Calling all innkeepers and those who are aspiring innkeepers…

It is not too late to join Rita and I in Monterey for the 2009 INNSPIRE CONFERENCE AND TRADE SHOW. As usual the Albert Shafsky House will be attending to network with other innkeepers, attend the trade show to seek out new goodies for the rooms and guests to enjoy put on by the State Bed and Breakfast Association. This year the 2009 InnSpire Conference and Trade Show will be in beautiful Monterey, California where the famous 17-Mile Drive meets 17 years of CABBI’s dedication to educating innkeepers.

The 2009 InnSpire Conference and Trade Show will take place February 1-3, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Resort & Spa, located at One Old Golf Course Road, Monterey, CA 93940.

Innkeepers will share ideas with each other, aspiring innkeepers will get to find out if they have what it takes to make their dream a reality and all will have a great time at the trade show and getting to know one another better. We look forward to the CABBI conference all year!

Innkeeping Conference in Monterey Super Bowl Weekend

Yes, it is that time of year when we put away the decorations at the Albert Shafsky House and think about heading to the California Bed and Breakfast (CABBI) which will be held in Monterey later this month…This year it happens to fall on Super Bowl weekend and we are so looking forward to wearing our favorite team jerseys to the event.  Go Niners!

This year the conference will be combining the aspiring innkeepers with the “old hands” (like us I suppose now).  Rita is going to be speaking this year about what it is like to live where you work, a topic we are intimately familiar with and I will we hosting a workshop on Blogs and Social Networking.

If you are interested in attending this great, informative, networking, trade show event, please click here.

FACTS:
17th Annual CABBI InnSpire Conference
Date: February 1-3, 2009
Where: Hyatt Regency Monterey
Website: www.innspireconference.com
Direct them here where they can register, look at the schedule & workshop descriptions, Hyatt info etc.
Or this link is right to the schedule and workshop descriptions:

http://www.innspireconference.com/conference-schedule.php

Join us for Prohibition Day and Celebrate the Repeal! Free tickets/with booking and 20% off your stay!

 

Lets celebrate! Some of our favorite wineries will be pulling out special wine selections in honor of the historic repealing of prohibition. Come and party in period style as you travel back in time to visit these rebellious wineries while enjoying fine wines. Proceeds from the ticket sales will be donated to Mother Load Rehabilitation Enterprise of Placerville. Vintage cars and costumes encouraged. Participating wineries: Boeger Winery, David Girard Vineyards, Gold Hill Vineyard & Wofford Acres Vineyards $15/per person or $20/couple $5/designated driver. Check in by 3 p.m. on December 5th, and we will comp your tickets to this “historic” event. It promises to be a night of fun and frolic.

More haunting in Placerville, CA

As promised here is more of the finding of the Gold Rush Ghost folks from their visit at the Albert Shafsky House B&B.

From Paul Dale Roberts:”After gathering all of the history about the Shafskys, I wanted to know the experiences of Rita and Stephanie. I wanted to know what the guests also felt in this spacious bed and breakfast. While I was getting the information from Rita and Stephanie, Nancy sensed their was a ghostly fuzzy white dog and a ghostly tabby cat that was still roaming around in the premises of this home. As the interview continued, I learn that Rita and Stephanie owned the home for 6 years, they absolutely fell in love with the enchanting personality of this home. They have both experienced hearing heavy footsteps on the second floor, books being flown off the shelves, lightbulbs being unscrewed. They will also find pennies laying about the house. Mrs. Shafsky was known to save pennies. Nancy was feeling the presence of a small child in the neighboring room. Later she feels that two kids are playing. Could this perhaps be the children of Albert & Kitty? Rita and Stephanie at times hear piano music playing in the lounge room. Sometimes they smell cherry pipe smoke from 7:30pm to 8:30pm in the evening. On this very night, the cherry pipe smoke aroma filled the room for a matter of a few minutes during the interview process.

