Isle of Eriska: Small Business Blog of the Day

I'm surprised this is the first hotel we've featured on the site. Hotels, particularly small ones, would seem to be an ideal business for blogging as the charm of inns and bed-and-breakfasts would translate nicely into a couple of posts per week. Perhaps I just haven't looked hard enough to find them?

The hotel I found today came from Mike Sansone's nice list of business blogs on his Converstations blog.

What it is
The Isle of Eriska is a hotel on an island off the coast of Scotland. Naturally, they have a golf course. Unfortunately, they have no trojan rabbit.

Beppo Buchanan-Smith, who runs the hotel with his brother, writes the blog.

Features
Weekly weather reports, updates on running an Inn, remarks on the Queen, and local news.

Favorite Post
Aerial Assault describes a helicopter landing on the 6th fairway. Beppo's brother Chay was given a ride where he snapped the photo below. I have drastically cropped this picture. Visit the blog to see the full-sized photo, it's a beautiful shot of the Scottish landscape.

Further Comments
To my surprise, the posts are not filled with witty references toward canned food items, silly customs, or James Bond. Rather, the blog gives a nice window into the life of an innkeeper(s) that may serve to guide aspiring innkeepers, and also allows potential guests to absorb the charm of the hotel. So much for growing up on Monty Python and Sean Connery.

Blogs about Inns or Restaurants are great opportunities to become the local voice of a geographic area. We reviewed Horsefeathers a while back which keeps its out-of-town patrons in touch with the local scene, and establishes it as the website to visit to find out what's going on in North Conway, NH. The rule is if you're the first blog to talk about the local scene, you'll have the easiest time becoming the blog for your area. The longer you wait, the harder it is to surpass the blogs that are already talking about your local scene.

Of course, it doesn't hurt if you're the only hotel on the island.

Tags: isle of eriska | eriska | scotland | scotland hotel | hotel