InnStyle’s parent company, County Linen, opened its doors in 1952. That’s a long, long time. Not many businesses can say they have survived for that long.

Like the name suggests, InnStyle started as a linen store, a small family business run by Jack Sternthal. As time went on, Jack’s sons graduated from college and joined the family business. The company eventually had three locations, with the main store moving to a 30,000-sq. foot building where they provided linens, furniture, accessories, flooring, custom window treatments, and bedding.

InnStyle was launched in 1988. Starting with a catalog, they began providing bed and breakfast properties with quality bed linens and other items for their rooms.

InnStyle began with customers who owned bed and breakfast properties in tourist destinations like New Hope, PA, and Lambertville, N.J., coming to shop at their store in Doylestown.

But it eventually morphed into an internet shopping experience, as their innkeepers began to put their businesses online. Visitors to their site can now find wholesale and retail shopping carts.

So why are they talking about all this?

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Every summer I look forward to moving to my home at the beach in New Jersey.

I love this house. I love the summer. We are not “on the beach” but we’re still close enough to walk to it. But as much as we love the house and the summer and the beach, things aren’t always simple. After my husband and I make the nearly two-hour drive to our summer home, there’s always work to do.

Sometimes that work can include standard cleaning and repairs, but other times there are bigger headaches. For example, I spent eight weeks this summer trying to get our Samsung freezer repaired, a job that was only completed after contacting the president of Samsung U.S.

We also were disappointed by 2 different contractors whom we contacted – one to build an outdoor shower, and a tree specialist to check on a gorgeous tree in front of our property that looked diseased. We contacted them, and then never heard from them again. It made us long for the days when service people took pride in their work, showed up and did the job.

With all this in mind, we thought we’d reach out to other vacation rental property owners with some tips for preparing their summer homes for the winter. By taking care of small home care issues, you’ll have more time to deal with any unforeseen issues before the vacation rental season begins.

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Tag: InnStyle Employees

For Bed Linens, Innkeepers Know Quality Trumps Price

Getting Your Vacation Rental Ready for Winter