Who inspected your last overnight getaway?

 You would be surprised on how many people do not ask the most important ?? there is.  Is the place you choose to stay inspected by anyone?  Especially for lodging safety and issuing them a true lodging license?  We travelers just assume (and we all know how to spell THAT) the state is taking care of those important issues.  Well, they do to a certain extent.

  The state of Missouri does not have tons of money.  They limit the inspection process only to inns or other establishments if they have 5 or more rooms.  If you have under 5 rooms, they feel there are no issues, no ptomaine poison, dirty kitchens or fire hazards.  Our state associations helps with this greatly, they do send inspectors to check you out.  Make sure you have fire extinguishers, basic cleanliness, no animals in the kitchen, etc.  The state goes one step further making sure you adhere to the food, kitchen, and fire escapes issues, and hard wiring smoke alarms etc. Did you know that smoke alarms only last 5 yrs or so?  Changing the batteries is not enough. Just means they have fresh batteries. Get some smoke in a can and see what happens if you spray that on it; will it go off?


  In Hannibal, MO all the hotels have a lodging license.  Three of ten or so B&B's have them. One is not required to have one, but choose to have one anyway.  Just because the state does not require it, does not mean you cannot have one.  These are the ones where their business is real to them.  No holds barred here.  Rules are rules, don't skimp on health issues.  It is easy for me to refer folks to these other places, one is a former brothel with little if any interaction with the innkeeper and they have a restaurant as well as us.  The other is a B&B closer to what we have here at Garth, except they are downtown and are not able to offer some of the extras we do here.
  I try to field the calls when potential guests are just calling around and asking simple questions.  I will flat out tell them to ask the right questions when they call the other places.  It might not seem important to them at the time, but it really is after they check in and are trying to decide if they should check out, go home, just put up with it for one night or find another place that late.
  So, here are my most important questions I suggest you ask when calling or perusing a website of inn if you do not see the answer already. Read #7, one inn here in Hannibal thinks if you are in the bathroom, it is private.  There is a door on it, isn't there?  They think that makes is private.  Not me! Ouch! Shared is different to them.


#1. Do they have a lodging license by the state they are in? Who inspects them? Health, fire, city, etc.?
#2. Is there someone on site 24/7?  (What if you need 911 and you do not have the address? Cell phones do  not always tell the operator where you are.)
#3. Are there animals inside the building?
#4. Are they flexible with check-in and out times?
#5. Off street parking or parking lot?
#6. Ask about WiFi, this will make a difference with some cell phone coverage.
#7. Is your bath really private? or is it shared with another room?
#8. Where is breakfast served. Same building? Our smaller cottages walk to the main building here.
#9.Central heat and air or are they the box things in the windows?
#10. Is there smoking allowed inside? Don't take this one for granted.  I even ask if the innkeepers smoke.
Another way is to make sure they  belong to a serious group of inns.  We belong to the Diamond Club, which is a group of selected inns by BedandBreakfast.com and their association of over 300 inns.  There are only 92+ inns chosen on here.  And if they are here, you know they are exceptional. All the amenities you can think of having are required; we have those plus more.  Can't beat our engraved toothbrushes, but that is another blog.