Menu price built into room price

[gillumhouse]

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail..

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail.

No need to retype it. Ditto.
.

A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head. After 5 years of non-stop hosting they will be burnt out unless they have staff who can take care of the details of the social hour. I have seen it happen several times in our area.
.

I often wonder what we do different that avoids this burnout. I know it is real- we have seen it in person and on this forum- and we have worked hard for 10 years to not have it happen to us- yet we are a full service operation working a split shift that has us interacting with our guests in the evenings.

• Not taking enough time off?
• Poor planning?
• Poorly established boundaries?
• Not having at least some help?
• Going into it with unrealistic expectations?

Not sure what happened, but a b&b near us changed owners recently. The PO's were burnt to a crisp by the time they got out from under it. The NO's lasted all of 6 months and it's back on the market. Apparently, they have already turned over the operation to someone else to run. Innkeeping must be the most over-romanticized job in the world or at least right behind being an author.
.

In my bio for my Aspiring Innkeeper classes I stated that "The following pages are coming, not from textbooks and lectures, but from hands on the mixing spoon, computer keys, telephone, and (as unpleasant as that aspect of the vocation is) – the toilet brush!"
It is my belief that too many do not realize the true job description.

 

[EmptyNest]

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail..

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail.

No need to retype it. Ditto.
.

A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head. After 5 years of non-stop hosting they will be burnt out unless they have staff who can take care of the details of the social hour. I have seen it happen several times in our area.
.

I often wonder what we do different that avoids this burnout. I know it is real- we have seen it in person and on this forum- and we have worked hard for 10 years to not have it happen to us- yet we are a full service operation working a split shift that has us interacting with our guests in the evenings.

• Not taking enough time off?
• Poor planning?
• Poorly established boundaries?
• Not having at least some help?
• Going into it with unrealistic expectations?

Not sure what happened, but a b&b near us changed owners recently. The PO's were burnt to a crisp by the time they got out from under it. The NO's lasted all of 6 months and it's back on the market. Apparently, they have already turned over the operation to someone else to run. Innkeeping must be the most over-romanticized job in the world or at least right behind being an author.
.

Agree...too many people do not do their homework BEFORE going into innkeeping. Very unrealistic expectations. Taking an aspiring class is the best thing ever to do. I had many in classes I taught say..."gosh what was I thinking...I don't want to do all of this!" Good they found out before they took the plunge.

 

[Jcam]

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail..

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail.

No need to retype it. Ditto.
.

A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head. After 5 years of non-stop hosting they will be burnt out unless they have staff who can take care of the details of the social hour. I have seen it happen several times in our area.
.

I often wonder what we do different that avoids this burnout. I know it is real- we have seen it in person and on this forum- and we have worked hard for 10 years to not have it happen to us- yet we are a full service operation working a split shift that has us interacting with our guests in the evenings.

• Not taking enough time off?
• Poor planning?
• Poorly established boundaries?
• Not having at least some help?
• Going into it with unrealistic expectations?

Not sure what happened, but a b&b near us changed owners recently. The PO's were burnt to a crisp by the time they got out from under it. The NO's lasted all of 6 months and it's back on the market. Apparently, they have already turned over the operation to someone else to run. Innkeeping must be the most over-romanticized job in the world or at least right behind being an author.
.

Agree...too many people do not do their homework BEFORE going into innkeeping. Very unrealistic expectations. Taking an aspiring class is the best thing ever to do. I had many in classes I taught say..."gosh what was I thinking...I don't want to do all of this!" Good they found out before they took the plunge.
.

too many people think they will have staff - near me only staff was lady and her mum ie so when it sold they went with it - offered new owner 4 days had over which she didn't take up - on hand over day she was "well the staff will help me find my feet" PO said you see me and my mum here we are it and we are going! she had never considered it!

 

[Aspiring Martha]

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail..

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail.

No need to retype it. Ditto.
.

A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head. After 5 years of non-stop hosting they will be burnt out unless they have staff who can take care of the details of the social hour. I have seen it happen several times in our area.
.

A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head. After 5 years of non-stop hosting they will be burnt out unless they have staff who can take care of the details of the social hour. I have seen it happen several times in our area.

You always nail it Silvers. Well put.
.

"A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head".
Wow - this is an interesting statement. So that I understand your point:
You are saying that a new innkeeper will pull out all the stops to get great reviews (and all these extras will be highly praised in the reviews) and THEN a few years down the line when reality hits, this same innkeeper will quit doing all the extra out of sheer exhaustion - and people reading the old reviews will feel shortchanged and the reviews will tank.
I hadn't thought about that.

 

[Lee2014]

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail..

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail.

No need to retype it. Ditto.
.

A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head. After 5 years of non-stop hosting they will be burnt out unless they have staff who can take care of the details of the social hour. I have seen it happen several times in our area.
.

A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head. After 5 years of non-stop hosting they will be burnt out unless they have staff who can take care of the details of the social hour. I have seen it happen several times in our area.

You always nail it Silvers. Well put.
.

"A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head".
Wow - this is an interesting statement. So that I understand your point:
You are saying that a new innkeeper will pull out all the stops to get great reviews (and all these extras will be highly praised in the reviews) and THEN a few years down the line when reality hits, this same innkeeper will quit doing all the extra out of sheer exhaustion - and people reading the old reviews will feel shortchanged and the reviews will tank.
I hadn't thought about that.

