I've worked in the hotel industry many years. My last hotel was 26 rooms, and I did everything at one point or another (the nature of being an Assistant General Manager). I'd like to give some advice if that's ok.
I understand you have a degree. But a degree is not the same as experience. Even 13 years of experience in every department and almost every position in the industry didn't really prepare me for what was required for this 26 room place. It is A LOT of work. I use capital letters to emphasize it to the utmost possible extent. If you aren't prepared because you don't have the experience, it is going to scare you. And a few summers isn't enough experience to understand what you are getting into, neither is college.
A small Inn, B&B or hotel is going to require you to dedicate your life to it. You can and will receive phone calls at all hours of the day. We didn't have night staff for a very long time, so there were times we'd get a phone call for a late check in that couldn't be bothered to check their email or their voice messages at 2 am because they couldn't figure out how to get in, one of us would have to drive there, let them in and then drive back and we had to get up at 5 or 6 am to start our day. If you live on site, its a bit different, but are you prepared to wake up at 2 am and then try to fall back to sleep to be up in a couple hours to make breakfast for the guests?
In a small place, there is no one to get your supplies for you, you will need to do it. That means making grocery store runs at least once a week, not to mention needing to get housekeeping and office supplies.
If it is very small, you will need to be doing the housekeeping yourself, so have you ever done it? Its cleaning every single thing in the room every day, including the air conditioners, lamps, and all handles, drawers, and under the beds, and changing all linens.
A larger place means you will have staff, but probably not many, and sometimes they will call off or just not show up. Are you prepared to do their jobs if this should happen? It will also mean that you will need to deal with staff issues like bickering between the staff members, laziness, over excitement, and even sometimes when one of them ends up hospitalized for some reason.
You will need to make sure rooms are clean even when you don't clean them, that the place is secure with things like cameras.
Being an inn keeper is not the same as being a hotelier. You have to know all, be all, and do all, and you have to be ready for it to be your life because you will never really be off work even when you aren't on site. If you are prepared, it can be incredibly rewarding. I loved my last hotel. My position being eliminated broke my heart because that hotel is me. I spent so much time there, created all its policies from scratch. The only thing the owner was was the money. The General Manager was also the Revenue Manager for three hotels so he had his hands full. I ran the day to day functioning from front desk to housekeeping to income audit, supply runs and everything else. My heart went into the place. Right up to sometimes 14 hour days.
That is what it means to be an inn keeper. It is so much work but it is so rewarding, and it is so much more personal than any hotel can ever be just by its very nature. It's been a month and I still miss it terribly, and probably always will.
That is what it means to be an inn keeper. Because when you put your all into it like an inn requires, it is yours, even if you don't own it. But you need to be prepared, or you won't be able to handle it.
I highly suggest that you get more experience before you become an inn keeper. Running the desk while family is away is not the same thing as being responsible for everything yourself. Experience every department and learn how to deal with issues that come up. It will help you in the long run..
