I have to wonder, reading some of these posts, how many members are feeling burned out. Are you:
Posted on: Wed, 07/01/2009 - 9:16am
Original Topic
OfflineI'm way beyond burned out
4% (1 vote)
I'm not burned out yet, but I can see it from here
43% (12 votes)
I'm often impatient with guests, but don't consider myself burned out, it's just the type of guests I get
0% (0 votes)
I'm not burned out and still really love doing this!
54% (15 votes)
Total votes: 28
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The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue. ~Author Unknown
Comments
I have been wondering the same thing recently, Little Blue. WIll be interesting to see responses.
I have a very short memory. Yeah, I could go back thru here and read some of what I posted last year during the summer but even that doesn't bring back the stress I felt at the time. I can't say I will never burn out as this is a high contact sport, you're on whenever you have guests and whenever you are out in public talking about your place. The full show goes on everyday whether it is for one room or the whole house. Because I don't generally 'expect' anything from anyone, guests' quirks can be taken in stride. When guests do what I might consider 'boneheaded' things, that's their issue not mine so other than repairing what damage they may have done, I don't need to take on their problems and fret about them.
Talk to me again in a few weeks...
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Spare me the perky.
I thought a poll would be better, maybe would force people to be more honest than they might otherwise be if asked directly. I'm not interested in knowing specifically WHO is feeling burned out, just wondering what the percentage of respondents will show.
BTW, penelope, I was going to send you an email, but lost your address, and you don't have a little envelope under your name for me to use.
I'm not burned out...just very tired. Just saw a picture of myself from an event this weekend. It is showing.....
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We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done. ~ Longfellow
Yes we are getting so busy with the tours I'm not booking the B&B if the tours are back to back for several days. People calling don't understand that we can't turn a room to check them in if we are out all day touring. And we have not had the time to train the innsitters to cover for us yet and I don't want to throw them in without getting used to the B&B and my abused and shy Borzoi.
So I'm careful right now to schedule us time off inbetween the rushes
RIki
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Riki Goodell
Arcady Vineyard Bed & Breakfast
Arcady Vineyard Wine Tours
www.arcadyvineyard.com
Come! Let us show you the beautiful Monticello Appellation!
none of the above
althought it might seem to turn into a gripe fest in here ~ i would NEVER be rude or impatient with guests. this is my safe haven to express any of those feelings ~ just a place to vent so that it does not affect me or guests.
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' not all those who wander are lost ... ' jrr tolkien
None of the above.
I'm only into my second full year of business... we're not burned out here! OTOH, I won't say that I'll never get burned out, either. We do try to take steps to avoid it.... Monday afternoon has become my fishing/swimming/play day with my kids.
I do get very, very tired.... but only cuz we're in peak season now.
=)
Kk.
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College House Bed and Breakfast, Ashland, OH
OK, changed the poll to show a new "d" option. Unfortunately, it also erased previous answers, which were (4) for B, and one each for C and the previous D.
I am not burned out and I do not think I would ever get burned out. I did not vote that way however because I AM planning to put my inn on the market in 2 years. NOT because of burnout but because it is the only way I can be sure to sell it as a B & B. My city needs a B & B. This is the plan if both of us are still alive in 2 years.
My feet first thought is not fair to the guest who may have reservations that would not be valid if I am dead.
IF DH is not still among the breathing and the house has not sold as a B & B I am seriously considering leaving it to the City as a B & B. I do know where they can find guidance on how to term the lease agreement.... None of my kids would be happy here and all have made a decent living. This place will not make that big a difference to their financials - my last name is not Rockefeller.
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Happy in my Hills
I hearya K....
My fondest hope is that our place will sell as a B&B and not as a residence. When your Inn is a startup, it's hard to think of it ceasing to exist after you have moved on. That's why we've priced it to entice aspiring Innkeepers...no Inns in the Midwest have better revenue, location or reputation for our selling price, that I'm aware of. The interest has been about 50 - 50 so far....I have all my fingers and toes crossed.
Of course, financing will be a PITA, but I'm hoping our flexibility will help.
I'm not burned out just fed up with what this economy has done to the traveling public. It's turned everyone into coupon-clipping bargain hunters who think they should get everything for nothing.
Sweetie
I haven't seen that at all...do you think it's your particular demographic?
