A Tale of Three Inns

By Leila Javitch

The Weekend in Norfolk (WIN) this past summer was a lively event that brought many visitors to our beautiful town. As a longtime resident, I wondered how all the buzz and participation in the August weekend affected the businesses in Norfolk, specifically the local inns and bed and breakfasts. I was particularly interested in talking with the innkeepers at the Mountain View Inn, the Manor House Inn and the Blackberry River Inn.

The good news is that all three Norfolk inns are so booked on summer weekends that they didn’t notice any increase in patronage as a result of WIN. The concerts offered at the Norfolk Chamber Festival and Infinity Hall, and the many local weddings, fill the inns’ beds each weekend. But it also turned out that all three innkeepers made other interesting comments that are worth paying attention to.

Jean-Marie Johnson at the Mountain View Inn said that she saw a significant amount of interest generated by the tour of the Mountain View Inn as part of WIN’s historic house tour. Not just tourists, but several Norfolk residents who had never been inside the Mountain View came to see it. Johnson suggested that a well-publicized historic house tour in the fall or winter could bring many visitors to Norfolk.

Michael and Patti Sinclair, innkeepers at the Manor House, did not participate in the historic house tour during WIN because they had a full house of inn guests. However, this building has beautiful mahogany paneling as well as Tiffany windows and would certainly be a highlight in an off-season house tour.

The Sinclairs had other ideas for increasing the lodging business in Norfolk. They thought that, in addition to having an open house tour, the Manor House might begin offering an off-season high tea event, perhaps with music. In the autumn, they open the inn as a haunted house for Halloween when their street, Maple Avenue, becomes the busiest spot in Norfolk.

The Blackberry River Inn has a new manager, W. T.  Hughes. Since he arrived last May, Hughes has relied on his extensive background in the hospitality business to help improve business at the inn. Local food is now a highlight of the breakfast menu, with free-range eggs, and honey from Twin Pine Farms in Thomaston.

 Hughes raised an interesting issue. He pointed out that the room occupancy tax charged to a guest’s bill in Connecticut is 15 percent. This is the highest tax in New England. Our neighboring state, Massachusetts, only charges a 7.5 percent lodging tax.   Hughes believes this disparity causes the Blackberry to lose customers to inns located just over the state line in Massachusetts.

In July of this year, Connecticut passed legislation requiring Airbnb hosts to begin paying the same 15 percent occupancy tax.  According to one Norfolk Airbnb host, the legislation does not specifically state whether the host or the international Airbnb company should be responsible for collecting and remitting this tax.  The state hasn’t started auditing for this yet, so the Department of Revenue Services cannot report on whether this tax is in fact being collected.

It only makes sense that the state should find a way to enforce the Airbnb occupancy tax so as to make a level playing field for both Airbnbs and the formal inns. In addition, it seems clear that Norfolk would benefit from legislation that brought the Connecticut tax more in line with that of Massachusetts.