Reality Behind the Dream Of Your Own Cozy B&B
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Prepared for the September 20, 2000 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper.
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Irreplaceable Heirloom? Or Insured Valuable?
Your fine art is insured, of course it is. And so is
your china and your solitaire. After all, you have homeowner’s
insurance.
Not necessarily. When your painting is scarred, your Limoges plates
are dropped, and your diamond solitaire works loose and rolls down
the drain, you may be out of luck — and out of insurance.
“People don’t really understand the limitations of a homeowners’
policy. They don’t understand that — for fine art and china —
breakage isn’t covered, scratching and marring isn’t covered, and
for jewelry it doesn’t cover the loss of a stone,” says Mary
Herring, executive vice president of Bollinger Inc. in Short Hills.
With a staff of 30, she runs the personal insurance division and has
80,000 clients.
The Spalding Associates division of Bollinger Inc. sponsors a free
seminar, “Insuring Your Fine Arts,” on Sunday, September 24,
at 3 p.m. at the Marsha Child Contemporary Gallery of International
Art, 220 Alexander Street. The speaker will be Peter D. Neagd,
claims manager of Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company in Hartford,
Connecticut.
Reservations are requested; call 888-452-2200, extension 110.
Even theft coverage on homeowners policies is not guaranteed, says
Herring. “Often homeowners has a $1,000 limit for theft on
unscheduled
jewelry, furs, or silverware. Business property on premises, including
computers, traditionally has a limit of $2,500 on premises and $250
away from the premise.” Here are some strategies for better
protection:
Schedule valuables on a separate policy to protect fromtheft, damage, and other loss. You will need to prove the value ofeach piece of art, china, silverware, or jewelry, perhaps with areceipt,perhaps with an appraisal, or even by agreement with your insurancecompany.Insure for “true value” to allow for appreciation.What you paid for the item may not be its true value, which is whatit would cost you to replace the item. Say you bought a painting fiveyears ago from a little-known artist, and that artist’s work is worthmore now. “The policies from the Fireman’s Fund and Chubb andsome other companies will cover up to 150 percent of the value withoutyour having to do anything,” says Herring.In another instance, if you insured your silver five years ago whensilver prices were low, and then it is stolen when silver is high,the insurance company would pay for the current value of yourflatware,up to 150 percent of the insured value. All without your having toprove anything. “They know the different artists and brands ofchina and appreciation values,” Herring says.Insure for “agreed value” to allow fordepreciation.Companies that sell policies on the basis of “agreed value”will not change that value, no matter what the fluctuations of themarket or the condition of the item. In contrast, other companiesmay adjust the value later on — to your disadvantage.For instance, you might insure an item for $100,000 and send in theappraisal to prove that. But if you have a loss 10 years later, yourinsurer might argue that the item had depreciated and insist thatyou settle for a lower amount. Meanwhile, you have been payinginsuranceon the full amount.Plan for buying sprees. Consider what will happen to yournew purchases. “If you acquire a piece of fine art in Europe,what happens to it before you get it home?” asks Herring. Withsome firms, you must specifically insure each item. Others willautomaticallyinsure new items for 25 percent of the total scheduled value for 30days in order to give you time to send in the information.She tells a sad example from among her own clients. “I hadbeen after this man to insure his inherited silverware. He didn’t.Then he had a break-in and his silverware was stolen. He had $2,500on his policy, but he was out $30,000 in replacement cost. Fromgenerationto generation, his family had never known what it was worth.””We always advise clients to take a household inventory, to takea videocam, walk around the home, talk about the items, and put thetape in a safe deposit box,” says Herring.Insuring fine arts is not very expensive, she claims, and the costsvary according to the construction of the home and the geographicalarea. “At higher values, you can negotiate a rate and put increditsfor security and alarms.” The cost for insuring $22,000 ofscheduledvaluables in a suburban location: about $90 per year.Top Of PageReality Behind the Dream Of Your Own Cozy B&BIf your life’s dream isn’t to write the great Americannovel, chances are it is to run a cozy little inn, claims KathrynTriolo, co-owner of the Pineapple Hill Bed & Breakfast in New Hope.”Next to being a novelist, it’s the number two dream profession.Everybody asks us what we do after 11 o’clock. They think oncebreakfastis done we go play for the day,” she says.On Thursday, September 25, at 6 p.m. she will teach a course fullof tips on how to decide between pursuing your inn-keeping fantasyor starting to plot out your book instead. It will be at the LearningStudio at 4250 Route 1 North. Cost: $49.95. Call 609-688-0800.In 1994, Triolo and her husband, Cookie Triolo, bought thefour-roominn, part of which dates from 1780. They have since added five rooms.Both are former employees of Continental Insurance. He took advantageof retirement after 26 years with the firm and she was offered abuyoutwhen the company was sold to CNA.Running an inn is not a job for those who