A slow start

[sgirouard]

Very nice! How many rooms do you have?.

Four guest rooms. Two have king sized beds and private baths, the other two (one has a king bed, the other two twins) use hall baths. The two hall baths are set up as Men's & Women's. We have toyed with the notion of removing the gender specific labels, and just assigning one to each of the other guest rooms, but for now, are leaving it as it.

 

[wendydk]

Very nice! How many rooms do you have?.

Four guest rooms. Two have king sized beds and private baths, the other two (one has a king bed, the other two twins) use hall baths. The two hall baths are set up as Men's & Women's. We have toyed with the notion of removing the gender specific labels, and just assigning one to each of the other guest rooms, but for now, are leaving it as it.
.

Four guest rooms. Two have king sized beds and private baths, the other two (one has a king bed, the other two twins) use hall baths. The two hall baths are set up as Men's & Women's. We have toyed with the notion of removing the gender specific labels, and just assigning one to each of the other guest rooms, but for now, are leaving it as it.

As an innkeeper with one hall bath shared by two rooms, I would LOVE to have even a second hall bath, and you can bet they would be assigned. If I was your guest, it would be my luck to go out to tinkle or take a shower and find the occupants of the other room using both showers at the same time. And no matter which one you use when they're done, the showercurtain is wet and those hairs at the bottom of the shower belong to strangers.

 

[Innkeeper To Go]

Very nice! How many rooms do you have?.

Four guest rooms. Two have king sized beds and private baths, the other two (one has a king bed, the other two twins) use hall baths. The two hall baths are set up as Men's & Women's. We have toyed with the notion of removing the gender specific labels, and just assigning one to each of the other guest rooms, but for now, are leaving it as it.
.

Four guest rooms. Two have king sized beds and private baths, the other two (one has a king bed, the other two twins) use hall baths. The two hall baths are set up as Men's & Women's. We have toyed with the notion of removing the gender specific labels, and just assigning one to each of the other guest rooms, but for now, are leaving it as it.

As an innkeeper with one hall bath shared by two rooms, I would LOVE to have even a second hall bath, and you can bet they would be assigned. If I was your guest, it would be my luck to go out to tinkle or take a shower and find the occupants of the other room using both showers at the same time. And no matter which one you use when they're done, the showercurtain is wet and those hairs at the bottom of the shower belong to strangers.
.

Agreed. Assign those bathrooms.
Guests like privacy in the bathroom. If it's a hall bath, they're already giving up some privacy. Sharing a bathroom unnecessarily with another room doesn't make sense.

 

[EmptyNest]

Very nice! How many rooms do you have?.

Four guest rooms. Two have king sized beds and private baths, the other two (one has a king bed, the other two twins) use hall baths. The two hall baths are set up as Men's & Women's. We have toyed with the notion of removing the gender specific labels, and just assigning one to each of the other guest rooms, but for now, are leaving it as it.
.

OH NO! Please get rid of men's and women's that is not at all B & B friendly;-(
Assign the bathroom to a guest bedroom and key the lock so no one else can get into it!!!!!
Put a nice looking sign on the door "Private Bath for XXX ROOM" THis is the only way to go given the fact that the rooms do not have en suite bathrooms. Sorry, in my mind sharing is not a good thing and I would never book an inn where I had to share a bath and lots of others are just like me. :-(

 

[Innkeeper To Go]

Very nice! How many rooms do you have?.

Four guest rooms. Two have king sized beds and private baths, the other two (one has a king bed, the other two twins) use hall baths. The two hall baths are set up as Men's & Women's. We have toyed with the notion of removing the gender specific labels, and just assigning one to each of the other guest rooms, but for now, are leaving it as it.
.

OH NO! Please get rid of men's and women's that is not at all B & B friendly;-(
Assign the bathroom to a guest bedroom and key the lock so no one else can get into it!!!!!
Put a nice looking sign on the door "Private Bath for XXX ROOM" THis is the only way to go given the fact that the rooms do not have en suite bathrooms. Sorry, in my mind sharing is not a good thing and I would never book an inn where I had to share a bath and lots of others are just like me. :-(
.

