Comments on: A Close Brush with Financial Disaster

By: funny

funny — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:18:38 +0000

@ Sarah B:

That is sad news, indeed! Howard was a lovely, lovely man, and he and his wife made a five working couple. You folks did marvelous work! My ex- was a fairly wealthy man and we traveled to some fancy venues (the Greenbrier, among them). But I can’t recall any place on earth I’ve enjoyed as much as the Inn at 410.

I hope you’ve found a happy career and will thrive wherever you go! -vh

By: Sarah B

Sarah B — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:43:49 +0000

I used to work at the Inn at 410 when the proprietor you mentioned and his wife still owned it. In fact, I was the inkeeper that ran the place when they went out of town.
Sadly he has passed away- bicycling accident on Lake Mary road and they ended up selling it. They were great people to work for and yes, I was a student from NAU’s School of Restaurant Management program and loved it! It is a beautiful Inn to visit and I hope the new owners are a success. I haven’t found many Band B’s as quaint as this one. Flagstaff is a HUGE getaway destination for us Phoenicians especially when triple digit temp’s hit! I don’t think tourism will be too slow for them,,,I see all the traffic heading up there every weekend! And yes, Snowbowl is hot or miss with snow. I , for one, am not convinced about all the global warming hype but that is another subject all together! So, go visit this sweet b&b built in 1900 and see historic Flagstaff, AZ off the route 66! It is a great vacation idea for anyone. AND if I had that kind of money I would buy it in a heart beat =)

By: Personal Development Carnival (16th March 2009) | Health Money Success

Personal Development Carnival (16th March 2009) | Health Money Success — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:20:43 +0000

[...] presents A Close Brush with Financial Disaster posted at Funny about [...]

By: Ann Heitland

Ann Heitland — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:36:13 +0000

You can see burned patches on the mountains — those are usually from wilderness fires that have been left to burn themselves out (they are diligently watched). Smoke in town from fire is most often from the controlled burns that the fire departments and forest service set as part of the thinning, protective projects. Over the next few years, we’ll be moving away from the controlled burns to recycling of the thinned materials — another industry for Flagstaff!

By: funnyaboutmoney1

funnyaboutmoney1 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:33:13 +0000

What good news about the beautiful Inn! It is much to be hoped that it and the properties in the general downtown area continue to thrive; the general improvement and upgrading of the historic parts of Flagstaff (jump-started some years ago by the federal Main Street Program) have created a real asset to the state of Arizona.

Read the copy carefully and you’ll see that I do not say Flagstaff has had a massive fire–I say that massive fires have occurred in the ponderosa forests that cover Northern Arizona, where Flagstaff is located. And I have been in Flagstaff (actually, once when staying at the Inn, come to think of it) when fires were very close to the city and the air was filled with smoke. At least one mountainside within the developed area was blackened by a forest fire; I have seen it.

Also am glad to hear NAU’s hospitality program has survived; I was told some years ago that it was closing.

By: Ann Heitland

Ann Heitland — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:18:06 +0000

You were right not to buy the Inn because you did not have the appropriate background and experience, or (probably) capital, to run it. Instead, it was purchased by a fellow who had been in the hospitality industry and a real estate broker for several decades. He improved the infrastructure, added a guest suite where the former owners quarters existed, and upped the revenue substantially. Flagstaff has never had a massive forest fire, as you allege and credit for that goes to forest perservation planning by the Forestry Dept at NAU and great planning and hard work by our local fire departments. The hospitality school at NAU is alive and well and has gotten a great boost from the opening of a new conference center in conjunction with a Drury Lane hotel in the last year. Tourism is down with the recession, but until last fall it had grown regularly each year. We do not depend on Grand Canyon business, but the attractions of Flagstaff itself. In addition, there is healthy business growth in Flagstaff and the Inn benefits from recruiting visits of potential employees at FMC, Gore and others. Now, the Inn is for sale again — a new, improved, but historically preserved spot. The owner is selling not because business is down or because he is burned out, but because he’s ready for a new challenge in the hospitality industry — his life-long profession.

By: funnyaboutmoney1

funnyaboutmoney1 — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:38:48 +0000

@mtinnkeeper: The horse photos at your site are spectacular. It looks like you have an absolutely gorgeous place! Sometimes the risk and a lot of work are worth it.

By: mtinnkeeper

mtinnkeeper — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:19:51 +0000

life’s a dance you learn as you go.. I trusted my “G-dinstincts” and just knew when we penciled the numbers and how synchronicity lined up.. it was for us. Sounds like you made the right call. What you were lucky was to have some “innside scoops” from the University on what was going on with the inn etc. So you could make a more informed choice

Always room at the inn if your travels take you here

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