like to come home and puttheir working persona behind them. The Triolos live in a cottage inthe back of the inn’s six-acre property. “We’re always in reach— 24/7,” says Triolo.The course will give potential innkeepers an overview of just what’sinvolved personally and professionally, so those intrigued by theidea can make an informed decision. “In class we talk a lot aboutlifestyle and personality profile,” says Triolo. She lists a fewof the necessary traits:Do-it-yourselfers only need apply. Having watched lotsof “This Old House” reruns is a definite plus. “We learnedhow to do everything. I can lay floors; I can put in tile. I justfixed my first toilet yesterday. One minute you’re taking areservation,the next minute you’re plunging a toilet, the next minute you’rereplacingan old glass window, then you’re baking muffins.”People who need people are the luckiest innkeepers inthe world. “You’ve got to be good with people. Reading bodylanguageand knowing when a couple wants to be intimate and left alone andknowing when they really are interested and want you to talk”is very important, says Triolo.It’s best not to be a material girl. Triolo cautions thatfor those finicky about having their possessions touched andbric-a-bracmoved or — horrors — broken need to think again about livingin a house full of strangers paying for the privilege to paw overyour stuff.Go with the flow is now your mantra. “You have tobe comfortable being reactionary. You really can’t plan your day toomuch.” Old buildings require lots of last-minute TLC. Flexibilityis required to manage the property and the guests residing withinit.Triolo has taught this course at the Learning Studio inPrincetontwice before and also lectures annually at the four-day “InnDeep”conference in Cape May that promotes vocational discernment forwannabeinnkeepers. A non-profit group, the Midatlantic Center for the Arts,sponsors the conference.She has an MBA from La Salle University in Philadelphia and a BS incomputer science from Rowan University and used her programming skillsto create the inn’s website (www.pineapplehill.com).Recently innkeeping has lost most of its Mom and Pop quality. To besuccessful nowadays requires business savvy. “Over the last fewyears, inns have gotten to be big business. You’re talking upwardsof $100,000 to $125,000 a guest room for purchase,” says Triolo.These healthy prices foster a need for creative financing, anothertopic she covers in the course.The class will also touch on the business basics necessary. Triolowill review the legal distinctions between bed and breakfasts, inns,and hotels and the applicable government regulations including zoningrules and accessibility for the handicapped.Triolo says people who enjoy cooking and hosting parties sometimesbelieve running an inn would be a good job, but food preparation turnsout to be a relatively small part of the job. Cookie Triolo, a formerNavy cook, produces most of the food. “He doesn’t get at allruffledif there are 20 people,” she says.The Triolos have arranged their own division of labor. She devotesone hour of marketing per week per room, a job that has grown alongwith the size of the inn. He takes care of the landscaping.Working out how to split the chores with a spouse or partner can bean issue. But Triolo believes that operating an inn singly with noreliable back up may be worse. “I know people who are single andoperating larger inns — it’s just a real struggle.”With innkeeping come some jobs that are simply up for grabs. TheTrioloshave loaned black socks to young men loath to propose marriage wearingwhite ones and have ironed shirts for rumpled job applicants.But running an inn has given Triolo some surprises, such as how muchthe guests have affected her. “You wouldn’t think that of peopleyou only know for two days.” She has been led on a tour of theinn by an architectural historian guest who revised the constructiondates of an addition made in the first half of the 1800s and hasreceivedthank you notes from couples who conceived children while visiting.But hearing Triolo’s realistic appraisal of the innkeeper’s professioncan sometimes cause intense reactions. After her first presentationat an “Inn Deep” conference, she explains, “a woman cameup and demanded her money back. She said that after listening to meshe didn’t want to be an innkeeper anymore. The people that wererunningit were trying to be very nice. They said `Ma’am, we probably justsaved you a million dollars’.”— Caroline CalogeroTop Of PageBranding WinnersSuccessful Branding: How to Make Your Product a Winner”is the topic for Francine M. Lytle, vice president of marketingand strategic services at Gianettino & Meredith Advertising Inc.,who speaks at the state chapter of the American Management Associationat the Somerset Hills Hotel in Warren on Monday, September 25, at6 p.m. Cost: $40. Call Diane Scarpulla at 908-231-0984 orE-mail:SDscarp@aol.comLytle, whose agency is based in Short Hills, will discuss how greatbrands are manifested and realized through experiences that arecreated,at least in part, by advertising. Other parts of a brand experienceare created by packaging at point of sale, through relationshipmarketingon the Internet, through word-of-mouth (termed “organicnetworking”)and through company behaviors and belief systems.Using tools from account planning, brand archeology, and marketing,plus hypotheses from cognitive anthropology, cultural anthropology,and E-branding, she will tell how to turn products into winners byclearly identifying their user (“the experience”), brand(“themessage”), and community (“the relationship”).Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
