Ditch the doilies, darling
By Faith Glasgow
Published in the Financial Times: December 11 2004
Old-fashioned bed and breakfasts have long had a slightly shabby image - stereotyped by flimsily partitioned "ensuite bathrooms", cacophonous carpet colours and patterns, nylon sheets and crocheted toilet-roll covers. But recent years have seen a rash of homeowners recasting their well-tended living spaces as luxurious B&B operations.
Forget cut-price marmalade and budget tariffs to match. These places aim to replicate the standards of a small upmarket hotel, but within the friendly, easy-going environment of a private home.
Take Little Silver House, a handsome Victorian mansion with a magnificent outlook over the Taw valley in north Devon. It had been run as a nursing home until Bill and Paula Dormer bought it 18 months ago and set about reorganising it into a family house with three bedrooms earmarked for a B&B business.
Here I am, the first guest and official guinea pig, admiring the views from my grand ruby-red room. I've found a fat bathrobe in the antique wardrobe, Egyptian cotton sheets on the four-poster bed, an old-fashioned servants' bell that guests can use to ring for tea, hand-crafted chocolates on the pillow and a fearsome-looking shower in my bathroom - though this morning it doggedly refuses to produce hot water. Paula is perplexed but practical and offers me the family bathroom instead. Downstairs, the kids are ripping through their piano practice before school.
Like other B&B proprietors of the new order, Paula Dormer cuts no corners on food. She uses as much local and organic produce as she can: the breakfast choice includes Finnan haddock or kippers from the Barnstaple fish shop as well as a full organic English fry-up and an astonishingly chewy home-made cereal. "Guests have got to feel very special and leave on a high," she says. The cereal alone should see to that.
The Dormers' enterprise was born of their decision to reinvent their lifestyle. After many years of house moves abroad and around the UK, they bought Little Silver "with the intention of never moving again", even though it means Bill commutes weekly to London. "I want to be at home for the children and I couldn't be in my previous business selling designer curtain and upholstery fabrics," Paula says.
But how strong is the niche market for a posh B&B? According to Sarah Stanley, who runs a web-based promotional organisation called Unique Home Stays, demand is growing. It's fuelled mainly by the growth in popularity of UK short breaks, but also by interest from international visitors (especially Americans) who want to experience a more personalised kind of English hospitality than they'd get at a hotel.
That interest is mirrored by growth in the number of B&Bs catering to the upper end of the market. "I see a lot of people coming into early retirement who move into the business," Stanley says. "They have had enough of the city; they have a lovely house and plenty of space, they like entertaining and meeting people, they're good cooks and good hosts. But they miss the cosmopolitan element of urban life, and guests bring that added interest."
But not everyone with a big house in a picturesque location makes a great B&B host. "The house may be fantastic, but if the owners don't really want people in their home, you know," Stanley says. "You can't go into this business just because you need the money."
Jan Bright, an ex-TV producer who runs Drym Farm in Cornwall, agrees. "A lot of guests say they've been thinking of opening a B&B, but they really don't know what's involved," she says. "There's a lot of hard work, you have to be very organised, and you have be prepared to be charming all the time - even to grumpy strangers at breakfast."
She strongly recommends would-be proprietors arrange to "shadow" a B&B owner for a day or two, or at least stay in a few places and talk to the owners (taking note of how they could run the place better in the process).
One of the big catches with this kind of business is that, if it's going well, the house is always occupied and you're constantly attending to your guests' needs. Bright reports that she didn't have a single free night from mid-June to the end of September this year, and it's only her second season.
Still, the flow of guests can be controlled. The Dormers, for example, who are in the unusual position of running their B&B while also raising young children, are aiming for bookings four nights a week as a manageable flow alongside family life.
B&B owners can also manage evenings out, provided guests arrive on schedule and their package doesn't include evening meals. With forward planning, even weekends off are possible. Proprietors can simply close up shop temporarily, or, as Bright is doing, train an assistant to run the place for a day or two. Still, "it's not easy finding the right person," she says, "because part of the deal in this kind of enterprise is that guests get access to your local knowledge as well as a comfy bed and decent food."
Attracting guests can also be a challenge, mainly because luxury B&Bs are not often well served by traditional holiday market middlemen. "There's no accommodation round here at more than £40 per night, even at the best hotel, so my prices, which range from £45 to £67, look dear to people checking out the options at the tourist board," Dormer explains.
However, niche promotional enterprises, such as Wolsey Lodges, Alistair Sawday's Special Places to Stay or Unique Home Stays, and their websites, do help; Bright says the latter accounts for some 60 per cent of her business.
These organisations don't judge accommodation by an established set of criteria and award diamonds on that basis, as the tourist boards and the AA and RAC do; instead they look for unique qualities and special features in member B&Bs.
"I don't have a set checklist," Stanley says. "For instance, most members' houses are furnished with antiques, but some are very contemporary. Of course I'm looking for lovely views, crisp sheets and fresh flowers, but in practice it's often a matter of chatting to the hosts and gauging their hospitality. Either they know how to do it or they don't."
Anyone who qualifies for the luxury B&B category doesn't have to compete on price with other B&Bs or hotels, she adds. "If [people are] priced too cheaply, they tend not to get inquiries because people are looking for something special and expecting to pay more for it," she says. "You can't do luxury bed and breakfast for £25 a night."
Earnings potential depends on location and the number and quality of rooms, as well as on the owners' own parameters.
David Jackson, who runs Tregawne Country House near Wadebridge in Cornwall, has five bedrooms booked four nights a week for 25 weeks a year. At £100 per room, that works out to around £50,000 per year. With dinner at £25 a head plus drinks, his turnover could be more than £75,000 on a 50 per cent occupancy rate.
Aside from mortgage payments, which B&B owners already pay to live in their houses, costs - including administration, cleaning and food - are relatively low.
Not bad for working part-time from the comfort of your own home.
For More details on the B&B’s mentioned in this article please visit: