What do you run and where

[LeeMc]

I also want to do the same, has it worked out and has it been a struggle, any tips.

Thanks in advance.

[Alan]

No its not been a struggle. The only struggle is when the guests just want to talk in a morning and you have to do their rooms and get off to the market for the food for the evening meals and its a race against time. It is something I always wanted to do and were luckily enough to put it into practice. However for me its like a hobby, we only need it to supplement our income which really does make things different, if we have guests then its a bonus for us.

I think if you are wanting to make a living full time out of it then you really do have to do your homework and you need to be located in an area that will give year round bookings. We live in the southwest in a very isolated area and this is our first year we did not start advertising until July. We have been booked for a total of 30 nights but I feel the real season for us will only be from June to September, hopefully I will be proved wrong.

Also do not under estimate the amount of time needed if you are buying a property that needs renovation. We bought our house in December 2001 and it has taken all this time just to be able to let 2 rooms. The bungalow, which we bought in another dept, will still not be ready until next summer for rental and to be honest I do wonder if that is really worth the energy.

Costing are also very important and I feel that this year I made a loss or at least only broke even on evening meals as I offer a minimum of 4 courses including wine. Some guests drank like fish. My other half is German and to cater for the German market, for breakfast we dont just offer bread and jam, its 3 kinds of meat cheese eggs etc etc this is our standard breakfast but I felt I did have a lot of wastage. It would have been easier to offer just bread and jam but that not the kind of chamber d hote we wish to run. I think I noticed this more as the kids (or the human dustbins) were away on holiday in august.

A silly thing really think about the things you need to buy for example. We did not buy white bedding but I need to change all my bedding next year to white. It makes washing so much easier, as we change the towels daily and the beds every 2 days and having white would cut down on the number of loads of washing

My partner goes off to work in the morning and her words are you are really lucky, whats your plan of action today then! Yes I am very lucky and would not wish to change it for the world
I wish you all the luck with your dream

http://monsite.wanadoo.fr/Cauteret_GB/

[Suzyq]

B&B is unlikely to provide a familys main income, it can be a very useful additional source. To make more you would probably have to have 5 plus rooms and then you are looking at being more in the region of an auberge and subject to hotel regs. How ever many rooms you have you will not get 100% occupancy, so you need to have a realistic idea of the likely traffic through your establishment. You are likely to get a better rate of occupancy the more rooms you have to offer.
Price is area dependant; we charge 45 for a large double en-suite room + brekkers (norm for this area 35 to 45), in south Fr I know they can get 65 upwards for the same thing. 15 to 20 seems to be the going rate for a meal. You should price according to costs especially for the meals; we have found it isnt worth trying to compete with restaurants, you are after all offering a different kind of service. If theyre going to quibble about an extra 5 or so for a home cooked meal, let them go to the resto. In fact here these days they would be lucky to get an evening meal at a resto for less than 20 a head with drinks. If you get the cheap licence for Table d'hote you can serve and charge extra for drinks, and so increase your profit!
If you intend to register with Chambre de commerce and if you are seasonal only then you can de-register at the end of the season and re-register each new year.

Suze