Those following news about the Berkshires know that National Geographic Traveler recently rated us one of the Top Ten Destinations in the world!   Of course, having a world-class summer season of theater, dance and music is part of the package.    But if the place completely dried up the rest of the year, I do not believe we would have received this recognition.

Thanks to recent renovations of the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield and the Mahaiwe Theater in Great Barrington, great performances are available to local audiences, and off-season visitors all year.    Just over the next several weeks, the Mahaiwe is featuring a showing of Paul Newman’s Cool Hand Luke, the Metropolitan Opera presents an HD broadcast of "Hamlet," David Bromberg is in town to showcase his folk, blues and bluegrass innovations.   Finally, local favorite Shawn Colvin is here April 16th.

The Colonial Theatre has Roger McGuinn and Tom Rush this weekend, as well as nine other presentations in the next 30 days.    And this is April!   The offerings include speakers, lecturers, music, and even Beatlemania.

Hampton Terrace is located about 15 minutes from each venue.    Let us help you plan a great Berkshire weekend, including an experience at one of our beautifully renovated venues.

We are very proud at Hampton Terrace of our loyal customer base.   There are more than 4,000 couples who remain on our newsletter list, even though opting out is one click away.    We are equally proud that our summers fill each year with more than 50% repeat visitation.

We are careful about sending out our e-mail newsletters, knowing that an abuse of our valuable e-mail list will result in more opt-outs.  So we limit our newsletters to about three per year….two of them pertaining to important dates involving Tanglewood.   The third features off-season specials.

So we see Facebook as a terrific opportunity for those guests who want to hear more from us to voluntarily do so.    Through Facebook we will be offering last-minute specials, discounts and values….and as importantly….we will keep you in touch with interesting Berkshire activities….for example…last night was the inaugural lighting of the new Westinghouse Street Lights in the village.    A little known fact:   Lenox was among the first towns in America to have electrically lit streets, due to the fact that George Westinghouse’s wife did not like the dark ride from her summer home into the village.   He was in  the process of installing street lights in downtown Niagra Falls, so she leaned on him to  throw a few around Lenox.    Now, 100 years later, there are still a few of the original (although non-working) lights around town, which served the role of allowing us to make exact replicas for the newly restored Lenox streetscape.   

The town leaders turned out last night, dressed in full turn-of-the-century formality, to flip on the new lights.   You could have been here.    Future Facebook fans of Hampton Terrace will hear about such fun opportunities.  CLICK HERE!

Before Marti Mayne of BedandBreakfast.com visited Hampton Terrace a couple of years ago on a tour of Berkshire inns, she checked out our website.   I had always been told that we had a good website, but deep down I was not so sure.

After her stay, she volunteered that our inn photography undersold our inn, and that we should give serious thought to an upgrade.   She put me in touch with Mark and Matthew of Jumping Rocks Photography and the rest, as they say, is history.   In November 2008, they spent a couple of days shooting all of our guest rooms, and by January 2009, Kathy Barto and I had created a whole new website to showcase our pictures.    The impact was immediate and profound.

Our 2009 occupancy was 25% higher than 2008, in spite of the economy.   Most impressively, our off-season occupancy (all months except July, August and October) was up 60%!     The power of good images.

This increase got us noticed by USAToday as well.  

So next month in Austin, Texas, when PAII holds their annual convention, Jumping Rocks has asked permission to use Hampton Terrace as an example of the impact of good photography on a website.    Could not be more pleased to help out the guys who so profoundly helped us.

Anyone who has been to Lenox during Tanglewood Season knows that this is one of the premier destinations in the world.    That is seconded by National Geographic Traveler (#7 on their list).   The world-class level of our attractions, shops, galleries and restaurants is attributed to the quantity and the quality of our visitors.

