Since 2007, Jay Karen has been the president and CEO of the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII), the world's largest bed and breakfast organization. In this recurring feature, Jay will speak on topics of interest to members of the industry. As this marks his premiere with About.com, it seems appropriate to begin with some elementary questions such as "What's PAII?" and "Why join?"
How long has PAII been around?
It was incorporated by JoAnn Bell and Pat Hardy in 1986, I believe, and they launched it in 1988. I took over in June 2007 when there were about 1,700 members and now we have approximately 2,200 bed and breakfasts members and an additional 400 associate members involved as aspiring innkeepers, interim innkeepers, and vendors. We're not the only one, but PAII is definitely the largest bed and breakfast association you can find.
Our association is focused on continuing education, networking, collecting and sharing information and research, and also conducting public relations and advocacy efforts.
What does it cost – and what can members get - out of a PAII membership?
A few years ago we switched from fees based on property size to memberships based on graduating levels of benefits. When we did that we saw membership increase rapidly because there was something for everyone.
For instance, you can join at the Silver Level for only $89, and you'll have all of the basic member benefits which includes access to our very active online forums where innkeepers are chatting every single day about problems, solutions, and ideas. There are also two different levels of membership purely for Aspiring Innkeepers and I'll discuss in a later feature.
You also get our daily digest of the forums, so if you didn’t have time to participate you’ll receive an e-mail that summarizes of all of the previous day’s conversations. You also receive our monthly innkeeper newsletter which includes how-tos, best practices for innkeepers, and all other kinds of myriad benefits.
What's available for more serious students or active innkeepers?
Our Gold Membership is $199 and with that we include a monthly live ‘webinar’ that lasts about an hour. Whether the topic is PCI (payment card industry) compliance or Internet marketing, food and beverage related, or anything that’s timely and interesting to the industry, we’ll usually have around 100 members participating in these live sessions. And conducting these webinars are some of the brightest minds in the industry, from really seasoned innkeepers to vendors that are extremely knowledgeable about their particular topic.
When you're a Gold Member, you attend our webinars for free. At the Silver Level the webinars are $49 each. One other advantage for Gold Members is that we archive each lesson and they'll have free access to all of the recordings from the past year.
What is the highest level of membership?
Our highest level is Platinum which costs $289 annually and with that you get all of the Gold Level benefits plus a ten percent discount on the registration fee for our annual conference. In addition to that, you also receive a free copy of our annual operation and finance study which is PAII’s benchmarking study that dives deep into the industry and includes information on what bed and breakfasts are doing as far as average daily rate, occupancy, revenue, expenses, trends... There’s all kinds of information that you receive for free as a Platinum Member.
Regardless of whether you join at the Silver, Gold, or Platinum level, I think our members will tell you that whether you're an innkeeper, aspiring innkeeper, interim innkeeper, or vendor, if you want to stay on top of the trends and understand where things are going, just join.
Jay Karen is a Certified Association Executive (CAE) by the American Society of Association Executives, sits on ASAE’s Executive Management Section Council, and has been a speaker and author for ASAE's conferences and publications. He also sits on the board of directors of the United States Travel Association. Prior to assuming the leadership of PAII in 2007, he played leading roles in the National Golf Course Owners Association.