I learn that during storms, the activity seems to increase, as if the entities may be drawing energy from the ion particles in the atmosphere. Guests have seen a man on the stairs, it has been suggested that the man is Albert Shafsky himself. Shoes have been placed in order underneath the bed by an unseen force. We later learn that Kitty Shafsky’s mother Thora Bean died in this home. Nancy conducting a psychic reading of the house, discovers that Albert Shafsky and his wife Kitty are here in this home. She also feels Alberta, Boyd and Bernice are still here. Nancy feels that it is Kitty, who is playing the piano in the lounge area room. Nancy picks up the fact that two dogs are buried in the backyard and the ghostly presence of the fuzzy white dog and tabby cat are also in this home. There was one more entity that Nancy picked up on, she said that Marian Wing a former resident of this home is still here making her haunting presence known.

Nancy picks up more energy signatures that indicate that Boyd had some kind of breathing problem and she could see Kitty beating on a rug outside on the porch. She said that Kitty was always concerned on the condition of her floors, she wanted the floors cleaned and tidy. Going through some old notes on the Shafsky, I found something comical. When Albert Shafsky was a little boy, he was on a ship with his father, he wanted to know what the time was and picked up an English dictionary to say “what o’clock is it?” and instead accidentally said “son of a b****”.

The entities of this home, seem to be completely benevolent, they mean no harm to the owners and only want to make their presence known at certain times. Since little children are seen, this home probably has a combination of residual haunting activity in which an act replays itself over and over again. Case example, the children playing in the adjourning room. The children could possibly be the children of Albert & Kitty Shafsky. There seems to be some intelligent activity with the books flying off the shelf, as possibly one of the entities is trying to make a statement or let the owners know that he or she is around. With this beautiful bed and breakfast there is absolutely nothing to fear. If you ever stay at this bed and breakfast, you will even be greeted by the cutest miniature dachshund named Lily. Lily has detected presences in this home too. She will bark at an area where there is nothing there to be seen.

The Shafsky House is pretty popular, since established people of Hollywood have stayed here. Such as the location scouts for the movie Memoirs of a Geisha and the Director of the movie trailer Pirates of the Caribbean has stayed here too. Steve Hanks the well known artist has comfortably stayed the night at the Shafsky House to rejuvenate from his travels. If there was a haunted home I want to live in, the Shafsky House is right there on my list! “

Bed and breakfast inns (without children)?

Many people associate inns with antiques and peace & quiet, but there is certainly no “rule” about this. Our policy at the Albert Shafsky House B&Bis that only 2 persons are allowed in the room overnight….so if you want to bring your daughter or son, and that means there are now 4 in your party…you would need to rent 2 of our rooms. That is certainly fine to do, and if you are bringing your son or daughter as a single traveler, we would be delighted to have the 2 of you stay with us….

Here is the article in the paper that prompted me to post this….

Travel Q & A: Why are children not generally welcomed at bed-and-breakfast inns?

Article Launched: 06/23/2008 11:38:39 AM PDT in the San Jose Mercury News.

Why are children not generally welcomed at bed-and-breakfast inns? I would like to understand the rationale behind this rule. And it would be wonderful if you could write about inns that are kid-friendly.
- Kim Nguyen, San Jose Imagine all the couples sitting at B&B breakfast tables right now, reading this and choking on their freshly baked orange-currant scones at the very prospect of a rug-rat invasion!
But before banishing you and your little darlings to a campground, we decided to check with the California Association of Bed & Breakfast Inns for a little history and a policy update.
“Historically, B&Bs have been associated with romantic getaways and offer quiet, quaint retreats from the hustle-bustle of life,” said Stacy Rollo, spokeswoman for the California association. “Many inns still cater to this customer and want to be known as a quiet haven.”
But, like others in the lodging industry, B&Bs have had to change with the times. Parents increasingly want to take their children along on long-weekend getaways, and many crave a civilized inn experience.
In fact, for the past five years, Rollo says, the industry has heard from more and more families who want to shun the high-rise hotel experience.
So now, 25 percent of the California association’s 300 inns are family-friendly.