Interim Innkeepers

[wendydk]

I am also a small inn and when we travel - we close. I feel the personal relationship between innkeeper and guest is too precious to leave to someone else because no matter what their credentials, they are NOT us. I know bigger inns can't afford to close like we do, and I believe they will be your target audience. However - there are a lot of retired innkeepers out there doing what you are thinking of doing, and they have experience. It would seem they would make it difficult to break into this market with no experience running an inn, and I would not find it useful to me that you had taken a class or attended a seminar on innsitting or interim innkeeping, as every inn is very, very different. As different as all the innkeepers using this forum, or more so..

chihauhaua person,
I do hope to hear ONLY from larger Inns. It seems like you all had to start somewhere unless you grew up in a B & B right? Just looking for advice. By the way, my husband has run an Inn. It's just been a while and we are looking at our options and doing research. Where does one start? That's all I'm looking for at this point...not really for the small Innkeeper (or retired ones) responses. Thanks for you insight.
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SOrry but you asked for responses and you are getting them. You didn't preface it that you only wanted to hear from large inns or whatever.
We are only trying to be helpful by each of us sharing our own personal opinions and ideas. What's wrong with an active retired innkeeper sharing her expertise...gheez! Happy New Year to you too.
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Sorry catlady, I am asking for responses for people who have owned and STILL operate Inns for a longer length of time than 6 or 7 years..you know...real veterans of the business. A former Innkeeper for a small Inn personally doesn't have the expertise to discourage me! The way your first post sounds you make it sound like you are still in the business. I think that you are not very honest and that gives you no credibility in my honest opinion. I asked for responses for help.....not post that would discourage me or anyone else from trying to get more information. I've read some of your post to other people and you just don't sound like someone who likes to help people. There's no need for yelling

. I will TAKE information from people who have run Inns for a LONG time and still are running Inns. That's what wrong with you posting!!!! I don't find you credible at all and I will LEAVE your dishonest advise alone.
But thanks anyway for the New Year wishes...sending best wishes to you too.

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Sorry catlady, I am asking for responses for people who have owned and STILL operate Inns for a longer length of time than 6 or 7 years..you know...real veterans of the business. A former Innkeeper for a small Inn personally doesn't have the expertise to discourage me! The way your first post sounds you make it sound like you are still in the business. I think that you are not very honest and that gives you no credibility in my honest opinion. I asked for responses for help.....not post that would discourage me or anyone else from trying to get more information. I've read some of your post to other people and you just don't sound like someone who likes to help people. There's no need for yelling

. I will TAKE information from people who have run Inns for a LONG time and still are running Inns. That's what wrong with you posting!!!! I don't find you credible at all and I will LEAVE your dishonest advise alone.
But thanks anyway for the New Year wishes...sending best wishes to you too.

In this and the previous exchanges, you are the only one yelling (using all caps).
Catlady neglected to mention she was retired, you neglected to mention your husband worked in a B&B for a year ... let it go. As an official warning if you persist with calling her dishonest, you will find yourself unable to access this forum in the future.
The average career span for an innkeeper is 7 years....so if you are looking for responses from people in it for longer than that, you are looking for those that are above average and excluding feedback from more than half of your potential clients.
If you are looking for information from only those who will tell you what you want to hear, you are in the wrong place.
As the current owner and operator of a B&B with only three rooms, I would not hire an innsitter to cover while I was on vacation. In the event of an emergency (death in the family or something big like that) I might use an innsitter.
I would look for someone who had their own at one point in time. You pointed out that we weren't born into innkeeping. That is true. To my knowledge none of us were born into it, but most of use started with own places and created them while we put in all the hard work and all the risk. I'd be looking for someone that truly understood that... someone that had lived it successfully. Trusting an innsitter means not only trusting them with my home, but trusting them with my business and all the hard work (well most of it anyway) that I've put into it.
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As the current owner and operator of a B&B with only three rooms, I would not hire an innsitter to cover while I was on vacation. In the event of an emergency (death in the family or something big like that) I might use an innsitter.

Ditto Swirt. I will add (after more thought) that the type of Inn that Lisa appears to be talking about normally has a number of employees, including an assistant innkeeper and maybe even some front desk people. Thus, this type of Inn might be likely to hire an interim innkeeper between permanent hires, but not likely an innsitter, as the employees would handle things in the absence of the 'keepers/owners.

