We just returned from another great shoot at Settlers Inn in Hawley, PA.
Owners Jeanne and Grant Genzlinger continue to do great things there (even after 20 plus years!) It’s truly inspirational. We thought we’d share 10 things we love about the inn. View a slideshow of some of the photos we have taken there, which illustrate some of these “favorite things”.
1. The inn has great bath amenities from Thyme. Wonderful products…and best of all they are environmentally so superior to all those little plastic bottles everyone uses.
2. A number of healthy options is offered at breakfast—including their signature oatmeal and home-made granola. Sure, we all love a big bountiful breakfast, but sometimes it is nice to eat light (especially for guests staying more than one or two nights). Offering both options is best!
3. The décor is well-conceived, simply straightforward and very high quality—refreshing, clean and uncluttered.
4. The restaurant serves a lot of local foods—just about everything (if not EVERYTHING) is raised nearby. The best: their Blooming Grove Brook Trout, which arrives at the inn still swimming!
5. Gardens. If you have gardens, you know how hard it is to keep up with this, but they do. Wonderful places to wander and linger and appreciate.
6. They offer some really inspirational creative packages. My personal favorite is their new Woodstock package. No offense, but it is just so refreshing to see something other than chocolate, champagne and rose petals.
7. Water coolers at the ends of the hallways and beautiful carafes in each room to fill with cool spring water allow guests to avoid those famously wasteful plastic bottles.
8. Great design of their smaller rooms. Any innkeeper who has a few small rooms should take a peak at how the Settlers Inn designs and decorates these smaller spaces. This is always a challenge, but Settlers does it so well.
9. The theme of the inn—the Arts and Crafts Style—is so consistently applied throughout the inn. This is a tall order and done so successfully there.
10. Most of all, we appreciate the “make no little plans” approach adopted by the owners in running the inn. Everything they do—from the menus, to the environmentally responsible running of the inn, to the gardens, to the incredible Christmas decorations—all of it is done with passion, flair and freshness. Nothing feels tired or reluctant. As many innkeepers know, this is tough when one has owned an inn for years and years!
Finally congratulations to Settlers for just being named as a Top 10 Historic Hotel by the inspectors at AAA! Read about the 10 hotels at: http://www.hotelresource.com/article39562.html
Settlers was recognized along with The Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, MI and The 5-star Heritage Hotel in Nashville, among others.