Michigan Lake to Lake
Bed and Breakfast Association

Join the Leading Michigan Bed and Breakfast Association of MI B&Bs
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Inn-Member Benefits, Requirements & Dues Structure
Being an ML2L B&B member propels your business to success!
             
Click here to complete a membership application and pay your membership dues online. For more information, call 888-575-1610 or email innfo@laketolake.com.

Membership Requirements
• B&B must be located in Michigan.

• Member inns must have at least two and no more than 25 guest rooms at the time of joining the organization, although the Board of Directors may consider an application by other unique properties that meet all other requirements.

• Breakfast must be provided on site and included in the room rate

• Guest rooms must have the appearance of being individually and personally decorated and appointed in a manner consistent with the style of the inn.

• Owner or innkeeper must live on the premises

• B&B must successfully complete the association’s Quality Assurance Review Program requirements

• No more than two guest rooms or five people may share one full bath. If more than five guests share a bath, it must be a dormitory-type facility

Membership Dues Structure
• Annual dues are $395, renewable each calendar year, January 1–December 31. If you join during the calendar year, your next year’s dues will be prorated – that is, reduced – to reflect the number of months you paid ahead.

• The second component of the dues is that member inns also remit $1 per room night sold. Most innkeepers add it onto their guests’ bills. Our innkeepers report the traveling public has come to expect local fees and assessments. Few guests have questioned the fee. None have objected since its iception in 2005.

• The first $95 of room night assessments are credited to your dues, bringing the annual dues fee down to $300.

• Room night assessments and reports are never seen by any other innkeeper or board member, but are processed by the executive director, a professional association executive. Reports are overseen by the association’s CPA firm. From time to time, assessments may be used without names and in aggregate amounts to generate occupancy reports.

• Membership dues are not refundable for any reason, with one exception. If a new-member applicant fails to pass the Quality Assurance Review of their inn, they will be refunded their upfront membership dues of $359 less $150 to cover costs of the review.

Membership Benefits
You’re Counted Among the Best With ML2L’s “Quality-Assured” Distinction
• ML2L is the only B&B organization in Michigan to inspect member inns to quality standards and guarantee them to the traveling public

• The Quality Assurance Review Team is staffed with trained, professional reviewers

• Reviewer Evaluations give members the opportunity for input and feedback into the review process

• As a Quality-Assured member of ML2L, you are eligible for a 10-15% savings on your B&B insurance through Fremont Mutual Insurance Company, an ML2L Business Partner

We Keep the Lines of Communication Wide Open
• We respond within 48 hours to your questions and concerns

• You enjoy monthly eNewsletters packed with industry news

• You receive legislative, scam alerts and other timely information

• ML2L offers free participation to members in the Pure Michigan eDeals, electronically mailed to more than 105,000 subscribers six times a year.

• Within the first six months of becoming a ML2L member, you and your inn can be, if you choose, the subject of a blog on the Lake to Lake website, supported with a Facebook item and a Tweet. The blog will be in a Q&A format. L2L poses questions aimed at finding out more about your inn and you. You provide the answers and the photos. L2L may edit for length.

• As a Lake to Lake member, you can at any time participate in our Blog Buddies and BlogShare programs to give your inn increased visibility.

• Members enjoy a one-time $25 discount when joining the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII) for the first time

• Through our Business Partner member, Lady Americana, innkeeper members enjoy incredibly low pricing on top-of-the-line of Homeplace Collection mattress sets designed exclusively for ML2L. Lady Americana pays commission to member innkeepers who refer a sale to the company and to the association for each mattress sold by a member.

ML2L Partners with Pure Michigan eDeals to Give You a Marketing Advantage
Pure Michigan eDeals, sponsored by Travel Michigan, is coordinated six times each year by ML2L as a marketing platform for members to reach out to eDeals subscribers (105,000 and growing!) to promote special offers and discounts in the less busy seasons. ML2L pays $500 per each of six issues or $3000 annually. The cost is paid from room night assessments members collect and remit to the marketing fund.

NOTE: In the event you talk with other ML2L innkeepers, the benefits in red are enjoyed by all new members and by most inns that were members prior to 2010. The dues structure described in this benefits document and the marketing benefits in red were inaugurated in 2005 as the Platinum Ambassador (PA) Program. Participation was optional through 2009. Innkeepers who did not opt in have been allowed to continue with the prior membership terms and benefits.

