The Innkeeper's Journal | Stanton House Inn

Category The Innkeeper’s Journal

Why Most Hotels Feel the Same

Front facade of Stanton House Inn in May

We get an offer to buy Stanton House Inn about once a week. Some weeks, two or more. I get it. Someone looks at comparable sales near New York City, divides the price by the number of rooms, and lands…

Hospitality Is Designed, Not Performed

Books on a bookcase, a tiny example of our design in hospitality

I used to think excellence at an inn came from trying harder. Care more. Stay later. Wear every hat. If something wasn’t working, the answer was effort. That’s a slippery slope, though. I almost slid off it. If you’d rather…

You Can’t Host Well on Burnout

Garden gate in the back gardens of Stanton House Inn

There’s a myth in hospitality that good service means being endlessly available. Always on. Always accommodating. I believed that for a long while myself. Then I hit the winter of 2019 completely spent. Not tired. Spent. Like butter scraped over…

Before They Were Guest Rooms, We Lived in Them

Room 14 at Stanton House Inn, Greenwich CT — a former family TV room now a ground-floor king with private entrance and patio

My family has run this inn for four generations. And at one point, we didn’t just run it. We lived in it. For about six months, when I was five or six years old, a section of Stanton House Inn…

What Guests Feel at a Great Bed and Breakfast (But Never See)

Front sign to a great inn

Most guests at a great bed and breakfast never see the thinking behind the stay. They notice the room. The breakfast. Maybe that someone remembers they take their coffee black. What they don’t see are the invisible layers underneath. That…

Why Our Doors Close Every December

A quiet exterior winter shot of Stanton House Inn's sign: soft light, light snow on the trees

Every year, shortly before Christmas Eve, Stanton House Inn goes quiet. The espresso machine gets a break. The front door stops clicking open and shut. We close our doors for about three weeks. And yes, it’s on purpose. And no,…