up from 12), an award-winning restaurant, a wine cellar, a cooperage, and a spa with exercise room and dry sauna. After more than a year, the inn reopened on December 22, 2003 to welcome new and previous guests.

Jim & Ibby see their warm and attentive hospitality, which they instill in their staff, as key to the fact that 35 percent of their guests have been there before. "They come back to try different rooms, new menu items, and the various seasons here," Jim explains.

The Coopers were among the three inns in northern New England that founded DINE. The group encouraged Europeans with their long vacations to come to the U.S. and stay at all three inns. The DINE idea grew, and now guests (like you) from anywhere in the world can plan a vacation with stays at Distinctive Inns throughout New England.