Sweetie
I haven't seen that at all...do you think it's your particular demographic?
Do most of your guests come from locally?
No, our guests all come from two to five hours away, quite a few from even farther (out of state), and all drive in. I've maybe had one or two people ask about a discount this year. I do have one special posted on our site, for a stay of five days or more.
No, our guests all come from two to five hours away, quite a few from even farther (out of state), and all drive in. I've maybe had one or two people ask about a discount this year. I do have one special posted on our site, for a stay of five days or more.
2-5 hours away is local. You are dealing, mainly, with people just like yourself...nice, sweet MidWesterners.
No, our guests all come from two to five hours away, quite a few from even farther (out of state), and all drive in. I've maybe had one or two people ask about a discount this year. I do have one special posted on our site, for a stay of five days or more.
2-5 hours away is local. You are dealing, mainly, with people just like yourself...nice, sweet MidWesterners.
That's mostly what we get here....
=)
Kk.
No, our guests all come from two to five hours away, quite a few from even farther (out of state), and all drive in. I've maybe had one or two people ask about a discount this year. I do have one special posted on our site, for a stay of five days or more.
2-5 hours away is local. You are dealing, mainly, with people just like yourself...nice, sweet MidWesterners.
Gotta love those Midwesteners!!!
No, our guests all come from two to five hours away, quite a few from even farther (out of state), and all drive in. I've maybe had one or two people ask about a discount this year. I do have one special posted on our site, for a stay of five days or more.
2-5 hours away is local. You are dealing, mainly, with people just like yourself...nice, sweet MidWesterners.
Gotta love those Midwesteners!!!
We'd try to love them but they won't leave home. I have a map on the wall of where our guests come from. HUGE empty space from OH west to CO. I've had more guests here from Mongolia than OK (and I'm not kidding). From Manitoba south to TX nothing. Judging strictly from my map and nothing else, the only MidWesterners who travel to here live in big cities, on rivers or in border towns with other states. And they don't like being away from home or their families.
A person from IA explained it to me once...the midwest is about family and if the whole family doesn't go on vacation together no one goes. To leave your family behind and do something without them is like some sort of crime. She also said that midwesterners think everything in the East is paved over. (She lives in VA now, she couldn't take all the 'closeness'.)
And yet they'll go to FL for the winter.
I would have to agree with that 100%. I won't go on vacation without my kids. They are a part of my family. We travel with my parents sometimes. But you're right: we won't leave home. Why leave when you live in paradise???
I would have to agree with that 100%. I won't go on vacation without my kids. They are a part of my family. We travel with my parents sometimes. But you're right: we won't leave home. Why leave when you live in paradise???
I didn't even mean children! I meant cousins and siblings. This woman said every vacation when she was a kid involved all of her aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins. And when she got older she was expected to vacation with her siblings and all their kids. She said they still call her and ask when she's moving back home. And she's been moved away for 30 years.
How funny, but totally true. My family travels in a pack quite often. Our dream is to all own houses near each other, or in a big family compound with a fence around it!
I take that as a compliment! I consider myself a 'midwesterner'. Born here, lived here for 14year, then moved away for 32 and have been back for 6. I agree, having traveled and lived elsewhere... Midwesterners are nice sweet people. But it took a while to re adjust to this life style! Feel like we have moved to a foreign country and stepped back in time 20 years!
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Sunshine
I take that as a compliment! I consider myself a 'midwesterner'. Born here, lived here for 14year, then moved away for 32 and have been back for 6. I agree, having traveled and lived elsewhere... Midwesterners are nice sweet people. But it took a while to re adjust to this life style! Feel like we have moved to a foreign country and stepped back in time 20 years!
I love the midwestern way of life. I've lived in other parts of the country, but none speak to my soul the way this area does. Amish buggy tie outs at the grocery store, farm equipment slows you down on the roads...really encourages one to SLOW DOWN and enjoy the trip...it really isn't about the destination.
I could not take the Flatland! I had to come back to my hills. In my travels I met many people FROM WV and discovered thre were 2 categories and nothing in between. There were the I would go back in a heatbeat and wish I could and the other kind were I don't care if I see that damnedgodforsakenstate again as ling as I live. (My opinion is category 2 grew up knowing they were dirt poor. We were broke but did not know it because everyone except a family down the road were in the same boat. The Cs had 15 kids and Dad was a drunk. THEY were poor to us.)
