Now let’s take a drive down the coast-line and get a look at the Shelburne Inn. Seaview, a town, where the ocean is gently rolling only about 4 blocks from the Inn nestled beautifully among the houses on Main Street. A very convenient location! I loved those Morning strolls, white sand under my feet, and the horizon as far as my eyes could reach; proximity to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, the miles of bicycle trails along the ocean, and walking on the Marsh, wild birds, creatures that live there leaving their foot-prints.

The Inn and restaurant are a great place to return to. English Stain-glass windows in the dining rooms, the well appointed bar with the out-door patio to enjoy a lite lunch or sit to enjoy the well kept gardens as you sip on a glass of wine!  The Inn has charm, warmth and is filled with gracious hospitality! Where else would you get fresh caught fish for breakfast, by the owner or his best friend? Here is that website: www.theshelburneinn.com

Both of these properties offer a great business opportunity, as well as a lifestyle that is quite attractive! Let us hear from you, Heide  www.innpartners.com

Well, I actually did that once before 6 A.M. with Deener Matthews, owner of the Swag Country Inn in NC.  I have never forgotten that morning walk! Those memories are what make a guest’s experience at your Inn a lasting experience? Offering something different and unique!  Do you know the art galleries in your area, the sculptors that have their studios tucked away in some obscure location?  The potters rambling old shack, hosting their most creatively crafted ware, and their son’s creation of amazing marbles and glass bugs!

Our guests loved to visit these strange places, sometimes afraid of the undisciplined surroundings, choosing not to leave the security of their vastly expensive automobile!

What about the details that enhance their visit to your area, what about picking apples, visiting local organic farms?

Having little sample maps available at arrival, even more up-to-date, having them connect to your local running/walking maps www.mapmyrun.com, or have you seen the latest gadget available for your guests and in their room at arrival http://www.innapplications.com/demos.html, from Inn Concierge? I like to keep things simple, and your guest wants you to make it simple for them as well! The motto of good hospitality has not changed, hospitality is still that personal touch, but behind that front today’s Inn-keeper knows how to connect to the cutting edge! My best to all of you; the black fly’s are out, and unless the wind is blowing my walks in the woods are pesky! Heide

Bill and I have not always worked together, giving my training in psychology and having worked in that field for at least 30+ years, financials, establishing values for Inn properties, don’t really excite me!  I am very keen on that you have the right personalities, such as gracious hospitality instincts, generosity of spirit, because these qualities will make the best Innkeepers! As prospective buyers’, lookers and dreamers, often you find an Inn, that is in an area you genuinely can be an Ambassador for, that is the right size and you really can imagine to live there and be successful, but financially what if it doesn’t work! Not an easy task to help you find the right Inn in the right location at the right price! Many of you seekers have notions…and why not?

And what matches can there be made for the existing Innkeeper who has decided for one personal reason of one or another to leave this industry? Innkeepers, successful at their Inns, their egos fully emerged in the operation, seek someone who will take their Inn further, but embrace their ideals, their vision and their legacy! Ideally, we will find that person or couple, but it might take a while.

Bill, with his background of teaching South-East Asian History at Yale and other fine Universities loves financials! (I guess, 8 years at Yale and learning 2 languages: Indonesian and Dutch, dealing with financials seems a cinch!)

I am really proud of my spouse, thinking carefully of what you have to invest, even stretching what you might have, exploring in what investment category you might explore to borrow on these. But you have to have the cash, for the down payment… to do the changes that you might deem necessary to make the Inn yours, and to build that occupancy!  That cash needs to be in your pocket for you to succeed in this endeavor, and trust me Bill will know if it can be done or not!

So, what about our joined effort? Does it not reek of match making? Well, that is what we decided, it is: where our skills blend, where we best complement each other, while each enjoying what we contribute to your search for you to find your perfect Inn!  Best wishes! Heide

I believe in the healing powers of having a dog!  A big dog!  One that forces you to take a walk, if it rains, sleets, in snow and ice and then there are lots of sunny days as well.

