Innkeeping - you just gotta Love People

I once read that innkeeping is "the hardest job you will ever love".

I think the author was talking about the long hours and physical labour involved in maintaining a large house. However, the important message is that all of that hard work takes place in a happy and relaxed atmosphere. And all of that work is by your own choice, for your own profit and enjoyment.

If you ever thought you might someday like to operate a B & B, ask yourself if you really do like people, engage with them, manage them and want to know more about them - starting with yourself.

Do these characteristics sound like you?

At the very least - you must be cheerful and optimistic. Well - are you?

To run a bed and breakfast, you can't be afraid of hard work, but it sure is easier if you are self-motivated.

Every day in this job, you are going to meet a wide variety of people. Do you communicate well?

Can you handle more than one thing at a time?

Stay cool when the unexpected happens?

If you truly are a "people person", you will learn from your mistakes and forgive those of others.

It helps if you have an innate desire to keep your home clean and tidy.

It will help more if you don't make your guests uptight over tracking in mud or a spilled coffee.
A bed and breakfast is a home, meant for the living.

Are you flexible?

Practical?

Non-judgemental?

If you can answer Yes to most of these questions, then innkeeping may be your thing. Most of your guests just want to enjoy themselves, unwind and learn a little about the place they are visiting. Generally, their demands will extend no further than asking for an extra towel, explaining their dietary restrictions or picking your brain for local restaurant recommendations.

As it turned out for me, an innkeeper sets the tone and the guests intuitively pickup on it. Be yourself. Be a gracious host and you will have very grateful guests.

Top Bed and Breakfast Myths

"RULE 1: ALL guests must report for breakfast at 6:00 AM SHARP.! Fingernails and shoes will be inspected before coffee."

Do Bed and Breakfasts have strange rules or a curfew? Not by my experience. Sometimes an innkeeper might post a note that is meant to help a guest figure out a light switch or in a rural situation, might warn visitors against throwing too much stuff down the loo. Since both guest bedrooms and the guesthouse' front door are inevitably locked at night, guests are always given keys or codes to come and go as they like. Maybe the idea of a curfew dates back to the guest's own family home or college dorm. The notion certainly doesn't gibe with any B & B that I have seen.

Yes, a Bed and Breakfast may also be the personal home of the innkeeper. Unless the property was purpose-built of concrete, it is certainly very nice if a guest shows consideration and respect for others when coming in late at night. My experience is that guests very quickly take their cue from the ambience that a Bed and Breakfast conveys. If it's an older home, they do usually speak quietly when in the hallways at night and keep the television to a decent volume. On the other hand, if the B & B has a party room, a pool or hot tub for guests' use, well then, relax and enjoy the amenities.

Most Bed and Breakfasts do everything possible to respect a guest's privacy. It's natural as B & B's are often marketed as "romantic getaways". Hint. Hint. Do not worry, the bed has been tested and will NOT squeak. Chances are that the quality of mattresses, pillows, duvets and linens will be top-notch. Toiletries too.

And speaking of amenities - most modern inns/guest-houses/bed and breakfasts offer a bundle of goodies such as free parking and free WIFI, delicious homebaking and of course, an unusually good breakast that would be expensive ad-ons in many hotels.

But will it be clean? Frankly, some people should look under their own beds for dustballs. The vast majority of bed and breakfasts are sole-proprietorships, where the BOSS inspects regularly, takes a hands-on approach to the business and demonstrates pride in his/her B & B home. Would you invite guests over without applying the shine and polish?

And lastly, there is the myth that you will be forced meet people and talk to them. Maybe this one has some truth to it. But you can choose to read a paper at breakfast or just chat with your other half. No pressure. Maybe listen to the flow of conversation and add your two cents after the second coffee. When was the last time that you really enjoyed a free-wheeling and open-minded conversation with new acquaintances or made a genuine, new friend in a hotel? It happens round our breakfast table all the time.

Vancouver in 3D !!!

Well I am back from 2 & a half weeks of Mexican bliss. Yes, I did practice responsible home ownership in Vallarta and painted the entire condo, etc, etc. Somehow, under the tropic sun and with the sound of the waves as background music, the home fix-it projects were easier than usual. Now, it's back to the northern beauty.

Vancouver sure is looking good. I would not want to knock anyone else's hometown but as I listened to the airport announcements for flights leaving Puerto Vallarta, there was not a single destination that could compare to Vancouver. A few sounded downright freezing, boring and depressing places to have to fly home to. I count my blessings. As I tiptoed into the Bed & Breakfast well past midnight to pick up Ozzie, our sweetheart Cairn Terrier, it was apparent that beloved dog and business had been very well cared for in my absence.