Marketing Via the ML2L Association Website Puts You at the Top of Google, Plus!
• Be featured on our professionally-designed SEO website, which premiered June 25, 2010 and enjoys top search rankings on engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo

• Visitors find your website in just two clicks from 12 separate online search categories

• Visitors can search for all inns within a range of miles from YOUR address.

• Enjoy listings in three cities in addition to your primary city, with placement ahead of members who chose not to upgrade from the former membership model.

• Update your own photos, profile, specials and other information, 24/7

• Post information about a local event and include a mention of and a link to your inn

• Take advantage of free opportunities to plug your inn on strategic ML2L social media including our blog, Facebook and Twitter

• Check statistics showing frequency of page views and click-throughs to your website, 12/7.

• Link to your availability/online reservation calendar, to your Trip Advisor and other review sites and to your inn's own blog and Facebook and Twitter pages.

• Feature up to eight photos and download them easily and automatically according to the seasons or personal preferences.

• Target specific interest groups by posting a write-up about your inn in connecton with any or all of eight activities under "Explore Michigan," including a link to your website and to your inn's page onf the ML2L website.

• Enjoy nearly unlimited descriptive text

• Be discovered on comprehensive and easily-navigable amenities and activities searches

• List up to 12 specials at any time in dozens of categories

Celebrate Breakfast Cookbooks' Promotion – Available For You to Resale
Two association cookbooks compiled by ML2L are actively distributed by the publisher and sold at member inns, Greenfield Village, Barnes & Noble and other book store locations. Cookbooks may also be ordered online. Great Lakes – Great Breakfasts and Celebrate Breakfast are available to members at wholesale prices for resale in their gift shops. Celebrate Breakfast is augmented by a CD featuring soothing piano music, also titled Celebrate Breakfast. Produced exclusively for ML2L, it is also available at wholesale prices for resale. Call the office for ordering information

Gift Certificate Program – Sends You Guests You Wouldn’t Have Otherwise
Gift Certificates are sold online at www.laketolake.com and by phone. They are redeemable at full face value exclusively at member properties. Since the program’s inception in the late 1990s, ML2L Gift Certificates have generated more than a half-million dollars in room-night revenues at member inns.

Innkeeper Education and Networking - Helps You Grow and Prosper
• The Annual Education Conference brings nationally-acclaimed presenters to members at very reasonable, member-exclusive registration rates. Click on "Conference" under the MI "Lake to Lake" menu on www.laketolake.com for details of this year’s conference.

• "Innkeeper Receptions" are held at no-cost-to-members in varying regions of the state three times each year. They are purely for fun, giving innkeepers the opportunity to network with each other and with the Board of Directors.

• Members enjoy informative and educational eNewsletter articles every month.

Legislative Impact – We Run Interference So You Don’t Have To
• ML2L promotes activities that support growing Michigan travel and tourism

• We inform members of legal and legislative issues affecting their businesses

• We work with lobbyists and legislators to favorably influence legislation that would impact Michigan B&Bs

• ML2L actively participates with the state’s three major tourism industry players: Travel Michigan, Tourism Industry Coalition of Michigan and Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association

Inns for Sale, Inn-Sitters, Preferred Vendors and Aspiring Innkeeper Programs
ML2L provides other membership programs that nurture and support the industry:

• Aspiring Innkeepers – a resource for those hoping to purchase inns or convert their homes to B&Bs. Find it and a membership application form here.

• Inn Sitters – Visit the Preferred Vendors webpage to locate trusted inn sitters who can free you up for needed relaxation. An inn sitter membership application is available.

• Business Partners – provide valuable B&B-related services and products to ML2L members and often have an associated discount program exclusive to members. Visit the Preferred Vendors webpage to locate a helpful Business Partner or for an application form.

• “Inns for Sale,” are found here. ML2L provides free listings to members or realty-related Business Partners. Advertising is available to non-members for a small annual fee.

ML2L Gives You Chances to Make a Difference
Make the association more responsive to your needs by serving on a committee:

• Membership & Communications

• Marketing

• Website Development

• Quality Assurance

Vote annually for board members

Become a board member! ML2L is YOUR association. You are a valued and equal stakeholder whether you own a two room or a 14-room bed and breakfast inn.