.

Correct. One weekend we did brownies in the rooms because I had promised a couple rooms (repeats) brownies. ( a little joke between us!) As I had them, I gave some to the other rooms. The new guests raved about the brownies that greeted them upon arrival in their reviews! Months later we get a new review that said, "...I looked around but I couldn't find any of those wonderful brownies I heard about in the other reviews." They were happy with the stay and all, but missed the brownies.

 

[Jcam]

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail..

I would never do a 'social hour' here because of the time commitment. No way am I going to tie myself to being here every day during those hours. I would feel like I was in jail.

No need to retype it. Ditto.
.

A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head. After 5 years of non-stop hosting they will be burnt out unless they have staff who can take care of the details of the social hour. I have seen it happen several times in our area.
.

A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head. After 5 years of non-stop hosting they will be burnt out unless they have staff who can take care of the details of the social hour. I have seen it happen several times in our area.

You always nail it Silvers. Well put.
.

"A social hour is a good way for beginning innkeepers, who want to stay in the business only 5 years, to run up their TA reviews and then bail out on their reputation for being an "event" ...not just a place to relax and rest your head".
Wow - this is an interesting statement. So that I understand your point:
You are saying that a new innkeeper will pull out all the stops to get great reviews (and all these extras will be highly praised in the reviews) and THEN a few years down the line when reality hits, this same innkeeper will quit doing all the extra out of sheer exhaustion - and people reading the old reviews will feel shortchanged and the reviews will tank.
I hadn't thought about that.

.

We are having this with a new neighbour - he bought his place from his sister (16 beds and 4 serviced apartments) and she bought a smaller one. He keeps inviting all the apartment people up for breakfast etc - yes right now he is getting very good reviews but can he keep it up? the sister said "yes I did all that when I first started but you can't do 28 bb breakfasts plus another 16 apartment ones long term you will be burnt - then when the apartment people don't then get offered it they will complain.

 

[2cat_lady]

Martha, just treat your 'guests' like your guests (your 365 days a year friends). This way you won't resent extending yourself to people that you really don't know and may never see again. Yes, this is a job, but this is the hospitality industry. The more that this feels like a natural extension of your day to day life, the less likely you'll suffer from burn out. Even at my busiest, I still enjoyed every minute of my day this last year and I'm looking forward to another busy, hopefully even busier year of 2016.
At the end of the day, if you can sit with a glass of wine, log onto this forum and even just read the postings if you don't have time to contribute, you'll be fine. This is a great bunch of people and no one here wants to see you fail. This is the best booster club you'll ever join

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Martha, just treat your 'guests' like your guests (your 365 days a year friends). This way you won't resent extending yourself to people that you really don't know and may never see again. Yes, this is a job, but this is the hospitality industry. The more that this feels like a natural extension of your day to day life, the less likely you'll suffer from burn out. Even at my busiest, I still enjoyed every minute of my day this last year and I'm looking forward to another busy, hopefully even busier year of 2016.
At the end of the day, if you can sit with a glass of wine, log onto this forum and even just read the postings if you don't have time to contribute, you'll be fine. This is a great bunch of people and no one here wants to see you fail. This is the best booster club you'll ever join

.

Nice. Very wise.
My two favorite moments of every day are - my first sip of coffee and my first sip of wine.

 

[Anon Inn]

Martha, just treat your 'guests' like your guests (your 365 days a year friends). This way you won't resent extending yourself to people that you really don't know and may never see again. Yes, this is a job, but this is the hospitality industry. The more that this feels like a natural extension of your day to day life, the less likely you'll suffer from burn out. Even at my busiest, I still enjoyed every minute of my day this last year and I'm looking forward to another busy, hopefully even busier year of 2016.
At the end of the day, if you can sit with a glass of wine, log onto this forum and even just read the postings if you don't have time to contribute, you'll be fine. This is a great bunch of people and no one here wants to see you fail. This is the best booster club you'll ever join

.

2 cat - you said it perfectly

 

[2cat_lady]

Martha, just treat your 'guests' like your guests (your 365 days a year friends). This way you won't resent extending yourself to people that you really don't know and may never see again. Yes, this is a job, but this is the hospitality industry. The more that this feels like a natural extension of your day to day life, the less likely you'll suffer from burn out. Even at my busiest, I still enjoyed every minute of my day this last year and I'm looking forward to another busy, hopefully even busier year of 2016.
At the end of the day, if you can sit with a glass of wine, log onto this forum and even just read the postings if you don't have time to contribute, you'll be fine. This is a great bunch of people and no one here wants to see you fail. This is the best booster club you'll ever join

.

Nice. Very wise.
My two favorite moments of every day are - my first sip of coffee and my first sip of wine.
.

Oh Beachie! My thoughts precisely! Although tonight, this fourth glass of champagne is going down nicely

 

[Tom]

I just cook. My rate is what I can get after years of slowing increasing rates. The rest is just expenses of doing business..

True. Develop a sense of what you want to offer to who is out there to come stay and charge a fair price. If that includes cookies or wine, fine, that is what makes your b&b yours. The cost is minor compared with the larger issue of occupancy.