Repeat guests

[Tim_Toad_HLB]

BrekDiva I think he has been in biz for 3 or 4 years, it is our Texas innkeeper who has 1 year under his belt in August. And yes we do know who you are, at least I do.

as most know who I am. BTW Pita torch is being passed my way and i am not at all pleased about it! Take it back...please..

Oops, sorry about confusing Tim with someone else. But hey, the same sentiments apply. Talk with me in year 8

Joe, about that PITA torch? NOT ON YOUR LIFE!!!

.

Oops, sorry about confusing Tim with someone else. But hey, the same sentiments apply. Talk with me in year 8

Why, do toilets suddenly get harder to clean after 8 years but not after five?
Do beds suddenly get tougher to make, breakfast to cook, problem or high maintenance guests harder to anticipate or deal with, etc.?
Is innkeeping the only job on earth that gets harder to be competent at the longer you do it?
We all must have entered some oxymoronic universe where the more experience you have at something the harder it gets, unlike 99.99% of all other vocations.
All the issues I've seen that contribute to the bugaboo "burn out" were present in our experience from day one, but from at least our perspective, we've become infinitely more capable and competent at dealing with them then in the begining. So where is the big dropoff in a person's ability to deal iwth stuff unless its coming from that unspoken, self-limiting voice that says, "The average innkeeper burtns out in 5-7 years" so we pave the way to fulfill that as if its cast in stone or prophecy.
.

Why, do toilets suddenly get harder to clean after 8 years but not after five?
Do beds suddenly get tougher to make, breakfast to cook, problem or high maintenance guests harder to anticipate or deal with, etc.?
No, but your endurance & patience gets worn down.
All the issues I've seen that contribute to the bugaboo "burn out" were present in our experience from day one, but from at least our perspective, we've become infinitely more capable and competent at dealing with them then in the begining.
You're not listening. In this discussion we have never said we're burned out. We are saying that we're ready to move on or acknowledge that it will be time to move on in the next few years. Please don't judge someone for doing what's right for them. More power to you....I hope you're one of those innkeepers who can keep going and going and going. My best friend who is an innkeeper is now in her 20th year. She looks at what we are doing here at our property and tells me she could never do it that long if she had our place. Everyone's situation is different. Please stop painting all of us with your broad stroke.
You quoted in an earlier post that an average annual occupancy rate is 40% (I don't know where you got that figure), but if I had that occupancy rate, I wouldn't be this tired (again, not burned out). When is the last time you worked 6 months without a single day off? Don't judge me until you've walked a mile in my shoes.
.

I am listening and not a single comment of mine was directed at anybody in particular or meant to judge anyone. We all have come to this from many different perspectives, with many different financial and lifestyle goals, timelines, etc. that there really are no right answers to most of what we talk about.
I'm making very generalized observations on some of the phenonema I'm witnessing both here and in my interactions with other innkeepers I know not here.
My comments at the top of your reply are valid in my opinion. This isn't brain surgery and the myriad of daily tasks we do are not necessarily "hard" to do or get good at doing. That was the complete intent of my comments.
Yes, when you combine those tasks with all the sociological and diplomacy tasks we must also practice, one's patience and endurance can wear thin, but none of that should come as a surprise to us and aren't really unique to our field only. Most service related or custromer contact jobs require these skills.
I fully appreciate how hard of work this is because I'm doing it myself and am walking in your shoes. I'm not sure how one "qualifies" time wise or effort wise to be viewed as a peer here, but you let me know what the criteria is and I'll hope to live up to it when that time comes.
You don't want to be judged, but that is exactly the frame you've put into your comments towards my opinions with assuming I'm a newbie in my first year and that I haven't earned my stripes to comment because I haven't done this the same or more number of years as you have.
I don't think its a crime to explore some of the incongruities that one might notice without the barrage of condemnations or challenges I've received.
Its a challenge sometimes to sift through some of this stuff and try to decipher what is going through fellow innkeepers minds when on one hand we'll all hear about how great one's business, guests, systems, whatever are, then in the next breath see that many folks are already positioning to get out.
The nationwide average annual occupancy rate for smaller B&Bs is in the 40% range, but that doesn't mean some of us aren't doing 80% and some aren't doing 20%. That's what averages are.
As far as any data I've read there are only a few markets in the entire country that are even above 60% annually, so that tells me that there are an awful lot of places where the average is closer to that nationwide figure.

 

[wendydk]

Our goal was simple....start a small B&B from scratch and make it a huge success...and then cash in from our hard work.....mission nearly accomplished. My goal was never to be an innkeeper forever; we have a seven year plan, maybe because that's what everyone said the average innkeeping career was.
Combine that with a 62 year old mother with cancer going through a divorce and a little brother paralyzed in a car accident (with a pregnant 16 year old daughter, no less), and innkeeping suddenly seems much more restrictive than it used to.

 

[Samster]

BrekDiva I think he has been in biz for 3 or 4 years, it is our Texas innkeeper who has 1 year under his belt in August. And yes we do know who you are, at least I do.

as most know who I am. BTW Pita torch is being passed my way and i am not at all pleased about it! Take it back...please..

Oops, sorry about confusing Tim with someone else. But hey, the same sentiments apply. Talk with me in year 8

Joe, about that PITA torch? NOT ON YOUR LIFE!!!

.