I think this is one issue that virtually all of us will agree on!

 

[JBloggs]

Before you go underground now we know where you are - of course I was thinking BC for some reason. When you take the dive give us a wink or something.

Lovely place! We wish you all the best with wonderful guests!

 

[sgirouard]

Thanks JB.
Re the hall baths - DH & I were thinking almost exactly the same as you all. Here's what stopped us: The former owners didn't live there (as I mentioned), so they only kept one small room as innkeeper quarters and used a hall bathroom that was also available for guests' convenience (think powder room, not for showering, etc). WIth our family, that won't work. In addition to the innkeeper room, we commandeered (?) the formerly fifth guest room, put our boys in the old innkeeper room, and are keeping the bathroom private. (We have three little boys. NO WAY am I sharing that bathroom with strangers. Yikes.) That still left us with 4 guest rooms and 4 baths.
Still thinking we would assign the upstairs bathrooms...then we got to thinking about parties. The former owners regularly had people book the place for parties. Now, I'm betting those folks used what is now our bathroom, but perhaps they were sent upstairs to the men's & women's rooms. IDK. One alternative would be to set aside an upstairs bath if someone books the inn for a party...but then, I'd feel like we couldn't book the corresponding room, kwim? I suppose the $ for the party would have to make it worth it.
Still working out a lot of details.

 

[Don Draper]

Okay. House (sign is not up yet in this pic):

Guess what. We're in a parade this Saturday. <ulp> Got an email last Saturday - wanna be in the Christmas parade? No float necessary - just decorate your vehicle. Thank goodness Vistaprint does expedited shipping. The magnet signs arrive today, DH is borrowing a voltage converter (???) because he wants to string lights around the truck...jeepers..

Your home and the sign are both gorgeous!

 

[Innkeeper To Go]

Would you book the inn for parties while other guests were staying there?
Chances are, if you're going to do parties, you'll probably want them to take the entire inn anyway. Or at least pay enough to compensate you for the fact that you'll probably keep the guest rooms closed.
Events can be good income for inns and some do really promote them.
Personally, I'd rather have my teeth pulled.
But if you do events, you really have to consider how the whole thing is going to work with other guests in the house. Most innkeepers find you can't do both comfortably in a small inn - have parties for one group and have different guests staying at the inn...

 

[JBloggs]

Or as was discussed this week with other innmates - if you are doing say "Christmas" seasonal parties/events then book the guest rooms on the weekends and the events midweek, then there is no clash of party guest vs B&B guest. Dec is generally slower for occupancy for most inns anyway.
Whatever you do, don't give away room nights for a small penance $ of party/function income. We determined in the end one room night was more profitable than one function. Ten times less work too. One "small" function required all hands on deck. So don't underestimate your value there!
We did hold functions here year one to get to know the community. We could have an event every weekend of the year here and midweek. With a family and B&B it was not as easy as that however, so had to really work out what was the best fit for "us". The prev owners here did mostly functions - outdoor weddings, receptions, dinners, etc and very little B&B itself. Whatever floats your boat and makes ya happy I say.

 

[Samster]

Very nice! How many rooms do you have?.

Four guest rooms. Two have king sized beds and private baths, the other two (one has a king bed, the other two twins) use hall baths. The two hall baths are set up as Men's & Women's. We have toyed with the notion of removing the gender specific labels, and just assigning one to each of the other guest rooms, but for now, are leaving it as it.
.

Your house and sign are beautiful!
I think that I'd go with assigning a hall bath to each guest room and that way it's private, but detached. Then, you can deal with events as the come up, either by assigning one bath for the event and having your 2 guest rooms share a bath or blocking out your least booked room and having that bath as the event bath.
Best of luck!

