The B&B Lifestyle

On our travels this summer, we've been staying at B&B's and I am fascinated by the lifestyle of the owners. Notice I said lifestyle, not business. The lifestyle is a very interesting one and seems to be fairly consistent, the business is what the individual owners make of it.

B&B's are quite popular as an economical alternative to a hotel here in the UK and in Europe. In the US, they often tend to compete with hotels, but provide a nicer experience (better food, better accomodations.

What is the B&B lifestyle? Find a lovely, good sized house in an area which people love to travel to. Furnish it well and fit out several of the bedrooms for guests, while maintaining a private owner's accomodation. Guests come in the afternoon, want some advice on where to eat dinner and maybe a cup of tea. They get a key and can come and go as they need to during the evening. In the morning, guests have a homemade breakfast and head out shortly thereafter. Rooms need to be 'turned' and readied for the next set of guests.

B&B owners, while not making a fortune, have a lifestyle. I've seen families working together getting rooms ready, in the garden. I hear parents talking with their children while making the breakfast for the guests. I see relaxed living where people have time to talk to the people visiting, to their families, to each other. Often folks who are tired of long hours, stressful work environments, living their lives away from their families find the B&B lifestyle quite appealing.

Of course running a B&B is work, it's not all beautiful country living and swanning about. Some of it can be quite manual and some is quite repetitive (the beds must be made every day, it must be spotless, renovations are work!). There are also customers, some are wonderful, some are less so. Depending upon the B&B, the money can be sufficient to replace someone's 'office' income or it can simply be a supplement. In some instances with the bigger B&Bs or guest houses, it allows both parents to stay home with their children or two partners to work together building a lifestyle-based business.

Some additional thoughts and links on the topic can be found here or do a search on how to start and run a B&B.

It's an interesting option for folks who want to spend some of their 750,000 Hours who want to transition from spending their time with the people they work with to spending time with the people they love.