| Ease of Start-up |
Moderate |
| Range of Initial
Investment |
$10,000 - $400,000 |
| Time Commitment |
Full-time in season |
| Can be Run from
Home? |
Yes |
| Success Potential |
Difficult, unless you
are in a tourist area |
(article continued below ...)
INTRODUCTION
Bed
and Breakfast is an exciting new "down-home" kind of business
springing up among homeowners all across the country. If being domestic
is your thing, considering a bed and breakfast business might be in your
favor. All it takes is a spare bedroom, a flair for cooking, an outgoing
personality and a true enjoyment of tending to the comforts of others --
and you could be happy and successful with a bed and breakfast inn
business.
Bed
and breakfast inns continue to spring up all over the country, and the
number is rising. In 1975,
there were only 400 bed and breakfast inns in the United States.
That number is over 15,000 today. The
Professional Association of Innkeepers International foresees a doubling
of bed and breakfast inns in the next century.
Basically,
bed and breakfast is a transplant of European hospitality, adapted and
refined to the American way of doing things. This growing trend services
a type of customer who travels but wants a change of pace from the
traditional hotel stay. It
might be the corporate traveler, who may prefer the bed and breakfast
inn to a hotel when it is convenient to their destination.
For leisure travelers, the bed and breakfast inn may be the
destination in and of itself when located near a popular or desirable
vacation spot.
What
a bed and breakfast inn offers customers is a homey, cozy atmosphere at
typically the same or slightly lower cost as a comparable hotel. Prices
per night could range from a low of $25 to $100 or more. The basic
appeal of a Bed and Breakfast Inn for travelers and tourists alike is
the fact that it is a quiet "home-style" place to stay.
Generally, they enjoy visiting with the people off the
superhighway and want to get away from the sterilized atmosphere and
sameness of hotels and motels. Instead of hallways of rooms cloned with
the same layout and design of bedspreads, wallpaper curtains, fixtures,
and carpeting, guests of bed and breakfast inns can expect to get a good
night's sleep in a room with a variety of make-up and design much more
like their own beloved bedrooms. Add to that the other elements that
make it feel like home - dining room, kitchen, sitting or living room,
and some good home cooking - and it's not hard to see why bed and
breakfasts are an appealing choice of travel accommodations.
If
you have an extra bedroom, a large home or extra space in your
farmhouse, you have the necessary beginnings to start making extra
income as a Bed and Breakfast Inn.
One of the beautiful aspects of this idea is that so long as
you're hosting "over night visitors" on a small scale, no
licenses will be required. It's
always best, however, to check with your local authorities just to be
sure.
Naturally,
your "visitors" will expect a clean, neat and comfortable
home. So assuming that your
home meets these prerequisites, and you have a spare bedroom, simply
"doll it up" a bit. Make
sure it's painted brightly, there's an outside window, lots of room,
closet space and bureau, and perhaps a small writing desk, and a large
comfortable bed, or twin beds.
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Two
things are key to a successful bed and breakfast inn -- location and
number of rooms. Profitability
is directly tied to occupancy rate, and so the more desirable the area
is for vacationers, or the closer it is to an urban area which draws
regular business travelers, the greater the chances for making money.
In any case, a bed and breakfast with four or fewer guest rooms
will have a more difficult time being profitable, a according to the
Professional Association of Innkeepers.
Given
a good location and adequate number of rooms, your ability to provide
the ultimate in hospitality will be a powerful marketing factor in your
bed and breakfast business. Being
friendly to all types of guests at all times and responding to their
needs - even demanding ones - is essential.
Also, cooking home-cooked meals, and keeping things neat, fresh,
and orderly are prerequisites for repeat customers.
And
with word of mouth advertising so important in a service business like
this, providing the extra touches, like turning the beds down or fresh
flowers in the rooms, is another smart marketing tool.
It's the little, unexpected things that will pleasantly surprise
your guests and etch permanent memories in the minds of these customers.
And
finally, bed and breakfast inn owners need to be prepared to do the
things they normally do at home anyway - be flexible to sudden changes,
ready to generate an alternative plan, and respond calmly and quickly to
crisis.
To
make your service more special, you can offer visitors, particularly
foreigners, a "quick tour" of the interesting sights in your
area. However, as your
popularity as a B & B Host grows, you'll find that a lot of local
tourists and business people on the road will begin availing themselves
of your hospitality. If
your visitors are already familiar with the area, you may wish to devise
new strategies to highlight the unique features of the place.
Now,
suppose you're organized and ready to receive your first customers.
You greet them as host or hostess and offer to assist them in
getting situated in the room or rooms you have for them.
If they'd like to take a drive around your area and see the
points of interest, you do that. And then in the morning, serve them a big, delicious
breakfast.
You'll
probably find that foreign visitors will want to stay several days.
With most people of this country who are just traveling through
your area, it'll be a one-night stopover.
Whatever, if they want to sleep comfortably through the night,
eat breakfast and be on their way, so be it.
If they want to sit around after breakfast and plan an itinerary
for a complete visit of your area, your assistance and help will be
greatly appreciated. (Remember those recommendations)!
That's
it! The complete how and why of this tremendously profitable business
that's becoming more and more popular.
It's called Bed & Breakfast, and it's very definitely a low
investment idea. And you
can parlay it into a very interesting and comfort able income producing
business - all from the comforts of
your own home!
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The
personal pay back for providing the ultimate bed and breakfast
experience can be very satisfying.
