Thinking about starting a B&B -- Help Please.

[sasha7440]

I am about to be a Senor at Texas State University and have been looking into starting B&B with family once I graduate. I have been doing some research online and looking into some of the websites on how to get started. I would really like to get some inside advice on starting up and any help that I can get on how to get things really going. At this point I am still just researching the business. If there is anyone in the San Marcos Texas area that would be willing to give some advice on the hill country as a place to start up I would love to speak with you as well.
[edited by swirt to get rid of microsoft formatting code]

 

[YellowSocks]

1) Read whatever your library's got
2) Talk to any innkeepers in your area [CALL first, make an appointment, be gracious!]
3) Read every thread on this forum... you'll get the real scoop, and know more about innkeeping than some innkeepers!
4) Then, if you have a specific question, ask it here. You'll get best results if you ask one specific question at a time.
Good luck!! And welcome to the forum!! :welcome:
=)
Kk.

 

[happykeeper]

1) Read whatever your library's got
2) Talk to any innkeepers in your area [CALL first, make an appointment, be gracious!]
3) Read every thread on this forum... you'll get the real scoop, and know more about innkeeping than some innkeepers!
4) Then, if you have a specific question, ask it here. You'll get best results if you ask one specific question at a time.
Good luck!! And welcome to the forum!! :welcome:
=)
Kk..

Excellent advice!

 

[gillumhouse]

Before doing anything or spending the first penny

Check ZONING!!!!

 

[NW BB]

Do everything YellowSocks told you and take an aspiring innkeeper seminar!! There are many around and are definitely worth it.
GET HANDS ON EXPERIENCE! Volunteer your time at a B&B so you can get hands on experience.

 

[Samster]

You have one of the longest running B&Bs by the same owners right in your own backyard - The Crystal River Inn in San Marcos. Give the owner a ring

 

[nanhinchliff]

You have one of the longest running B&Bs by the same owners right in your own backyard - The Crystal River Inn in San Marcos. Give the owner a ring .

You have one of the longest running B&Bs by the same owners right in your own backyard - The Crystal River Inn in San Marcos. Give the owner a ring

This is a great idea. When I first started, I had a mentor, who owned a B&B a few blocks from me. She was so helpful. Eventually I joined the local B&B association, who are very supportive; I'm still a member. Also, the suggestion to go to an aspiring innkeepers workshop is good, and many of the state and national conferences are good. Just being in that environment, and being able to ask questions of seasoned innkeepers is really helpful.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Hi and welcome!
You need to take some aspiring innkeeper classes and get the full scoop on running an inn. Most will tell you it was their corporate and life long experience that prepareed them for owning and operating an inn. Owning your own business is a treacherous undertaking.
The reason many do not do it until they retire from their "normal" jobs is MONEY. It takes money to open an inn.
All the best.

 

[Morticia]

[edited by swirt to get rid of microsoft formatting code]
Can you go back in and edit it so Sasha is a 'senior' and not a 'senor' or else I'll have to start wondering about what kinds of programs they offer at that college...

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

[edited by swirt to get rid of microsoft formatting code]
Can you go back in and edit it so Sasha is a 'senior' and not a 'senor' or else I'll have to start wondering about what kinds of programs they offer at that college....

[edited by swirt to get rid of microsoft formatting code]
Can you go back in and edit it so Sasha is a 'senior' and not a 'senor' or else I'll have to start wondering about what kinds of programs they offer at that college...

Could be a senor not a senorita...never know.

 

[EmptyNest]

READ ALL YOU CAN and attend aspiring workshops. There is LOTS of information here that will help you as well. ANother factor and one extremely important one..LOCATION..where are you? Where do you want to open a B & B? Why would someone come to stay with you. Unless you are looking at you and your family running say at least an 8 room inn, there will not be enough income for all of you and what about insurance coverage? IS someone still going to be holding down a full time job to support the rest of you?
Unfortunatley, given the current economic climate, I am a pessimist at heart..sorry:-( And I think you need more time and study before investing in such a business right now.

 

[Morticia]

[edited by swirt to get rid of microsoft formatting code]
Can you go back in and edit it so Sasha is a 'senior' and not a 'senor' or else I'll have to start wondering about what kinds of programs they offer at that college....

[edited by swirt to get rid of microsoft formatting code]
Can you go back in and edit it so Sasha is a 'senior' and not a 'senor' or else I'll have to start wondering about what kinds of programs they offer at that college...