 

[lspiegel]

We use Innsitters often. We have only two rooms, but also a Borzoi hound that we don't like to kennel unless we have to. We also run wine tours and use them to "babysit" the inn while we are still out touring to greet and check in our guests and answer questions until we get back. Sometimes while we are out touring they also flip rooms for check ins that day.
I would find out what the Insurance Companies want you to have - ours is Markel - and get that. I think you'll have to register your business and get some kind of insurance. Our innsitters are out of Staunton and are even used by innkeepers who are not going anywhere but just need a break - they have run inns while the owners were there!
There are many of us out here that could not survive without you!
Edited to add: Our experience is great because we are having the luxury of using our innsitters for spans of 2 - 5 hours at a time, which gives them time to learn our inn, and us time to check them out. This kind of offering of service (starting wtih small pieces of time) may get you into some local inns since they can get to know you. I also have been making a book for my innsitters with photos of where things are, what our beds look like made and such so they don't have to wonder and hunt.
Another thing is to read the forums and read the problems we encounter and how everyone advised handling it. This will give you the questions to ask your inn, "if such and such happens, what is your policy?"
As far as bookings, I don't know if I am ready to hand that over. I'd probably handle that from wherever we are. The innkeeper could take phone requests and email them to me if calls came by phone.
And as far as guests arriving to find out that we are not here but the innsitter, I'd have the innsitter respond to questions and bookings along with me via email so the guest will know I'm not going to be there, but also feel like they already know my innsitters when they come.
But like I said, I have the wonderful fortune of having a very personable couple available to me only 45 minutes away!!
RIki.

Thank you Riki for taking time out to respond to my post. I know you guys must be busy in Wine Country. My husband and I plan on visiting there some time in the future. After my day on the forum yesterday, I talked to my husband about all the responses that I received and posted. My husband managed a staff at an Inn (over 10 rooms) even though it was called a B & B. He knows first hand how very difficult it is to run any kind of hospitality unit especially if it's not owned by a corporation. I know how hard it must be for you all. I have a lot of respect for that. It sounds like you got a good thing going with having help just 45 minutes away! As I said in one of my postings, this idea is at it's inital conception. I wanted to find out what kind of market there was out there for interim innkeepers before we spent a lot of moneytaking classes (there are so many!) and time volunteering. Our plans are far from being implemented. We, too , have dogs and a cat and can't really travel right now (as far as making a living interim innkeeping) but may take some time volunteering in our area on occasion. Maybe we will be lucky and become valuable to someone like yourself that just needs a break sometime. Thank you again for your very nice post and your time. Have a great day!

 

[lspiegel]

I am not an innkeeper at a large inn, but I am a "real innkeeper" and that's what you asked for. I hope this info is useful to you.
While coming into this profession with NO experience whatsoever, I did watch friends and family run their inns up close and personal for a few years before jumping into it ourselves. We try to run the kind of inn WE like to stay at in order to attract people like us. So far it has worked well, with the usual bumps and learning curves you would expect with any new profession.
My friends and family that have had inns, (all bigger than mine), have also used innsitters and interim innkeepers. Their biggest beef with sitters is the inability to completey grasp the reservation systems. They each say that they wind up with bookings they don't know about and double bookings. We also had some experienced retired innkeepers that joined our organization, were hired by some inns, and while they worked well at one or two, they were disasterous to others, drinking heavily, stealing food and offending guests. OUCH! They came with recommendations.
If this is what you really want to do, go for it and learn as much as you can, where ever you can, but be sure to get the oppinions from innkeepers to see if they would even use your services. Their may not be enough inns out there to work with..

They each say that they wind up with bookings they don't know about and double bookings. We also had some experienced retired innkeepers that joined our organization, were hired by some inns, and while they worked well at one or two, they were disasterous to others, drinking heavily, stealing food and offending guests. OUCH!

