Sunday, July 10, 2016

Sheriff's House B&B Update

You may remember a post from about a year and a half ago in which I announced that I had finally convinced my darling husband to let me try opening a bed and breakfast. http://oldjailarts.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-princess-has-left-building.html He thought "Old Jail B&B" had a negative ring, so we ultimately decided to call it the "Sheriff's House." I had many poignant (weepy) moments going through our daughter's room and boxing up items that she had left behind. We called it the "Tower Room" and the room across the hall the "World Traveler Room." The third bedroom on the second floor, which houses our son's high school trophies and memorabilia, became the "Servants' Quarters," not a B&B room but a space where  I could keep cleaning supplies, toilet paper, and other things needed for the B&B rooms. Visiting relatives joke about being forced to sleep in the "Servants' Quarters."

I set up a simple snack station in the hall with DS's old dorm fridge and an end table. I contemplated buying a Keurig, but ultimately decided on a water kettle and various packets of instant beverages instead, having read scary things about difficult-to-clean disease-harboring tubes in the Keurig. I was also concerned about all the waste involved in the little K-cups, but having used a Keurig recently at the Howarth House B&B in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, I may be revisiting that decision. The coffee was delicious.

DH and I scoured the countryside for antique furniture and other pieces to make the rooms interesting, and I did a lot of "shopping" among the treasures we had collected from overseas as well. I spent a small fortune on bedding and towels, all white 100% cotton so they can be bleached (something I learned from watching "Hotel Impossible"). I created a "Management Handbook" with breakfast recipes, tax information, etc., cleaned the kitchen as it had never been cleaned before, got a food handler's certificate from the local health department, and we were ready.

I wanted to dip my toe in the business, so I started in November 2014 with two listings on the website airbnb.com: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4033247?checkin=07%2F11%2F2016&checkout=07%2F12%2F2016&guests=1&s=_ZxOOA7v and https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4235270?checkin=07%2F11%2F2016&checkout=07%2F12%2F2016&guests=1&s=z6_qY5O_

Within a couple of weeks we had our first guests, a very nice couple who were coming to the area for Parents' Weekend at IU. Since then we have welcomed many IU parents, as well as students, business travelers, wedding parties and an amiable fellow with a vintage Porsche he was taking to a car show at French Lick. All of our guests have been wonderful, and I feel very fortunate that things have gone so well. Thanks to airbnb, I never have to handle money, which makes things easy.

Some months we have no guests; other months we may be quite busy. I think in our busiest month we had 11 room nights, which for a B&B with no staff means that I am constantly washing sheets and towels. I have learned to "x" out the rooms on airbnb.com if I know I'm going to be busy or out of town.

I changed my website from oldjailarts.com to sheriffshouse.com, but immediately ran into an issue when I couldn't upload the photographs I had taken with my phone. I paid for that website to remain dormant for more than a year, thinking I would get someone to redo the photographs for me, before finally deciding to give it up last month. I'm still contemplating the benefits of having a website. 

All in all, though, the B&B experiment has been a success. Although I do all the cleaning and laundry involved, making the breakfast is a job for the two of us, and it's fun to get up early and go through the many steps to preparing healthful, delicious food and setting a pretty table.

There are some issues: Keeping the lawn respectable is difficult. DH is busy and really too tired after a long hard day fixing icemakers to run the lawn mower. This summer I finally started hiring someone to mow and weed-whack, but at $50 a visit, lawn care costs seriously cut into the very modest profits I make on what is still a part-time business. Another issue: the cotton comforter covers I bought are a real pain to put on and take off after every guest. While I agree with Anthony Melchiorri in principle that everyone should have a fresh, clean bed to sit on and not a spread that was last cleaned when George Bush was President, there has to be a better way. The 100% cotton bedding also wrinkles like nobody's business, which I hate, but there's no way I'm going to try to iron these huge sheets.

We've never put up a sign to indicate that we have a B&B; all our guests so far have found us through airbnb.com. We talk often about marketing a little more widely and hiring someone to help if needed, but I'm reluctant to go from B&B "Lite" to a full-time operation. We also talk about turning the third-floor tower room into another B&B room, but that is a subject for another post. There is still a ton of work to be done on the house, and now that we have so many more guests, and a little more money, hopefully we will be inspired to tackle more of it.

  

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