Oops, sorry about confusing Tim with someone else. But hey, the same sentiments apply. Talk with me in year 8

Why, do toilets suddenly get harder to clean after 8 years but not after five?
Do beds suddenly get tougher to make, breakfast to cook, problem or high maintenance guests harder to anticipate or deal with, etc.?
Is innkeeping the only job on earth that gets harder to be competent at the longer you do it?
We all must have entered some oxymoronic universe where the more experience you have at something the harder it gets, unlike 99.99% of all other vocations.
All the issues I've seen that contribute to the bugaboo "burn out" were present in our experience from day one, but from at least our perspective, we've become infinitely more capable and competent at dealing with them then in the begining. So where is the big dropoff in a person's ability to deal iwth stuff unless its coming from that unspoken, self-limiting voice that says, "The average innkeeper burtns out in 5-7 years" so we pave the way to fulfill that as if its cast in stone or prophecy.
.

Why, do toilets suddenly get harder to clean after 8 years but not after five?
Do beds suddenly get tougher to make, breakfast to cook, problem or high maintenance guests harder to anticipate or deal with, etc.?
No, but your endurance & patience gets worn down.
All the issues I've seen that contribute to the bugaboo "burn out" were present in our experience from day one, but from at least our perspective, we've become infinitely more capable and competent at dealing with them then in the begining.
You're not listening. In this discussion we have never said we're burned out. We are saying that we're ready to move on or acknowledge that it will be time to move on in the next few years. Please don't judge someone for doing what's right for them. More power to you....I hope you're one of those innkeepers who can keep going and going and going. My best friend who is an innkeeper is now in her 20th year. She looks at what we are doing here at our property and tells me she could never do it that long if she had our place. Everyone's situation is different. Please stop painting all of us with your broad stroke.
You quoted in an earlier post that an average annual occupancy rate is 40% (I don't know where you got that figure), but if I had that occupancy rate, I wouldn't be this tired (again, not burned out). When is the last time you worked 6 months without a single day off? Don't judge me until you've walked a mile in my shoes.
.

I am listening and not a single comment of mine was directed at anybody in particular or meant to judge anyone. We all have come to this from many different perspectives, with many different financial and lifestyle goals, timelines, etc. that there really are no right answers to most of what we talk about.
I'm making very generalized observations on some of the phenonema I'm witnessing both here and in my interactions with other innkeepers I know not here.
My comments at the top of your reply are valid in my opinion. This isn't brain surgery and the myriad of daily tasks we do are not necessarily "hard" to do or get good at doing. That was the complete intent of my comments.
Yes, when you combine those tasks with all the sociological and diplomacy tasks we must also practice, one's patience and endurance can wear thin, but none of that should come as a surprise to us and aren't really unique to our field only. Most service related or custromer contact jobs require these skills.
I fully appreciate how hard of work this is because I'm doing it myself and am walking in your shoes. I'm not sure how one "qualifies" time wise or effort wise to be viewed as a peer here, but you let me know what the criteria is and I'll hope to live up to it when that time comes.
You don't want to be judged, but that is exactly the frame you've put into your comments towards my opinions with assuming I'm a newbie in my first year and that I haven't earned my stripes to comment because I haven't done this the same or more number of years as you have.
I don't think its a crime to explore some of the incongruities that one might notice without the barrage of condemnations or challenges I've received.
Its a challenge sometimes to sift through some of this stuff and try to decipher what is going through fellow innkeepers minds when on one hand we'll all hear about how great one's business, guests, systems, whatever are, then in the next breath see that many folks are already positioning to get out.
The nationwide average annual occupancy rate for smaller B&Bs is in the 40% range, but that doesn't mean some of us aren't doing 80% and some aren't doing 20%. That's what averages are.
As far as any data I've read there are only a few markets in the entire country that are even above 60% annually, so that tells me that there are an awful lot of places where the average is closer to that nationwide figure.
.

I think that lots of our daily tasks don't require a degree in rocket science. Customer service and being able to zero in on what each guest needs is an art, not a science though, imvvho. Talked to an innkeeper recently who left corporate hospitality service because that art was being lost. Made me think a lot about what makes us different than hotels and how we can hone those particular skills.

 

[gillumhouse]

I am in year 13 of a start-up. Tired yes. Tired of B & B - NO.
I did the corporate world where you were just a number unless something did not get done and with several jobs, overtime was mandatory, not an option. I put up with the BS for the insurance because I had 6 kids and a walking medical time bomb so DH could work for little companies where he was an appreciated PERSON but there was no pension. I do get a small pension - at least for now, until THAT business climate changes to government operated. Life is a trade-off in every aspect. I will take the hard work, long days when of course everything happens at once, and no financial security for the ability to control my life to the extent anyone can have control, sit on my butt at the computer all day if I busted it yesterday catching up with laundry and things that needed catching up. If there is an event I want to attend, if I cannot work around it, I close - my option. One thing I must admit is 13 years added to the knees I started with does make a difference - but GOD help the DH that tells me I am getting too old to do this.

 

[gillumhouse]

I have some repeats - some semi-regulars - but I do not keep really good records on that because some will come here several times and then never see them again. We had some meet in the middles - one couple got married and we do not know what happened to another but they were here 3 times.
We get a lot of travel between here and there. One of them was here on the way down and on the way back and was heard to so "it feels so good to be home again" as he got out of the car on the return trip. We get a lot of repeats with the horses. I do know I had an anniversary because of someone who had been here twice and the man he sent to us said, "As much as Frank talked this place up, he did not tell how good it was by half!" So even if I do not have a high percent of repeat - I think we are solid. (I am also one who rarely goes to where I have already been..

We get a lot of repeats with the horses.

Doesn't that get a little crowded in the room?
.

No, they are well-behaved - they do not have to turn around 3 times before they lay down. A bit noisier on the stairs.....

 

[ginocat]

In business almost 18 years now. I'm in an international tourist destination so the bulk of my business comes from overseas. I do get repeats but not 59%.