Bed & Breakfast

[Kingfisher]

Has anybody here ever owned or operated one? What was your experience? I doubt any " regulars" here have but maybe a "lurker" can lend a hand. Anybody thought about adding that value to their farm?

 

[Bigfoot]

The inconvenience of staying at a friends house, with the expense of a hotel. Never appealed to me.

On a serious note.........Are you talking about opening one inside your existing house, or tying up capital with a seperate purchase?

 

[Kingfisher]

Neither Bigfoot. Own a house in a B$B zone.

 

[Son of Butch]

Stayed at a couple on overseas trips loved it, I could see a B&B on a real ranch being very popular.

 

[Ky hills]

I don't have one personally, but a friend from church runs one with his own home. It's in a very scenic area, where lots of folks come to hike in the mountains, and rock climb. I don't know about the income part, but he does seem to have a steady run of guests.

 

[callmefence]

Probably be as good as planting a bunch of insured tomatoes. ;-)

 

[greybeard]

I think Millstreamin has some experience in the hostelry business.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Some friends of ours run one on their place. They like it. B & B seems to draw an older crowd. Biggest complaint is coffee pot emptying at 5 in the morning. Seems like they are constantly making coffee way before daylight. Can't get it made fast enough. They are using a commercial 3 potter like you see at the convenience stores and the guests are standing in line to empty the pot before it is thru dripping. Start another immediately and then another.

 

[millstreaminn]

As a hotel owner, I can add a few things. We are rated the #1 hotel for our area on TripAdvisor. The #1 B&B in our area also gets excellent comments. I think to operate a successful B&B, it would be best to be in a location that gets lots of tourists. It seems a fair percentage of tourists prefer B&B, but almost all business people prefer a hotel.

If you are competing with a nice hotel in your area, do everything the hotels do. Heat and A/C every room, tv in every room, refrigerator and microwave in every room, blanket your property with free wi-fi, accept credit cards, offer free long distance calls, electronic locks on the doors (regular door keys can be duplicated and nervous guests will complain), offer your guests a "If you're not happy, you don't pay" guarantee. We offer that guarantee to our guests and have never felt anyone abuses it. We have 90 rooms and maybe refund 10 people per year.

Most hotel rooms and B&B's in my area rent for around $100.00 per room per night. The B&B should net 35-40% of their gross.

Any other specific question- just ask. :tiphat:

 

[slick4591]

You've heard the saying "location location location" before and it's really true. Lady in town decided she wanted a B&B so she bought an old house across the street from her's and spent no telling what to bring the charm back to it. Put out her sign and opened for business.

Mind you there's very little to do in this town and you can get what there is done in half a day. Antiquing, light shopping and three places to eat back then. Anything else going on would be 20-30 minutes away. She didn't last a year and it was because guests couldn't entertain themselves.

 

[millstreaminn]

You've heard the saying "location location location" before and it's really true. Lady in town decided she wanted a B&B so she bought an old house across the street from her's and spent no telling what to bring the charm back to it. Put out her sign and opened for business.

Mind you there's very little to do in this town and you can get what there is done in half a day. Antiquing, light shopping and three places to eat back then. Anything else going on would be 20-30 minutes away. She didn't last a year and it was because guests couldn't entertain themselves.

Yup. A successful B&B needs activities close by for your guests to entertain themselves for several days. You make more money per night the longer the guest stays.

 

[Ky hills]

My friend that has a B & B surprisingly does not have TV of any kind in his. His guests come from all over the country and in some cases other countries. As I understand it, he cooks breakfast for his guests, and then they have the run of the kitchen for whenever and what ever they want to eat. He built his home himself from materials from other homes and buildings he took down.

 

[Bestoutwest]

Stayed at a couple on overseas trips loved it, I could see a B&B on a real ranch being very popular.

I occasionally stumble across one that makes my jaw drop, but today I'm drawing blanks. I've seen some that are B&B style with rates of over $500/night. The city person going to the ranch thing is pretty big.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I would think with the right location be a money maker.
With that said I would want a good lawyer to make it a bullet proof
LLC as possible. Heck the personal injury lawyers are worse than the Mexican vultures.

 

[Brute 23]

Doesn't sound like much money for a lot of hassle. I could see if you already have a large house or multiple houses on a property but to go buy or build buildings for it sounds like a loser.

I would be worried about the working ranch deal. It seems like a good way to draw in the animal rights people and end up in a video on 60min.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Doesn't sound like much money for a lot of hassle. I could see if you already have a large house or multiple houses on a property but to go buy or build buildings for it sounds like a loser.

I would be worried about the working ranch deal. It seems like a good way to draw in the animal rights people and end up in a video on 60min.

All good points they are everywhere.

 

[Kell-inKY]

That sounds like an exciting opportunity if it's your thing. I wouldn't worry too much about drawing the wrong crowd, there's risk in everything. We would do this in a heartbeat if we could, my wife loves people/activity.

I would rather do this than rentals any day, I don't have any but my wife's whole family does them, lots of nightmare stories. B&B will draw a much different crowd.

I have to ask, will the B&B be on a farm? I don't think that was real clear. I think that would be the biggest draw if done right. If you do a B&B, do you actually have to provide the "breakfast" portion? That would be a bigger negative to me than dealing with the people. Also, if it's on your farm and you don't mind talking to people, I would say prepare yourself for a lot of walking around and checking things out. We have 2 types of people who visit our farm, ones who stay in the yard or house and could care less, and ones who want to go see the cows, chicken's and ducks, take pictures, use the corn grinder etc.

good luck!