We are very proud to be hosting a group of travel writers from England this weekend, representing Sky Travel UK, Prima, and the UK representative of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.

The group will also be touring the Berkshires for three days, including visits to Cranwell, Tanglewood, Stockbridge, The Norman Rockwell Museum, The Red Lion Inn, Prime Outlets, Firefly Restaurant, Ventfort Hall Museum, Williamstown, The Clark Art Institute, North Adams and MassMoCa.    The tour is being coordinated by the Berkshire Visitors Bureau.

Press visits to Hampton Terrace have resulted in very positive exposure, including articles in USAToday, The WAG, BedandBreakfast.com and regional newspapers.   

For more than eight years, off-season weekend visitors to Hampton Terrace have visited Nejaimes Wine Shop in Lenox with a $30 Gift Certificate in hand, compliments of Hampton Terrace.

For the balance of March, leverage your $30 by taking advantage of their annual wine sale.    Many of their cases are marked down as much as 30% and many individual bottles are 50% off.    Why?    Makes no sense to me.   This store has become a destination for many from all over the Northeast.

The official excuse is that it is their 40th Anniversary.    But they do the same every year.    They also are hosting wine tastings every Saturday in March.   And on display are their large selections of cheeses, breads and complements.

A 2-night, off-season, weekend stay at Hampton Terrace includes the $30 Gift Card, full breakfast buffet, and 30% discount on a 3rd night.   We have 14 rooms, most featuring fireplaces and Jacuzzis.   #1 on Trip Advisor in Lenox.     We look forward to seeing you.

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!

Every year we schedule major upgrades at Hampton Terrace, and this year involves all new flooring  in our Wynnstay Cottage.    Our Living Room area (shown) now has a durable hardwood-style planking with area rugs to aid areas that have always had too much traffic for carpet.

And the guest rooms, as of yesterday, are newly carpeted with some bold new color changes.    All-in-all, a hugely positive experience for us…a chance to rebuild all of the beds to make sure they are solid, clean behind and under furniture which has not been moved in a while…    We get a lot of repeat visitation in our Wynnstay Cottage (6 guest rooms, all with gas fireplaces and Jacuzzis) and I cannot wait to hear the reactions.

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.

We are pleased to share that you can now  be a fan of Hampton Terrace, with a special set of benefits to be associated with that.    By following us on Facebook (and soon Twitter) you will be the first to know about special events here and in  the Berkshires, last-minute availabiilty, associated discounts, and other items of interest.  

CLICK HERE to register as a fan.

The Boston Symphony Tanglewood Schedule is out.   Tickets go on sale in February, but many people are locking in their accommodations now.    Hampton Terrace's Mid-Week Discount can save approximately 30%.   Add that to a weekend stay, and your average night stay will come well below average Lenox accommodations.

All rooms in the Main House and Cottage are discounted from $275 to $190/night.   Our King Suites drop from $345 to $275.    Hampton Terrace features full breakfast and an outdoor heated pool.   We have 14 guest rooms with private baths and are fortunate that our Trip Advisor ratings are above 98%.  

I bet you dd  not  know that last summer Hampton Terrace was the Official Summer Home for Larry King, the voice of the Tanglewood radio broadcasts.    If you live in the Boston area, you will know it soon, as the name Hampton Terrace floods the airwaves.    In return for hosting Mr. King for the summer, we earned a schedule of advertising time on Classical 99.5 WCRB Boston, and we plan to use it over the next six weeks.

The campaign will promote our long weekend New Year's Eve package, and the upcoming summer, as soon as the Tanglewood schedule is released.

WCRB also has a Classical Club Promotion, which will include a 2-night stay at Hampton Terrace, so tune in to the station for more details.

Hampton Terrace, the #1 rated Lenox inn according to Trip Advisor reviews, has been an inn since 1937.    We have 14 rooms, an outdoor heated pool during the summer, and include full breakfast buffet.   Currently, we are featuring a Romantic Weekend Special.

For fans of Peter, Paul & Mary, there will be special event in the Berkshires this weekend:   Peter Yarrow, his daughter Bethany and virtuoso cellist Rufus Cappadocia will honor the legendary folk trio at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield.    Mary died earlier this year, so this show, and its post-show cocktail and hors d'oeuvres at Blantyre will honor her, and raise money for the Berkshire Eagle's Newspaper in Education fund.

Tickets are $25 and $35 for the show, with an opportunity to have special seating and attend the post-show reception at Blantyre for $100.   They can be purchased by going to www.thecolonialtheatre.org or by calling 413-997-4444.

Turn this opportunity into a Romantic Weekend in the Berkshires by staying at Hampton Terrace in Lenox, the #1 rated Lenox b&b on Trip Advisor.   A two night stay includes a $30 gift certificate to Nejaimes, the local wine and gourmet food shop in town, full breakfast by candlelight each morning, and a fireplace/Jacuzzi room for either $189/night, or $249/night for a king suite.     If you are used to Lenox summer prices, you will recognize that this is a savings of about $100/night compared to the "season."   www.hamptonterrace.com  800-203-0656

Always take advantage of a 3-day weekend!    At  Hampton Terrace it is possible to do that with a 30% discount on the 3rd night, and a $30 wine gift certificate to help make it feel like vacation.

Hampton Terrace, the #1 Lenox inn on Trip Advisor, still has rooms available for Thanksgiving weekend.    We only serve breakfast here, but we are one block walk from the Village Inn, which serves excellent New England style meals, and which will be featuring a special Thanksgiving Dinner menu.    Also, Cranwell Resort is advertising a Thankgsgiving Buffet from noon until 5 on Thanksiving Day.

At Hampton Terrace, all of our rooms have private baths, most with Jacuzzis, unless you prefer to soak in an antique claw-foot tub.   I do.    Twelve of our fourteen rooms have fireplaces…quite high in a historic inn.     We include full breakfast buffet each morning, and we help you plan your 3-day weekend with e-mailed lists of the better restaurants and lists of things to do in the area.   The Hancock Shaker Village is a perfect match for a Thanksgiving Weekend in the Berkshires.