Earn Easy Money

How to start a bed and breakfast? Some people might look at that as an easy question. All you need to do is find a suitable property, make sure it’s clean and tidy, then it’s no more complicated than if you were having friends to stay – except people pay you!

If you think starting a bed and breakfast (or guest house, gite, country inn, etc) is that simple then I’m afraid you’re in for a bit of a reality check.

For the purposes of this article we’ll assume you already fit the profile of a bed and breakfast owner. You like people, right? Because running a bed and breakfast can be very rewarding, both personally and financially, but it’s not always easy and there is nothing more frustrating than an unreasonably demanding guest! Most of the time you’ll get lovely people and well behaved children but sometimes you’ll get little horrors – of all ages! If you’ve been looking at how to starting a bed and breakfast for a while then most of this won’t be news to you. Let’s have a quick run through of a few important points.

If the area is popular, are you actually permitted to have a bed and breakfast business there? Depending on your country and your specific area there may be planning or other commercial restrictions.

What’s the competition like? Can you price competitively and still make a decent living? Have you got everything you need? Not just in terms of linen or crockery but paperwork, something to give your guests as an invoice, leaflets from local tourist spots, etc. What time can they check in? What time is breakfast? Are there any real faults? Make lists. Get rid of the negative drain first, then everything else is easier – and more fun!***