RE: 'Innkeepers say Hollywood 'reality' show unreal' 5-24-07

Most bed and breakfasts are small family-owned and operated businesses. We must (and wish to) offer an excellent facility and hospitality to our guests or will not remain in business for long.

Hollywood, every time a B and B is portrayed in a movie, in a sit-com, or in a so-called reality show, damages the reputation of a small industry with no regards to the consequences to that industry. They got their laugh and their dollars.

There is no and never has been any “reality” on any reality program. It is geared to make the people who are saps enough to waste time watching it either feel that their lives are better than that or to get a salacious, voyeuristic thrill.

A bed & breakfast in truth will give one a lovely surrounding, good food (usually great food), personal attention, and information about the area, its people and attractions, and excellent directions to whatever the guest needs. A bed and breakfast adds to the economy of its region. Oftentimes, the innkeeper is actively involved in the community and a volunteer. If nothing else, the B & B is marketing the area and events at the expense of the inn - guests need a reason to come to an unknown area.

Tori, from day one, had no connection with the reality of what an innkeeper is or what it takes to be one. This is the considered opinion of an owner/host of a small bed & breakfast - Gillum House - in West Virginia who is approaching 12 years of innkeeping. I love what I do and am good at it! I resent anyone who takes what I worked so hard to accomplish and makes it into something it is not.

Kathleen Panek