You can tell by the title of the book what business I am looking towards in the future. After reading this book, I do not want to run a full-on Bed & Breakfast Inn, however, I can take many elements from their business model. “How to Start and Run Your Own Bed & Breakfast Inn” by Ripley Hotch and Carl Glassman is a business manual. It takes you through all the steps of starting and running a business, in this case, a Bed and Breakfast Inn. The book was first written in 1982 and the 2nd edition (which I read) was released in 2005. It is amazing that a book written before the internet was born can still be such a valuable resource.
I find it amusing that all the trappings of social media that we thought were new, were actually happening a long time ago. Instead of Facebook Groups, there were mailing lists and flyers. Starting a business is hard no matter what you decide to do, and running an inn is probably one of the harder business ventures. An inn requires your full attention, all day, every day. It is not a hotel. I went into the book thinking of a way to make an Airbnb/venue/estate home successful. I want to buy a huge house on massive land, and use a business to pay for everything. I now have even more ideas. I’ll talk more about my dreams at the end, but first, let’s get into my takeaways.
1) An inn differs from a hotel mainly because of the on-site hospitality. The innkeeper takes care of everything for the guests and is expected to be a perfect host. Also, there is usually a breakfast served in the mornings. It is a lot of work and something I could probably bring into the Airbnb world. However, maybe for select weekends only.
2) People are paying for the hospitality and the atmosphere. This is a big differentiator from hotels, which are commodities. This means that people pick hotels because of the location and price. Inns are valued because of the internal and external atmosphere and ambiance. If I were to open a place, this would have to be a top consideration.
3) Find a location near beaches, oceans, lakes, or mountains. This will help the guest do activities such as boating, skiing, hiking, and bicycling. Usually, hotels have to be near the business hub of the city. This allows your Bed & Breakfast Inn to have a more scenic location than most hotels.
4) Weddings are a great way to make additional money but can be extremely painful. If you decide to allow them, have stringent rules, and don’t bend them. A wedding is a very emotional and pivotal part of a couple’s lives and your venue will suffer in all the drama. I wanted to host weddings at my venue, but I will do much more research on the topic after reading this book.
5) Do a trial run. I thought that this idea was right-on-the-nose. Basically, you would host guests at your current house and get a feel for the attention and care that goes into innkeeping. I do not feel that being an innkeeper is in our future, however, having special weekends where we execute some of these inn ideas will help differentiate our venue.
After reading this book, I know I will have to do a lot more research on our all-in-one venue. I want a venue that can host horses, pet shows, business events, family reunions, weddings, hotel stays, and other events. I do not want a limit on what we can do. Most importantly, I do not want to have all of our time spent at the venue. Ideally, I would be able to turn a nice profit from hosting 2-3 events a month. That is the trick. I will continue to read books and build knowledge on the topic. This book is a master guide to running a business. It is one of the better books I have read on starting a physical location business. 95% of the book is still relevant. And the things that are retro and out-of-date could probably be recycled to great success. A most read book.
Get Your Free eBook:
Follow us on our Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/kingmarine1775
Join our Facebook group at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/231490384820780
Follow us on Pinterest at:
Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Leave a Reply