AIBU to buy a hotel with no experience?

[Frockandahardplace]

As title, really. DH and I have a long held dream where we sell up and move back to the area from where we are originally from, buy a hotel and run a B&B. In reality neither of us have any experience running a B&B or any hotel experience.

A hotel has just come up for sale in our dream area. It has 5 bedrooms to be let out and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. DH wants to go and view it next week and hopefully move up there to fulfil our dream! In theory I am totally on board with this and really excited but in reality neither of us have a clue what we’re doing!! How crazy an idea is this? Prepared totally to be told I’m nuts.

I suggest you watch several/all episodes of the Hotel Inspector with Alex Polizzi first.

^ This. Also 'Four in a Bed'

My aunt and her husband ran a B&B business for some years. They had some visitors who were passing through but the bedrock was contractors working at a naval base nearby. Even so it was a slog. From time to time visitors would do a runner without paying. The rooms were often left in a disgusting condition. Such a tie.

What WeBuilt?!! Please tell us more. I agree withe AirB&B comment. Much less work.

Sorry, just a silly comment. I got a card sending me straight to jail and I didn't even get the chance to pass Go, much less collect the £200 that I'd been anticipating. I was a Scottie dog at the time....

I know someone who has done this and really enjoys it. I agree with others though....
Breakfast only and do your research. Watch ALL of Alex Polizza before you embark on this journey!

I have run a hotel. It is relentless, exhausting, brutal hard work. Physical, mental and emotionally exhausting. I did it for 4 years and that was enough. Get a job in a hotel for at least a year, do not go in blind.

Binge-watch all the episodes of "Four in a Bed" and then see if you still want to do this.

I've written an imaginary book on how to be crowned Best Value B & B, by the way.

NEVER, if none of the others have been to your B & B, say you wouldn't return to even the shittiest of the others. It's madness.

My cousin did this...doesnt pay much. They had amazing one but had two jobs to pay the bills. Hard work. Madness without experience. You need to get som experience asap!

You probably don't realise there's nothing 'dreamy' about running and owning a b&b. It's hard graft, honestly. That's if you want it to bring in money.

I've worked in several hotels, B&Bs and restaurants over the years and all I have to say really is DON'T FUCKING DO IT! For all the reasons PPs have given.

You'll be aware that most people who start a small business go bust within a year. Can you see why?

Consider that people with 20 years experience can't make a go of it and are selling up. Do you think a beginner will do better?

I did once work in the hotel and catering trade, and am glad I didn't make a career of it. Apart from the long hours and low earnings, there is little chance of advancement. I've heard it said that it's one of the two trades where people who've done it for a few people for nothing, assume that they'll enjoy doing it for a lot of people for money, and will get rich on it.

OP Having spent years running hotels and hospitality venues, I admire your dream I really do. But please consider that hotel rooms are a tangible product, if they do not sell that night you have lost money. The nature of these buildings necessitates constant maintenance, staff costs are, recruitment and endless training is costly.
Set-up costs are huge.
Insurance liability is high.
Food, linen, laundry, basic crockery, essentials, marketing etc is a constant expense, waste is high.
There are periods of the year when you are likely to haemorrhage money, depending on your location and management/preparation.
You will never in your life ever really have a day off and certainly not yourself and DH together. You will literally be married to the place.

Having said all the above though, the industry is an infectiously fun and rewarding one, and if you get the bug you'll gain lots of satisfaction (but your feet will ache like never before!)

Best of luck whatever you decide and feel free to PM me with any questions....

OP Having spent years running hotels and hospitality venues, I admire your dream I really do. But please consider that hotel rooms are a tangible product, if they do not sell that night you have lost money. The nature of these buildings necessitates constant maintenance, staff costs are, recruitment and endless training is costly.
Set-up costs are huge.
Insurance liability is high.
Food, linen, laundry, basic crockery, essentials, marketing etc is a constant expense, waste is high.
There are periods of the year when you are likely to haemorrhage money, depending on your location and management/preparation.
You will never in your life ever really have a day off and certainly not yourself and DH together. You will literally be married to the place.

Having said all the above though, the industry is an infectiously fun and rewarding one, and if you get the bug you'll gain lots of satisfaction (but your feet will ache like never before!)