Bed and breakfast inn owners have the opportunity to live in a
desirable location and spend the majority of their time in the home that
they have worked so hard to decorate and maintain. They can have their
children at home; children can also become involved in the business.
They have the opportunity to meet all kinds of interesting people
from around the United States and possibly the world.
And the expenses of running a home become tax deductible, i.e.,
cleaning supplies, car expenses, insurance, eating out, magazines,
travel.
The
obligations for these benefits, however, are the fact that you need to
be at home all day seven days a week, with a telephone nearby at all
times. Any time away, like
a day off or a vacation, needs to be well planned with a highly reliable
replacement hired.
The
investment for a bed and breakfast inn will vary substantially depending
on if you already own the home or not, and the renovating costs in the
area in which you business is located.
Expect to pay from as low as $10,000 per room to as high as
$40,000 per room in renovation costs of your existing home.
If you're buying a home to convert into a bed and breakfast inn,
the costs may be as high as $70,000 per room, again depending on where
in the country your business is located.
Room
rates will also vary due to geographic location. According to the Professional Association of Innkeepers
International, the standard rate ranges from $100 to $120 per night in
the northeast and west. In
the Midwest and south, rates are in the low $90's.
Corporate rates are typically about 20-25% of the standard rate.
As
mentioned earlier, occupancy rates will be key to profitability. Average
occupancy rates nationally are at about 38%, with as high as 66% in the
west, 51% in the northeast, and 45% in the south.
Rural areas are at about 45% and urban areas at about 65%.
With
these figures, the Professional Association of Innkeepers International
averages three possible income scenarios for potential bed and breakfast
inn owners to consider; 1-4 rooms at a 44 percent occupancy rate will
generate a gross income of approximately $42,000 for a net loss of
$8,000; 5-8 rooms at a 46 percent occupancy rate will generate a gross
income of approximately $111,000 for a net profit of $12,000; 9-12 rooms
at a 51 percent occupancy rate will generate a gross income of
approximately $245,000 for a net profit of $63,000.
Keep in mind that some states require bed and breakfast inns with
more than six rooms to adhere to the state's hotel laws.
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If
becoming a bed and breakfast inn owner is for you, begin by getting your
business listed in as many travel and guidebooks as possible.
Make contact with local travel and reservation agents and become
a part of their regular referrals.
For their services, they will expect between a 10 and 35 percent
commission off your room rate.
Most
people will either write to you ahead of time, inquiring about the
possibilities of staying at your home while in your town or city.
This means a bit of advertising on your part, or listing your
availability with a B & B broker. Some people will check the local telephone listings, and the
newspaper advertisements when they arrive in a strange town.
And some people will just be driving across the country, come to
a town or city they think is interesting, and start driving through the
residential areas looking for Bed and Breakfast Inns.
Thus,
you should have a small sign posted either in your front yard or on the
front of your house. This
sign needn't be much more than about two feet wide by about ten inches
deep. It need only state
BED AND BREAKFAST - Inquire Within or Call 123-4567.
For
newspaper advertising, a similar listing in the personal column of your
local paper, particularly on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, will be
all you'll need. But when
it comes to the yellow pages of your telephone and business directories,
go with a small display ad that describes in greater detail the comforts
and pleasures of your services.
Be
sure to list your services with all the travel agencies in your area.
A brochure or a short synopsis of what you offer will most
assuredly give the travel agents an idea for steering visitors your way.
At the same time, listing your services in a number of national
travel magazines - particularly those that cater to women - will bring
customers in for you.
Listing
your services with a broker usually won't cost you anything up front,
but they will expect a certain percentage - usually about 25% of the
total bill. This same
arrangement applies with travel agents.
Advertising
in travel magazines and special sections of newspapers and other
periodicals regularly will also support your goal of a steady stream of
customers. And look for
public relations opportunities as well, like feature stories on
television and in print geared for a vacationing audience or some
related topic. Get in the habit of sending our press releases to your
local media. It may lead to
valuable and inexpensive visibility.
Finally,
with word of mouth advertising being so important to a hospitality
business such as this, the more you do to delight your customer while
they are within the walls of your inn, the bigger your marketing army.
If your customers have a special experience, you can bet they'll
tell everyone at work as well as all their friends and families about
it. And keep in touch with
them. You can solicit their
repeat business through regular mailings offering special discounts and
promoting special events in your community that they will want to
attend.
Being
a bed and breakfast inn owner is much more than just keeping a neat
house. It's a career loaded
with variety and challenges -from the tasks of running a business to
planning and implementing marketing to personally providing a full array
of hospitality services. Whereas
hotels have a staff of people performing duties in just one of these
areas, you get the opportunity to direct the entire operation . . . and
all from the comfort of your own home!
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If
you are giving this business serious consideration, be a guest of
several bed and breakfast inns. Read
tourist and travel oriented books for reviews and recommendations.
Notice what's considered "good" and what's not.
Workshops
put on by bed and breakfast inn associations can also help give you
vital information on running your own business.
For a taste of reality, you may even want to try it out and take
on work as an inn sitter for vacationing owners.
For
more information, contact:
American
Bed & Breakfast Association, 1407 Huguenot Road, Midlothian, VA
23113; (804) 379-2222.
Bed
and Breakfast National Network, Box 4616, Springfield, MA 10010.
Professional
Association of Innkeepers International, Box 90710, Santa
Barbara, CA 93190;
(805) 569-1853
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