Nice people are everywhere - in every City, State, and Country. You just have to look a bit deeper in some places.
Flatland? I couldn't take it either. Obviously you've never been to our area. Extremely hilly and water water everywhere. We have three major ski resorts within half an hour of here. It ain't the mountains, but it ain't flat!
Took a walk on a country road while viviting an aunt in Clare, MI. We saw a road sign that said HILL. We walked for half an hour looking for the hill. IN WV it has to be at least a 7% grade or greater (usually 9% or more) and several fatalities (the last one being someone important) to get a road sign that even says HILL. Been to the UP, crossed the Makinaw Bridge, and other places in the Midwest. Galena, Ill has bluffs, Mississippi Palisades gets a little hilly as does southern Illinois and Indiana but most of the midwest does not get beyond "rolling hills" if even that.
I believe the exact word I used was "hilly" and I even said "it ain't the mountains, but it ain't flat". I didn't realize that everything below a 7% grade was not a hill, sorry to offend your sensibilities.
Nah, just being peckish. Could not help myself. My family still laughs about that hill sign. Seriously, my Illinois Mother was looking for the hill! THAT is probably why I even remember it.
Every place I have ever been has a beauty of its own. Some places require serious looking for it to be seen, but it is there.
Some Flatlanders transplanted here have said they feel claustophobic here because of the hills all around them. I look at them as security and safety (the I will protect you). To the Flatlander the Prairie is a vista nd wide open spaces but the hill person just sees FLAT rather than the rippling of the grain or the colors in that huge field of corn....
Clare IS flat and ugly. Most of our guests are from well South of there, which is even more flat and ugly! The ones that come to this area for the first time always comment on how hilly it is, and the great views. A matter of one's perspective, I suppose.
Some of my favorite Northern Michigan vistas:
You've got to remember you've got that Pure Michigan ad campaign going for you too.
Sweetie
I haven't seen that at all...do you think it's your particular demographic?
I think so. We are not cheap here in Charlottesville, for a stay. But we are wine country closer than the DC folks flying to California, and cheaper than DC, so we don't get the coupon clippers very much.
I try and do my best to stop this kind of thinking as well. We get calls from time to time asking for a discount or asking for a one night stay on a weekend. We poiltely tell them no, we don't give discounts unless they are military coming from or going to a war zone.
They are always suprised too. DH got a call yesterday for a one night Saturday stay. We are open that one night as we have some odd two night stays. But we are slammed with wine tours and can't physically do it and don't want to call our new housekeeper to work on July 4 when she has kids.
They are amazed that we don't want to book it. Even when we tell them we'll not be there to take care of them coming in! Not be there to turn the room! Not be there to check them in!
Riki
I don't know. I just noticed it beginning in June. There were two major factors nationally, a drop of 5 points in consumer confidence and rising gas prices.
We are certainly not a rich state and have an unemployment rate of 10%. That's when the 8 PM calls started and also the other stories posted on here about extremely early check-ins and people wanting discounts etc. We normally get guests from all over.
Another couple of statistics we all need to consider is that for the last several decades, our national savings rate was a negative. The last two quarters in a row have been over 6%. We also have had several decades of higher consumer debt loads than most other industrialized countries.
Well, guess what gets cut out of people's budget first when they start saving 6% of their income and start paying down debt? Leisure travel.
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Tim@HLB
Even with your new "D" option, I'm still none of the above. I'm not burned out, but I am getting tired and it's the beginning of our busy season. I'm stressed because I'm not only running/working our B&B, but I also have an eldery mother we moved here in assisted living that I need to spend time with and is not doing well. We are in escrow with a wonderful house we are buying for our future retirement which is more stress. We are in our 9th busy season and I can see retirement (we'll rent it until we're ready to retire) in the next few years, so we need to really start working on our B&B property to sell when the economy gets back on its feet so we can get the most from our hard work here to be able to afford retirement.
No, not burned out, but definitely trying to make this the "Year of Simple Innkeeping"
I'm an "E" or "other" option also.
We don't get enough patience testing guests or bad guests to qualify for "C" and because we're in it for the long haul, none of the other options seemed to feel right voting for them.
