Band of Brothers
Back in 2004, we were up 20% and I was hard pressed to think we could keep growing like that, since we only have 5 rooms to sell, just so many weekends and so many holidays in a year and those special times like foliage when you can sell every room, every nite and get almost any price you want to ask...... anyway.....we decided to raise our rates in 2005 knowing it would affect the number of nites we booked, but felt that would be offset by the rate increases. It did play out pretty much that way by year end, coming close to the same dollar volume of 2004 while room nites booked were off about 10%...... and this old fella didn't have to work as hard to get there. :)
As I read thru Waking the Dead during January 2006, my prayer life started to change and the Lord spoke very specifically to me one day near the end of the month. I shared what I was getting with Ellen and we made what we felt was a very radical decision in order to obey the Lord.
The word I had gotten was based on His promise to send us only those that He himself wanted. When we raised our prices, He showed me that there were those He wanted to send me that were now not able to come. I was convicted by His word to me that just because there were people who would pay us what we asked, did not make it right. If we are truly here to bless people, help them to unwind and find some peace and rest in the midst of whatever their situations are, help encourage them with our hospitality and send them back out refreshed...... then part of that would need to be financially blessing them as well.
So..... we rolled back our rates to what they were 2 years earlier in 2004. I did expect that we would start to book more rooms but my wildest imaginations could not have foreseen what the Lord supernaturally dumped out on us throughout the month of February 2006. The blessing kept up all year long and we ended with our dollar volume up 21% and occupancy went up to 26.4%
This year we have experienced another unbelievable increase as the Lord started filling up mid-weeks in a way we had never experienced before...... our occupancy could end up almost double Vermont's average during a year where the entire industry has been complaining that people are not traveling to Vermont and occupancies everywhere are down. Our dollar volume could be up as much as 28%..... stunning in this economy.
I can only attribute this to the Band of Brothers who are walking with us and praying with us in the same manner, attacking the enemy and releasing God's presence in a way none of has experienced before. We all desperately need others to cover us in so many different ways but especially in serious prayer. More on that another time.
I shared all the business stuff today because that is tangible.... that is the natural world which is so much easier for us to understand. We can touch it, feel it, see it but what is so much more important is what is happening outside the Matrix as God tears down the principalities governing the Matrix, ...... which is releasing all these awesome things and touching other people's lives spiritually. So much more to say, but out of time today.
:)
As I read thru Waking the Dead during January 2006, my prayer life started to change and the Lord spoke very specifically to me one day near the end of the month. I shared what I was getting with Ellen and we made what we felt was a very radical decision in order to obey the Lord.
The word I had gotten was based on His promise to send us only those that He himself wanted. When we raised our prices, He showed me that there were those He wanted to send me that were now not able to come. I was convicted by His word to me that just because there were people who would pay us what we asked, did not make it right. If we are truly here to bless people, help them to unwind and find some peace and rest in the midst of whatever their situations are, help encourage them with our hospitality and send them back out refreshed...... then part of that would need to be financially blessing them as well.
So..... we rolled back our rates to what they were 2 years earlier in 2004. I did expect that we would start to book more rooms but my wildest imaginations could not have foreseen what the Lord supernaturally dumped out on us throughout the month of February 2006. The blessing kept up all year long and we ended with our dollar volume up 21% and occupancy went up to 26.4%
This year we have experienced another unbelievable increase as the Lord started filling up mid-weeks in a way we had never experienced before...... our occupancy could end up almost double Vermont's average during a year where the entire industry has been complaining that people are not traveling to Vermont and occupancies everywhere are down. Our dollar volume could be up as much as 28%..... stunning in this economy.
I can only attribute this to the Band of Brothers who are walking with us and praying with us in the same manner, attacking the enemy and releasing God's presence in a way none of has experienced before. We all desperately need others to cover us in so many different ways but especially in serious prayer. More on that another time.
I shared all the business stuff today because that is tangible.... that is the natural world which is so much easier for us to understand. We can touch it, feel it, see it but what is so much more important is what is happening outside the Matrix as God tears down the principalities governing the Matrix, ...... which is releasing all these awesome things and touching other people's lives spiritually. So much more to say, but out of time today.
:)
