WHY US?

Carol and Roger Redenbaugh are the former innkeeper owners of The Graham Inn and Adobe Village located in Sedona, Arizona.

They purchased the five room Graham's B&B in May, 1992 for about $700,000.  At that time the annual profit was negligible, but Carol and Roger intuitively knew that this would be a career that would not feel like work (and they were right).

Eight years later when the Redenbaughs sold the inn in September, 2000 the inn had been recreated into a luxury property with five guest rooms and a two-room suite in the main structure and four separate guest casitas in a courtyard.  The sales price of $380,000 per room, highest per room sale in the US at that time, gave them an annual return of over 30% on their initial $80,000 investment.

A significant rate increase, previously planned for the month of the sale, allowed the new owners to continue a very profitable operation, so the sale was a good one for both the seller and buyer.

However, the inn's financial success was only a small part of the Redenbaugh Success Story.  Their greatest pride was the operation of the inn resulting in:

   dazzled, delighted guests
   a well trained staff that truly enjoyed the inn and its guests
   a physical plant at a high state of maintenance
   frequent articles in the press establishing a national reputation
   relaxed inn owners, able to take extensive trips away from the area

The Graham Inn and Adobe Village was awarded AAA Four Diamond, Mobil Four Star and Select Registry status.

A partial listing of articles about the inn 
beginning in 1997 includes:

A sampling of books that included our inn follows:

REDENBAUGH BACKGROUNDS

CAROL REDENBAUGH obtained a Bachelor of Science in Education from Wichita State University in 1968.  She taught secondary English, speech and drama before staying home to be a mom.  In 1975 Carol began managing communities.  Ten years later she was a C.E.O. of a management firm in Virginia Beach, Virginia which managed 35 communities.  During those years she was a frequent seminar speaker for three day courses offered across the U.S.  Topics included personnel management, communications, and maintenance operations.  In addition, in a consultant status, she co-wrote eight courses relating to various management topics that are currently being taught in all fifty states.  She left that industry to own The Graham Inn with her husband, Roger.  After attending the P.A.I.I. Conferences in Santa Fe and Reston, she became a speaker at the San Antonio, San Francisco and Hilton Head conferences.  Topics included the luxury inn, inn sitting, staff day, recreating your inn and personnel management.

ROGER REDENBAUGH obtained a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1965.  He served as a Naval aviator for ten years, flying fighter jets off of aircraft carriers.  In 1975 he left the U.S. Navy to own and manage an electronics store, where he had a special interest in computers.   Beginning in 1989 he worked with Carol, serving as Systems Manager for the community management firm where his talents included maintaining the computer systems, producing financial reports for 35 communities, and desk top publishing company communications.  In 1992 he and Carol found Graham's B&B.  During their eight years of inn ownership Roger enjoyed guest relations; writing the annual business plan; creating, maintaining and marketing the web site; creating monthly financial reports; submitting employee tax filings (well, maybe he did not really enjoy that); and performing the inn maintenance that was beyond the ability of the staff.  In addition, he wrote and maintained web sites for the Arizona Bed & Breakfast Association, Sedona B&B Guild, Sedona Humane Society and other organizations and inns.

Carol and Roger found that they form a perfect team.  While Carol enjoys being the people person and working with clients, personnel and guests, Roger excels as the systems person working with anything that has moving parts, electrical wires or computer chips.