Other than carefully spent money on a few items and being on all the OTAs (annoying or not). It offends people, but the world of B&Bs is under threat. Major cities are hemorrhaging B&Bs; I believe I read the last one closed in Raleigh recently, due to AirBnB and regulatory responses to them. NYC B&Bs are also disappearing.
I would listen very carefully to what Happykeeper has said in the past. I think HK gets it more than most. In many areas, not good enough any more to have a room. I am not targeting a B&B - it is half of a tiny destination spa - with classes, spa services and other things. I have kept very mum, but I know that a B&B component is important, but not by itself.
The B&B I looked at 60 miles north has been around over 20 years - I discussed it a couple weeks ago. Finally received a tax statement (2012). 3 rooms - she had $6700 in revenue for the year and lost over $2000 in total. Two other B&Bs I looked at trying to sell - about $20-25,000 revenue each. And both fairly well known..
the revenue is only half the story. how has the place been run?
our first year, we did nearly twice the revenue of the PO.
Our next door neighbor approached us to let us know they were putting up a fence so they wouldn't have to look at our driveway. His words, "She didn't have much traffic. It's clear you intend to manage it like a business." Yep.
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We are looking at several improvements for the fall that can't be done when we have guests in the house. We're getting our repeats. Getting good reviews. Guests we're getting are happy with their stay. 2 new guests in the past month have already come back, one couple has been back twice.
We've had a travel writer in who gave us good marks in the article.
We're just in a slump right now.
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I know that many businesses generally don't want to to reveal much, but how is everybody else in town doing? Is visitation overall up, down, or steady?
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Based on our group calendar for the past few weeks and into the next few weeks they are holding steady or improving. We are languishing in the horse latitudes.
Several are complaining of the workload.
You know how it is - we have 7 more weeks to make the money that keeps us warm in the winter. Plus funds the projects we need to undertake to stay current.
I think I'm really bummed we are dead empty for our big foliage weekend. We've had every reservation for that weekend cancel. It's a stark hole in the calendar. Where we are usually 100% occ for those weeks in and around, now there's a huge gap.
Altho, reservations are very last minute this year.
We've been encouraging reservations into next year, especially for graduation.
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