From “Ask Kit!”:
Q: we are searching for the “right” b anad b for us. We are looking now at one in a small town in New York state that is steps away from a 5,000 student university. What do you see as the pro’s and con’s of being in a small university town.
A: Well, I can’t speak specifically about a small university town, but I can talk about a university town in general. I’ll leave the fine-tuning of “small” to those who have experienced that. Livinf in a small town itself is different. I’ve recently moved from a “city” of 1000,000 people to a town of 500 (the county itself has just passed the 4,000 mark) and can tell you there are lots of interesting challenges and benefits of small-town living. The challenges are finding what you need to buy, be it food, hardware, medical, clothes or services. The benefits are that everyone knows you and is there to help you, to support you, and to share.
The prcs of a university town are that it’s a more stable community and economy, that there’s more of a year-round business than other small towns, and you have a diversity of thought and culture. I personally can’t think of a con of being in a university town.
We are in a small university town, and there are a few cons to consider:
Our university is about 5000 students but many are commuters, not dorm residents, and they add significantly to traffic and parking issues in town.
When school is in session, the students prefer parking on the two commercial blocks in town to their student parking lot (deemed, at 1/4 mile away, too far to walk), and it is difficult for customers to park in town. We have less trouble with this than our fellow business owners since we are another block away, but it is a town problem.
Noise is an issue – the radios at full booming blast as they drive through our 4-way stop sign rattle the windows, and you would be wise to check your location against student rentals and student bar hangouts – both of which cause tremendous problems for residents in the area. Vandalism, fighting, and real noise issues occur at these spots in our town. Over $100,000 of our small town police budget is for working at night when the bars close.
The university contributes some to our guest population but mostly during its annual theater festival held in July. During the school year we get very little traffic from parents. This is very different from other university towns, like Lexington, VA or Blacksburg, VA – the B&Bs there could fill 100 rooms from the school on event days.
I did my culinary externship at a B&B in Austin. It was just a couple of blocks away from the University. We got a LOT of business from U.T. Austin, though it should be noted that Austin’s enrollment is at least ten times larger with 50,000 undergraduates alone!
Since we were the closest lodging facility to the university, U.T. Austin had a contract with the B&B and sent us all of their visiting professors as well as all of the Ph.D’s who were being interviewed for employment.
People interested in the University’s graduate programs stayed at the inn along with parents visiting undergraduates and alumni who came to Austin to watch football games.
Roughly 60% of our business was related in one way or another to the university.
Inn at Elizabethville