The Croff House Bed and Breakfast

There’s been a lot in the press lately about little critters making peoples’ vacations very unpleasant.  Those critters are bedbugs and now appear to be rampant throughout New York City hotels.

We wanted all of our guests, past, present and future to know that we have taken every precaution to protect the health and welfare of everyone staying with us at The Croff House.

All of our guest beds have been installed with a knit stretch mattress cover which will prevent any type of bedbug infestation.  We hold our sanitary standards in the highest regard and want to assure all our guests that their health and safety is at the forefront of our efforts at The Croff House.

We truly believe that when you are a guest at The Croff House you will have a “good night” and we won’t let “the bedbugs bite”.

We’ve had a busy and fun-filled summer thus far.  Like much of the rest of the country, Hudson is experiencing one of the hottest summers people can remember.  It makes us, and our guests, glad to have air conditioners throughout the inn. Even with the heat so many of our guests have been enjoying the shade of the covered back porch and the tranquil setting of the fountain patio.  There’s nothing like returning to The Croff House on a warm afternoon after a full day of sightseeing, shopping or touring the county to enjoy a frosty glass of lemonade or iced tea and relaxing.

Guests often ask us what our busiest time of year is, and we have a difficult time answering that because The Croff House seems busy year-round.  Winter provides the perfect backdrop for those looking for a romantic escape from daily life.  Spring brings guests looking for some fresh air after being cooped up.  Summer brings vacationers from all over the world coming to Hudson for a family wedding, visiting to Olana or one of the many historic sites in the area, or simply exploring the Hudson Valley.  Then there’s the Fall.

What a beautiful time of year in Hudson Autumn is.  The colors changing daily.  The air turning cooler, with crisp mornings and chilly evenings.  And the apples!  There are apples everywhere you look in so many varieties it’s hard to name them all.  Apples for baking.  Apples for canning.  Oh yes, apples for eating.  The smell of apples on some days perfumes the air.   At the inn we take advantage of the apple bounty and incorporate apples in our daily menus: spiced apples, apple french toast, and pancakes with apple butter to name a few.  There’s always a basket of fresh apples in the Living Room as well for random snacking.  Yes, Fall is a great time of year to visit The Croff House.

Maybe we’ll see you here?

With the arrival of summer comes the arrival of fresh fruits and vegetables a farm stands throughout Columbia County.  One of our favorites is Eger Brothers, which always has freshly picked items throughout the season.  Last weekend we picked up 16 (yes, ) quarts (yes, quarts) of their own strawberries.  Gorgeously red and deliciously ripe, these berries were destined both for breakfasts at the inn and, more importantly, to go into a plethora of jams and preserves.  What made these berries special was their natural size and sweetness, unlike some berries you buy at the local big box grocery store.

Eger Brothers' stunning berries

Three of the 22 quarts

We ended up picking up six more quarts – to make it a total of 22.  So what did these berries become…Strawberry Jam (of course), Strawberry Orange Marmalade, Strawberry Jalapeno Salsa, Strawberry Peach Preserves, Strawberry Ginger Jam, Triple Berry Jam (joined by raspberries and blueberries) to name a few.  And we still have 5 quarts to go…

Did I mention the 10 pounds of beets?  More to come.

We have been busy this Spring sprucing up the inn for our busiest summer and fall months.  There is always something to do: clean, paint, repair, etc.  Duncan has done a fantastic job with the outside landscaping.  All his hard work from last year is really paying off – gorgeous flowers abound both inside and out.

One of Duncan's beautiful lillies

We’ve already had several weekends hosting wedding guests, but we also had our first wedding at the inn!  David Bouman and Leah Fickes tied the knot on a beautiful Saturday in May.  Hudson City Judge Richard Koweek performed the ceremony as the best man (David’s brother Patrick) and maid of honor (Leah’s friend Courtney) looked on.  Both David and Leah traveled far to get here: David from Afghanistan and Leah from Mexico, and it was worth the trip.  We wish them many years of happiness together.

The Bouman-Fickes Wedding Party

Spring in the Hudson Valley is a great time to enjoy the bounty of our local farms, starting with the sensational strawberries.  Russ has already “put up” Strawberry Jam, Strawberry Peach Preserves, Strawberry Jalapeno Salsa, and Strawberry Orange Marmalade.  Recipes for these are going to be included in the cookbook we are putting together.  These will join recipes for our favorite muffins, egg dishes, fruit starters, and pancakes.   We’ll keep you posted on how that’s coming.

Six months?!  We can’t believe that we are entering our seventh month in business at The Croff House and that the holidays are upon us.  Many of our guests ask us about what the winter will be like business-wise and our answer is simply, “We don’t know.”  We’re going to be open year-round for our first winter believing that there are still people out there who still need a relaxing getaway spot even if the snow is flying.  We’ve already had the fireplaces in the Living Room and Library burning.  We hope the rest of Fall and Winter will continue to be busy at The Croff House.

