Onward and upward! Just a little this week, but these days we're happy to highlight good news wherever we find it.

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We're a day late with the B&B occupancy update for our "California Collection" of B&Bs, but since we still have not officially launched this blog, we can be pretty sure that nobody is going to be mad at us.

We are in the middle of what might be considered to be a dry run, but all the material posted here is as accurate, honest and (we hope) informative as we can make it. We needed some time to get in the groove, as it were (you can guess from that that we are neither of us teenagers) and the exercise is proving very helpful.

Interesting coincidences are occurring from time to time! The first was my discovery that the state B&B association in Oregon has an "innkeeper getaway program" that is a stripped-down, no frills version of our B&BInnterchange (established even before we first started noodling the idea in 2004). Then yesterday, a good friend of Jen's called to ask about the feasibility of using one or two spare bedrooms at home as an informal B&B.

Jenny's friend is looking for advice on permits and paperwork needed to enable her to invite "paying guests" into her family home, along with info about promoting her new business on the Internet and handling reservations.

There are at least two women in our immediate area (the Carson Valley, just down the hill on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe) who have opened the doors of their family homes to strangers with credit cards and hearty appetites, and after Madeline's inquiry, I think it's time we chased those brave souls down to find out how the B&B business is treating them.

I found out just a couple of weeks ago that Virginia City now has two new B&Bs, both housed in rescue/remodels of beautiful old homes dating back to the days of the Comstock Lode, and it's great to see people with faith in the future and the courage to try something new.

B&BInnterchange is aimed primarily at larger scale operations like the new VC inns, but the proposed "Neighborhood B&B" service is specifically tailored to the needs of people who do not necessarily want to be open year-round with all the bells and whistles.

Plenty of "empty nesters" are now taking a second, closer look at the wisdom of spinning added income from their unused bedrooms, because selling their homes for a tidy profit and down-sizing is a very unlikely option with the real estate market in free fall.

Used to be, before the bubble burst, a $1,000,000 sale would pay off the last $200,000 of a mortgage and provide beaucoup bucks for a cottage in the country and money in the bank, a hell of a deal for a house you bought ten years ago for four hundred grand.

Ah, the good old days...

I have said before that the public's appetite for B&Bs makes nearby competition pretty much of a non-issue for well run, well priced inns, and I continue to believe that, in spite of the recession, depression or whatever today's pundits are calling this awful economic slump.

Jen caught an Oprah last week that spotlit a new trend toward renting out unused living space to permanent tenants, and for people who want added income with as little hassle as possible, that may be a good way to go.

Our feeling is that full time tenants may be hazardous to mental health! No offense, but the risk of ending up with a "room mate" who turns out not to be as advertised is too great for us to go that route.

At least if you are renting out your spare room(s) on a night by night basis, less than perfect guests will be quickly out of your life. Not so a permanent tenant!

There are pros and cons to both options, for sure. A full time lodger is, in theory, a source of regular, guaranteed income, but I wonder how much rent you can reasonably ask for one room in even the nicest house.

Let's say that a private bed and bath plus shared use of so-called "common areas" (living room, kitchen, backyard and so on) is worth $1,000 a month.

For that, you'll get a tenant who is under your roof for 30+ days a month, and presumably expects to be able to entertain visitors and treat your house as his or her home (fair enough!).

Now, let's say the same room is good for a minimum of $100 a night from B&B guests who, as a rule, pay weeks before they even step through the front door and are on their way by mid-morning the following day, beaming with bliss after the wonderful breakfast you just served them.

To get $1,000 a month as a "Neighborhood B&B" you need to hit a 33% occupancy rate, bumped up to say 37% to cover the cost of 11 breakfasts for two each month.

That leaves you with the prospect of peace and quiet for more than half the month, and the freedom to plan on locking up the house and leaving on trips and vacations whenever you feel like it.

Would you want to leave home if you had permanent tenants in one or more of your spare bedrooms?

Hard to know until that bridge is smack dab in front of you!

We have quite a bit of work to do to discover how regulations applicable to B&Bs vary from place to place around the country, but it is safe to surmise that a homeowner seeking to occasionally rent out spare bedrooms would not be as rigorously controlled as an innkeeper with five rooms plus.

And we know from experience that even relatively large inns, like the 10-room and 12-room operations Jenny and I worked hard to make successful, are subject to surprisingly little local government interference.

The problems family homestead "B&B-ers" will have to surmount have little or nothing to do with rules and regulations and a whole lot to do with actually getting guests through the front door once the decision has been made to gussy up those empty rooms and take the plunge.

Where do you advertise? How do you handle reservations? How much time do you want to spend by the phone each day, waiting for calls? How hard is it to set up and maintain an attractive website, and how much does it cost? What about liability insurance? Credit cards?

The answer to all these questions and the solutions to many more potential problems will soon be found at (all together now!)...B&BInnterchange.

Which, of course, has nothing whatever to do with this week's B&B occupancy survey!

Here it is:



Click on the image to enlarge it.

Overall, a better showing than last time. And not bad numbers for the second week in any March, especially in the middle of a #@!&ession...
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More about Oregon's trailblazing getaway program for innkeepers (and why B&BInnterchange has unlimited potential for hosts everywhere).

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A few days ago, I mentioned that we had accidentally tripped over a "room swap" program for B&B innkeepers in Oregon that is in effect a bare-bones version of the idea that led us to B&BInnterchange.