It's one of the great fears of parents, pet owners and us self-employed folk that things will go wrong the minute we absent ourselves. Little by little, I am learning that it ain't necessarily so. If you can surround yourself with the right people, responsible & intelligent, and exercise the right planning & preparation, it appears that both the dog and the B & B business have lives of their own! Thank you Team Nelson House! Thank you Matthew and Briana!

Vancouver sure has a lot of a life in it these days. Spring is already budding beautifully. Recession or not, the B & B is busy and people obviously want to come see what all the buzz is about. Vancouver has Olympic facilities to finish and mega projects underway - a harbourside convention centre with the world's largest green, living roof, a new LRT transit line from downtown to the airport & beyond, and a vastly improved mountain highway to Whistler. This year's Cultural Oympiad program, leading up to the Feb. 2010 Games, offers a stunning 122 first-calibre arts events and hundreds of performances. If you want to see one city in North America, that is actively bettering itself, this is the place to be.

Even Google Earth is paying attention. Last week, Vancouver joined New York City as one of world's first cities to be mapped in 3D! Over 1400 buildings have been rendered in three-dimensional colour and detail and set against the spectacular ocean and mountain backdrop of downtown Vancouver. Even Nelson House B & B, our 3-story heritage home at 977 Broughton St., is accurately imaged with light blue walls and silver roof. We are in the extreme left hand lower corner of the downtown image below. If you have Google Earth installed, zoom down and check us out. If not, it's a free download. Fly like a bird over and between the buildings! Vancouver in 3D! It's remarkable computer imaging but nothing compared to the real thing.

Keep the B & B dream alive - 5 tips for dodging Burnout!

If I've learned anything in 19 years of innkeeping, it's to be hospitable to the innkeeper. Here in the downtown, West End neighbourhood of Vancouver, there have never been more than half a dozen bed and breakfasts. Amongst my innkeeper colleagues, it was only a matter of a few years before my status changed from new kid on the block to the ancient innkeeper of the West End. I have since learned that this phenomenon is widely true across bed and breakfasting. There is rather horrendous burnout in what should be a very happy profession. Why? And how to avoid it?

1. Self-employment is a risk. Not everyone is cut out to handle that kind of uncertainty. It's easy, even a comfort, to gripe with your co-workers about the boss from hell and the inane company strictures, when you know that your salary will be deposited in your bank account every two weeks. Being an employee may be as boring as a clock but not knowing if you can pay the bills in two weeks can be an alarming wake up! Never open a bed and breakfast if you are fleeing the stress and headaches of a 9 to 5 routine. You could be trading that for a 24/7 nightmare. I would suggest that you are ONLY in a position to consider innkeeping if you have already succeeded as a dependable employee, a trusted co-worker, someone the company would be glad to rehire.

2.Plan. Plan. Plan. There are great books, online advice, consultants to hire and local college courses to help you decide if innkeeping is really for you. For me, the definitive guide that asked me all the thought-provoking questions was a book called "So - You Want to be an Innkeeper" by Mary Davies. It is still out there, now in it's third revised edition. The point of planning is to look at finances, locale, zoning etc, but ONLY AFTER you have looked in the mirror. Do you have the disposition to be hospitable? Ask yourself: Am I a warm person? Am I neighbourly? Am I concerned for the well-being of others? Be honest. Much can be learned but some things have to come from the heart.

3. So if you have decided you like people, are you still going to like them inside your home? The greatest downfall that I have observed in innkeeping is an underestimation of one's own primal need for privacy. Even saints need some private time for solitude and reflection. How much do you need? Is the B & B schedule that you have planned conducive to meeting your own needs for rest and recuperation? Is the physical layout of the B & B able to provide you and your loved ones their own "space"? Privacy is often about the psychological separation of the different components of your life. Work and home are symbolic of many things to each person and juggling them both under the same roof can be more than some can manage.