We love it when its going great and the house is bubbling with good energy, and we manage the rare occasions when its more of a job than the labor of love it is 95% of the time.
Another factor... it's a LONG way from here to the Northeast! We were talking about visiting Maine... we'd need two weeks to be able to drive there, visit, and drive back.
=)
Kk.
I burned out almost 2 years ago
BUt I don't regret closing in the least.
I voted "not burned out yet". We had planned on only doing this for 10 years. Well it will be ten years Oct. 15. Since our 401K became a 104K we will continue doing this as long as our health and sanity hold out
. Plus we really like living in this house and the mortgage and taxes need to be paid.
We are finding that we are no longer fanatical about filling beds. We know that our reputation has traveled and they will come. And as they say "Location, location, location". We are very fortunate in that regards.
We are taking more time for ourselves now so we don't burn out. No longer open for Christmas and Easter and will not take arrivals on Thanksgiving day. Last year we were closed for January (renovations) and half of November and all of December (recovery) and our gross intake was only $2,000 less than the year before. We are now going to close for the month of January each year. This coming Jan we are going to Florida for 3 weeks and visit all the family and friends that have wanted us to come down.
I voted "not burned out yet". We had planned on only doing this for 10 years. Well it will be ten years Oct. 15. Since our 401K became a 104K we will continue doing this as long as our health and sanity hold out
. Plus we really like living in this house and the mortgage and taxes need to be paid.
We are finding that we are no longer fanatical about filling beds. We know that our reputation has traveled and they will come. And as they say "Location, location, location". We are very fortunate in that regards.
We are taking more time for ourselves now so we don't burn out. No longer open for Christmas and Easter and will not take arrivals on Thanksgiving day. Last year we were closed for January (renovations) and half of November and all of December (recovery) and our gross intake was only $2,000 less than the year before. We are now going to close for the month of January each year. This coming Jan we are going to Florida for 3 weeks and visit all the family and friends that have wanted us to come down.
That is so smart and healthy. We are doing the same thing. We go great guns from June until the end of October and then we close down until April 15th. The reason for us is that people don't go on midweek vacations, they only come for weekend stays. That means I have to heat 10 little houses, provide cable etc, it costs money to stay open in the winter time. Even if it didn't, we need it for our sanity or what's left of it
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I think that's the hardest thing to do, especially in the beginning. Kudos to you for taking the time for yourself. In the end, spending the time with family and friends will be what was most important!
I have not read the thread- just giving a quick thought-
I wonder if this is one of those things where we would benefit by changing the lens we see ourselves with. I have seen a lot of very positive comments over the last year about innkeeping and I think they would show better from a inside looking out view.
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Aloha
Absolutely. Some of the most wonderful people I know are or have been Innkeepers (or have been my own guests here)...but as an innocent bystander reading this forum, I might never know it because some of the comments made about guests might scare me from ever trying a B&B. Anonymity aside, seeing so many harsh comments might cause me to generalize or stereotype. As an aspiring innkeeper, I might be scared to death...not realizing that the guests we complain about are a very small minority and not the norm.
Perhaps I am dim, but I have not gotten the feeling of "harsh comments" regarding guests from this Forum other than from just a very few posters.
Most of the comments are upbeat, helpful, and encouraging for Aspirings who are serious and for each other. I have had my hand held though problems and pick-me-ups ehan I was down. We are like a group of friends - that is why this Forum is so lively and another forum I stop in to once in a while is like a soap opera - so stagnent you only need to stop in onece a week or so to keep up. Miss one day here and it takes 3 to catch up.
Not to be fresh but I agree with Gilly. I am learning all about innkeeping here and part of that is allowing those that need to have a moment to have it. I was trying to suggest that a top down view of whether we are satisfied as innkeepers with a focus on burn-out is too simple for me. IMHO, it builds in a bias that may be inaccurate.
Many us bring with us previous careers that influence what we see. In my case, I would want to look at the variables create a scatterplot, and toss out the outliers, etc. etc. before I made a direct correlation between innkeeping and burn-out.
One example that has been on my mind has been the assumption that when an innkeeper decides to sell there must be a problem. You see this over and over. Almost as if a social stigma is attached to it. I bet if you asked every innkeeper if social pressure was a part of the deliberations prior to listing for sale, the answer would be strongly affirmative. In other words, we should go easy on ourselves and our fellow innkeepers. We have already made it further in our respective worlds than most anyone you'll meet.
