I went on an awesome ice fishing trip over the weekend to Lake Granby. Our group stayed a couple miles down the road in the beautiful little town of Grand Lake, Colorado. Our hotel was called Gateway Inn. This cozy, rustic mountain lodge has some of the friendliest staff and owners I have ever dealt with in the hospitality industry.
During one conversation I had with the Lisa from Gateway Inn, she mentioned that they offer a nice discount for return visitors if they fill out a review of their experience on TripAdvisor.com. I didn’t book the reservations or even really know where we were staying before we got there so I had no idea if they even had a website. Curiously I asked… and Lisa was quick to reply “Oh yes, GatewayInn.com.” I thought to myself, ‘nice they got the .com, I wonder if they bought it from someone?’ So I told her I’m a .com guy and poked a little more. She went on to explain proudly how they registered GatewayInn.com as soon as they knew how to, according to whois that must have been around 1999. Lisa also informed me that they also use GatewayInn.info for their online room reservation system and how they have plans to utilize their other extension, GatewayInn.biz as a local specials page.
Small town, big Internet, smart business owners.
