From The 1930s to the 1970's
Background
Over sixty years ago, the Innkeepers Guild was formed to ensure that there was a strong voice regarding the interests of fixed-roof accommodations in the Province.
It is the intent of the GUILD to be the primary voice of all fixed roof accommodation operators, representing all classifications and operators, to represent its members in negotiations and discussions with government, industry, and non-industry organizations, whose activities interact with tourist accommodations; to provide for its members a problem solving network and a communications mechanism that reaches out to members in an acceptable and timely manner, and to foster and promote the continued improvement of fixed-roof accommodations in the tourist industry by fulfilling the objectives as listed in its constitution.
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Some Historical Information
Leading Up To Incorporation of IGNS
From the initial development of public transportation in the early 1800's, came the need for providing services to travelers. The expanding trade and resultant prosperity late in the century increased the number of leisure travelers and the concept of "tourism" evolved around the 1880's.
The Government of Nova Scotia realized the importance of this new concept and first became involved in promoting the province through advertising along with CN Rail in the 1920's.
In 1931, aerial activity at Halifax airport was described as "developing at a phenomenal rate", with daily arrivals from Boston and New York.
In 1932, one of Nova Scotia's major attractions, the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton, was opened and there were 221,000 visitors that year to the Province.
By 1935, all three Maritime provinces began ambitious road construction and paving programs; partly as a relief measure, but also following the example of New England and Upper Canada to "capture as much as possible of the expanding and lucrative tourist market".
"Tourism" grew rapidly despite the devastating effects of the Depression, and this trend continued into the late 1930's.
The significant fact, however, for those interested in the development of the accommodation sector of the tourism industry, was that very little government money was put into expanding or upgrading facilities, despite the government's public acknowledgement of their importance.
In 1938, the volume of visitors was at an all time high, yet there was neither funds to develop facilities, nor an organization to regulate and ensure standards of quality.
The specific circumstances which were the rationale behind the Guild's organization were &endash; the continued high volume of tourists and the lack of facilities, the scarcity of funds for upgrading operations, the nonexistence of quality standards, and the absence of an association to look after the interests of all types of innkeepers.
There were four main factors that set the stage for the organization and the first meeting of the Innkeepers Guild on November 19, 1938;
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the obvious need to plan and expand facilities to accommodate visitors due to the sophistication of modern transportation services and the focus placed on Nova Scotia as a vacation spot by the government's advertising, |
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the development of quality standards for hotels to meet consumer demands. |
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The necessity of an organization to look out for the various needs of the accommodation operators, and |
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The need to secure a place for the accommodation sector of the tourism industry to emphasize its importance in the economy of Nova Scotia |
Messieurs Robert Pitt (The Nova Scotian Hotel) and Forbes Thrasher (The Lord Nelson), were two of the major instigators who proposed a selfgoverning trade association which would be operated by the industry and have the power to discipline its members.
The Innkeepers Guild was to be a quality organization with the basic principle that any place which was clean, comfortable and courteous would be eligible for membership.
On April 15, 1939, under a special Act of the Legislature "The Innkeepers Guild of Nova Scotia" was incorporated. Our organization is the only tourism organization that has been formed under Provincial Legislation.
The name "Innkeepers" had been carefully chosen as the organization was to function under the aegis of the Innkeepers' Act. The word "inn" meant any place providing food and rooms to the traveling public. Innkeeper was defined as the person in active control of such an operation.
At the time of incorporation, there were five types of accommodation in the province;
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hotel; an establishment which provided three meals daily and no less than 20 rooms |
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cottage colony; a hotel which consists of small groups of buildings around a larger building |
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inn; an establishment which provides meals and at least six bedrooms |
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cabin colony; a small group of buildings around a larger building with at least six bedrooms and eating facilities |
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tourist home; an establishment having at least three bedrooms and a minimum of providing one meal daily |
The task of adhering to these objectives was to be the responsibility of an eight member board of Directors and the original directors in 1939 were;
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Mr. George Deckman of The Fairview Hotel, Bridgewater |
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Mr. James Burton of Braemar Lodge, Yarmouth |
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Mr. Forbes Thrasher of The Lord Nelson Hotel, Halifax |
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Mr. Robert Pitt of The Nova Scotian Hotel |
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Mr. Arthur Shatford of The Gainsborough, Hubbards |
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Mr. Harry Morris of The Norfolk Hotel, New Glasgow |
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Mr. Douglas Cossaboom of The Harbour View House, Smith's Cove |
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Mr. Robert Ellis of The Pines in Digby, The Lakeside Inn in Yarmouth, and The Cornwallis Inn in Kentville |
In its drive for membership, an invitation was given to the members of the Nova Scotia Hotel Association to join the Guild. This resulted in a membership of about 40, and most of the early members were managers of the commercial hotels.
The Early Years
The Guild was incorporated in April 1939, and carried on low profile meetings during WWII. In 1948, a full scale re-activation was commenced and its two priorities were to increase membership to strengthen the organization, and to gain the privilege to sell beer, wine, and spirits in hotel dining rooms to generate revenue for upgrading facilities which had grown shabby during the War.
In its early relationship with the Provincial Government, the Guild was instrumental in lobbying the Government to establish a i) loans system to encourage the industry to build cabins, and ii) a series of short courses in all phases of the tourism business.
In 1954, a "situation" arose which threatened the internal operations of the Guild. A new type of accommodation was being built known as motels. Due to the increasing number of motels, coupled with their inability to join the Guild (as they did not serve meals which was a prerequisite for membership), rumor had it that the motel sector was about to establish their own association.
