Comments on 11-23
Jeff Robbins
Dear Mayor & Trustees,
I submitted a comment on the website but did not have quite enough room to finish my comments, so am submitting this mail with the entirety of my comments regards this proposed legislation.
My name is Jeff Robbins. I reside at 441 Chiquita Lane in Estes Park. My wife and I are licensed and operate this property as a B&B & VHR. I know this ordinance is being proposed, primarily to prevent license holders from renting rooms out without complying with the most important part of the existing regulation - that being the "Innkeeper" be present at the property while guests are there. The part of the proposed 11-23 I oppose is the requirement: "Fully cooked, prepared meal must be provided daily for each night’s stay".
When we first opened our business, we did serve fully cooked meals. The result was 80% to 90% of our guests did not eat the food and we ended up throwing it out. It was a huge waste of money on both the food and the cost to prepare it. We ended up going with coffee & snack bars which most all of our guests partake in and appreciate. I do understand why you are proposing this legislation and do not have any issue with any of it except for the meals part. It is a waste of time and money. Furthermore, I resent having local government impose statutes that dictate how I am to run my business. I have been doing this for a long time and have fully complied with all the existing rules and regulations regarding operation of our business and property.
I frankly feel that a better approach to achieving your objective would be to enforce the existing rule that the owner/manager (now innkeeper), must be on the property. Doing this sort of thing to business owners sets a very onerous precedent in that it opens the door for government to examine every aspect of how a business owner operates their business. This is like legislating that the Estes Park Mountain Shop they cannot sell a certain product because it has nothing to do with Mountain life or legislating that The Egg of Estes can only serve meals which contain Eggs. If business owners comply with the existing regulations and are not causing concern for public safety, then let them do what they know how to do best.
Respectfully,
Jeff Robbins
441 Chiquita Lane
Estes Park, CO 80517
Wendy Koenig
Becky Robbins
In addition to what my husband said below….
Our guests get up anywhere from 4:00 AM (to hike) to 11:00 AM (check out time). Do we have to have a cooked breakfast (hot) all morning?
There is no way someone who gets up at 4:00 am wants breakfast because they want to beat the 5:00 AM time when they can get into the park without having to pay entrance fees or get timed entry passes. This happens a LOT!
Also, what about allergies?
Peanut butter for peanut allegies? Gluten allergies? Lactose intolerance? Religious differences (bacon)? There is a long list. There is no way that we can cater to all of the different types of allergies that people have.
Also what about the cleanliness and safety of the food? Do you think all BnB licensees will have any kind of knowledge that a restaurant owners have regarding food preparation. We have a dog…what about others who get pet hair in the food. UGH. We are NOT a restaurant.
Plus, breakfast is noisy. What about people who are asleep while others are chatting and we are making noise cooking in the kitchen. I am very conscious of “quiet”. People want to sleep.
Becky Robbins
Chapter Chair
___________________________
WOMEN PRESIDENTS ORGANIZATION
Kirby Hazelton
Wendy Koenig
Barbara MacAlpine
Jeff Robbins
Thank you Kirby!
Jeff Robbins
Thank you Barbara!
Becky Robbins
We always interact heavily with our guests. We get to know a lot about them. Not regarding what they want for breakfast. We are not prepared to shop specifically for each guest….we rent out several rooms. Making breakfast for each person, asking what their allergies are, etc. would really not work. People are there every day from April through October. We really need to sleep. We live there. I am unwilling to get up at 4 or 5 AM to feed people.
This would be a logistics nightmare to have to shop for each guest. We do our own housekeeping, laundry, etc.all of it. This is over the top. For the several years that we have been doing this, with over 800 guests, we have only had one that said that they wanted breakfast. We are super hosts with a 5 star rating. The guests so far have had no problem with how they are treated or catered to.
And as Jeff said, most of what we purchased for guests in the past for breakfast went to waste.
Becky Robbins
Chapter Chair
___________________________
WOMEN PRESIDENTS ORGANIZATION
Wendy Koenig
Becky Robbins
Thank you, Mayor.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Becky Robbins
Chapter Chair
___________________________
WOMEN PRESIDENTS ORGANIZATION
Wendy Koenig
On Nov 15, 2023, at 6:47 AM, Becky Robbins <beckyro...@outlook.com> wrote:
Thank you, Mayor.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
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Becky Robbins
Chapter Chair
___________________________WOMEN PRESIDENTS ORGANIZATION
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From: Wendy Koenig <wko...@estes.org>
Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 10:37 PM
To: Becky Robbins <Beckyro...@Outlook.Com>
Subject: Re: Comments on 11-23
I have read your comments.
Mayor
On Tue, Nov 14, 2023 at 8:00 PM Becky Robbins <beckyro...@outlook.com> wrote:
We always interact heavily with our guests. We get to know a lot about them. Not regarding what they want for breakfast. We are not prepared to shop specifically for each guest….we rent out several rooms. Making breakfast for each person, asking what their allergies are, etc. would really not work. People are there every day from April through October. We really need to sleep. We live there. I am unwilling to get up at 4 or 5 AM to feed people.
This would be a logistics nightmare to have to shop for each guest. We do our own housekeeping, laundry, etc.all of it. This is over the top. For the several years that we have been doing this, with over 800 guests, we have only had one that said that they wanted breakfast. We are super hosts with a 5 star rating. The guests so far have had no problem with how they are treated or catered to.
And as Jeff said, most of what we purchased for guests in the past for breakfast went to waste.
Becky Robbins
Chapter Chair
___________________________WOMEN PRESIDENTS ORGANIZATION
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