A Select Few: Select Registry

When looking for the finest venue to hold your perfect special occasion, wedding, or other milestone event, look to the experts at Select Registry. With over 400 spectacular Inns and B&Bs to choose from, you can rest-assured that each one is of the finest standard and quality. Learn more about this foundation that strives to offer the best in luxury, food, and service.

In the late 1960s, one man had an interesting idea. A travel writer named Norman Simpson drove throughout North America in a paneled station wagon, identifying unique places that offered what he called, ’Äúgood honest lodging, good honest food, and good honest feeling.’Äù Simpson’Äîthrough his pioneering book, Country Inns and Back Roads’Äîintroduced an entirely new type of lodging experience to the traveling public’Ķan experience rooted in hospitality, quality, attention to detail, and exceptional settings. Today, nearly 40 years later, the Association Simpson founded is alive and well as ’ÄúSelect Registry, Distinguished Inns of North America.’Äù

Select Registry includes more than 400 of the finest country inns, luxury B&Bs, and unique small hotels from California to Nova Scotia. Comprised of only the best properties (independently and anonymously inspected on a regular basis), the Association is the premier guide to exceptional travel and lodging’Äîunique alternatives in an increasingly cluttered and impersonal travel marketplace. The diversity of the Association reflects the diversity in the marketplace. As we often say, ’Äúdifferent styles, different places, all Select.’Äù

Post-9/11’Äîand, indeed, during the current economic downturn’Äîdiscerning guests are increasingly looking for romantic getaways, respite, comfort, personal service, and value when they travel. Select Registry inns, with their wonderful history, beautiful landscaping, luxurious service, dining, spa services, and more, clearly fit that bill to a ’ÄúT.’Äù And, in this economy, leisure travelers who might otherwise choose to visit Europe or stay a week in Cancun will, increasingly, choose to use their travel dollars where they can get such experiences regionally or at smaller, high-quality properties.

In addition to exceptional physical attributes and services, hospitality has always been at the center of what it means to belong to this Association. In the preface to Country Inns and Back Roads, Norman Simpson, articulated what he was looking for when it came to members: ’ÄúEach inn is original and unique, a reflection of the personalities and tastes of the innkeeper-owners, who are more than likely on hand to make their guests feel at home. This presence generates a strong feeling of involvement. I refer to it as personal hospitality.’Äù

Since the Association’Äôs inception, hospitality has been at the core of the requirements for being chosen as a member. For many years, our motto was ’Äúthe Shining Light of Hospitality.’Äù Long-time member and former President, Stafford Smith of Stafford’Äôs Bay View Inn in Petoskey, Michigan, echoed Norman Simpson’Äôs intent when he noted that the legendary traveler/association founder saw ’Äúthat our members ’Äòwere a different breed’Äô of people, who wanted to provide our guests with a special kind of hospitality that was not found in the overly commercial world.’Äù

In today’Äôs truly "overly commercial world," such hospitality—whether conveyed by an innkeeper/owner or the professional staff at the inn—is an essential component of a special "inn experience." This is what sets it apart from other organizations and continues to make membership in Select Registry unique and special.

Indeed, as today’Äôs travelers explore options for their leisure and business travel in a time of economic uncertainty, it stands to reason that they will look for the same sort of exemplars in inns and bed-and-breakfasts across North America. Given the realities of today’Äôs economy and travel patterns, they will be even more discriminating when they travel. There’Äôs no time like the present to differentiate your property by acknowledging evolving guest expectations in the context of providing hospitality and ’Äòabove and beyond’Äô experiences for your guests. Whether or not you’Äôre a Select Registry member, you won’Äôt be sorry if you anticipate those expectations and provide the best value for your guests’Äô travel dollars.

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