Is Running a Bed and Breakfast for You?
What exactly is bed and breakfast?
Bed and breakfasts have been around for many years. They have recently had a surge in popularity in the United States. It seems like everyone with an older home is thinking about opening a B&B. There are several types of bed and breakfast establishments. The first is a house where several bedrooms are used for paying guests. The owners usually love all types of people and enjoy company. Some have full time jobs in other fields and some are retired. They do not have enough rooms to make a large profit, but the income helps offset taxes and utility costs. They are usually in areas zoned as residential and sometimes they face problems with parking and signage. Breakfast is a big part of the appeal of this bed and breakfast, and no other meals are served.
The second type of bed and breakfast is also a home where paying guests stay, but it has at least four or five bedrooms available. The owner usually still lives in the home, but needs to run the bed and breakfast full time. Unfortunately, he often needs additional income to pay the bills and needs a partner with a day job or a retirement income to make a go of it. Often, these larger homes are bought with the intention of starting a bed and breakfast. Many of these bed and breakfast homes face stricter regulations than the smallest B&Bs. There are often problems with fire and building codes.
The final type of bed and breakfast is a bed and breakfast inn. This is a small business that can actually support the owner. He usually still lives in the inn, but supplements his income by holding weddings and small business meetings at the inn. There are anywhere from 4 to 30 rooms in an inn. Breakfast is still usually the only meal served, though some inns add a restaurant.
All 3 types of the bed and breakfast have several things in common. They live in the same building with their guests and serve the guests breakfast. The guests enjoy terrific customer service and get plenty of attention.
Someone who starts a bed and breakfast loves people and likes to take care of them. He or she is also usually a good cook and entertainer.
The bed and breakfast is a business!
So, now you know what bed and breakfast is, you love people and you like to cook. You should definitely start a bed and breakfast, right? Well, that word business is very important. You aren’t just playing around. You need to be able to stay organized and do a lot of paperwork. You also need to check into licensing requirements in your state, and check into insurance and tax needs. Are you that organized and conscientious? If not, maybe you should check into some alternatives. You could work for established bed and breakfasts by filling in for owners who need a vacation or you could find a partner who just loves paperwork.
So, can I really earn a living?
Can you spot some trends that will benefit a new bed and breakfast? Many people will want to travel when they retire. Decreased income and fears of terrorism and concerns for safety will mean more people will decide not to travel abroad and will vacation closer to home. Will people looking to relax and leave stress behind want to watch the leaves change, visit historic areas, or enjoy the beach while staying at your bed and breakfast? Some people support themselves with a bed and breakfast, and even employ other people to keep up with the demand. Others work part-time at this business. Some things that can affect your salary are: location, size of your building, determination, professionalism, etc.
The size of your building will be very important. You can’t easily change the number of rooms available to guests. The number of rooms is directly related to how much you can earn. Obviously, you can only rent each room once per night.
Obviously, if you live in tiny town, USA, your earning potential is limited. However, there are many bed and breakfasts that still do well in rural areas. They are near resort areas or situated on the way to larger places. Small towns may still be solid prospects, but you may find yourself falling back on temp work or part time jobs to earn more income during slow times. In popular areas, you may have to hire an employee or two to keep up with the cleaning, maintenance, reservation work, and cooking involved in a bed and breakfast.
If you are easily discouraged, you may fold up your tent and sell your home or give up on running a bed and breakfast in the first few weeks or months of business when your phone doesn’t ring off the hook. Any new business should not expect to make a profit within the first one, and sometimes two, years. People need to find out about your establishment. You have to be willing to take the time to convince people that they should stay in your home instead of using a hotel. If you have enough determination to stick it out, a lovely home, and a location near interesting events, you will eventually succeed. Make sure you pay close attention to the marketing portion of this class. It is full of techniques and suggestions for relatively inexpensive business promotion.
Professionalism is very important when you run a business. I’m not talking about wearing a business suit and pantyhose. However, it doesn’t hurt to dress neatly, and perhaps wear a company T-shirt. (Besides, its free advertising.) Professionalism is making sure you return prospective customers’ calls promptly, knowing your rates and services, knowing basic business phone skills, never being rude to potential customers, etc. Professionalism leads to a very important aspect of your success-the customer referral. It is the most valuable and effective way to grow your business.
You may not ever earn a large amount of money running a bed and breakfast, but you don’t need to own a separate residence. You can meet new people and make at least some income.
A day in the life of a bed and breakfast owner
So, what is owning a bed and breakfast really like? What really happens during the day? Come along with me for a normal day in the life of bed and breakfast inn owner with a 7 bedroom inn.
It’s 5:30 a.m. I’m up drinking my morning tea and mixing up a batch of my special muffins as the coffee brews. A guest is leaving at 6:30 and needs breakfast by 6. After I drop a tray by the early checkout’s room, I begin cooking stuffed French toast for the rest of my guests. Breakfast is served from 7 to 8, and this recipe takes an hour to prepare. I pause at 6:20 to check out my guest and give him a warm send off. At 6:30, I begin scrambling eggs and move on to putting out the fresh fruit and the coffee and hot water urns. Breakfast is ready by 7 as promised, and I have been up for 2 hours already. I sit and chat with those guests who are early morning people as they eat. The rest of the guests trickle in before 8. (Sometimes the guests oversleep and miss the breakfast hour. I still provide them with muffins, tea and coffee.) I check out the rest of those guests who are leaving and tell other guests how to find their way to some local sights. I take a phone call from a prospective guest. Then, I’m off to clean the rooms of the guests who checked out and neaten up the rooms of those guests who are staying. I barely finish in time to pick up some fresh items at the grocery store for tomorrow’s breakfast and swing by the airport to pick up some incoming guests. I check my guests in, offer them a cup of coffee, tea, or cocoa, and let them settle in. I welcome my other guests back as they trickle in from their day of fun. I give recommendations for dinner and remind them that I do ask guests to return to the house by 10 unless they’ve made previous arrangements with me to return later. I field a few more calls, deal with a stopped up toilet, and finally sit down to a late dinner with my bills and correspondence.
A smaller bed and breakfast will have a less hectic day, but the owner still will need to be sure to be there for the guests. Bed and breakfast owners often work long hours, but do have some down time during the day, when guests are out having fun. The problem is that they need to decide whether to use that down time to nap or look into some of the things that keep being pushed aside, like advertising in that new travel magazine.