4.Okay, so you are ready to invite the world. It's because your heritage home has now been beautifully restored to museum condition. The design work and decorating details have absorbed and delighted you for months. That is well and good but most guests don't want to vacation in a museum. After the renos are cleaned up and the fun of shopping for the perfect antique armoire fades, you will then have to face the prospect of visiting with your guests, meeting their needs as paying customers, cleaning, cooking, marketing and the thrill of grocery shopping. And did I say cleaning? Only so much can be delegated before you are running a hotel. A major reason for burnout is the dawning realization, that maybe you should have focused more narrowly to become a self-employed contractor or designer or decorator or florist or even that museum curator. Personally, I believe that there is enough variety and multitasking to innkeeping to keep the mind active and the body engaged. Beware if the homebody housekeeping has become a bore. Ultimately, the best antidote to the isolation of working from home is the guest who accepted your invitation, chose your establishment in a crowded marketplace, took a chance on your hospitality and decided to share his/her own time and conversation, wisdom and insight. Just be yourself. Meet your guest as an equal. Communication is two way and over a shared cup of coffee can be surprisingly rewarding.

5. These days, it takes only a mouse-click to find so many beautiful bed and breakfasts on the market that have a proven track record of producing a fat income. Ever wonder why they are for sale? If it wasn't for lack of security or planning or disposition or the love of the actual day to day work, it is probably because a couple decided to do it all together! In other words, the business succeeded just as the relationship failed. Constant togetherness, night and day proximity can bring a relationship into very sharp focus indeed. All too often, it is only one partner who is romanced by the dream of bed and breakfasting and the other goes along - but only to a point. My suggestion is that life partners would do better if they kept some separation in their careers. It gives them something to tell each other at the end of the day. But if you both really want to be full-time innkeepers, try to work out clearly defined areas of expertise and management where you don't trip over each other each and every minute. And remember, be hospitable to the innkeepers! Give yourselves a vacation too!

Top 5 Reasons to Open a Bed and Breakfast

At the the turn of the year, I like(besides Sydney's fireworks) all of the Top Ten Lists, the retrospective Best Of ... Lists, and the look ahead to What We Might See in the New Year.

If you have ever thought that it would be nice to open a bed and breakfast someday, these are five good reasons to pursue your dream:

1. Self-employment is a challenge to yourself with the potential for great personal satisfaction.


2. Innkeeping is a particularly flexible form of self-employment that allows you to define the day to day details of earning your livelihood.


3. You can bring a wide variety of life experience and skills to the bed and breakfast table. A love of cooking might be equally as valuable as a love of home renovation.


4. Owning and operating a B & B is a multitasking delight. Each day is not necessarily like the last. Done right, it should not quickly grow stale.


5. In hospitality, your customers bring the world to your door. B & B guests are not only in vacation mode but they are often very seasoned travellers, who have purposefully chosen the personal touch of a guesthouse over the anonymity of a hotel. They are smart, considerate, genuinely interested in the the place they are visiting and as such, more likely to leave a positive impression of themselves behind them.
   

One egg at a time.

I remember my first B & B guests. They came to me courtesy of a local bookstore named Wanderlust. Don't you love the name? They were from Calgary and I put them in our old "Fiesta" room. Please understand that the year was 1990 and I had just lived the last five years of my life out of Dallas, Texas. The room was done up in a sunny Southwestern decor, complete with howling coyote artwork. The Calgarians loved it and the Texas talk, you know - the awl bidness, new skyscrapers and the legends of the West, formed a mutual vocabulary. At breakfast, I served them a sandwich that I had always loved making for myself - a thick baked ham slice with both Canadian Cheddar and Dutch Edam, slathered in both honey mustard-mayo dressing and tart French honey-dijon. To make it breakfasty, I served it open on a toasted kaiser with a poached egg on top. Apple slices for garnish. Nothing gourmet but all my own invention. They loved it. And I exhaled. This was a recipe for success!

I was my own man. The very reason that justified my walking away from the percs and privileges of a Foreign Service career was right there in the satisfaction of those first guests. Corporatism, whether it be for profit or governmental policy, takes the "best and the brightest" recruits and drains them of the very attributes for which they were allegedly hired. Initiative is slowly drained away. Brave and independent thought is actively discouraged. Be it ever so humble, give me the work that is done with two hands, where a boss or a committee has no say over which direction to go. Farmers, artists, craftspersons, maybe even architects and entrepreneurs are the kind who will save this planet. Innkeepers may make it a kinder place.

Like so many self-employed persons, I have become a one man band, simultaneously a planner, builder, decorator, cook, washerman, cleaner, marketer, webmaster and accountant. In the early days, there was no one to ask the how-to questions to. No internet back then! I sketched out my future on a day to day basis and felt no regrets about losing the "security" of a regular wage or a guaranteed pension. The creative right side of my brain grew abs of steel. The left side applied discipline and focus. One egg at a time.

Just for fun, check here whether you are using more of your left brain or right brain.