How to Finance your own Inn
Have you considered hosting your own inn, small hotel or bed and breakfast? It’s a tempting idea for many people, often those who’ve spent many years working as employees in the daily grind. Now they want to find independence and more satisfying careers as innkeepers.While the dream is very attractive, the reality requires a great deal of thought, research and careful steps to make it happen. For example:1. Study the market: Ask yourself if this the right time to become an innkeeper? Consider the national economy, current state of the travel industry and other aspects. You’ll be investing money, time and effort into the enterprise, so go beyond dream and approach it with eyes wide open.2. Shop around: Use the internet to view the many listings of inns and similar properties for sale. Consider the great variety of locales, including seashore, mountain, island and other attractive tourist and vacation areas. To get comparisons, check out listed prices to gauge your financial requirements to invest in a property.3. Location: That friendly little roadside inn may be your dream, but the reality is you must do everything right to create and sustain a profitable business. Unless you enjoy loneliness and occasional visitors, your inn has to be conveniently located where vacationers and other travelers will want to stay.4. Financing: Determine available assets you have to invest. Will your purchase will be a modest bed and breakfast, a more ambitious inn or upscale boutique hotel? Once you’ve started your plan to become an innkeeper, seek out a reliable bank or other financial organization.Choose one that specializes in setting up mortgages for property owners in the hospitality industry. The most appropriate lender will provide an expert staff to support and guide you through all start-up financial and other needs.5. Licenses, permits, taxes and more: You’ll need an attorney throughout the process of buying an inn and for protecting yourself in all legal matters. Additionally, unless your business will be a small bed and breakfast enterprise where you can handle all bookkeeping matters, you’ll require accounting services.6. Let them know you’re there: You can’t just depend on the eye-catching exterior of your inn to attract people from the road, no matter how inviting it may look. Get involved with the many ways to advertise. While the traditional print ads in magazines and newspapers may still be helpful, the internet can be very effective. For relatively little expense, you can set up your own website and post continuously updated information. You can sign up and advertise seasonal specials on Facebook and other social networks.7. Welcome mat: In addition to choosing a favorable location, you should consider how to make your inn and it’s furnishings attractive and unique. Many go for history, as in some vintage properties where the inns have been in operation for centuries. Others go for mystery, with old tales of hauntings, murders and other strange happenings.If you’ve dreamed of becoming an innkeeper, financing it is just one of your many concerns. You must also be prepared to go beyond the dream and make it a successful business reality.
