“Select Registry’s mission is to promote and elevate niche, specialty accommodations into a universal, recurring pursuit. We empower like-minded travelers and properties to find one another through authentic and comfortable lodging experiences.”
Well, there you have it. If you’re searching for quality, affordable accommodations on the road, look no further than the approximately 400 properties represented by Select Registry. (On all of their printed material and Web site, they run “Distinguished Inns of North America” under the logo. That gives you some idea of how they feel about member properties.)
I first discovered this great collection a little over a year ago in Petoskey, MI. I had planned a surprise bicycling trip for Bobbi’s birthday. I was able to get into Stafford’s Bay View Inn only one night of this September weekend since a wedding party was due to invade the place the next night and take up all the rooms.
Our reservation included a voucher for a comp breakfast in the airy little restaurant overlooking the bay. Before breakfast, I was looking around the adjacent lobby and picked up the directory published by Select Registry. As you have probably figured out by this time, Stafford’s is a member. I’m always prowling about for new places to visit, and we especially relish old B&Bs with charm and character—as well as quaint small hotels.
This collection seemed right up our alley. As I flipped through the pages, there didn’t seem to be a mega hotel in the bunch. What I found instead were hundreds of country inns, luxury B&Bs and unique small hotels.
Norman Simpson founded Select Registry in the 1960s. Simpson is widely regarded as the “father of country inn travel in America,” due mostly to the publication of Country Inns and Back Roads.
Becoming—and continuing as—a member property of the Select Registry is no easy or simple matter. Every applicant property must pass a stringent quality assurance inspection. If a property fails the inspection, owners may reapply after six months. But just getting on the registry is only step one of an ongoing process. Here’s how the Select Registry Web site describes their regular inspections of member properties.
“Select Registry carries out a quality assurance inspection for each of its nearly 400 inns. This program involves independent inspectors—not employees of Select Registry—with years of experience in the hospitality industry. The inspectors arrive unidentified, spend the night, and evaluate the inn on a detailed point system, which translates into a pass/fail grade.
Inns applying for membership are inspected, as are existing members on a periodic schedule. Not all inns have what it takes to pass the inspections, and this process provides a guarantee to the traveling public that a Select Registry inn is in a class of its own. A recent Internet directory identified over 20,000 ‘country inns and B&Bs’ in the United States and Canada. A select few of those are members of the Select Registry. No other online directory or organization of innkeepers has established a comparable inspection program.”
In the months ahead, I’ll be sharing with you some of the Select Registry properties in the Midwest. So by spring you’ll be ready to hit the road with fresh places in mind to stay.
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