Okay enough wonking - love you all and thanks for teaching me so much.
And selling (or closing) does not necessarily mean burn-out. I know one inn closed because of her husband's health, not because she was burned-out (she wante to keep going and she was approaching 80) and another closed because of insurance costs and another because their daughter needed their big house and they moved into the smaller carriage house. I will be selling - or at least putting mine on the market in 2 years - because my city needs a B & B and that is the only way I can attempt to keep it a B & B , sell it as one myself. I LOVE what I do! Of couse I have my bad days - we all do and this is where I can vent those bad days.
If a guest stumbles in here sobeit. We are people and this is our place. But I thought all the potential guests were busy on bandb.com........
One example that has been on my mind has been the assumption that when an innkeeper decides to sell there must be a problem. You see this over and over. Almost as if a social stigma is attached to it. I bet if you asked every innkeeper if social pressure was a part of the deliberations prior to listing for sale, the answer would be strongly affirmative. In other words, we should go easy on ourselves and our fellow innkeepers. We have already made it further in our respective worlds than most anyone you'll meet.
Okay enough wonking - love you all and thanks for teaching me so much.
I think the assumption comes from what innkeepers who are selling/have sold say about why they sold. And part of that comes from the rose colored glasses aspect of innkeeping. We answer those questions all the time when guests want to know when we vacation, can we leave to go out to dinner, what do we do when a family event comes up 'in season' and how much work really goes on behind the scenes? Not that every innkeeper who sells does so because of burnout, but a good chunk of them do.
I know a couple of innkeepers, as I'm sure everyone does, who thought this was going to be 'socializing' and then found out: A) they really didn't want to socialize 24x7 with complete strangers who they would not even have spoken to if they just ran into them; B) it's NOT all socializing because the guests are NOT here to be our best friends, they're here for their vacation; C) it can be dang hard to socialize with someone who just ruined your brand new (fill in the blank) because they behaved like your house was a frat house.
The stories we heard when we bought this place and the list of 'how to handle guests X, Y & Z, were a good indicator of why the PO's left...burnout due to thinking the guests would behave the way their friends did and having to tiptoe around certain guests' needy requirements in order to keep that business.
I do not diasgree with what you are saying here, but you start off confirming what I am trying to say as well. It is an assumption and we aren't looking at the variables. Yes. apart of it is because the job is different than anticipated, but that is a just a part. We are new innkeepers but we know a fair amount on our island and "burn out" is not a primary cause for selling or closing.
I would suggest that the issues people run into can often be traced a set of variables that they could alter and that many of the important variables that should be factored in, such as personal vacations and personal feeling about personal property are often left to wayside.
You state the guest problems as if that is how it is for everyone and it isn't. It just is not a constant fact. It is a variable and it can not be used to generalize that most people give up innkeeping because of burnout.
What I said was that I know and most everyone else does too, innkeepers who have sold because of guest reasons. And not understanding what the business really entails. I also know innkeepers who sold because they had reached a set of goals either monetary, time or other that they had set at the beginning. And innkeepers who sold because their spouse wasn't 100% on board. Or the spouse could not find employment in their field and wanted to move elsewhere. And some who traded up or down, either taking on more rooms or fewer in a new location. It runs the gamut. Some left because of health reasons or because innkeeping didn't mesh with having very busy teenagers.
I agree that as innkeepers who are still innkeeping it behooves us to not scorn innkeepers who choose to move on rather 'quickly'. 'Quickly' being an arbitrarily defined time frame.
I think what I want anyone to get out of reading these opinions is that you really have to know yourself, your spouse, your goals and what the business is that you're getting into. None of which I knew when we started.
Exactly - there are just too many things to throw out "burnout" as if it is some inevitable sad ending that will befall us all. Same with guest problems- they vary in degree, frequency, and management.
That is a really good point about knowing all that stuff. We just made an adjustment to redefine our roles and those kind of changes are what keep the waters calm.
That is a really good point about knowing all that stuff. We just made an adjustment to redefine our roles and those kind of changes are what keep the waters calm.
And how we have done that is the person who does the job best does the job. And the person who hates the job least does the job. But the first 6 months we were butting heads all the time trying to define who did what best!