The exciting news is that, not only are we ranked the #1 bed and breakfast in Hudson on Trip Advisor, but at the end of August we had achieved the #3 ranking in New York State on the same website!  We are so grateful to all of our guests who took the time to write reviews of their experience at the inn.  So many new guests have taken the recommendation of our previous guests.  We hope we are able to continue to exceed expectations.

We were very pleased to learn that all of the businesses on Warren Street have planned on staying open “late” until 7 p.m. on Saturdays.  This means more opportunity for our guests to shop the wonderful galleries, shops and restaurants later into the day and enjoy all that Hudson has to offer.

Finally, our inaugural newsletter was sent out October 23!  We think it is a good “first attempt” and hope that everyone who reads it will find interesting tidbits about the goings on at the inn and our surrounding community.  Included in the newsletter was a recipe for Pumpkin Pancakes.  If you’d like either the newsletter or a copy of the recipe please email us at info@thecroffhouse.com

We realized we hadn’t had a post to our blog in quite some time – since we opened, actually.  We are astounded that three months have passed by so quickly.  How’s it going?  Fantastic!  We’ve had the pleasure of meeting so many great people who have made what could have been a very shaky period in the inn’s beginning smooth sailing.

Here’s what we’ve discovered thus far.  Running a bed and breakfast is lot of work – the semi-glamorous and the not-so-glamorous.  Even though The Croff House is only five bedrooms, the care and cleaning is an ongoing endeavor.  We’ve also discovered how well traveled B&B guests are.  So many have told us stories of their experiences at other properties all around the world.  Good experiences and the bad.  We use our guests’ feedback to always look for ways to improve The Croff House “experience”.

Now that The Croff House website is  live (we hope you agree our web designers have done an terrific job) we now begin the process of getting the word out.  Our guests have been extremely generous in sharing their time by writing online reviews of their experiences at TCH through several websites such as Trip Advisor and Bedandbreakfast.com.  We are proud to say that in the few short months we’ve been open The Croff House is rated the #1 Bed and Breakfsat in Hudson!

Needless to say we still have a lot to learn.

Duncan and I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive of our efforts from whenwe first started down this path to today when we launched our website.  So much talent has gone into the creation of The Croff House and over the past 2 months we have had the priveledge of welcoming a wonderful cadre of guests to the inn.  Now that the website is live we hope many others will find us and discover what we feel is a special destination in Hudson.

Now we embark on the next phase of The Croff House – getting the word out.  We have reached out to our guests to review The Croff House on Trip Advisor (www.tripadvisor.com) and Bedandbreakfast.com (www.bedandbreakfast.com)  Potential guests use these reviews to make a decision of where to stay when coming to Hudson.  Since we are so new prior guest experience with us becomes vitally important.

Summer is in full swing and The Croff House is open.

Since we’ve been open a lot of people have been asking to see pictures of our rooms like those we had posted in April.  Now that our professional photos have arrived we are posting them for your review.  If you have any questions or would like to make a reservation (which you can also do online) please call us at the inn at 518-828-1688.  Also, please note that beginning May 15 we have a two night minimum stay on Friday and Saturday.

Room rates include a full multi-course gourmet breakfast, afternoon tea/refreshments, and complimentary evening turndown service.  Please visit our home page for a complete listing of our services and amenities.

The Edmonds Guest Room ($150 weekday/$175 weekend)

The Edmonds Bedroom

The Edmonds Bathroom

The Peck Guest Room ($175 weekday/$200 weekend)

The Peck Bedroom

The Peck Bathroom

The Traver Guest Room ($200 weekday/$225 weekend)

The Traver Bedroom

The Traver Bathroom

The Chace Suite ($200 weekday/$225 weekend)

The Chace Suite Bedroom

The Chace Suite Bathroom

The Esselstyn Suite ($225 weekday/$250 weekend)

The Esselstyn Suite Bedroom

The Esselstyn Suite Bathroom

Our Grand Opening was well attended on Thursday, April 9.

After the ribbon cutting we welcomed over 80 guests to The Croff House, offering tours of the rooms and answering questions.  The positive comments and support from everyone in attendance made us feel that we were off to a good start.

The following day was our first day with the “Vacancy” sign hanging up, but we did have guests!  Our first guests were John and Janet from Westchaster, New York.  They had been following the renovation progress on this blog and were eager to see the House in person, and seemed very impressed with what they saw.  The following weekend we welcomed Larry and Susan from Ontario, Canada, who were on their way home and decided to spend a couple of nights with us.  They too offered high praise for the work we had done and felt completely at home at The Croff House.

We have already found our “groove” the mornings when we have guests.  Breakfasts went without a hitch (well at least as far as our guests knew) and eveeryone seemed very happy with the food and presentation.

And we continue to book reservations.  So we are really off to a good start!

Please note:  Additional pictures and rate information are available at www.bedandbreakfast.com/new-york-hudson-thecroffhousebedbreakfast.html

Well here they are.  Pictures of the (mostly) finalized bedrooms/suites.  I say “mostly” because we haven’t put the final, finishing touches to each room, nor have we hung the artwork throughout the house.  That comes next.

Click on each picture for a detailed description.

We’ll be interested to hear your feedback.