About Maine Bed and Breakfast Lodging – price? value? warmth? location? breakfast?
Do A Little Reading First
Camden Maine has many bed and breakfasts, or “B&B”s and they run the gamut in home styles, from Queen Anne Victorian, Federal, Greek Revival, and others. They run the gamut in rates, although, generally, the closer to downtown and the more amenities, and in high season, the rates tend to be higher than places outside of town with few or no amenities. Also, with Bed and Breakfasts, the B&B hosts tend to be viewed as part of the experience. Here too you will find many different kinds of people hosting from couples, to retired folks, families, and business people. It makes a difference to the experience who you choose. Most B&B websites include a brief bio or story on the hosts that will give you a clue as to their hospitality aesthetic. Ask yourself: Will the host’s view of what’s important to a guest be the same as yours?
Are B&B’s A Good Lodging Value
A quick review of room rates at the various bed and breakfasts factoring in their proximity to the harbor and the type of breakfast they serve will show right away what a great lodging value a B&B in Camden Maine is over boutique hotels, hotels and motels in the area.
A great way to find the perfect fit for you is to check some information on the websites. What kind of breakfast do they serve? What are the owner’s or hosts’ story? What about location important?
Is Location Important?
Camden Maine is a destination, and so its shops and restaurants, the nearby Camden Hills State Park, its architecture and a harbor filled with historic schooners, as well as some of the most amazing private yachts that charter cruises out of Camden Maine that can be seen anywhere, are some of the things to experience when here. Naturally Maine lodging near the attractions of the town tend to be the most popular places to stay.
What’s The Difference Between A Maine B&B, A Maine Hotel, and a Weekly Rental?
Since the convention of a Bed & Breakfast is that it is in a personal home, if you are used to standardized hotel experience unless you are seeking a B&B specifically because it is different from a hotel or other lodging, you will be surprised by a bed and breakfast.
Is my Maine lodging safe and legal?
With the downturn of the real estate market many house owners have been tempted to rent their homes to overnight guests.
Beware weekly rentals long term stays or efficiencies that hint they take overnight guests. These places are more than likely breaking the law when they take overnight guests. Weekly rentals do not have the same safety features and or rigors of inspections and state regulation as a licensed overnight lodging.
Windward Has a Great! Location
What Kind of Breakfast Can I Expect at a B&B in Camden Maine?
The breakfasts at B&Bs are another feature that experienced B&B guests look for. Almost all the B&B’s in Camden serve gourmet style single-choice breakfasts. The Windward House concentrates on serving local organic food prepared fresh. To the undiscerning eye it might appear to be ordinary, but both in its cost and taste this complimentary breakfast represents an extraordinary value. Windward House offers a menu breakfast with fresh fruit, gourmet fair trade shade grown freshly ground coffee, organic whole grain breads, organically fed free range eggs, and uncured naturally raised bacon along with daily specials and blueberries raised by a local land trust. While the breakfast is complimentary and comes free with your room, it wouldn’t be farfetched to claim that the Windward House breakfast is probably the most expensive breakfast served of any in town, – and it comes free with your room!
How About the Bed in a Bed and Breakfast?
Having stayed in many hotels, of many different qualities, I can personally attest to the fact that the bedding at the Windward House is world class. Most lodgings simply cannot afford to use the quality of the sheets or to lavish the time we spend on laundering and hand pressing. It’s a simple fact. And our reviews both in the guest books in the room, the comments by our guests as well as on sites such as TripAdvisor feature frequent raves from our guests who state something to the effect that they have enjoyed the best night’s sleep at Windward House. With high thread counts, meticulous selection of bedding, and applications, personal care to the laundering method as well as the hand pressing, it’s no surprise that our beds are hard to resist.
What is the Quality of Experience at a Maine Bed & Breakfast? – We’re Not Slick…
This brings me to the issue of quality of experience. Many places feature new but not particularly high quality furnishings or utilize excellent decorating in order to try and give their guests a good experience. We choose instead to focus on the things that touch our guests -, our personal interaction, – tending to their questions, plans, conversations, sharing with them their trip and ours through life. You will not find a manager or assistant or guest innsitter. It’s us – there for you. The bedding we described is a costly affair, but we think well worth the trouble, because we know that our guests come to enjoy a vacation away from the things that cause them stress. While it may not be apparent in a flashy website picture or staged video, or in the perfect matching of furnishings, nevertheless it is one of the ways that contribute to a memorable experience.
B&B Hosting As A Lifestyle
We believe in trying to be the change we want to see in the world – to borrow a phrase. That’s why we are an Environmental Leader in Hospitality. That’s why we serve fresh local and organic ingredients. Why we don’t use pesticides or herbicides or inorganic fertilizers. Why we contribute to local preservation, the library, and many local charitable causes in money and volunteer hours.
So when you see this old Greek Revival house on High Street, and think it looks like someone’s home – that’s because it is. And we are happy and proud to share it with you, not despite the fact that it isn’t new, or to borrow the term used to distinguish us from other lodgings, by a critic on TripAdvisor, it isn’t “slick”. Truth to tell, slick is about the last thing we’d want to be, and even though the guest meant it as a negative, we took it as a compliment -, and judging from their feedback the vast majority of our guests would view being slick as a negative thing. Our furnishings are not perfectly matched, the landscaping is done by us rather than a big outfit, we haven’t published a cook book or opened multiple locations. But our B&B is a great experience because of those things – not despite them. We’re just a small family trying to share a little bit of Camden with our guests. And our guests, even most who expected something else, have expressed to us that their visit to Camden was memorable and that they will return to the Windward House.