Chocolat, my Weimaraner, has been my companion for almost 5 years.  In April we will celebrate that special day!  That daily 30-40 minute walk in our woods, allows me to be alone and to compile my thoughts for the day.  It forces me out of the house, despite pending issues and attend to her needs.  (She sits the rest of the day mostly on the couch in our office.)

I know in the morning as Innkeepers you need to make/serve breakfast.  You need to supervise or clean rooms, you need to go shopping, you are very busy, you’re too stressed!

So, get up earlier, take a nap, learn to take that dog-walk in the early afternoon.  The reward is this: there is no one as loyal, or as faithful, as unconditional in love with you, as a dog that you take care of.

She has taught me that I need that discipline, that I need to spend some time each day alone.  When I take care of her I am taking care of myself.   Having just had rotator cuff surgery, ski-pole in left hand, maybe I see you out there walking up that slope on my path through the woods.  Chocolat might bark, but she has never bitten anyone!

Heide

Others were more mundane, but cited several generic activities, such as hiking, skiing, cultural events, educational institutions (?), etc.  All these activities are widely established, and include important assets in building packages and events that will entice the Inn guest to choose your message over others available.

Location has another more profound impact on Inn and Bed and Breakfast businesses.  It is critical that the location of the Inn be in an area that is already a recognized leisure travel destination.  No matter how good your marketing is, you do not have the resources, financial or otherwise, to market both an area and an Inn.

Your core business should be to guests who have already chosen a destination and are seeking a facility within that defined area that meets their needs.  These are not the only guests you will have but they will be your core business around which you will build your success.

I often say you need others to do a large part of your marketing for you.  Without that support the mountain of success is too steep, even if the view at the top is spectacular.

For many years we have preached that an Inn or Bed and Breakfast with fewer than eight rooms was not a viable entity.  And from a strictly business measurement, this was and is true.  However, today most B & B’s have six or fewer rooms.  The turning point for me was information from the PAII  (Professional Association of Innkeepers International) Industry Study.  Similar numbers from the 2006 and 2008 studies showed that over 80% of Inns with five rooms or less did not view their B & B as their primary source of income.  In recent cases, this meant that one of a couple held a job outside the B & B.  The owners of B & B’s this size did not usually make a clear distinction between home and B & B.

In other words, they saw most expenses as being related to their home.  Whether they operated as a B & B or not, they would have real estate taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, etc.  Since typically staff is minimal to non-existent, the expenses unique to B & B operation are minimal.  When you add some expenses to the business the tax benefits add to the equation.

Of course all is not champagne and roses (except of course for the guests),  the business ties you down; the working partner returns from work to … work!  There are all those guests to put up with. 

Finally when it comes time to sell, the real estate value usually trumps what business value can be eked out of numbers that are not meaningful to a buyer.  In other words, the hard work of building some business that worked for the owner does not work for a new situation.  The result is that there is no final reward for the business effort, but in some cases renovations to enhance the business can have a negative effect on the saleability and value of the property.

That being said, I have come to recognize the validity of the smaller B & B as a lifestyle as long as the owners recognize the business limitations.

Really, me? Foliage is now almost behind us; how well did you survive this season? Each step that I take, as I walk through our woods, the leaves rustle under my boots, they are brown and wet! Yes, for the last 3 weeks I have had to wear my boots on my trail; it is wet everywhere! The guy that cuts our lawn gets stuck on the far side of the lawn, in mud! Vermonters support their towns, in a remarkable effort to rebuild and Innkeeper’s with every cheer and strength left in them, welcomed those who came to see the leaves! Many stayed in their favorite Inns, ate those local peaches, blueberries and apples, anyway! Inns I spoke with had a great foliage…are exhausted and tired now, ready for a jaunt to the Bahamas or some other relaxing place.

