I don't want the link to expire so I am posting the article here as well:
The ABCs of B&Bs[/h1]Starting a bed and breakfast can be a daunting endeavor[/h2]
BY ERIC RUTH • THE NEWS JOURNAL • OCTOBER 12, 2009
It sounds like the perfect dream -- buy a pretty old house, primp it up with some pretty touches, and throw the doors open for the hordes of paying guests.
Then, reality rears its unpretty head -- running a bed and breakfast is actually a harder job than the jobs you were trying to escape from.
Just ask Don and Amy Eschenbrenner. It's been over a year since the couple took the leap toward their long-held aspirations, buying a centuries-old home on the outskirts of Newark and embarking on the fix-up project of a lifetime, even as they continued to work full time.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
The "Blue Hen Bed and Breakfast" grand opening has been scheduled and rescheduled. Their lives have become a whirl of planning dilemmas, permitting hurdles and Hamburger Helper dinners.
Then, Wednesday morning, the better part of a 100-foot tree fell on their fence.
"We wanted something with history and charm," Amy said, not quite anticipating creaky 300-year-old trees.
She and Don are like a lot of hard-working couples in this time of vanishing careers and uncertain futures. Dreams of becoming stay-at-home innkeepers fuel many fantasies, and also prove to be far more elusive than even die-hard realists imagine, experts say.
Even with eyes wide open and
401(k)s tapped, the Eschenbrenners are a bit dizzy over the ever evolving challenges. For the past year and a half, they have inched through the slow process of burnishing the grand old brick home, which sits on an regally wooded two-acre lot just east of the Maryland line on Nottingham Road.
For months, they carried two mortgages until they could sell their last house. Then, Amy was laid off. Then she found work. Then, Don's hours were cut back. Then he got a new job.
In recent weeks, momentum seems regained. A near fatal ruling from the Fire Marshal's
Office on a $50,000 sprinkler system has been overturned, the perfect drapes have been found for the colonial-style living room, an extra parking space has been added, and the new puppy's leaping-on-strangers antics have been partly tamed.
But then, there's still that tree, wind-strewn across the yard.
""We have a ways to go," Amy said, but the journey has been buoyed by supportive family and the couple's sense of adventure.
The biggest challenges are yet to come, bed-and-breakfast pros say. "What most people don't realize is how much time it takes," said Marti Mayne, spokeswoman for BedandBreakfast .com. "Until you get into it, you don't know how all-encompassing it is."
Successful innkeepers heed some important tips, she said. "Innkeeping
schools" offered by consultants are a big help. So is spending a day with an experienced innkeeper, and making sure the "breakfast" is just as good as the bed. "Since breakfast is 50 percent of the name ... you can't diminish the importance of great food," she said.
Savvy marketing is often the make-or-break element of successful home-style inns, she said. "I tell innkeepers the most important thing you must have in your marketing toolbox is good photography," she said. "You can build it, but they will not come if you do not have decent photographs."
Then, there's also the "small stuff" to
learn. Credit-card processing. Telephone etiquette. E-mail etiquette. These days, even "eco-hospitality" is a concern.
The Eschenbrenners already have some built-in advantages, B&B consultants said. The original section of the house was built in 1692, the remainder in 1840, giving it the kind of quaint and rustic aspect that gets travelers drooling, experts say. The home's proximity to the University of Delaware also brings the potential of a ready-made clientele -- visiting professors, relatives in town for graduation, fretful
parents popping in for a quick check.
And luckily, the previous owner kept the old beauty updated and well-maintained.
"We were so excited to see this house, but we were so scared it was going to be bad," Amy said. "But it wasn't."
At the same time, it's clear that consumers have cut back on travel amid the recession. Hotel revenue per room fell 18.7 percent in the first half of the year from the year-earlier period, according to Smith Travel Research. Average U.S. daily hotel rates fell 8.7 percent to $98.66 in the first half of the year from a year earlier, while occupancy tumbled 11 percent to 54.6 percent, the company said.
The Eschenbrenners have hedged against
expenses by tapping friends and co-workers for help with projects, but the bills keep coming. About $3,500 a year for insurance. A whopping $1,500 for a parking space. Anywhere between $6,000 and $8,000 for a smoke alarm system. They figure it will cost them an extra $400 a month for miscellaneous expenses, meaning they have to rent two bedrooms at least one weekend every month to break even.
"Just decorating alone is a huge expense," Don said.
As the project gets closer to becoming reality, there are some hopeful signs on the horizon. The bellwether of the lodging industry -- the U.S. Hotel Industry Leading indicator -- went up in August for the fourth straight month, meaning the industry expects to see significant improvement in the next four to five months.
For the Eschenbrenners, good news like that is something they never have enough of these days.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20091012/BUSINESS/910120308.