About three years ago, Caren Kempf and her husband, John, were looking for a business to invest in, something that would propel them into retirement – though still far off – in a place that they love. And they found it: an inn on Block Island.
“We had stayed at many bed-and-breakfasts over the years and loved them, so we said ‘Hey, we think we can do this,’” Caren Kempf told Providence Business News earlier this month.
What they hadn’t expected, however, was that they’d be buying two more inns on the island within two years. “We had invested in the Jane Marie Cottage first, to get our feet in the door and have a second home,” Caren Kempf said. “And the Adrianna Inn was for sale as well from the same person who sold us the other. So we just bought that, too.”
The Adrianna didn’t have a great reputation – at least not for its cleanliness, Kempf said – so the Kempfs changed the name to The Inn at Block Island. That second purchase was completed in March 2007. The next month, the couple purchased The Barrington Inn.
“So we’ve technically been doing it for two summers,” she said. “But this is really like our first summer as the owners and innkeepers – it’s ours now and we’ve made it our own.”
Along with changing all the bed linens, renovating the Jane Marie’s kitchen, planting rows of privet and changing many of the interior decorations, part of making the inns their own has been a marketing campaign, including advertising through local newspapers.
They’ve also joined the local chamber of commerce, enlisted a public relations firm and put out a press release to draw mainlanders from Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Owning three inns in close proximity to each other on a small island might seem like an easy way to get noticed, but it’s actually not, Caren Kempf said, because there’s plenty of competition. According to the Block Island Chamber of Commerce, there are about eight hotels, 25 inns and 18 bed & breakfasts. That’s more than 50 places to stay on a 7-by-3-mile island.
One facet of the Kempfs’ marketing campaign is the Web site that the couple created, using online booking software from RezStream, a Denver-based online booking firm. Caren Kempf said that’s something that only a few, if any, of the other inns and hotels do. That Web site, www.theinnatblockisland.com, has been well received and bookings are coming in steadily from it, Caren Kempf said.
That the inns are centrally located on the island, all about a mile from Old Harbor on Main Street, certainly helps. The Inn at Block Island and the Jane Marie Cottage are on Old Town Road and The Barrington Inn is at the corner of Ocean and Beach avenues.
Rooms range from about $220 to $395 per night and the Barrington Inn is open year-round, with per-night rates bottoming out at $65 a night during the “quiet season,” Caren Kempf said. At the Jane Marie Cottage, a seven-bedroom home that’s rented out in full, the rate is steep: $8,000 a week from June to Labor Day. In the off-season, it’s rented at $1,000 a night.
Kempf thinks the increased marketing has already helped. “So far, we’re much busier than last summer.”
Being familiar with the island and being able to guide visitors to the best attractions also help, said John Kempf. They both grew up in Norwalk, Conn., and John spent time on the island every summer. When they were married in 1999 – a second marriage for both – they chose Block Island’s Southeastern lighthouse for the July 4th ceremony.
In the off-season the Kempfs keep only one employee. During the summer and, a few weeks before and after, they employ about six part-time workers.
The inns aren’t the family’s only business.
John Kempf, 53, runs an engineering firm, J.P. Kempf Co. Inc., now in Milford, Conn., that he started with his father 28 years ago.
He usually spends Monday through Thursday in Milford, while Caren Kempf manages the inns, and then comes out to help her and cook meals on the weekends. After being a stay-at-home mother during her first marriage, Caren Kempf during the past 10 years worked in real estate sales in Connecticut and is now planning to get her Rhode Island real estate license.
But that career isn’t where her heart is, she said. “I think I found my niche – being an innkeeper. I love what I’m doing. We really like to have people feel that they’re coming to their second home and we like to make them feel happy.”
There’s a high possibility, too, that the Kempfs won’t stop with three inns, John Kempf said. The couple has started looking around the island for another purchase. And they’re also looking at other destination spots, John Kempf said, speaking by phone from a beach in Aruba.
“We’re looking to purchase a property here in Aruba and do the same thing, offering high-end accommodations,” he said. •
