If you have visited Ferry Beach in the last three years you know we have added Morris Cottage, the Metz cabins and Claflin Cottage to our summer rentals. This summer, the home formerly owned by Ray Hopkins, will also be available. With four bedrooms, two of which are ADA and two that are accessible, these private bedroom/private bathroom combinations have been in high demand.
 
To be more family friendly has been a request from a number of people who visit Ferry Beach as well.  This is very important to us, and we’re listening, we have restructured our dorm room pricing this year. All of our rooms will now be charged per night and not per person. If there is room for 4 persons to sleep, the room will be set at one price. No longer will the charges for rooms be based on the number and ages of persons occupying the rooms. This should result in a significant savings for many families.
 
This changed our pricing for some rooms slightly. If two people want to share a room, they will be able to do so, however, Ferry Beach will not split the room charge. That will be up to the person who initially reserves the room.  We’re excited to offer new small rooms in Rowland for people who do not want to share a dorm room.
 
Why this change? (If you despise details and transparency, stop reading here). As a retreat and conference center with a number of different types of room rentals (Queen, double bunks, private, etc.) we rely on hoteling software, as opposed to conferencing software, to help us book rooms. Most hotels charge one price for rooms based upon double occupancy. Our software is incapable of doing everything that we want it to do and we are not able financially, to purchase customized software.  With this change, we hope to make registration much smoother for our most important people—YOU!
 
Even MORE clarity and transparency: Membership fees will be assessed for everyone who registers for a conference (in Part 2 we’ll address the importance of members). We will also begin to charge a commuter fee that includes the conference fee for everyone who comes to a conference but stays off campus. This fee will be slightly higher than the per day conference fee that people staying on campus pay and will include lunch at a discounted rate from the a la carte menu for lunch.
 
Really in the weeds: Some of you are aware that we are making progress on a debt of about $900,000 and deferred maintenance of another million or so. We have replaced roofs, shored up porches, building pilings and floors and we still have much more to go. By addressing our summer conference challenges, we hope to increase our revenue without adding additional fees. We know that by changing room fees, families will pay less to stay at Ferry Beach and some single adults may pay a little bit more. In reviewing our registrations, we believe that most people who come by themselves do share a room with someone they know. Who wouldn’t want to stay with a friend and share the experience of Ferry Beach?
 
Next up: Part 2: Membership!