Even Innkeepers need a break sometime.
Getting started: Both the PAII and Interim Innkeepers Network sites list innkeeping-education courses, taught by current or former B-and-B owners, usually in their own facilities. Mr. Meyer and his business and personal partner, Linda Rexroat, 63, for example, charge $400 a person ($700 a couple) for a three-day introductory workshop. They also conduct $1,000 full-immersion “INNexperience INNternships,” in which trainees work side-by-side with an interim innkeeper for a week, preparing meals, checking guests in and out, doing housework and making repairs to the toilets and appliances that always break when a B-and-B owner leaves town.
If you don’t have industry experience, you will need proof that you’ve taken such courses, or worked full time in a B-and-B, before most innkeepers will hire you, according to innkeepers interviewed for this article. To get certified by PAII, you must be “ready to go,” Ms. Bliss says, and submit your brochure, business cards and other marketing materials, along with your letters of reference and proof that you’ve passed the required safety classes and completed internships. So far, Ms. Bliss sits mainly for the innkeepers she interned with, but has picked up other clients by attending conventions of the Iowa Bed & Breakfast Guild and the Iowa Bed & Breakfast Innkeepers Association.
What you can earn: Mr. Meyer says experienced interim innkeepers charge between $100 and $300 a day, depending on the size of the facility and whether there’s staff to do the housework. Dana McCready, 50, a former B-and-B owner in Prescott, Ariz., who’s been doing innsitting for four years, says she could make a good living if she wanted to work 52 weeks a year. “Because I often work in Seattle and the San Francisco area, I choose to spend time at home between assignments,” she says.
Advantages: Ms.Bliss says meeting people and traveling hold the biggest appeal for her. “I’m meeting people from all over the world, and I love helping them have the best time they can,” says. Experienced interim innkeepers take jobs from coast to coast, and sometimes internationally.
Downsides: Although you may be innsitting in beautiful places, you’ll most likely be too busy to enjoy them, says Sallie Clark, who co-owns the Holden House B and B in Colorado Springs and teaches aspiring innkeeper workshops. While their guests sleep in elegant upstairs bedrooms, B-and-B owners often live below, in cramped basement apartments. Innsitters typically stay in the less-inviting accommodations, too.
Another consideration: The cats that grace B-and-B parlors also require daily care.
Innkeeping is 24/7, and assignments can last from a day to a month or longer, which could put a strain on family and other relationships. In 2003, Mr. Meyer says, he was on assignments in Texas for eight straight months. “You’re up early cooking breakfast and still up at night, checking in late arrivals,” says Ms. Horovitz.
You must have an easygoing, flexible personality, Ms. Clark says, because you’ll often have to supervise staff “who aren’t used to having you around.”
Ms. Bliss loves the variety and the inside peeks into B-and-B operations, but says the business is “actually a lot of work, making breakfast, cleaning rooms, etc. I really don’t care for making the beds — it’s so much running around.”
Read more…
No comments yet.