Nanaimo innkeeper Gordie Robinson was recognized by the B.C. Bed and Breakfast Innkeepers Guild with its highest honour at its annual conference last month.
The Moyra Turner Hospitality Award has been awarded annually since 2002 and recognizes the member innkeeper who best exhibits hospitality and best promotes the concept of hospitality. Nominations for the Moyra Turner Hospitality Award require affirmation of exemplary hospitality by guests or other guild members.
Robinson, along with wife Janice, has owned and operated Long Lake Waterfront Bed and Breakfast for six years. After retiring from a 34-year career with Shaw Cable, Robinson realized he wanted to stay busy and active. When they found a bed and breakfast for sale on Long Lake, they dove right in and are enjoying a second successful career welcoming guests from all around the world.
Long Lake Waterfront Bed and Breakfast is a private luxury retreat at the end of the road on Ferntree Place, and provides three spacious self-contained waterfront suites. It also received a 2012 Travelers’ Choice award from TripAdvisor and a 2013 Certificate of Excellence, which puts the bed and breakfast in the top-performing 10 per cent of all businesses worldwide on Trip Advisor.
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Peter and Sue Hardie at Maple View Bed and Breakfast also earned an award from an international travel website.
The bed and breakfast on Rock City Road earned an Expedia Insiders Select 2013 award, which recognizes “the very best hotels available in the Expedia global marketplace as judged by the experience of Expedia customers.”
The award is based on more than one million guest reviews submitted annually. Maple View was one of 650 selected winners worldwide.
The Hardies have lived in Nanaimo for the past six years, having emigrated from the U.K.
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Nanaimo Precast Ltd. opened its doors last month at 1941 Trans Canada Highway, just south of Nanaimo. With 17 years’ experience in the concrete business, A.J. Hustins will own and operate Nanaimo Precast at the former ABC Precast site.
Nanaimo Precast is a provider of structural precast concrete products, including bridges, bridge components, hydro substation trenches, Ministry of Highways certified roadside barriers, plus septic tanks, holding tanks, curbs and eco-flo wastewater treatment system. Redi-Rock retaining wall systems will also be fabricated at the Nanaimo plant.
Nanaimo Precast will employ eight people in the first year and is expected to employ 20 within the next three years.
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Business Bits is a semi-regular business column in the News Bulletin. To get your business news listed, please e-mail editor@nanaimobulletin.com.