Sep 02 2010
How To Start A Bed And Breakfast – 7 Top Tips
So you want to know how to start a bed and breakfast? Fair enough, for the right personality it’s a great way to make a living – and quite a good living too. Let’s have a look at seven things that can make a big difference fast.
1. Are you bed and breakfast owner material? It’s one thing to look at it as an attractive lifestyle but do you have the personality to deal calmly with the occasional grumpy guest as well as the ones having a good time? Can you smile in the face of unreasonable demands? What about the hours? Sometimes you’ll have time off when your friends have to work – and that can be great – but a lot of the time you’ll be up before them, finished after them and your weekends will almost certainly be busiest of all.
2. Have you found the right property? If it is already a running bed and breakfast (or country inn, guest house, etc) then you are half way there but if it’s a private residence with bed and breakfast potential is it in an area that people are likely to visit? It might be beautiful but there need to be plenty of other attractions for it to be profitable. What’s the competition like? Is it you versus the big chains or are there lots of similar B & Bs around? Can you see weaknesses in their offerings that you can exploit? Are they more expensive than you had thought or cheaper? Do you need to compete on price? How will this effect your profitability?
3. Have you checked that you can run a commercial enterprise in that area? Have you checked planning for any alterations you need to make? In many countries you need to make provision for people with disabilities if you can take more than a certain number of guests. What other rules and regulations apply to your area? For instance, some areas require a minimum number of parking spaces.
4. Have you analyzed costings and therefore profitability? It’s a common error to look at this too basically. Don’t think that if you can get $70 a night for a room it can’t cost more than that just to change a bed. What happens if the heating system fails? You might be having a great time starting your bed and breakfast – and you should – but never forget that this is business. Do the math for everything. Insurance is likely to be higher. What about local property taxes? You need to know your costs accurately in order to see what you need to charge for your accommodation. If you are very profitable that’s a bonus – you can afford to discount outside peak season. If you’re not very profitable you need to look at whether you have a viable business. You may love the idea but working for nothing is no fun at all!
5. Think about some kind of internet presence. These days you absolutely must be online or you’re going to lose out badly. Traditional websites have long been used by bed and breakfast owners but a professionally created one is not cheap. You can do it yourself but will the result adequately reflect the image you want to give to potential customers? There is a viable, and powerful alternative. Blogs are increasingly popular, cost-effective and something that you don’t necessarily need to rely on outside help for. An area well worth investigating.
6. Bed and breakfast marketing. You need to work on a plan for increasing your bed and breakfast business over time. When you open you’ll have a certain number of things in place but there is always more you can do. It will depend on the size of your accommodation but you might want to contact local trade organizations to offer special rates to members. Are there exhibition spaces or conference venues locally? Can you offer discounts to delegates? What other local activities can you use to broaden your reach? Local press is a good avenue for publicity if you can give them something exciting or interesting to report about. Telling them you are starting a bed and breakfast won’t do it but telling them you will be giving half price for kids to coincide with a big local event that will draw in families (for example) might. Papers don’t want matter-of-fact, they want news-worthy. Think about how can you be that.
7. Make sure every detail of the day-to-day running of your bed and breakfast is prepared in advance. Decide about things like smoking, eating in the rooms, pets, etc. Don’t keep it all in your head. It needs to be written down for two reasons. One, so that you always do the same things, charge the same, deal with situations the same. Two, so that guests can see all the rules that are relevant to them. That way there’s no confusion and you aren’t constantly being asked the same common questions.
The answer to how to start a bed and breakfast successfully is to take your ideas and your dreams and sprinkle in an adequate amount of reality. Check, double check, get someone else to check… then check again. Then you’ll be fine!