Since then, Heather Tyreman at the dazzling Bronze Antler B&B in eastern Oregon has kindly added an informative and encouraging comment to the original post, which can be accessed here.

For readers who don't wish to delve into the BBBizBlog archives, here's Heather's comment:

Hello Ian:

Concerning the Oregon Bed & Breakfast Guild (OBBG) Innkeepers Getaway Progam (IGP), it is a program developed by OBBG for use by its membership. Innkeepers desiring to make their properties available for getaways list them on a page in the members only area of the OBBG website. Innkeepers are free to place whatever restrictions they want (such as weeknights only, last minute only, call first, etc).

Traveling innkeepers can log onto the OBBG website, review the list, and contact the offering innkeeper for availability.

Fees involved are small--a portion going to the IGP innkeeper to offset their costs of housekeeping and providing breakfast. Another portion goes to OBBG to help sponsor this and other membership programs.

In essence, it is a closed system as it is open (only) to the members of the Oregon Bed & Breakfast Guild.

We use the program on occasion and have had wonderful stays with various innkeepers as you've already noted. We've also hosted innkeepers on their getaway. It's fun to talk shop with innkeepers from other areas. It also helps put a face to a location when a paying guest asks for a recommendation of where to stay in other parts of Oregon.

Good luck with your program!
Heather


We could hardly ask for a more eloquent summary of the idea that popped into our heads back in 2004 when we were running the Artists' Inn in South Pasadena, Calif., and occasionally welcoming other innkeepers as guests.

Heather said in a separate e-mail to us that she was doubtful that innkeepers without staff to step in for them and an abundance of spare time to spend on vacation visits to other B&Bs would be interested in such a program, and that's really the whole point of the exchange aspect of B&BInnterchange.

As Heather and her fellow Oregon B&B professionals have discovered, interacting with other innkeepers and talking shop is fun.

Jenny and I learned that much on our rare and wonderful getaway outings way back when, and ever since we have been allowing the original concept to evolve and expand.

What we have now is more complicated than the Oregon program, but not unnecessarily so, we hope.

We knew from the start that some up-front room charge would have to be included, so that a B&B host's immediate out of pocket expenses would be covered.

And we also were aware that many B&B owners shy away from exchanges for the very reason that Heather mentioned in her cover e-mail: they can't afford to get away from their businesses as much as they might like if someone has to be paid extra to run their inn in their absence.

Other innkeepers can be a powerful resource for anyone in the B&B business, and the fun of sharing ideas and comparing notes on experiences is just a part of it.

We see great potential for "inter-Inn" marketing and cross-pollination extending beyond state and regional boundaries.

State and county B&B guilds are a great way to bring innkeepers together, and competition is only rarely an issue.

Bed and breakfasts that are well run, giving guests good value and a memorable experience while utilizing every marketing and promotional tool available to them, have nothing to fear from nearby hotels with hundreds of rooms. So another B&B in the same neighborhood with just a handful of rooms is no threat.

(Inter-Inn and Inn-to-Inn were among the contenders when we were looking for names for our new project, by the way; B&BInnterchange won the day, but remains a "working title," as they say in Hollywood!)

When Jen and I were in South Pasadena, there were two B&Bs barely a mile apart, and both did well. Now, a third has been added, and as a result, the "pie" got bigger (it certainly was not a matter of the same pie being split three ways instead of two!).

The economy's nose-dive has had an impact on those three inns, as it has on others elsewhere, but when spring is sprung and people start traveling again, there will be, as before, plenty of business to keep all three owners smiling.

We just have to keep reminding ourselves that while vacation and getaway budgets have been slashed in the downturn, more people than ever are looking for good value closer to home, and those are the guests we all need to reach.

The objective of B&BInnterchange is to foster "innsider" relationships that will work to mutual benefit in ways that we have not even thought of yet, the primary goal being to make more effective use of unsold inventory, which is a handy euphemism for empty rooms.

We believe that the potential for this unique concept is virtually limitless.

It will give B&Bs everywhere a marketing resource that not only connects them with one another but gets the word out to a large number of potential guests who are drawn to the website by the prospect of finding better getaway deals than are available anywhere else.

The foundation for the service is the innterchange aspect. But there is also the Marketplace, which lists unused exchanged nights for purchase by subscribers, as well as giving participating inns the opportunity to advertise unsold inventory in a centralized location that is commission free.

Subscribers (the service is free to participating B&Bs but bargain-hunting guests have to sign up and pay a membership fee to get access to all those wonderful deals) will also be introduced to unusual getaway options in an area of the website devoted to "Neighborhood B&Bs," which are small operations--family homes functioning as extra-intimate B&Bs, usually with two guests rooms or fewer.

There's also the GPS or Getaway Planning Service resource, which enables subscribers to plot a never-get-lost itinery and download it to a GPS unit they already own, or rent a top-quality unit with their getaway route preloaded and ready to go.

Each participating inn will be asked to make personal local recommendations in every field, from dining through sight-seeing and entertainment to shopping. We in turn will provide website visitors with GPS coordinates or waypoints so they can avoid getting lost en route to recommended locations.

We believe that B&BInnterchange needs to offer a range of services that will appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

But at its heart, it will always be a resource for innkeepers.

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