As we close in on 8 years since we opened Oak Hill on Love Lane Bed and Breakfast, we ask your forgiveness for patting ourselves on the back just a little!
First, we’d like to reflect on where we started. We fell in love with this historic house when first visiting Waynesville in September of 2007. It had been vacant for almost a year, but we could see through the old lace curtains, the dust and the myriad of forgotten furniture and plug in fragrance infuser thingies. We had been strongly counseled against starting a B&B from scratch; no guest history, no internet history, no systems, no nothing! And so the dream began. Many hours of cleaning, painting, shopping for furniture, sewing, setting up systems and doing our best to get our name out there. Yes, there were set backs and challenges, particularly the economic challenges we faced in early 2008 when NO ONE was traveling. But, we persevered. While creating Oak Hill, we constantly asked each other, “What would we want or expect when traveling?” Using that as our guideline, we set out to create a high-end bed and breakfast that we would not only enjoy staying in ourselves, but be proud to call ours.
It seems that throughout the process of building and growing our business, every setback or challenge was counterbalanced with more wonderful visitors! With every discouragement came kind words of encouragement from fantastic guests, many of which will be “friends” forever.
Fast forward to present…this year we were so gratified to learn that we had become the #1 B&B on Trip Advisor in our area. Our guests have been so kind to submit their reviews on Trip Advisor, the premier review site for travel. The use of review sites by consumers prior to making any purchasing decision has absolutely exploded in the past 5 years. Most of our guests mention that they have consulted some form of review before making their travel decisions. We are so gratified that our guests have graciously shared their opinions about their stay on Trip Advisor and other review sites.
This month (October 2015), we also became aware that Oak Hill on Love Lane B&B was named as one of The 50 Best B&Bs in America! Business Insider, (a business, celebrity and technology news website), worked with BedandBreakfast.com, the world’s most comprehensive bed and breakfast search engine, (more than 12,000 properties worldwide, representing nearly 80,000 rooms), to compile a list of the top 50 bed and breakfasts in America. WOW! With an estimated 17,000 B&Bs in the US (PAII), to be considered among the top 50…incredible! To say we are gratified and humbled, would be an understatement.
We feel very good about what we have created here at Oak Hill and these most recent honors have made all the hard work worth it. This is simply the icing on the cake. With sincere thanks to all of our guests who most generously posted reviews on both Trip Advisor and BedandBreakfast.com. This would not be possible without you!