Could be a senor not a senorita...never know.
.

[edited by swirt to get rid of microsoft formatting code]
Can you go back in and edit it so Sasha is a 'senior' and not a 'senor' or else I'll have to start wondering about what kinds of programs they offer at that college...

Could be a senor not a senorita...never know.

Then he'll have to edit it that way as well!

 

[swirt]

[edited by swirt to get rid of microsoft formatting code]
Can you go back in and edit it so Sasha is a 'senior' and not a 'senor' or else I'll have to start wondering about what kinds of programs they offer at that college....

You must think I have a lot of free time on my hands Sorry, I'am not going to edit people's spelling unless they accidentally spell something offensive.

 

[Morticia]

[edited by swirt to get rid of microsoft formatting code]
Can you go back in and edit it so Sasha is a 'senior' and not a 'senor' or else I'll have to start wondering about what kinds of programs they offer at that college....

You must think I have a lot of free time on my hands Sorry, I'am not going to edit people's spelling unless they accidentally spell something offensive.
.

You must think I have a lot of free time on my hands Sorry, I'am not going to edit people's spelling unless they accidentally spell something offensive.

Oops. Got carried away there...sorry.

 

[birdwatcher]

Being from the "starting a B & B" from scratch and not really knowing the intricate details of how much $$$ it would take or having "rose colored glasses" on take it from someone that has struggled to make the B & B successfull and just counting on that as income---it doesn't work unless of course you have alot of $$$ to buy one that makes alot of revenue at the onset.
Volunteering at a B & B and lots of inspiring classes will help imensley, but there is nothing like "life of innkeeping" experience.

 

[happykeeper]

Being from the "starting a B & B" from scratch and not really knowing the intricate details of how much $$$ it would take or having "rose colored glasses" on take it from someone that has struggled to make the B & B successfull and just counting on that as income---it doesn't work unless of course you have alot of $$$ to buy one that makes alot of revenue at the onset.
Volunteering at a B & B and lots of inspiring classes will help imensley, but there is nothing like "life of innkeeping" experience..

We are also of the "start clueless" crowd, and I think you have a point if you are saying that it is important to do your home and crunch numbers before investing.
We have made our B & B a vialble business that affords us a good standard of living. We started from zero and built our business. Literally, we built the house ourselves. This accomplished the opposite of buying an established business by keeping our debt down to something we could handle until the business began producing income we could live off of.

 

[Samster]

Being from the "starting a B & B" from scratch and not really knowing the intricate details of how much $$$ it would take or having "rose colored glasses" on take it from someone that has struggled to make the B & B successfull and just counting on that as income---it doesn't work unless of course you have alot of $$$ to buy one that makes alot of revenue at the onset.
Volunteering at a B & B and lots of inspiring classes will help imensley, but there is nothing like "life of innkeeping" experience..

We are also of the "start clueless" crowd, and I think you have a point if you are saying that it is important to do your home and crunch numbers before investing.
We have made our B & B a vialble business that affords us a good standard of living. We started from zero and built our business. Literally, we built the house ourselves. This accomplished the opposite of buying an established business by keeping our debt down to something we could handle until the business began producing income we could live off of.
.

Here's my theory...even if you do your research thoroughly, sometimes ya never know how much things will really cost when you are starting from scratch! And then there's those little snafus that get thrown at you. It really does help to have plenty of dinero.
Or you go & do something like buy a second house...that needs more than you thought. Of course!

 

[happykeeper]

Being from the "starting a B & B" from scratch and not really knowing the intricate details of how much $$$ it would take or having "rose colored glasses" on take it from someone that has struggled to make the B & B successfull and just counting on that as income---it doesn't work unless of course you have alot of $$$ to buy one that makes alot of revenue at the onset.
Volunteering at a B & B and lots of inspiring classes will help imensley, but there is nothing like "life of innkeeping" experience..

We are also of the "start clueless" crowd, and I think you have a point if you are saying that it is important to do your home and crunch numbers before investing.
We have made our B & B a vialble business that affords us a good standard of living. We started from zero and built our business. Literally, we built the house ourselves. This accomplished the opposite of buying an established business by keeping our debt down to something we could handle until the business began producing income we could live off of.
.

Here's my theory...even if you do your research thoroughly, sometimes ya never know how much things will really cost when you are starting from scratch! And then there's those little snafus that get thrown at you. It really does help to have plenty of dinero.
Or you go & do something like buy a second house...that needs more than you thought. Of course!