 

[bbinnsitters]

Glad to hear of your start...congratulations! Did you keep the name of the B&B the same? Had the Inn been closed for awhile when you bought it, or was it closed specifically to facilitate the sale?.

We changd the name. We had a really cool name we loved...but then we thought, what will people search for when they're trying to find that BnB that changed it's name? Hence, the new name (Inn at Blooming Grove).
I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, the sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town. For our financial purposes (and maybe our mental health!), we didn't expect to open for a couple more months. But this is good. It has forced us to see things that need to be done that we missed, and shown us that things we think we need are actually just very nice to have (at this point).
.

I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, they sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!

 

[Innkeeper To Go]

Glad to hear of your start...congratulations! Did you keep the name of the B&B the same? Had the Inn been closed for awhile when you bought it, or was it closed specifically to facilitate the sale?.

We changd the name. We had a really cool name we loved...but then we thought, what will people search for when they're trying to find that BnB that changed it's name? Hence, the new name (Inn at Blooming Grove).
I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, the sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town. For our financial purposes (and maybe our mental health!), we didn't expect to open for a couple more months. But this is good. It has forced us to see things that need to be done that we missed, and shown us that things we think we need are actually just very nice to have (at this point).
.

I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, they sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!
.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!

My sentiments exactly. The previous owners took every stick of furniture, linens, et al - and pressured the buyer to turn it back into a B&B? Boundaries!!!
BTW, it is a very, very lovely place. On that we all seem to agree!

 

[sgirouard]

Glad to hear of your start...congratulations! Did you keep the name of the B&B the same? Had the Inn been closed for awhile when you bought it, or was it closed specifically to facilitate the sale?.

We changd the name. We had a really cool name we loved...but then we thought, what will people search for when they're trying to find that BnB that changed it's name? Hence, the new name (Inn at Blooming Grove).
I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, the sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town. For our financial purposes (and maybe our mental health!), we didn't expect to open for a couple more months. But this is good. It has forced us to see things that need to be done that we missed, and shown us that things we think we need are actually just very nice to have (at this point).
.

I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, they sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!
.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!

My sentiments exactly. The previous owners took every stick of furniture, linens, et al - and pressured the buyer to turn it back into a B&B? Boundaries!!!
BTW, it is a very, very lovely place. On that we all seem to agree!
.

I don't think it was *their* intention to pressure us. We went looking for a turnkey sale, but this house turned out to be the one for us. The pressure came in after I read one of the room journals, and commented on a guest comment from Christmas Eve. The wife half of the former owners kind of rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, yes, there are ALWAYS guests during the holidays." Well, yikes, DH and I didn't want to buy a property and turn away people who come here each year. On the other hand, we didn't want to move forward too much until after closing. I suppose I'm superstitious, but I don't like to put energy into something that may still fall through.
So, they didn't intend to pressure us, it was just our psychology kicking in in response to the situation. As it is, I don't know that we will have people over this set of holidays - what with getting out the word about new owners, the notion that we live there, changing the phone number, etc. But, when we look back, I think it will be nice to have a lot of early set up stuff out of the way.
The former owners were very pleased about our plans to re-open as a BnB, but set on selling off stuff piece meal. I think they would have made more if they just sold it to us lock stock and barrell, but they disagreed, and, well, it was their stuff after all. DH & I keep reminding ourselves that, in spite of the work, this is better because it will be "our" place more than theirs.

 

[EmptyNest]

Glad to hear of your start...congratulations! Did you keep the name of the B&B the same? Had the Inn been closed for awhile when you bought it, or was it closed specifically to facilitate the sale?.

We changd the name. We had a really cool name we loved...but then we thought, what will people search for when they're trying to find that BnB that changed it's name? Hence, the new name (Inn at Blooming Grove).
I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, the sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town. For our financial purposes (and maybe our mental health!), we didn't expect to open for a couple more months. But this is good. It has forced us to see things that need to be done that we missed, and shown us that things we think we need are actually just very nice to have (at this point).
.

I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, they sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!
.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!