Best of luck whatever you decide and feel free to PM me with any questions....

Please do research, location, competition etc. Watch Hotel Hell, the hospitality and restaurant business is ruthless and many do not survive the first year. Consider the rise of Air BNB also. Please do not go into this naively, you really need to research and plan and have full understanding of what would be your roles etc.

I did this! And despite what every single poster has said being completely true, I absolutely love it.
But 5 rooms is way too small. We have 15 and need more really. We have our eye on next door! I have 3dc, we all live here, they help out, no more absurd rent payments, our bills are mostly incorporated into the business, I see dh all day everyday and we work well together. I enjoy cleaning, adore decorating and organising. Dh loves working on the bar and dealing with guests. We are in the process of modernising it ourselves. It is very slow renovating. We get woken up most weekends by people forgetting their keys. But we still feel it's our dream job. We had no money coming in to this but took out a lot of loans. We are paying them back and everything else goes on renovations. Once we're done with the work and the loans we'll be so much better off. It's enormously satisfying and we get great feedback. We don't have a kitchen so only do toast cereal and porridge. Nobody minds but it's clear on booking there is no cooked breakfast. It's not a problem.
Where are you looking? You must have a good location with guaranteed trade. We have no problems filling our rooms and bought the hotel extremely cheap (145k). It can be done.
I've done very little all day as we had a new cleaner start today. Spent the day chatting to lovely guests in our beer garden and have spent the evening sipping cocktails with dh watching a stunning sunset over the sea as we are on the seafront. It's not always easy and is a stressful business, but today was definitely dreamlike! Pm me if you want any advice.
Where are you thinking of buying?

5 bedrooms is hardly a hotel OP. How much profit realistically are you going to make on that?

We nearly did this and bottled it. I still wonder what if....
we viewed a lot, stayed in a lot and talked to a lot of owners. Pick a couple highly rated (maybe even a low rated) go stay and observe and ask questions, we found all owners we spoke to most willing and kind to share info/ tips/ and show us processes - for example one took me into the kitchen showed me how she managed breakfasts and pre- ordering etc etc. There’s a real art to it.
As I say we were on the brink of putting an offer in...

Do report back...

Hilarious. Why do people think they can waltz in and run a hospitality business with zero experience?

I work for a commercial cleaning company that contracts out to a lot of B&Bs and guesthouses and small inns round here, a tourist type area. I guess the comment about being married to your business is true because a few of the places we clean are haunted by former owners!

Alex Polizzi is the only woman I have ever had a total crush on. I love her. I want to be her. I want her Italian family roots, her classy British accent, her navy blue Audi, her impeccable taste, the way she says 'darling' in such a nice, warm way to people who are clearly idiots.

As you were.

Please watch Hotel Inspector re-runs and think long and hard about this.

I love Alex's overnight bag. Bet it's some fuck off Hermes or summat like that.

If you really have a passion for hotels, why not work in one? I do think some people confuse what their dream will be like with reality: it will be like working in a hotel, mostly, with more financial stress.

Oh, yeah, work front desk in a hotel! I prefer cleaning the bogs, at least the guest has left the room by then.

If this is a means to owning a large, dream property in an area you love, then yes. You are mad.
If you both love cleaning, cooking, stripping and making beds, doing laundry and DIY, - and can take criticism of your home and housekeeping on the chin, - then you might not be mad. Also can you tolerate bores, bigots, prigs et al, - along with the more charming majority of humankind? You have no idea what Debbie and Mark Fairbrother are like when they make their booking.

Before you go any further with this dream please acquaint yourself with the many many rules and requirements regarding food preparation, cooking facilities and food storage.....
because when you get an impromptu inspection and you fail to meet the high standards required your kitchen can be closed down on the spot.

and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Does one of you enjoy cleaning? Are either of you good cooks? Have either of you ever cooked on mass with time constraints? Do either of you have any experience with keeping accounts? Experience dealing with customer complaints? Do you have enough money to pay people to do these jobs? Those are the questions I would ask myself before starting to look for properties.

If I could answer all of those then when looking at specific hotels I would want to know why the current owners are selling is the business profitable? what is the local competition like? And probably multiple other questions.

I'd enjoy browsing rightmove for now if I were you, while getting those famous MN ducks in a row