Social media helping Inn get noticed

Ryan Quigley/Journal Pioneer

Bill and Mary Kendrick stand outside their bed and breakfast the Briarcliffe Inn. The couple, with help from their daughter, started a social media campaign to help sell the house.

FERNWOOD - Ten years after turning an old, forgotten house into a three-and-a-half- star bed and breakfast, the Briarcliffe Inn owners Bill and Mary Kendrick decided they wanted to move on to focus on their other business, Experience P.E.I.

After a year of trying traditional techniques to find a new owner, their social media savvy daughter, Ainsley, decided as a 40th anniversary and Christmas present, she would help them find a buyer by the end of the year.

She began the website helpmyparentsretire.tumblr.com and a Facebook page. The idea was they would give updates about the almost century-old house and have a contest. Whoever shared the website on their Facebook wall would have a chance to win.

The prize is a trip to P.E.I. to stay five nights at any of the Inns of Distinction, of which Briarcliffe is one, as well as three free excursions offered by Experience P.E.I. and $500.

The winner will be whoever’s Facebook wall the buyer says they saw the page on. The winner may also choose $5,000 instead of the Island vacation prize.

The idea caught people’s attention and soon enough the College of Piping had donated two tickets to the Highland Storm for the winners, Duncan Island Tours donated a free Island tour for two, and the city of Summerside donated two tickets to tour the Wyatt Heritage Properties.

The page has received over 4,000 views from all over the world and the Kendricks even had someone inquire from Ontario who saw the site on the Tourism P.E.I. Facebook page.

Though skeptical at first, Bill was pleasantly surprised with the results.

“Social media had not really occurred to us until Ainsley said, ‘You know we could do something with this.’ It turns out she was right,” said Bill. “We still enjoy innkeeping, we just want to move on to another phase of our lives.”

Though the Kendricks agree the home is going to be hard to part with, they said a six-bedroom house is too much for two people.

“If we’re not running a business, we don’t need this size of house,” said Mary.

They thought the problem with interest in the inn was exposure, said Ansley, who, along with her parents, updates the Facebook page and Tumblr site regularly.

“I thought, why don’t we try and put it up on Facebook. Then we realized why would people want to see it? Why would people want to share it? So we came up with a contest,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect, it was just sort of I hope this works. I didn’t really have an expectation but it is doing what I hoped it would be doing.”

Bill and Mary both appreciate all the hard work their daughter put into the project.

“I’ve already had people say to me, ‘What a great thing your daughter is doing, she really must love you guys,’ and that’s a nice feeling that your kids want to help you in the right direction,” said Mary.

By Ryan Quigley