This action had the potential of jeopardizing the accommodation industry, thereby prompting a key change in the Guild's bylaws and structure to avert it. The Guild directors wanted to stave off this for several reasons;
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another accommodation association could be redundant and might work at cross purposes to the Guild's objectives. |
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this would fractionalize the accommodation industry and lesson the Guild's strength in lobbying the government |
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due to the fluctuating business conditions in the industry, it would be wiser for all operations to be mutually supportive and work together to alleviate these conditions |
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due to the loss of a sizable grant (Dominion Brewers), the Guild was feeling financial strain. This loss of revenue created the need to generate more memberships, and the loss of the new operations which were becoming a substantial proportion of the industry, was to be avoided. |
The Directors opted to change the bylaws to allow the admittance of motels, which was a major change in the composite of members of the Guild and the definition of the duties of an innkeeper.
The Guild developed an extremely beneficial liason in May 1955, when it invited the Hotel Association of Canada to hold its annual convention in Nova Scotia. This was the first time since the Association's inception in 1928 that it had held a convention in the Atlantic Provinces.
In late 1957, the Guild developed an interesting "inhouse" project called the "Prepaid Reservation Service", which was a connecting system of establishments to provide a reservation system to the public. A guest would pay an operator to make a reservation for him and would be issues a receipt. The operator would then reimburse the second operator with a cheque.
The reservation system only lasted until the 60's due to the tremendous amount of paperwork involved. Not only was this concept innovative, but it was the forerunner for the reservation service company, Check Inns Ltd., that was a joint venture of government and industry established in 1978.
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In 1960, there were no province wide standards governing eating establishments, as they were under the auspices of regional Boards of Health. The Guild worked hard with the Government to establish a sanitary code and to provide food preparation courses.
In 1961, the Premier of Nova Scotia, the Right Honourable R. Stanfield, praised the Guild's continued attainment of high standards of excellence, as the work of building the Nova Scotian tourism industry was a massive challenge and could reach the $100 million mark in several years.
The awareness of the critical economic situation of the hotel industry had fostered several key implications for the Guild and the industry in 1961.
First, it forced the government to realize the necessity of closer co-operation between the private and public sectors to develop their valuable resources. This was evidenced by the Premiers invitation for the Guild to discuss the liquor issue and other areas of concern. The government invited the Guild (along with the Canadian Restaurant Association, and the Dietitians Association) to have representatives on the newly formed government sponsored Nova Scotia Food Services Council.
Second, the government invited the Guild's input on a continuing "ground &endash;level" basis in devising curriculum and legislation. This was a departure from the former as hoc basis which the government previously used in eliciting information.
In May 1961, after ten years of (often times) frustrating lobbying on behalf of the Guild, Chapter 155 of the Liquor Control Act (1954) was amended to establish a Liquor Licensing Board.
Mel Jack from the Brewers Assoc. of Canada with Fred Irwin and Penny Gott (1966)
As far back as the 60's, the Guild recognized the importance of (and has fought for) fair competition in the marketplace. In March 1963, the Guild sent a delegation to Ottawa to visit the Deputy Minister of Finance to proclaim that if tax-exempt organizations go into business, they should pay income tax. At the time, the IRS (in the United States) ruled that any organization would lose its tax exempt status if it competes on a recurring basis. The Guild's position was that it was not against these organizations having functions for their members..., only against those times when they advertised their food and accommodation services to the public.
In 1963, the Guild also lobbied the Mayor and Council of Halifax City regarding "Overbuilding". There was a proposal for a new 450 room hotel in Halifax, and the Guild felt that Halifax already had too many rooms with the additions to the Hotel Nova Scotian and the Lord Nelson, and the building of the Dresden Arms, which had provided 284 additional rooms since 1960. At the time, it was calculated that the break-even point for hotels was 70% occupancy and the Guild had established that Halifax's occupancy level between July 1960 and July 1963 was 76%. Through their presentations, the guild was able to defer the proposal for the new hotel
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Introspective Appraisal of the Guild's Organization
In 1963, with great concern for standards and quality, the Guild decided to assess its own criteria for membership and appraise its members. Although the Guild was a trade organization with some standards, nothing up until this point had been formally documented. Any operation that applied to the Directors and had a "good reputation" was accepted. Consequently because of this lax criteria and the fact that there was no membership secretary, some undesirable operations had became members and some new places that would be an asset to the Guild had not been approached to join.
At this time, the Guild decided to change its bylaws, so an applicant must apply for membership to the President for more scrutiny. This prompted a "Code of Ethics" to be proposed and adopted which required strict adherence from every member. To ensure this adherence a full time Managing Director was appointed to forge closer liason between the members and the Directorate, which in turn would strengthen the whole organization. The Directors wanted to make the Guild emblem a "hallmark of quality", and membership a "privilege".
During the sixties, the Guild worked hard to establish and maintain a good working relationship and partnership with the Provincial Government.
The encouragement of this full fledged joint partnership between industry and government to develop tourism was endorsed by Premier G.I. Smith in his address to the Guild's annual meeting in October 1969; "There are government inspection services and standards, but laws only point the way. Without the full and serious participation of the Guild, neither standards nor customers will be well served. In other words, the Innkeepers Guild is at the same time both the most effective promoter of, and, guardian to, Nova Scotia's tourism industry. I know that you have, and feel certain you will continue to observe these rather awesome responsibilities in an industry which is of benefit to our whole Province." Certainly the profile of the Guild had been elevated as it worked hard to establish its voice regarding tourism issues in the Province of Nova Scotia.
