What Have You Done For Me Lately?

What Have You Done For Me Lately?

Bill Gates calls it the “What have you done for me lately?” syndrome. It’s the customer’s desire for innovation, new colors and screen sizes, better pricing, and faster service.

Here is our list for 2021:

  • Innovations: auto soap dispensers, air purifiers, motions detected lights, curated art, new outdoor social locations with a screen pod tent for 2, REC ROOM with table tennis & exercise bike, Tea classes, Live Jazz on veranda, wild turkey grazing station, compositing and victory garden.
  • New Colors: Always, in the Ellwanger Garden. Easel available for plein air painting on the grounds. Binoculars for plein air painting.
  • Screen Size: it’s what ever you bring. 
  • Convenience—one-stop: Sleep, eat, explore, relax, and play. Now offering crockpot dinners for 2, Bonfire & S’mores or Sausages, tickets to the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG), and tours of MT Hope Cemetery
  • Personalization: Everything from Wellness Massage, diets, dining locations & enrichments, floral design class, “Parents Night Off”, Wellness Massage, wellness kits, curated weddings and concierge services.
  • Better Pricing: introduced winter rates for the first time, seasonal rates held constant for the last 4 years. “Rent a room, Get a mansion”.
  • Faster service. Why does it take only a few minutes to choose a flight, buy an airline ticket, and reserve a B&B room and car through the internet, but twice as long to speak with a travel agent? Not here. Call direct, answered direct. Text and I will answer.

What would you like to do today?

Yes That’s All Good, But
What Have You Done For Me Lately?

Help me to help you!

We remained faithful to our mission by continuing to provide the finest B&B experience, through creativity, safety, and extraordinary guest focus. Our purpose or “raison d’etre” (reason for being) is to create happiness for others. When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place. Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.

In order to achieve the highest standard, we too have made some internal changes.

Here is your list for 2021:

  • I am your one and only hostess, as I have dedicated myself totally to our mission , retired from a FT career outside the B&B, and have received the Pfizer vac during participation in a clinical study.
  • Minimal 2 night stay due to the cleaning protocol we have established. Think OCD on steroids.
  • Invoice balance paid by personal check or cash. Your receipt is e mailed.
  • Check-in is now between 3-6 PM, to allow more time to clean and prepare for your visit.
  • Baggage assistance is now by request.
  • Room service between stays is by request.
  • Visitors (2 max) permitted in the Gardens & on Veranda by request.
  • Please remove shoes at the door, and help yourselves to our slippers or you may bring your own.

Help me to help you!

Looking forward to seeing you soon!!

Let’s talk turkey: How has the pandemic impacted bed and breakfasts?

Tune into Connections, with EVAN DAWSON & MEGAN MACK 
Interviewed on MAY 22, 2020

We continue our series of conversations about the impact the pandemic has had on businesses. Bed and breakfasts owners are working to adapt to the current situation, while also preparing for the months ahead.

This hour, we talk with innkeepers in different parts of our area about how the pandemic has affected their businesses, and how they think the industry could change in the longer term. Our guests:

Ellwanger Estate B&B “Staying INN at the ELL”

This was first published in my newsletter on April 20, 2020
Meet the 7 dwarfs that are ” Staying INN at the ELL”
Grumpy, Sweaty, Bloaty, Sleepy, Hopeful, Forgetful, and Psycho


Grumpy: “Ya crazy fool! Fine time ya picked to sneeze!” 

While NY is “On Pause”, the Ellwanger Estate is on Many Pause.
Many Pause at the Ellwanger Estate has given us an opportunity to shore up our health for the future,
and explore real opportunities for enhancement. For more opportunities at the Ellwanger Estate…read on.

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While we continue to monitor the coronavirus updates in our community, we have taken this opportunity to rethink, rewire, and rebalance a selection of non-intrusive and innovative guest experiences. There is an overwhelming need for discretion, privacy, and distancing, all in the pursuit of a calming and relaxing experience. Within a city environment we provide an oasis from hustle and bustle. There are many ingredients we need to have just right to enable our guests to relax – from the room layout and noise isolation and healthy dining options to non-intrusive, seamless services.
Here are just a few:
Breakfast is now offered either in the Dining room, Veranda, or in-room service. Dining tables are set for individual guest rooms. 
Cookies and snacks are now served on individual plates prepared in the kitchen – no communal plates or containers.
Al fresco dining will be offered for lunch and dinner.
The mansion will be a sanctuary for registered guests only. The maximum number of registered guest will be 10 total, within 7,000 sq ft mansion/veranda/patio/Rec Room/garden/lawn, and 3 beautiful idyllic acres to walk and enjoy. Any reunion with invited friends or family members will be offered in the garden, or on veranda. 
To reduce your exposure to others during your visit, room service will now be upon request.
Our  meticulous standards continue: Before each guest arrives, rooms are cleaned and disinfected. I use effective cleaning solutions and wipe down all surfaces throughout the mansion. Think OCD.
Breakfast is prepared by me, and I am a licensed food handler.
I use gloves as necessary while preparing food. All plates, silverware, cooking utensils are washed in a commercial sanitizing dishwasher.
Linens are washed and sanitized. Each room has a private bathroom. Room doors and windows are open for fresh air circulation while cleaning.
~Think Safety ~Think Best Practice~Think Gift Certificates~
We all have different priorities now, but I challenge you to keep your eyes on sustainability this 50th Earth Day (April 22) and every day–even as you fight your way through the current crisis.
Thank you ALL for your many thoughtful emails, text, calls and instagram likes, posts and comments.Please feel free to share this newsletter with a friend or family member
Looking forward to seeing you soon!
 

