September 29th, 2009 | 
Author: Have you ever stayed in a bed and breakfast and thought, “Hey, I can do this!” You probably went on vacation and simply chalked your thought up as one of those pipe dreams people get when they stay in a beautiful spot.
Don’t toss that thought away! While it’s not easy work, as the hours can be long and it’s usually a seven days per week business, it’s often something that you can work into a daily schedule. After all, it’s merely an extension of doing the housework for family, right? More and more Americans are taking after Europeans and opening their homes to travelers. If you have an extra room or two now that the kids have moved out, you can start a bed and breakfast in your own place!
Bed and breakfast popularity will continue as more and more vacationers and business travelers seek a different accommodation away from the predictability of the average hotel room. If they enjoy their stay, many become “repeat” customers, coming back to the same familiar surroundings time and again.
If you don’t need to do any major renovations in the house to accommodate this type of establishment, you can be off and running with very little money invested, other than advertising and some new “guest room supplies”. If your dream is to buy a bed and breakfast somewhere in a vacation paradise, there are houses for sale that will probably work for this purpose.
Whatever your design, there are several good books on the subject of starting your own bed and breakfast, including “Start Your Own Bed and Breakfast”, by Beverly Mathews. Your local library should have a nice variety of such books to choose from.