.

I would agree- reseach doesn't prepare you for the actual experience of buying three extra sheet sets, at $100 each, because somebody spilled three drops of bleach- etc. etc. The cost of funrnishing our place is probably a good example of that- it can seem like a moving target.
However, it can be done and you can use your funds wisely and you can inflate research numbers to force you to take off the rose colored glasses.
One thing that made a big difference was that, although it was all borrowed, we had access to enough money to do it. That is a new wrinkle that might make what we did just a couple of years ago much harder today.

 

[Morticia]

Being from the "starting a B & B" from scratch and not really knowing the intricate details of how much $$$ it would take or having "rose colored glasses" on take it from someone that has struggled to make the B & B successfull and just counting on that as income---it doesn't work unless of course you have alot of $$$ to buy one that makes alot of revenue at the onset.
Volunteering at a B & B and lots of inspiring classes will help imensley, but there is nothing like "life of innkeeping" experience..

We are also of the "start clueless" crowd, and I think you have a point if you are saying that it is important to do your home and crunch numbers before investing.
We have made our B & B a vialble business that affords us a good standard of living. We started from zero and built our business. Literally, we built the house ourselves. This accomplished the opposite of buying an established business by keeping our debt down to something we could handle until the business began producing income we could live off of.
.

Here's my theory...even if you do your research thoroughly, sometimes ya never know how much things will really cost when you are starting from scratch! And then there's those little snafus that get thrown at you. It really does help to have plenty of dinero.
Or you go & do something like buy a second house...that needs more than you thought. Of course!

.

I would agree- reseach doesn't prepare you for the actual experience of buying three extra sheet sets, at $100 each, because somebody spilled three drops of bleach- etc. etc. The cost of funrnishing our place is probably a good example of that- it can seem like a moving target.
However, it can be done and you can use your funds wisely and you can inflate research numbers to force you to take off the rose colored glasses.
One thing that made a big difference was that, although it was all borrowed, we had access to enough money to do it. That is a new wrinkle that might make what we did just a couple of years ago much harder today.
.

We did the numbers crunch on buying turn key...if 50% of the repeat guests hated us and decided to never come back, could we make a go of it while trying to recruit new guests? As it turns out, that was a good guess. But, some folks who had decided to not come back with the PO's gave us a chance, so it kind of evened out.
What I generally tell anyone who is buying turnkey is to have one year's mortgage payment in the bank, untouchable. You might just need it.

 

[happykeeper]

Being from the "starting a B & B" from scratch and not really knowing the intricate details of how much $$$ it would take or having "rose colored glasses" on take it from someone that has struggled to make the B & B successfull and just counting on that as income---it doesn't work unless of course you have alot of $$$ to buy one that makes alot of revenue at the onset.
Volunteering at a B & B and lots of inspiring classes will help imensley, but there is nothing like "life of innkeeping" experience..

We are also of the "start clueless" crowd, and I think you have a point if you are saying that it is important to do your home and crunch numbers before investing.
We have made our B & B a vialble business that affords us a good standard of living. We started from zero and built our business. Literally, we built the house ourselves. This accomplished the opposite of buying an established business by keeping our debt down to something we could handle until the business began producing income we could live off of.
.

Here's my theory...even if you do your research thoroughly, sometimes ya never know how much things will really cost when you are starting from scratch! And then there's those little snafus that get thrown at you. It really does help to have plenty of dinero.
Or you go & do something like buy a second house...that needs more than you thought. Of course!

.

I would agree- reseach doesn't prepare you for the actual experience of buying three extra sheet sets, at $100 each, because somebody spilled three drops of bleach- etc. etc. The cost of funrnishing our place is probably a good example of that- it can seem like a moving target.
However, it can be done and you can use your funds wisely and you can inflate research numbers to force you to take off the rose colored glasses.
One thing that made a big difference was that, although it was all borrowed, we had access to enough money to do it. That is a new wrinkle that might make what we did just a couple of years ago much harder today.
.

We did the numbers crunch on buying turn key...if 50% of the repeat guests hated us and decided to never come back, could we make a go of it while trying to recruit new guests? As it turns out, that was a good guess. But, some folks who had decided to not come back with the PO's gave us a chance, so it kind of evened out.
What I generally tell anyone who is buying turnkey is to have one year's mortgage payment in the bank, untouchable. You might just need it.
.

That sounds like a good rule of thumb. It should cover you in even some of the most dire circumstances.