While Veteran’s Day seems like a long time from now, it’ll be here before we all know it. That’s why B&Bs for Vets is starting to focus on the 2018 program now. Hoping to build it to the largest list of B&B offers for military in the country.
You may have participated in the past… or not. AIHP once again is promoting the program, but all B&Bs are welcome to join, whether you are a member of AIHP or not. Please consider joining this worthy “give back” program in 2018.
Our country recently lost a veteran, one we all know, John McCain. Many of his words are inspiring and exemplify what honor, duty, country really mean. Let’s take a look at a few.
“I was raised in the concept and belief that duty, honor, country is the lodestar for the behavior that we have to exhibit every single day.”
As a young man serving in Vietnam, McCain was captured and held as a prisoner in the “Hanoi Hilton,” infamously known for its brutality. He was severely injured, breaking both arms and a leg. After about a year, he was offered early release because of his family connections, but McCain refused to leave his fellow POWs behind.
McCain said, “In many ways it was the most uplifting experience in my life, because I was privileged to serve in the company of heroes.”
As an older man after serving sixty years in service to his country he was the recipient of the 2017 Liberty Medal Award.
McCain said, “It has not been perfect service, to be sure, and there were probably times when the country might have benefited from a little less of my help. But I’ve tried to deserve the privilege as best I can, and I’ve been repaid a thousand times over with adventures, with good company, and with the satisfaction of serving something more important than myself, of being a bit player in the extraordinary story of America. And I am so very grateful.”
As innkeepers you have the opportunity to host, serve and honor our country’s veterans at your B&Bs on Veterans Day. It’s a small sacrifice, only one free room to a deserving veteran and their spouse.
Something new for 2018 and beyond.
This year, beyond only listing free rooms near Veterans Day for veterans and active military, we intend to keep the website going year-long and list your other military discounts throughout the year.
As citizens of our country we have so many ways to give back, so many worthy causes. We sincerely hope you will add the B&Bs for Vets to your list of worthy causes.
Please go to the B&Bs for Vets website and get all the information needed to sign up.
To conclude here are some words of advice to all innkeepers who have participated in the past and may have had some questions and concerns about the program.
Put aside your reasons for not participating. Vets are incredibly grateful for the free rooms offered. We know that cancellations or no shows have occasionally been a problem in the past, so we strongly encourage you to require a credit card when the veteran reserves and then inform them that all cancellation policies apply to free rooms, and their card will be charged if they don’t live by the policy.
We know that you may receive many phone calls. You can choose when you’d like your listing to go live.
Let’s make this be the biggest year yet for participation in the B&Bs for Vets program. Here’s to all those innkeepers who thank veterans for their service by opening their doors on Veteran’s Day and beyond.
Few of us have been tested the way John McCain was or required the kind of courage that he did but all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own. In his final letter to the Nation he wrote; “Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but are enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.”
Thanks for Listening,
Janet Wolf and the B&Bs for Vets committee