My sentiments exactly. The previous owners took every stick of furniture, linens, et al - and pressured the buyer to turn it back into a B&B? Boundaries!!!
BTW, it is a very, very lovely place. On that we all seem to agree!
.

I don't think it was *their* intention to pressure us. We went looking for a turnkey sale, but this house turned out to be the one for us. The pressure came in after I read one of the room journals, and commented on a guest comment from Christmas Eve. The wife half of the former owners kind of rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, yes, there are ALWAYS guests during the holidays." Well, yikes, DH and I didn't want to buy a property and turn away people who come here each year. On the other hand, we didn't want to move forward too much until after closing. I suppose I'm superstitious, but I don't like to put energy into something that may still fall through.
So, they didn't intend to pressure us, it was just our psychology kicking in in response to the situation. As it is, I don't know that we will have people over this set of holidays - what with getting out the word about new owners, the notion that we live there, changing the phone number, etc. But, when we look back, I think it will be nice to have a lot of early set up stuff out of the way.
The former owners were very pleased about our plans to re-open as a BnB, but set on selling off stuff piece meal. I think they would have made more if they just sold it to us lock stock and barrell, but they disagreed, and, well, it was their stuff after all. DH & I keep reminding ourselves that, in spite of the work, this is better because it will be "our" place more than theirs.
.

You don't HAVE TO DO ANYTHING the previous owners did. It is YOUR HOUSE NOW!!!! Do what feels right for you!!! They have your money..so run it the way you want to

 

[Morticia]

Very nice! How many rooms do you have?.

Four guest rooms. Two have king sized beds and private baths, the other two (one has a king bed, the other two twins) use hall baths. The two hall baths are set up as Men's & Women's. We have toyed with the notion of removing the gender specific labels, and just assigning one to each of the other guest rooms, but for now, are leaving it as it.
.

Four guest rooms. Two have king sized beds and private baths, the other two (one has a king bed, the other two twins) use hall baths. The two hall baths are set up as Men's & Women's. We have toyed with the notion of removing the gender specific labels, and just assigning one to each of the other guest rooms, but for now, are leaving it as it.

Take it from someone with only one bath in the hallway...PRIVATE sign and a keyed lock that only the specific room gets and keep the doors closed and locked at all times. Not only will the correct room use a particular bathroom, EVERYONE will use it if it is not locked, including those 2 rooms with their own en suite bathroom.
Sorry, the 'Men's' and 'Women's' makes it sound like a dormitory and also makes it sound like ANY man or woman could use those bathrooms.
If your rooms have name plaques already try to find similar ones for the bathrooms.
I got quaint skeleton keyed locks at Lowe's. Just check to be sure they are keyed differently, that info is marked on the box.

 

[Morticia]

Thanks JB.
Re the hall baths - DH & I were thinking almost exactly the same as you all. Here's what stopped us: The former owners didn't live there (as I mentioned), so they only kept one small room as innkeeper quarters and used a hall bathroom that was also available for guests' convenience (think powder room, not for showering, etc). WIth our family, that won't work. In addition to the innkeeper room, we commandeered (?) the formerly fifth guest room, put our boys in the old innkeeper room, and are keeping the bathroom private. (We have three little boys. NO WAY am I sharing that bathroom with strangers. Yikes.) That still left us with 4 guest rooms and 4 baths.
Still thinking we would assign the upstairs bathrooms...then we got to thinking about parties. The former owners regularly had people book the place for parties. Now, I'm betting those folks used what is now our bathroom, but perhaps they were sent upstairs to the men's & women's rooms. IDK. One alternative would be to set aside an upstairs bath if someone books the inn for a party...but then, I'd feel like we couldn't book the corresponding room, kwim? I suppose the $ for the party would have to make it worth it.
Still working out a lot of details.

.

