Thinking of Becoming an Innkeeper?

Here is some food for thought, in this case, no pun intended. First ask yourself why you want to be an innkeeper. If you think it would be fun, it is. If you think it’ll be an easy retirement job that will make some extra money? Think again. Innkeeping is not only a full time job but a full time commitment. It involves working holidays, weekends and basically all those days that others generally have off. You are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the physical labor is often grueling. Next, you should ask  yourself if you are a people person. Do you enjoy entertaining? Are you ok with people touching and looking through your personal items? If so, innkeeping is for you.

Keep in mind that if you believe that starting up a bed and breakfast sounds like a lucrative investment, it isn’t. You will never become rich as an innkeeper. But, you will have wonderful times, be an entrepreneur and be self employed. This comes with a lot of perks and a lot of downfalls, biggest one being the lack of benefits which come with a normal 9 to 5 job. If you are smart, you’ll diversify, as most bed and breakfasts do. Maybe you’ll serve meals, maybe you’ll do cooking classes and you will likely want to sell some retail. All of these will contribute to your bottom line, but not by much. Innkeeping is ultimately a lifestyle choice and one that can be tremendously rewarding.

Before you begin, make sure you have written yourself a very clear and detailed business plan. You should be absolutely certain of your finances. Know what you can afford before you start looking because banks don’t understand innkeeping as an industry and getting a loan is a tremendous challenge. Then, estimate your expenses at about 20% more because even if you purchase an existing property, which you should, you will likely end up with hidden expenses you didn’t anticipate ranging from home improvements to marketing. With regards to getting an existing property, there are pros and cons to that. A newly built facility, whether from the ground up or taking an existing property and building to suit, is great because you can get exactly the amenities and floor plan you want. However, a very serious pitfall often encountered by would be innkeepers is zoning. You cannot apply for zoning to become a bed and breakfast until you own a property and if your request is denied, you are stuck with a property you bought with the intent of turning it into a business and cannot do anything with it. We have known several innkeeper friends who spent months fighting their county boards and thousands in legal fees trying to get their inns zoned properly.

Next thing to consider is location. Where do you want to be in terms of potential business? Keep the following factors in mind. It always helps to be near a major thoroughfare, such as a highway, so that people can reach you easily. Secondly, being near things to do is helpful, for example shopping, outdoor activities, historical sites, wineries. Your guests will want a reason to come see you. Third, having a significant population within a two to three hour drive is a must. If you are more remote than that you will have a tough time drawing an audience. People who frequent inns tend to keep their searches to within a two to three hour drive.

Finally, you should consider the amenities you want to offer. What will set you apart? What is your identity as a bed and breakfast? Are you a foodies destination? Are you going to try to capture a market focused on hunting and fishing? Do you want to have a winery attached to your property? There are an infinite number of approaches you can take, all of which will determine what kind of marketing you will undertake which is probably the single most important aspect to getting into this business. Marketing has become an almost full time job in and of itself. Having an action plan and understanding your avenues of promoting yourself will make the difference between success and failure within the first year.

There are a number of fantastic resources available to aspiring innkeepers. Most state organizations offer training programs and several properties do weekend seminars for would be innkeepers. Additionally, there are many books are out there for aspiring innkeepers that offer more expanded versions of what I outlined here that are fantastic reference sources. One of my personal favorites is Mary White’s “Running a Bed and Breakfast For Dummies.” Hers was one of the few books that set a positive tone, encouraging future innkeepers to jump into this endeavor rather than discouraging them or scaring them away with all kinds of fear mongering as some of the other books did. Mary is the founder of Bnbfinder.com, is a leader in the industry in terms of advocacy for inns and a regular contributor to numerous publications on the subject of innkeeping. Above all, ask questions. Innkeepers are a friendly bunch and will gladly discuss their industry with you. Pick their brains and you will glean great insight into the many different approaches that have worked and not worked. 

The “inns” and “outs” of innkeeping: Playing the Amenity Game

The most requested amenity made by potential guests calling to inquire about reservations for any bed and breakfast is also the one that gets the least amount of use. Can you figure out what it might be? If you said Jacuzzi tub, you’d be correct. Everyone thinks it would be great to have one, but when push comes to shove, they end up not using it. We of course have antique ceramic tubs from the 1920’s that we would never replace because of their historical value, so that amenity in our case is “out.” So what’s “inn”? Read on.

The amenities game is a big question mark in the bed and breakfast industry. If you were to look at a list of every possible configuration of amenities you could offer the list would boggle your mind (and put you “out” of business). No one inn could ever offer them all so each innkeeper must decide what fits the identity of their inns and their personalities. What are you selling? It is a marketing game that you have to constantly play with in order to maximize appeal.

We decided early on that our primary amenities would revolve around our identity as a “foodies bed and breakfast.” These included home baked goodies, chocolates in all the rooms, beverages including a gourmet assortment of loose leaf teas, full hot breakfast and of course our four-course fixed price dinners. In addition we felt that enjoying a nice glass of wine or a beer with a meal was important to creating a gourmet ambiance so we bit the bullet and got a liquor license which most bed and breakfasts do not have.

In addition to the “foodie” theme, we also had a few specific items we knew we needed to focus on as far as amenities go. First off, why do so many hotels, even high end ones, skimp on the quality of the toilet paper they use? It may sound bizarre to say, but Jeff and I felt that it was important to have nice toilet paper and not that single ply stuff that feels like sandpaper. And believe it or not, guests notice. We have had many comments on it.  

Second, and perhaps one of the most important amenities because it is in the name of our business, is the bed. We actually spent several hours with a mattress expert going over the pros and cons of beds and trying to identify what kind would be ideal across the board for everyone. We ended up deciding upon a Simmons Beautyrest single coil mattresses as opposed to the Tempurpedic mattresses because the Tempurpedics tend to sleep hot and that can make things uncomfortable for some.

The third important amenity to consider was the bedding. You can have a great mattress but if the bedding isn’t soft and the pillows aren’t plush, it won’t matter a bit. It took us a long time to find the sheets we love which are soft and wash well and we recently upgraded all our pillows to those “My Pillow” pillows you see on TV. Yes, they work. A couple of additional items we like to have in our rooms include signature toiletries, robes and bottles of water.

This next amenity is more about our personalities than anything else, but we decided that media was something we wanted to focus on. Business clients must have Wi-FI and most men won’t go to a bed and breakfast if there is no television available. That being said, we ended up getting satellite TV and put VCR/DVD combos in all the rooms along with a list of approximately 1000 movie titles they can choose from to watch while they are here. Jeff and I are huge movie buffs so honestly, it was an excuse for us to get a bunch of movies under the guise of an amenity for the inn.

Finally, it was important for us to maintain nice gardens, including a vegetable and herb garden that guests could enjoy. We keep our patio manicured and lush looking so guests can sit outside with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee. We will never, however, get a pool or a Jacuzzi tub because of the potential liability involved with the combination of a liquor license and drowning.

The bottom line is that if you are planning a trip to a bed and breakfast, you should decide what specific amenities are important to you and then do your homework before deciding upon a property. All of them have websites and they generally outline clearly what they do and do not offer so you can make an educated decision as to what fits you perfectly.

Courtesy of the Bureau County Republican