Purchase of Neglected Inn

mrspgrey · Sep 30, 2020

Hello all,
My husband and I invest in real estate. While looking at some real estate we inadvertently cane cross a beautiful, but neglected, bed and breakfast/wedding venue and the the owner wants to sell it (for a great price). She is overwhelmed and can’t take care of it anymore. My husband and I have good jobs and we are not interested in running or living in a BnB, at least not right now. However, many times over the years, we have tossed around the possibility of owning a wedding venue.
With a bit of TLC, this property has the potential quite amazing. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even consider it.
We are thinking this: Hire a live-in couple to do the Innkeeping and maintenance/groundskeeping, and also hire a separate cleaning person for busy weekends and holidays to ease the burden of the innkeeper. Then, my husband and I can focus primarily on expanding the wedding venue and then contract out a wedding coordinator. It a nutshell, we would eventually want to be pretty hands off. Is this even possible? Would it potentially be a good investment? Currently the BnB alone, it’s its neglected condition, is breaking even...the small amount of weddings they have are what is keeping them afloat. Are we crazy for thinking we can turn this into something great? Should we just walk away?
I have read through many posts within the forums and you guys provide a wealth of information. Thank you for any advice!

JimBoone · Oct 1, 2020

Not advice, just comments from one with an 8 room motel. Our place went from the better dump to a well liked spot and a good life, of course I enjoy the people side, for many the difficult part is financing to get started, you seem to have that part covered so your thoughts seem to hold promise.

You could hire your help or perhaps a somewhat different slant, purchase the property/business and finance or lease the lodging portion of the property to someone wanting to get started while you concentrate on the Wedding Venue side of things. Seems like there are folks posting on a basis looking for that type of beginning.

mrspgrey · Oct 1, 2020

JimBoone said:
Not advice, just comments from one with an 8 room motel. Our place went from the better dump to a well liked spot and a good life, of course I enjoy the people side, for many the difficult part is financing to get started, you seem to have that part covered so your thoughts seem to hold promise.

You could hire your help or perhaps a somewhat different slant, purchase the property/business and finance or lease the lodging portion of the property to someone wanting to get started while you concentrate on the Wedding Venue side of things. Seems like there are folks posting on a basis looking for that type of beginning.

Thank you for the insight. We are certainly not opposed to the idea of leasing the BnB, but it needs a lot of TLC and updating (mostly decor and lighting) right now. If we go through with this, we are hoping to find an inkeeper that enjoys decorating as well. Any ideas where to find someone like this? We would provide living quarters and a salary.

Morticia · Oct 1, 2020

mrspgrey said:
Thank you for the insight. We are certainly not opposed to the idea of leasing the BnB, but it needs a lot of TLC and updating (mostly decor and lighting) right now. If we go through with this, we are hoping to find an inkeeper that enjoys decorating as well. Any ideas where to find someone like this? We would provide living quarters and a salary.

If you join national or state organizations, you can list the job in their websites. They do pitches on Facebook and in their newsletters.

Do you have any insight as to why the business was only breaking even? Lack of interest? Creative accounting? If you also have to build up a business in order to pay someone to run it you’ll need an innkeeper with marketing wizardry and not just decorating skills.

mrspgrey · Oct 2, 2020

Morticia said:
If you join national or state organizations, you can list the job in their websites. They do pitches on Facebook and in their newsletters.

Do you have any insight as to why the business was only breaking even? Lack of interest? Creative accounting? If you also have to build up a business in order to pay someone to run it you’ll need an innkeeper with marketing wizardry and not just decorating skills.

It seems like the owner is just overwhelmed and very disorganized. Honestly, from the looks of things, it’s pretty amazing she has kept it going at all. It is a beautiful and unique place, but very neglected.

JimBoone · Oct 2, 2020

mrspgrey said:
Thank you for the insight. We are certainly not opposed to the idea of leasing the BnB, but it needs a lot of TLC and updating (mostly decor and lighting) right now. If we go through with this, we are hoping to find an inkeeper that enjoys decorating as well. Any ideas where to find someone like this? We would provide living quarters and a salary.

I don't know anyone individually yet there often seem to be aspiring innkeepers posting here in this forum who have ideas and dreams, but not funds to get started. I remember also seeing a forum or list of innkeeping jobs available and wanted, but don't presently recall the name of the group.