Nancy Hinchcliff, right, and Leah
Stewart visited in Hinchcliff's Aleksander House
Bed & Breakfast. Stewart and her husband run Gallery House,
another B&B.
Photo by MARY ANN LYONS, THE COURIER
JOURNAL
Of Beds & Breakfasts
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Cozy (and booming) niche in the hospitality industry can pay off, but expect a lot of hard work, long hours |
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By WAYNE TOMPKINS, The Courier-Journal
January 22, 2001NANCY HINCHLIFF discovered the Old Louisville home that would become her bed-and-breakfast after retiring here from Chicago, where she spent 30 years as a schoolteacher.
"I wanted this house, but I couldn't justify buying a house with five bedrooms," she said. A friend suggested she open a B&B. "I said, 'Ooh, this is going to be fun. I can do this.' I didn't realize it was a heavy-duty business."
Owning a B&B can be rewarding on many levels. But as Hinchliff learned on the way to making her Aleksander House Bed & Breakfast a success, only a select few truly have what it takes to thrive in the field.
Even Ben Franklin, who wrote in "Poor Richard's Almanac" that "Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days," would likely have been a poor candidate.
On top of that, consider the 12-hour, seven-day weeks; the physical demands; the lack of privacy; the early alarm clocks; the incessant breakfast cooking and making of beds; and the fading memory of what a vacation is like.
Then there's the mortgage on a four-, six- or eight-bedroom house and the occasional 3 a.m. phone call asking for detailed descriptions of your accommodations.
Who would want company in their house almost every day of the year? Who would willingly throw themselves into such a life?
Hinchliff asks these questions constantly of aspiring bed-and-breakfast operators. She's also among a growing number of people whose answer, in spite of the negatives, is an enthusiastic "Me."
"Usually, it's people who love to be home," said Hinchliff, who has owned the Aleksander House for nearly six years. "I love to cook, I like gardening, I like meeting people. You meet lots of interesting people from all over the world: Australia, Japan, Italy, farmers from Ireland. That's fun and interesting. For a single person like myself, that's part of my social life in a way."
The bed-and-breakfast industry has changed dramatically in the last 15 years, said Pamela Lanier, longtime publisher of "The Complete Guide to Bed and Breakfasts, Inns and Guesthouses."
"It is no longer renting a spare room, but rather an intimate and often elegant experience at a professionally run establishment," she writes.
The 1982 edition of Lanier's guide had 1,200 listings. The 2001 edition has exploded to more than 20,000 properties. Web sites also help make connections. "We've tapped into the Internet, and I've gotten 75 percent of my business off of that," Hinchliff said. "All of us do."
Lanier notes that a recent study published by the Cornell Quarterly found that the B&B industry accounts for 31 percent of the total lodging in the U.S. and has become a $3.5 billion industry.
"One reason is many inns now are owned by couples or people who have taken early retirement, changed career backed by golden parachutes or used the equity from the sale of a home," Lanier said. "The corporate expertise they bring from their previous careers allows them to administer and market their inns more professionally."
THE GROWTH of B&Bs has caused some blinking in the hotel industry.
The "quiet pressure" B&Bs have placed on the rest of the lodging industry is compelling, said David Caples, a lodging-industry consultant who runs a Florida B&B. "Industry giants such as Marriott are visibly downsizing the number of rooms at their properties, suite facilities have swept the industry with success, chain operations now regularly offer a complimentary breakfast, and resorts now have a 'bed-and-breakfast' package in their marketing arsenal."
As Hinchliff puts it, "You can make good money in this business. If that's what you are doing on a full-time basis and you've got six rooms or more, you can make more than $100,000 a year easily."
The major appeal for guests is the hospitality, she said.
"People feel at home, comfortable about asking for little extras," she said. "Most of the innkeepers are really good cooks with years and years of experience. Some of us consider ourselves to be gourmet cooks."
In Jeffersonville, Ind., Linda Williams has run the Old Bridge Inn Bed & Breakfast, which dates to 1840, for a second income. Her husband, Robbie, is an ironworker.
Guests' interests often are in line with the hosts', she said.
"They like the antiques and old houses," she said.
While part of the B&B charm is architecture, innkeepers haven't turned away from the 21st century.
"We put in fax machines and computer connections, early breakfast for early meetings. We do late cancellations and also wear the concierge's hat," Hinchliff said. At many B&Bs, you can find a TV, a desk, a modem, refrigerators in the rooms, irons and ironing boards and hair dryers.