OUCH is right!!! That's just about the worst nightmare one could imagine with an innsitter!
The thing about references is they're all relative. New innsitters who've been to a class usually come with references: 1 from the teacher of the class and 1 from an inn they interned at. And by interning, they usually mean working a few hours over 1 or 2 days. Not really enough to know about problems like the ones you're describing which just sound absolutely dreadful in every way.
So when hiring certified innsitters, I think it's always a good idea to know whether those references were from real innsitting work, ie. they were left in-charge of an actual inn for more than 1 day, or from a few hours of interning related to a certification class. In my book, there's a very, very big difference but it's not always easy to see that difference clearly from the references given.
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I have learned a lot today from those of you who took the time to guide me in a caring manner. This is obviously just a "starting off research" kind of thing for us, but if my husband and I do consider doing this in the future (actually in the WAY DISTANT future), I think we will take lots of courses, visit lots of Inns, volunteer LOTS and LOTS of free time to Inns during their peak seasons for free (just to clarify...Inns that do really need free help. We don't want to be a hinderance) and would use those Inns as references. Heck, we may just go into volunteering for a few years anyway!!!! Great way to meet nice people and travel! Thanks all!
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In what part of the country are you? I am an Inn-sitter and am having to turn down jobs (which I hate to do)! If you want to start sooner rather than later let me know and I may be able to hook you up.
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First of all thank you for your gracious and thoughtful reply and I don't mean to be wierd but>>>>
Are you serious? Have you read my post and replies today? I'm practically getting banished from the Innkeepers Association just for asking how to get in? I'm not going to say what part of the country because I think there's a bounty for my head, but if you email me and tell me where you are and give me some hints, I would love to hear from you! Thanks!
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I'm not going to say what part of the country because I think there's a bounty for my head,

Yeah, that's the local yokel coming out...
I hope with all the extensive reading you've already done here that you get that we're not an 'Innkeepers' Association' just a bunch of 'innkeepers' who hang out and try to problem-solve.
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Yup - a bunch of innkeepers with big opinions, egos, ideas, burnout, enthusiasm, enlightenment, bravado, angst, attitude, and tired old asses...do I need to go on? (Personally, I've missed you all in the last month or two. Been busy writting.)
Don't let the Cat scratch fever scare you off, lspiegle. This is a well worthwhile place to hang out. Cat Lady has a quality in her comments that can leave one feeling a bit low or offended, but there is a lot of good there too.
Basically, take what feeds you and leave the rest behind.
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I love you chihuahua lady!
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FYI. I flagged your message as OFFENSIVE which is why it disappeared. I find that you have taken just about everything I have said out of context. If you find my answers offensive then so be it. They were not meant to be and that is all I have to say on this situation.
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Catlady,
Why can't we all just get along? The main thing I found offensive was your capital letters "TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT" and to add insult to injury, you deleted it so none of the other forum could see the claws. I didn't realized that this was a place for retired Innkeepers as well. Your other post to other people sounded like you were in the business. By the way, hope your shoulder is feeling better! I just wanted some insight on how interim innkeepers could qualify to help out. Once again, I guess I should have been more specific and added "current innkeepers" but I was wrong in assuming. Best of Luck to you in retirement!

 

[JBloggs]

This forum is not restricted to innkeepers only - we have retired innkeepers, current innkeepers with anywhere from a single room to dozens, aspiring innkeepers, innkeepers who are between inns, innsitters and guests. You think this is a great site - it is because of the diversity of experiences of those who take the time to answer questions that may have been asked dozens of other times before that it is good. I learn from many posters on this board who have very different perspectives and backgrounds than I do - too bad that doesn't appeal to you. Coming out with your guns blazing at someone who has every right to be here as you do, and calling them dishonest, isn't really a great way to encourage others to interact with you.
If you are only interested in hearing from posters with a specific set of experiences, you would do better to spell that out ahead of time. For example, what do you mean by large inns? More than 6 rooms, more than 20 rooms, more than 40 rooms? Then - those of us who don't met your very specific criteria won't waste our time giving advice to someone who does not want to hear it. If you're lucky, someone who does meet your requirements will reply..

[FONT= &quot]You are absolutely right. I should have been more specific in my request. My only request being…”If you do need a vacation, what do you look for in an interim Innkeeper, where do you look for them and what are your requirements? To quote exactly…“[/FONT]Is there a big demand for this service for you guys? If so, how do you go about finding the right people to run your place so you can get away? What kind of qualifications, credentials, and certifications (?) do you require? "[FONT= &quot] [/FONT]I never asked for career advice….just a “heads up” on where to go for research. You are also absolutely right..Coming out with my "guns blazing" isn't a good way to win friends and influence people. I apologized “Please forgive me if I sound rude, Once again, I don't mean to be offensive, just looking for someone who has experience with this kind of service” [FONT= &quot]on my later post for sounding rude and offensive. Of course everyone has a right to their opinion and I appreciate them taking the time to reply. My original post was from the heart and I was very excited to have found this forum. I just didn't expect to get gunned down right away by someone who isn't even running an Inn by telling me they would never let me learn from them.