Say you do a lot of parties and need one of those hall bathrooms for the party. The price of the party includes the cost of NOT renting that room. You do not need to TELL the bookers that, but that's how you price it. Also keep in mind that anyone who is just staying at your place may feel put out by having a party going on while they are trying to relax. All of this can be worked out with proper scheduling, tho.
For parties, I would keep the masses as far away from the guest rooms as possible, so not having them up and down the stairs all the time. But I don't know how your house is laid out. The best 'party' bathroom would be the one closest to the party.

 

[Morticia]

Glad to hear of your start...congratulations! Did you keep the name of the B&B the same? Had the Inn been closed for awhile when you bought it, or was it closed specifically to facilitate the sale?.

We changd the name. We had a really cool name we loved...but then we thought, what will people search for when they're trying to find that BnB that changed it's name? Hence, the new name (Inn at Blooming Grove).
I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, the sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town. For our financial purposes (and maybe our mental health!), we didn't expect to open for a couple more months. But this is good. It has forced us to see things that need to be done that we missed, and shown us that things we think we need are actually just very nice to have (at this point).
.

I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, they sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!
.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!

My sentiments exactly. The previous owners took every stick of furniture, linens, et al - and pressured the buyer to turn it back into a B&B? Boundaries!!!
BTW, it is a very, very lovely place. On that we all seem to agree!
.

I don't think it was *their* intention to pressure us. We went looking for a turnkey sale, but this house turned out to be the one for us. The pressure came in after I read one of the room journals, and commented on a guest comment from Christmas Eve. The wife half of the former owners kind of rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, yes, there are ALWAYS guests during the holidays." Well, yikes, DH and I didn't want to buy a property and turn away people who come here each year. On the other hand, we didn't want to move forward too much until after closing. I suppose I'm superstitious, but I don't like to put energy into something that may still fall through.
So, they didn't intend to pressure us, it was just our psychology kicking in in response to the situation. As it is, I don't know that we will have people over this set of holidays - what with getting out the word about new owners, the notion that we live there, changing the phone number, etc. But, when we look back, I think it will be nice to have a lot of early set up stuff out of the way.
The former owners were very pleased about our plans to re-open as a BnB, but set on selling off stuff piece meal. I think they would have made more if they just sold it to us lock stock and barrell, but they disagreed, and, well, it was their stuff after all. DH & I keep reminding ourselves that, in spite of the work, this is better because it will be "our" place more than theirs.
.

Please stop thinking that 'living there' is a crime. ALL of us live at our B&B's! (I'm right, aren't I?)
Because they took all the furniture, the name and the phone number, you are starting from scratch. It certainly sounds to me (from this great distance) that they did not sell a business but a building. Because there is really no way for anyone to contact you other than calling the PO's and hoping they relay any messages, or stopping by to talk to you, try not to worry about what anyone thinks but yourself. You're the people who count!

 

[bbinnsitters]

Glad to hear of your start...congratulations! Did you keep the name of the B&B the same? Had the Inn been closed for awhile when you bought it, or was it closed specifically to facilitate the sale?.

We changd the name. We had a really cool name we loved...but then we thought, what will people search for when they're trying to find that BnB that changed it's name? Hence, the new name (Inn at Blooming Grove).
I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, the sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town. For our financial purposes (and maybe our mental health!), we didn't expect to open for a couple more months. But this is good. It has forced us to see things that need to be done that we missed, and shown us that things we think we need are actually just very nice to have (at this point).
.

I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, they sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!
.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!

My sentiments exactly. The previous owners took every stick of furniture, linens, et al - and pressured the buyer to turn it back into a B&B? Boundaries!!!
BTW, it is a very, very lovely place. On that we all seem to agree!
.

