Burnout is something that needs to be dealt with from day one. It is important to plan activities outside of the B&B that you enjoy. For me it was doing yoga or getting a massage. For my husband, it was working out with a trainer who had been a guest but turned into a personal friend. For some, it is planning a date day/night and going out for a few hours even if it is for a walk. The trick is not taking the phone with you while you are on your date.
We also knew that we needed to get away on vacation from the B&B. We put the cost of hiring an innsitter into our yearly business plan. You need to get away and recharge your batteries so that you can come back refreshed.
For those of you with small inns, yes, it might just be easier to close. However, please have some sort of back-up plan for someone else to at least answer your phones and e-mails. It is not a vacation if you still are doing those two things.
For those of you with larger inns, consider hiring an innsitter when your Bed and Breakfast
is busy, not when your inn is quiet. It is more cost effective to hire them when you have the greatest revenue coming in. Why have them there when the inn is quiet with just a few guests. Give them a workout - be full. I know when we owned our 8 room inn, a had a large 6 figure mortgage to pay every month. I just couldn't close down for a week or two.
A professional interim innkeeper will keep your guests happy, answer those phones and make sure your inn continues to operate in the manner you like it to. No, they will not do everything thing exactly the same as you do. But, if they are professional innkeepers they know how to be flexible and do things your way. After all, they want your guests to return to your business.
It is never going to be the same having innsitters as having you there in person. However, if you want to last in this business, you do need to take time for yourselves.
Finally, if there are chores that you really hate doing or don't have enough time to do, consider hiring someone to take over that resonsibility. I love to garden. However, in the middle of the summer I didn't have time to tend the very large organic garden we had at the inn. I was too busy helping inside the inn.
What I did was go to our local work force center and advertise (for free) for teenagers (over 14 years of age) to come and work for us during the summer. They worked 4 hours a day with a maximum of 15 -20 hours per week. I paid them minimum wage, they got to set their own hours and listen to their music (via earphones). They were outside getting a tan and getting paid. They loved getting the money, their parents loved them being busy, and I loved having my garden tended.
Some of these teenagers came back year after year to either work in the garden or move into the house as housekeepers. I had one girl who worked for us for 10 years. She started at age 14 the first summer we were there pulling weeds in our garden. When we sold the inn, she was one of our assistant innkeeper. We saw her graduate high school, get married, and graduate college. She is now working on her masters degree. She was a great asset to our B&B and we got help so that we did not burn out.
Sorry I got so long winded. I tend to get wound up on the subject of burnout.
Lynda.