If you’re looking for a bed and breakfast in my neck of the woods, the Southern Michigan Bed and Breakfast Association (SMIBBA) would like you to start with them. To see what they have to offer, check out their website.
Before we go any further, let’s be sure of what I mean by “our neck of the woods.” SMIBBA is an organization of inns in the southern band along the base of the Michigan mitten. If you dig out your Michigan map, put a pencil on Saugatuck and draw a line across the state from west to east, you’ve pretty much drawn the northern boundary of SMIBBA’s service area.
We’re talking about the southern Michigan corridor north of the Indiana/Ohio border on the south up to the line we talked about on the north. Many of the inns are located close to popular travelers’ destinations in Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Marshall, Saugatuck—plus Shipshewana and South Bend, IN.
The SMIBBA website gives you plenty of ways to search for inns—by region, city, name, amenity, specials, events and attractions. Clicking on the Region button will give you a snapshot of the eighteen member B&Bs in the southwest, central and southeast sections of the service area. Cities represented are Niles, Allegan, Fennville, Three Rivers, Union, Albion, Mendon, Jonesville, Concord, Somerset, Brooklyn, Adrian, Dimondale and Hudson. A few cities have more than one member inn.
As I have said here before, spending the night in a B&B is not like bedding down in one of the links of those popular chains we have all tried. Opting for B&B accommodations is a lot like choosing to stay in someone’s home. In fact, chances are good you will be staying in someone’s home. With that in mind, the SMIBBA site has a good section on Inn Etiquette which covers the unique personalities of B&Bs, along with bed and bath accommodations, privacy, amenities, children, pets, behavior, service and, of course, the all-important breakfast.
Clearly, this organization exists to serve and promote its member inns. I asked president Mike Venturini, innkeeper of the Munro House B&B in Jonesville, MI, what the benefit was to the traveling public. “Our organization provides mentoring for innkeepers. Because we’re in a small geographic area, it’s easy for us to get together on a regular basis to discuss common problems. Our meetings provide camaraderie for our members, and we learn from one another. In the end, that translates to better service for guests in all of our inns.”
The SMIBBA has no regular inspection policy for member inns. Of course, all inns must abide by local ordinances and meet and maintain local health department standards. Still, an inspection program to hold member inns accountable to quality standards would be good. But I admit this would be tough for a small group with less than two dozen to implement. Mike suggested that visitors check review sites like Trip Advisor for candid reviews of member inns. Since I’ve used that service many times with good results, I can’t really disagree with this as a reasonable compromise.
Mike says that many members are actively seeking business travelers and that many offer discounts to single business travelers on weekday nights. So if you travel for business in southern Michigan, consider that a hint.
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