B&B owners who have been in the industry for a long time will tell you that running a bed and breakfast is not easy. The business will entail long hours of work, physically hard work and mentally draining work. There are bathrooms to clean and tons of paperwork. If you like to sleep in in the morning then you might not be able to hack the pressures of a B&B business. Customers walk in and out at all hours of the day and night. There are also kitchen and cleaning chores to be done.

Some people think that running a bed and breakfast is the perfect dream job. You probably imagine yourself meeting countless people and having a great conversation with interesting customers. You may visualize lots of money at the end of the week, and more customers coming through your doors. These are possible but only of you run the business right.

If giving up sleep and weekends won’t bother you, then you could be an ideal candidate to own a B&B. Running a bed and breakfast isn’t for everyone. Others seem to live and breathe the hospitality business. It really depends on personal preferences, personality and lifestyle. I takes a different type of person to be able to hack this type of life.

Former B&B owners will tell you that the reality of running a bed and breakfast involves doing laundry, getting up early in the morning to cook breakfast, and doing loads of paperwork. Veteran innkeepers have stayed in the business for a long time because they have what it takes to face customers every day, be pleasant, and still do other chores connected to the B&B business.

You’ll need to to manage employees, grounds keepers, breakfasts, laundry, shopping for supplies, reservations, check ins, check outs, complaints, accounting, marketing, and many more aside from chit-chatting with customers. Be ready to sleep late and wake up early because travelers can check in at any time of the day and night.

If you are willing give up a 9 to 5 job for a 24/7 career then you probably have the right personality to make it work. Running a bed and breakfast that is all your own can make up for all the sleepless nights, early mornings slaving in the kitchen or getting your hands scraped from cleaning all those toilets. Of course you always have an option to hire people to do the dirty work. But that also means added expenses.

Try to learn more about the industry. The more you know about running a bed and breakfast, the more chances you have of success and making your inn profitable. Familiarize yourself with how to market and promote an inn. Learn how to manage the business, employees and earnings. Take a refresher cooking course to learn more innovative breakfast dishes. Study how to do your accounting.

Some inns fail because some managers or bed and breakfast owners open an inn without knowing how to run an inn, some don’t even do proper accounting. Others rely on word of mouth and don’t bother to advertise and do marketing. Funnel your capital into marketing, even before you open your for business. This will ensure that customers will come. Running a bed and breakfast can be profitable if you know which areas need more attention. Do more research about the ins and outs of the B&B business.

Contact Synergy Stocktaking today for any queries!