city dwellers looking for a means to diversify or for help with a hefty mortgage. Often without any previous experience in the hospitality industry, many are, in my experience, pulling off the whole show incredibly well.
The most disappointing breakfasts I eat these days are in hotels, while B & Bs repeatedly bring outstanding stuff to my table. There might not be a newspaper outside my door first thing, but it ' s a small price to pay for freshly squeezed juice and a plate of food cooked to order instead of something that ' s been kept hot under a grill for half an hour.
The expectation level is notching up so fast that there ' s no knowing what B & Bs will throw in next. For now though, according to Nikki Tinto, it ' s acceptable to expect some of these: " Probably free wireless internet, usually an honesty bar or even a butler ' s pantry and, when you arrive, you might get afternoon tea with a slice of homemade cake."
© Sally Shalam, The Guardian
Chapter Two
Before you start
Who should start a B & B? Are you the right person to run a B & B? Are you doing this for the right reasons? What are your objectives, and will a B & B enable you to achieve them?
This may seem an odd question. If you have bought this book, you are clearly interested – at least in finding out whether you want to run a B & B. We don’ t want to put you off – but we don’ t want to encourage you to do something that you would not enjoy, either.
Look at it this way: if reading this book only helps you decide that a B & B is not for you, then it’ s money very well spent( a few of the notes of thanks we received from readers of the first edition were from those who thanked us for helping them decide that running a B & B was not, after all, for them). You don’ t want to find that out after moving, and / or investing a lot of money in adapting a property. So it makes sense to think very carefully about this at the outset.
Are you the right person to run a B & B? If you never have friends or relations to stay because you can’ t stand other people in your home, then don’ t run a B & B! If you don’ t like meeting people and can’ t make small talk, then don’ t run a B & B. You do need to be able to relate to people to do the job – although you don’ t have to be a“ life and soul of the party” type – in fact if you are, you may irritate as many people as you attract.
Being a people person is a vital, and of course fairly obvious, requirement for running a hospitality business. But there are less obvious character traits you need too. If you hate housework with a passion, and feel comfortable amid clutter, chaos and congealed crockery from yesterday’ s dinner, you probably feel that you are admirably liberated from other people’ s obsessive hang-ups about tidiness or cleanliness. You may be right, but although your tolerance threshold of your own debris may be high, other people’ s tolerance threshold of your debris will almost certainly be much, much lower – close to zero, in all probability.