What if we were to drastically reduce the quantity?    That would be the Berkshire off-season.     Yes, Tanglewood is covered with snow, and the live theaters have limited offerings (notice I said limited instead of none), and some of the historic house tours do not attempt to heat spaces that even the Gilded Age crowd knew could not be kept warm in January….but….everything else is yours:    all of the museums, the vast majority of the shopping and restaurants…plus the addition of skiing and all descriptions of winter sports and activites.    The inns are about 30% less….they are flexible with their minimum night stays (you won’t find a 3-night minimum).   

At Hampton Terrace we also help you ease into relaxation mode by offering a $30 credit at the local wine/gourmet food shop in town…and then by giving you full access to our self-service family heirloom bar from the 1940s.    January is snowy, but we have 17 fireplaces on our property.   17.   How is that possible?

Maybe I am biased because I like to eat….but I think the best thing about January in the Berkshires is walk-in access to scores of highly-rated, interesting restaurants.    About a dozen within walking distance, and several notables in every surrounding town.    Many feature off-season fixed price, multiple course menus.   

I have a lot more things I can add here….but why don’t I continue with a Part 2 tomorrow?

As I sit in front of this computer, the temperature outside has passed 80 degrees, which for May in the Berkshires, is early.    And probably temporary.   It will make our Memorial Day guests ask about our covered pool.    Two nights ago, it was 31, so that is not quite fair.    However, it is always our goal to  have it  open by now.

But this year, our pool operator is running behind getting peoples’ pools open.   There is a new federal law mandating a pump shutoff function on pool drains.    That caught  me by surprise, although I  do remember now that someone  in Congress had pushed this through when his granddaughter had been pinned under the water by a pool drain.    Fixing this potential problem is important, although it will cost us $1,000 for the new drain plus labor.   The larger issue is that installing these new drains caught us by surprise, and we would have made sure that we were higher in the queue with our pool guy.   Now he has to open the pool, wait for the chemicals to make the water safe, and for the pool heater to raise the temperature to a point where  he can go underwater to the drain, and make the change.    Then he has to wait for the health department to inspect the new system before they will issue the certificate for the pool to open  this year.    So this weekends’ guests will be disappointed.    Unless the temperature goes back down to 30.

Hampton Terrace is one of the few Berkshire or Lenox inns with an outdoor heated pool.   We typically keep it open through September.

Every two weeks, the Berkshire Visitors Bureau sends out a newsletter which highlights upcoming events in the Berkshires. At Hampton Terrace, we consider this a valuable resource, and encourage anyone who wants to receive this information to go to their website www.berkshires.org and fill out the short form for their on-line newsletter. And stay at Hampton Terrace! CLICK HERE

Plan a trip to the Berkshires this weekend for the Berkshire International Film Festival, May 15-18 in Great Barrington, MA. Events include the screening of 60 films and Q&A sessions with over two dozen filmmakers. The opening night features "Man on Wire," with Philippe Petit in attendance, a Kevin Bacon tribute including the actor himself and special guests, and finally a new digital edition of "Blade Runner" with special effects wizard Doug Trumbull in attendance. For more information, check out www.biffma.com and stay at Hampton Terrace. We have rooms left and look forward to hearing from you. 800-203-0656

While attending a technology workshop last month presented by the Berkshire Visitors Bureau, I was impressed with Bob O’Haver of GrayMatter Technologies and his comments concerning Search Engine Optimization. Over the years, virtually all of our bookings at Hampton Terrace have come via people finding us on the search engines, and keeping current on "search engine optimization" has always been my high priority. Hampton Terrace’s website is very complex, with literally hundreds of pages that are daily indexed by Google, Yahoo and others. As the secret algorithms change, it is very important to have someone who is watching the statistics to make sure that we do not fall in relevance, compared to other lodging properties in the area. I just returned from the Professional Association of Innkeepers convention in Anaheim where I attended every seminar available on the topic. Afterwards, I met with Bob for over an hour, and found that every strategy that currently employs is consistent with the latest recommendations by national experts. So Gray Matter it is for us. So if you find this entry on Google….or if you find our website near the top of key word searches….thank Bob. I am. To see Hampton Terrace’s website, CLICK HERE.