Ellwanger Estate B&B Offers an Island of Wellness, by Nancy O’Donnell

As the old saying goes, “We live in interesting times.”
For the first time in its thirty-eight year history, The WEDGE Newspaper April/May issue can be read online only. With so many Rochester and suburban restaurants and shops, libraries and colleges closed–our usual drop off spots—we decided against a print issue this time around.

Please DO take just a few minutes to read the WEDGE Newspaper April/May

The paper is as packed as ever with entertaining stories about our community–
The South Wedge Farmers Market moves to a new space in June! Rochester City Council member Mary Lupien makes city proceedings more transparent while David H. Day describes his experience “Kondo-ing” his house. Michele Martell rhapsodizes about the beauty of trees, and Patti Giglio tells the story of the “Lost Souls of Highland Park.”
You can read about Ellwanger Estate B&B: Ellwanger Estate B&B Offers an Island of Wellness on page 6,(and book a future date). Read about local activist Jayne Morgan, this year’s David Halter Community Champion award winner, and Bob Palmer’s a Swillburg family. And there’s still more.
Pages 8-9 provide a valuable list of the many community neighborhood resources available during the pandemic.

Please help us to promote our stories and advertisers far and wide. We are posting this message and link on the South Wedge Farmers Market and the South Wedge Planning Committee (SWPC)pages, and each of the board members and friends of the WEDGE will be sharing the links. We’re confident the readership will exceed the 5000+ issues we print every other month. So, go to www.swpc.org and scroll down a tiny bit and click on the large WEDGE Newspaper button. Like us too on Facebook.

We send our warmest thoughts to the community. Stay safe; stay in. Good weather and good times are somewhere on the horizon. Sending rays of Hope and Joy on this Easter Sunday.

A bicycle gets a new life, and geraniums get a ride at Ellwanger Barry Estate Bed & Breakfast on Mt. Hope Avenue (Photo by Elizabeth Campbell)

“Staying Inn at the Ell” Update

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"Staying Inn at the Ell"  Update
Bear hugging the world
What the world needs now is love sweet love... and hugs, and Bear Hugs.
During these uncertain and unprecedented times
What the world needs now is love sweet love… and hugs, and Bear Hugs. 

During these uncertain and unprecedented times, like many of you, we’re asking ourselves “What can we do?” First, we can practice safe measures for ourselves, our families and our communities. Secondly, we can be grateful. Grateful for the brave first responders, doctors, nurses, delivery people, food workers, truckers and all essential workers who are the warriors on the front lines, our Heroes, literally risking their lives to combat this war.

It’s time to express gratitude for what we have and continue to hold. At the Ellwanger Estate, we’re grateful for our guests, family and friends who have helped us grow for the last 11 years. Here’s our news from home:

  • We were, and still are, planning a renovation to the potting shed, AKA:The REC Room, located on the hill directly behind the B&B. This is something that keeps us looking forward to our completion date of April 22, Earth Day.  We’ll keep you updated on that.
  • As we work from home, we’re excited to announce that very soon we will be planting a Victory Garden. Right now most of our seeds are sprouting in the green house. Look on Facebook and Instagram for announcements on “Sprouting at the Ell”. More on our new plans shortly.
  • Right now, we’re all learning a new meaning about the comforts of home. So we’ve been virtual lunching and learning, completing projects, training our Hospitality Intern remotely, preparing and delivery meals to at risk individuals, saved an elopement (for 2) from a City Hall cancellation, and sheltered a father/son (think whole mansion to themselves) while transitioning for a move across country.
  • As for reopening the B&B, right now we’re scheduling for May Day, May 1st and beyond, depending on the situation and government guidelines.
  • We’re adding a higher level of care, professional cleaning, and updates throughout the B&B.
  • We are offering gift certificates online as one way to support our guests who wish to cancel.

It’s been rewarding to step back and think more deeply about our wonderful business. These are some of the thoughts we’ve had and our dreams for the future. We send you our sincere wishes for peace, good health, and safety, and I thank you for your continuing support.

Stay safe and please keep in touch.

child hugging the world
Looking forward to seeing you soon!