Adventist hotel owners

[Gregas]

Looking to connect with other business owners in regards to how to manage a hotel operation and restaurant on the Sabbath.  If there are any other previous forums postings please post them here.  I searched but was unable to find anything.

[Gregory Matthews]

The typical hotel operation cannot be managed in accord with traditional SDA beliefs.  NOTE:  I used two qualifying words: typical and traditional.

SDA people who have attempted to do such have often been considered as outliers by their SDA congregations.

NOTE:  I am aquainted with a commercial (not SDA) corporation that operated a hotel/motel under the following boundaries:  I should be noted that they were a bit selective as to who they allowed to stay there.  It was open to the public, but they were selective and you did not just walk in off the street and get a room.  You had to reserve it ahead of time.  Once they had reserved a room for you, they knew who your were and how to contact you at a later time if there was any need to do so.

1) The hotel was not staffed 24 hours a day.  If an emergency occurred you made an emergency call.

2)  If you arrived/departed after hours, you checked yourself in and out.  Instructions had been sent to you previously.

3)  Staff was not available to care for your room.  You did that yourself.  Staff only worked on your room after checkout.

4)  If you had any questions your read the printed material and if not satisfied, waited until normal staff working hours.

NOTE:  My wife and I stayed in this hotel twice.  We arrived during non-staff hours and properly checked ourselves in.   It worked for us and for the other people who stayed there. 

NOTE:   This was  a resort area and there were other places where people could have stayed.

NOTE:  Monday - Friday the normal working hours were an 8-hour day.  I have forgotten about weekends, but I do not remember them being staffed at all.  If they were, it was minimal.

 

 

[Lauralea]

I have some friends who own a motel in North Carolina in a resort area in the Outer Banks. It was first owned by non SDA family. Now they have many regulars. Most people reserve for a week. They have a lot of guests during the season. They have stopped checking people in on Saturday. I think they pay in advance for a week but not sure. They do not serve food but there are many places nearby. I think most rooms have food facilities but not sure. 

Personally I worked in or helped manage a vegetarian restaurant in Chattanooga. It was a ministry. We closed after lunch on Friday and reopened on Sunday. Financially the resort type hotel is probably more feasible to make an income but it was a ministry.

[phkrause]

After I graduated from HS, GNYA, I went to work at Faith For Today. They moved to CA back in '72, I stayed with them for about 6 months and than quit and moved back to NY. In between jobs I worked for Rick Shorter, in his print shop, but he also owned a Health food restaurant. I believe he closed on Sabbath. His restaurant did very well, if I'm not mistaken. Than I went to work for AUC Press in '73, when they closed there doors in '82 and were bought out by an Adventist, we closed every Sabbath and did very well. Obviously the motel business is a lot different than printing!