I don't think it was *their* intention to pressure us. We went looking for a turnkey sale, but this house turned out to be the one for us. The pressure came in after I read one of the room journals, and commented on a guest comment from Christmas Eve. The wife half of the former owners kind of rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, yes, there are ALWAYS guests during the holidays." Well, yikes, DH and I didn't want to buy a property and turn away people who come here each year. On the other hand, we didn't want to move forward too much until after closing. I suppose I'm superstitious, but I don't like to put energy into something that may still fall through.
So, they didn't intend to pressure us, it was just our psychology kicking in in response to the situation. As it is, I don't know that we will have people over this set of holidays - what with getting out the word about new owners, the notion that we live there, changing the phone number, etc. But, when we look back, I think it will be nice to have a lot of early set up stuff out of the way.
The former owners were very pleased about our plans to re-open as a BnB, but set on selling off stuff piece meal. I think they would have made more if they just sold it to us lock stock and barrell, but they disagreed, and, well, it was their stuff after all. DH & I keep reminding ourselves that, in spite of the work, this is better because it will be "our" place more than theirs.
.

For marketing purposes do you have information on past guests? If you WANT guests for this holiday season you could always call the people that were guests every year and let them know you are up and running!
P.S. It is not a bad thing to be living in the house - I personally think all B&B's should be lived in by the owners. I always think it strange when they don't!

 

[Innkeeper To Go]

Glad to hear of your start...congratulations! Did you keep the name of the B&B the same? Had the Inn been closed for awhile when you bought it, or was it closed specifically to facilitate the sale?.

We changd the name. We had a really cool name we loved...but then we thought, what will people search for when they're trying to find that BnB that changed it's name? Hence, the new name (Inn at Blooming Grove).
I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, the sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town. For our financial purposes (and maybe our mental health!), we didn't expect to open for a couple more months. But this is good. It has forced us to see things that need to be done that we missed, and shown us that things we think we need are actually just very nice to have (at this point).
.

I don't know how how long the BnB was closed, or how that worked. The previous owners, for their own reasons, did not want to sell it as a BnB. So, they sold off every bit of lace, china, furniture, etc, piecemeal, and we bought an empty house.
Part of us opening now was we felt pressure from the previous owners and others in town.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!
.

How on earth could the previous owners pressure you if they were the ones that sold off everything? If they really wanted someone to open quickly they should have sold it as a B&B. Or are you glad they did that? Was the place in need of a do over? Very peculiar! It is a gorgeous place!

My sentiments exactly. The previous owners took every stick of furniture, linens, et al - and pressured the buyer to turn it back into a B&B? Boundaries!!!
BTW, it is a very, very lovely place. On that we all seem to agree!
.

I don't think it was *their* intention to pressure us. We went looking for a turnkey sale, but this house turned out to be the one for us. The pressure came in after I read one of the room journals, and commented on a guest comment from Christmas Eve. The wife half of the former owners kind of rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, yes, there are ALWAYS guests during the holidays." Well, yikes, DH and I didn't want to buy a property and turn away people who come here each year. On the other hand, we didn't want to move forward too much until after closing. I suppose I'm superstitious, but I don't like to put energy into something that may still fall through.
So, they didn't intend to pressure us, it was just our psychology kicking in in response to the situation. As it is, I don't know that we will have people over this set of holidays - what with getting out the word about new owners, the notion that we live there, changing the phone number, etc. But, when we look back, I think it will be nice to have a lot of early set up stuff out of the way.
The former owners were very pleased about our plans to re-open as a BnB, but set on selling off stuff piece meal. I think they would have made more if they just sold it to us lock stock and barrell, but they disagreed, and, well, it was their stuff after all. DH & I keep reminding ourselves that, in spite of the work, this is better because it will be "our" place more than theirs.
.

Please stop thinking that 'living there' is a crime. ALL of us live at our B&B's! (I'm right, aren't I?)
Because they took all the furniture, the name and the phone number, you are starting from scratch. It certainly sounds to me (from this great distance) that they did not sell a business but a building. Because there is really no way for anyone to contact you other than calling the PO's and hoping they relay any messages, or stopping by to talk to you, try not to worry about what anyone thinks but yourself. You're the people who count!
.

Please stop thinking that 'living there' is a crime. ALL of us live at our B&B's! (I'm right, aren't I?)

It is a good thing for the innkeeper to live onsite. Always better than the alternative.