Many people prefer to stay at a bed and breakfast instead of a chain hotel because they feel that it offers a more personal experience. B&Bs are rising in popularity and are popping up all over the world. So much goes into opening a B&B, it’s hard to remember everything. If you’re opening up your own B&B and feel like there’s anything you’ve forgotten, then look at the tips below to refresh your memory.
Setting Up the Location
When choosing a location, you should look at popular tourist destinations and places that get a lot of travellers. You should also check out the competition. If there are already dozens of well-established hotels and B&Bs in the local area, then you’ll have a lot of competition and your B&B will need to stand out. It’s advisable that you pick an interesting location will less competition. You’ll need to look into the many licenses and permits you’ll need before you can open, and go through local laws. Once you’ve picked a prime location, you’ll have a big decision to make; build a property, rent a property, or buy a property. There are advantages to each of these options, but either way, you’ll need to secure the funding first. If you don’t have the money or an investor already, you should consider looking into a getting a loan or a bond at Bonds Express. Once you’re ready to furnish your B&B, you can either shop at larger stores or, if you want to cut costs, you can buy preloved furnishings from auction houses and antique stores. When you buy larger items (i.e., tables, chairs, sofas) then you should use Bekins Moving Solutions to make transporting it to your B&B easier.
Knowing Your Target Market
Knowing who your target market is before opening your B&B is important. Look at the kind of people who travel to your location. Are they businesspeople, couples and honeymooners, families with children, tourists? Once you have a better idea of who your market is, you can cater to them better.
Hiring Staff
Depending on the size of your B&B and your occupancy rate, you’re going to need staff to help you out. You’ll need a manager, a receptionist, cleaning staff, kitchen staff, servers, and gardeners. You’ll need to decide on whether you’ll hire people independently or from an agency. If you’re opening up a small B&B, you may decide to hire only a few people who can multitask. You’ll also need to decide whether you want to only hire people with relevant experience or whether you’d be willing to hire inexperienced people and take the time out of your schedule to train them yourself. As well as staff, you’ll also need to pick the right suppliers and vendors.
Offering Services and Amenities
You need to choose which services and amenities you will offer. You’ll have to make the choice of whether these things will come with the cost of a room or whether you’ll charge separately. When it comes to breakfast, will you have specials on different days or will you have a set breakfast menu and offer cereals and pastries as well? You can also partner with local businesses to provide your guests with additional services and experiences.
Branding and Marketing
Your B&B should have a name that is easy to remember, and you should have consistent branding. Your B&B should also have a website so that people can easily find you online. It should have plenty of high-quality photographs and information on the B&B, and a booking system. Make sure there is plenty of content on the site with SEO to help you rank better on search engines. If you want to hire an SEO professional, look up things like “SEO Mississauga” online. To make your B&B easier for people to find, you should list it on travel agent sites and other B&B comparison sites. You should also take advantage of social media to promote your B&B and to let provide people with any people know about any price changes, discounts or any new offerings.
Hopefully, these tips have offered you some insight into opening your own B&B and some of the things you’ll need to do to get started. Best of luck to you and your B&B business!
Image Credits: Daniela Constantini
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