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[FONT= &quot]We have a regular "innsitter" here so hopefully she will chime in soon. From my perspective, we only have a small place, so we just closed down when we took vacations. No money for innsitters. I have 3 good friends who do innsit. One barely makes a living at it and the other 2 just dabble as they don't have much business. Lots of variables. [/FONT]
[FONT= &quot]On a more personal note, if you have never run a B & B, then I would be leary about hiring you as an innsitter. I would not be paying you to train to be an innkeeper with my guests in my house. Yes you have some hospitality experience, but to me, it is just not the same thing.[/FONT]
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[FONT= &quot]The "retired" poster, as in other emails, acts as if she is still in the business (but she's NOT therefore that is dishonest to me. What else would that be?) and she gives off negative vibes to myself and people like me. Believe me, I've read her post - and you're right, negative people don't appeal to me. In addition to her post, I NEVER asked in my original request that I be paid to train. I don’t know where that came from! She also discreetly deleted part of her post where she told me to “TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT!” [/FONT]What a doll!
[FONT= &quot]In all honesty, I should have emailed her instead of posting on this forum. As for "blue inn" person (who also took exception to my post).

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[FONT= &quot]"I would appreciate any an all suggestions and comments from you guys."[/FONT][FONT= &quot][/FONT]
[FONT= &quot]So you say.....I have nearly 25 years in the hospitality business...18 of it in larger hotels and the rest running my own small Inn. I have also taught hospitality management courses at the local community college. I pride myself in having a hospitable heart, and recognize it in others when I see or hear it. While your husband may have the background and experience in dealing with difficult or different people, I don't see it or hear it in your responses.
I don't think this business is for you, and while your husband might enjoy it, you would not. Seek another career path and be happier.
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[FONT= &quot]I appreciate and admire the fact that you have much knowledge in the hospitality business, but you really didn't read my post very closely either. I never said my husband ran larger hotels..just hotels...and I never said we owned a B & B..just that he ran one. I'm sorry you got the wrong impression of me and I deserve it AND take responsibility! However, you don't know me and what a good person I am and what awesome customer service that I have given to many people (maybe even you!) over the years in my current position. Obviously, you could SEE my frustration in my replies, but you’ve never talked to me in person or on the phone so how can you judge me as not being hospitable? That’s unfair but I probably deserved it on some level. But with that said, I still have a hard time accepting advice that clearly didn't even answer my question to begin with from people who clearly had no desire to be helpful to me...only to discourage me from people who didn’t take the time to read my request carefully before replying in a thoughtful and helpful manner. Once again...to all posters who took exception and may continue to take exception, I apologize for being rude. [/FONT]
[FONT= &quot]As far as the others[/FONT] go that gave me really great advice, from the heart, offered to let me volunteer, pointed me in the right directions according to my request and my minimal knowledge in this area WITHOUT taking exception or judging me from just a few post...
[FONT= &quot]KUDOS TO YOU!!!!! You are the people that I will look up to and admire and probably visit your inn (will actually pay too!) and send my friends and family your way. Best of luck to all of you![/FONT]
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So just a little warning on who is blazing guns here. You do not know who is on this forum. If you ask a question and people answer to their knowledge and experience, I would think that would be fantastic for you! Why not wait til you have a collection of answers and read through them all and make your assessment OFF FORUM before knocking them back one by one?
I am sure this one will be knocked back too. Thanks for sharing your name with us, PAII, Bedandbreakfast.com and all the association members on the forum for future ref. (ie do not hire this person)

 

[user 26]

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EDIT: now that i have read the whole thread, i regret my comment above.
catlady was being helpful, why insult her and question her honesty? that is wrong and mean spirited. it makes me question your motivation.
now i need to apologize to catlady
note to self: never comment in a thread without reading the whole thing

 

[lspiegel]

* * * *
EDIT: now that i have read the whole thread, i regret my comment above.
catlady was being helpful, why insult her and question her honesty? that is wrong and mean spirited. it makes me question your motivation.
now i need to apologize to catlady
note to self: never comment in a thread without reading the whole thing.