But, as always I try to challenge you about your Inn’s milieu, your personal focus, your attention of what you are passionate about?  We said this 31 years ago in our seminars: “look in the mirror and that is your guest”. What, a German Immigrant?  I am still saying it, but my audience is younger and hip and at the cutting edge “techies”! Are they your guests? I bet they are! If you bought your Inn 10 years ago and you have not up-graded each room, you got a problem. Don’t tell me that your guests don’t want flat-screen TVs, or connection to the internet? And that they love all the trinkets that you so painstakingly collected and poised like trophies on each flat surface. They need the night table free for their stuff: their I-pod, their glasses, their snacks or glass of wine.

Who wants to free the bed of its 10 pillows? They used to make a statement; today they are considered an inconvenience!

Well, that is enough! What has not changed? It is your commitment to service, your warm and welcoming touch!

So look in that mirror and remember time has passed, material things have changed, décor is more simple, cleanliness, and fine linens are still part of the elegant experience the guests expects and that they gladly pay for. There is nothing that replaces your gracious hospitality: as the new inn-goer, that young couple enters your doorway and your warm welcome greets them and smells of freshly baked cookies wafts into their nostrils. Think about it, how has your Inn changed?

Have a great few weeks to unwind! Heide

You may worry about the national economy, but our little Inn and Bed & Breakfast piece of it appears to be in full rally. Our 10 room Palm Springs B&B had a good year in 2010. Still, the first six months of 2011 are showing a 15.7% increase in revenue and a 10.3% increase in occupancy. What was a good price at $1,350,000 has just become much better.

Our New Hampshire Inn and Spa reports a $70,000 increase in cash flow for the first seven months of the 2011 fiscal year.

Take advantage of a buyer’s market and historically low interest rates. Talk to us about opportunities that fit your tastes and pocket books.

I awoke this Morning to the sun shining through my windows, the leaves shiny green the trees’ bark intensely dark from the continued rain of the past 5 days! Chocolat, my favorite hound, stretching one long arm and paw up on my bed to remind me to get going! I know, I know already Ginger, our orange cat, had paraded on the beam over our heads and had meowed insistently, quietly but audible… that the time had come! Who needs an alarm clock? Even if the time is only 5 A.M.!  By 6 A.M. the cats and dog have been fed, Chocolat and I are off to feed the birds: woodpeckers, morning doves, blue jays, and those little song birds that trill away in the woods. Their profusion of color and flitting about with their tiny bodies, their different sizes amazing! My dishes done we are off for that quiet time through the woods. A time among the trees, the wild creatures, that I seldom see, but their scats, scratch marks are evident and their scent propels Chocolat, nose down, crisscrossing the woods, at high speed.

If it rains, snows or blows we walk through the woods. I am grateful that I have no choice, for my dog needs her walk. For me it is my time alone, no phone, no iPod, just prodding up a hill and down thinking about life, my family, my friends, my work, future plans and little nuggets pop up here and there!

A few days ago, as I saw these mushrooms popping up, I thought of my step-mother (my mother had died when I was about 2 and a half) making soup and asking me to go out and find some chanterelles for garnish. That memory was potent; her soup was great! That chicken stock had smelled the house out all day Saturday…the egg-drop and the mushrooms sautéed in butter, delicious…I had not thought about this Sunday- noon meal forever! And that next day I made such a delicious concoction for my friends for dinner!

But my thoughts seldom wander to foods, and it is that commitment to walk my dog each day that gives me the reason and forces me to give myself these private moments!  Those times to reflect on things that are important to me are precious!

Life is hectic, busy and especially as Inn-keepers, or as Inn-consultants, we are consumed by the details and wonderful guests/ clients that wander in and out of our lives. Without a plan, a reason to discipline ourselves, days slip into weeks and month…

Why am I telling you all this, because in those moments of being alone we can see things about ourselves, it feels good to change, to grasp that we alone hold the key to success and contentment. Have fun, have a grateful heart, stay well and have a great summer and smell the roses in your wonderful gardens!

Visit our website and browse pictures of some beautiful inns for sale with great relaxation spots!

Heide