Future Inn Keeper Seminar

[Biekervi]

I’m curious if anyone has experience with this company and their seminar program.

Starting a Bed & Breakfast - A Seminar for Future Innkeepers

Learn the 'inns & outs' of starting a bed and breakfast, opening a bed and breakfast with a seminar presented by The B&B Team.

bbteam.com

The price seems pretty reasonable. We are still 3-5 years away from starting our B&B, but we are trying to do as much preliminary research that we can.
Thanks for any input you may have.

 

[GoodScout]

I know the folks who run this brokerage and have attended several of their presentations at innkeeper seminars. They're very knowledgeable and well-connected in the industry. As long as you go into these new innkeeper seminars understanding that one of their goals is to have you buy one of their listings, you have the perspective needed to get the most out of it.
When I was in your shoes 10 years ago and just starting my search, I operated under this principle: You never make bad decisions by knowing too much.

 

[Morticia]

They were just purchased by another team of inn brokers who also do classes. A suggestion—see if you can find a class in the area you want to live. People who host those classes know more about the areas they serve. So, if you want to live in Texas, go to a class in Texas given by people who operate in Texas. The basics are the same everywhere, but the details are also what you need to know.

We were looking in New England so we went to a class in Vermont. Then we signed up for newsletters (which I just unearthed, 18 years later!) and I joined a forum like this one to ask questions. Oddly enough, some of my questions were answered by someone who was a competitor of the place we bought. He was kind and helpful to us and we had a chuckle about his ‘advance help.’

The class we went to was given by people who owned the b&b and they did it for extra money in the off season. We got a lot of good advice and no sales pitch. (I also just unearthed the binder full of materials we got at the class.)

Like GS said there’s really not ‘too much’ info, unless you stall your forward progress by thinking you have to know everything before you open.

 

[gillumhouse]

They are reputable. As pointed out already, they are hoping to sell you one of their listings. Their listings are not small B & Bs - their response to my B & B would be - go away, kid, you bother me. I also agree with, Morticia. Go to a class in the State you are thinking of moving to - that is the rules, regulations, and laws you will have to operate under. Each State has its own, and in some places, each county or parish.

 

[Morticia]

I was just thinking—it was 17 years ago this week we went to that innkeeping class! Time flies!

 

[alias annie]

We went to their class and were very happy about attending... that was 14 years ago.

 

[FHI2426]

They do a good job, full disclosure, one of the people in the original team represented us on our purchase 3 years ago, and did a good job with checklists and things to know. We were "optimistically naive" and never took a class but with good advice from B&B, our marketing company and others we were able to quickly ramp up... As someone above said the original two principals just retired but they have many capable people...

The only knock I have on them is that all of them have not owned an inn/B&B for 8-10 years, so their frame of reference for marketing, OTA's, Air and post Covid operations, they cant fully relate...