JUST AS THE number of B&Bs has exploded nationwide, Louisville also has seen a huge expansion.
When Marsha Burton opened The Inn at Woodhaven in St. Matthews seven years ago, "I think there were like three of us in town."
Marsha Burton, accompanied by her dog, Cher, runs the Inn at Woodhaven on Hubbards Lane in St. Matthews. She opened the business seven years ago. "I had an interest in history and historic buildings, and I wanted one really badly."
Photo by PAT McDONOGH, THE COURIER JOURNALNow, 17 Louisville-area inns have joined together to form the Louisville Bed and Breakfast Association, and there are probably others. Members work together to tackle common issues, set quality standards, including permits and health certificates, and hold classes for would-be innkeepers.
"My idea was just like every other person that visits a B&B -- they fantasize about doing it when they retire, and a few of us actually take the plunge," said Burton, who previously worked in public relations for the Kentucky Arts and Crafts Foundation. "I had an interest in history and historic buildings, and I wanted one really badly. I didn't have an independent income, so my B&B had to pay for itself and make it almost immediately. Luckily, it did."
The Inn at Woodhaven, which dates to 1853, is Gothic Revival.
Photo by PAT McDONOGH, THE COURIER JOURNALThe Gothic Revival home, which dates to 1853, is on the National Register of Historic Places. "I get a lot of Gothic Revival people from around the country because it is really a good example."
She calls the small octagonal building next door, Rose Cottage, "the ultimate honeymoon suite" and says it's booked every night (price: $195) of the year.
Her St. Matthews location, near suburban shopping but more removed than most from the city's center, has given her less intense competition. The inn averages about 82 percent occupancy, she said.
Williams, from Jeffersonville's Old Bridge Inn, also sought a site away from the crowd.
"Louisville's become a saturated market for B&Bs," she said.
Burton has been able to maintain the business with a minimal staff, but not without a tremendous amount of sweat equity.
"We have one full-time and two part-time people," Burton said. "I could use another person probably, but I don't want to pay for it."
Her own contribution: 12-hour days "at least." She once went five years without a day off. "I've had maybe one day in six months where no one was here for breakfast."
Once she turned 50, "my kids told me I needed a life, and they took over for 10 days when I went away. I'd forgotten how nice a vacation was. So now, I've done that the last couple of years."
Leah Stewart and husband Gordon Moffett, who have operated Old Louisville's Gallery House for four years, got into B&Bs as a business they could both retire into.
The Victorian home showcases Moffett's paintings and the couple's art collections.
"We looked at a number of different options, but we kept coming back to the idea of having a B&B," Stewart said. "We did some traveling and stayed in country inns and urban inns, and big and small ones, and ones where the owner lived out and ones where the owner lived in, all kinds of combinations. It's more than just a business -- it really is a lifestyle. We took the leap and said, 'This is it.' "
UNLIKE MANY B&B owners, Moffett and Stewart bought a vacant lot and built the home. Stewart said the couple's extensive backgrounds in business were a crucial asset.
Moffett retired after 22 years in the insurance business. Stewart's background is in training and development, and she is pursuing a chef's degree.
"I grew up in a family business, and I have an MBA, so I kind of knew what I was getting into. The business stuff was pretty much what we expected," Stewart said. "What we didn't expect is that it's a lot of physical, hard work."
With only three rooms, the couple have been able to avoid the cost of hiring additional help. While more rooms would generate additional income, "There's a point of diminishing return where you have to start hiring people in order to help," she said.
Stewart said that because of Louisville's steady convention business, area B&Bs enjoy a reasonably long season that runs from February to November.
"It's fairly steady, with peaks around Derby and other big events," she said.
At the association's classes for aspiring innkeepers, Hinchliff makes a point of holding nothing back.
"We give it to them straight on," she said. "We tell them all the negative stuff."
DURING THE CLASSES, which often take place over several days, students are required to stay in one of the local bed-and-breakfasts.
"That way, they can track the innkeeper from the time the innkeeper gets up in the morning," she said. "That first day, the students get up as early as the innkeeper, which is 6 a.m., and track what the innkeeper does. The next day, they'll have to do a few things themselves."
Hinchliff concedes, however, that even a hands-on class cannot begin to prepare the new innkeeper for the demands.
"Especially that first year, it's a shock to some people," Hinchliff said. "It was even to me, and I'm an overachiever. I'm a workaholic and, having been a teacher in the inner city in Chicago, I was used to hard work and being exhausted every day. But this, this is extremely physical."
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