Become an Interim Innkeeper

Owning a Bed & Breakfast is one of the most-often romanticized 2nd-career choices on an "I need a different job" wish list. In day-dream-land, what is not perfect about this job? The Inn would likely be located in a popular tourist destination. Cheerful, fascinating guests would appear on a regular basis to rave over your taste in home decorating, and entertain you over the morning's quiche, fresh fruit and French pastry. After they depart, you would get rooms ready for the next batch of guests, then spend the afternoon working in the beautiful gardens until people began to check in again. Who, involved in the commuting rat race of 9 to 5, would not completely embrace this vision?

If you've ever considered the life of a bed and breakfast innkeeper, have you stopped to wonder just what happens when the innkeepers need to leave the property for a few days? After all, innkeepers have families, too. Grandchildren are born, great uncles pass away, children need help for a weekend...all the things that make us "normal" folks turn in the 'ole "time away from work" requests, happen to innkeepers, too. Beyond that, sometimes they just need a break from the daily responsibility of having guests invade what is often also their home.

Having contemplated the possibility of running a bed and breakfast myself some day (above my little soap shop, the Port City Soapery), I have taken steps to begin learning about the business. Having been a guest at Korner Kottage Bed & Breakfast in Suttons Bay, Michigan,(link below if you are interested in being a guest) I have been in contact for a few years with Linda Munro, who owns the establishment with her husband Jim. Linda has been gracious enough to walk through her experience with me, and help give me a heads-up as to what I could expect as an inn owner.

Linda heartily agrees with my assessment of the job being a little piece of paradise. The Korner Kottage is located in an area of great beauty, near beaches, hiking and biking trails, a variety of wineries, boutique shopping and great restaurants. Linda and Jim are enthusiastic residents of the area, participating fully in all it has to offer (makes them great fountains of wisdom for their guests) and also participating in local government. Linda is a retired school teacher, and had not really given this career much consideration until the opportunity arose for she and Jim to purchase an inn in an area they loved.

But while Linda agrees with the paradise end of the lifestyle, she has also been valuable resource in the form of a dose of reality as to just how hard this business is. For starters, keeping an inn spotlessly clean (especially with a continual high level of guest turnover) is backbreaking work. While I might vacuum, dust and change my sheets once a week, Linda and Jim do this every day for four different sleeping rooms. They also disinfect four different bathrooms, and do all the laundry associated with towels, sheets and blankets. That is in addition to running to the farmer's market to make sure they have fresh ingredients for the next day's breakfast, and baking the batch of 'welcome cookies' (lemon chocolate chip, just to die for!). They must also work in tending the yard and garden, taking reservations and performing any facility maintenance. By 4 p.m. the next batch of guests is checking in, and being given personal tours of the house and a mini-tutorial of the area. After the guests are settled with keys and instructions on coming and going, Linda and Jim are "free" for the evening unless a guest has a special request or emergency (to that end, they are always on call). They will grab a bite to eat with friends or maybe catch a movie at the local theater. Then they return home to work on the bookkeeping, and bake items for breakfast (including their homemade dried cherry granola!). Then it's off to bed so they can rise before their guests and make sure they are up in time to create their fabulous gourmet breakfast.

The tourist season for Korner Kottage is heavy from May till the end of October. Last year Linda and Jim worked the schedule above without a day off for over 150 days in a row. What are the options for innkeepers such as Linda and Jim when there is a family emergency? Or when they are simply exhausted and need a few days away? Who ya gonna call? Inn Busters?

Rarely to innkeepers want to shut down their inn to take a few days (or longer) off. It's bad for business when potential new customers try to book reservations only to find the inn is closed that week. There are many choices in bed and breakfast lodging, and customers are likely to move on to another inn, not bothering to re-try the one that rebuffed their attempt to stay. Some innkeepers try to use relatives or friends, especially for a short period of time. But when things go wrong or there is a misunderstanding about procedure (more a rule of thumb than an isolated incident), the potential for damaged relationships is simply too high to risk. Some inn owners look for the people who owned the inn previously to help out in a pinch. But that also can have negative repercussions if the previous owners had a differing style of management, confusing guests.

One of the most viable options is to hire an interim innkeeper (sometimes referred to as innsitters). Innsitters are trained and experienced in all aspects of innkeeping: Hospitality, housekeeping, bookkeeping, website management, reservations, compliance with industry standards, emergency procedures (usually including CPR certification), and meal preparation. Prior to an assignment, they spend time with the innkeeper, learning the personal brand and flavor of that particular inn, and getting to know enough about the area to know how to recommend activities, restaurants, and even doctors or dentists. There is a plethora of inn sitting services, and most post calendars on their websites showing when they are available for coverage. Pay for interim innkeeping depends on the individual assignment, whether it is short-term, or for a season, and the level of work (is it tourist season, or off-season?). Sometimes pay is linked to the number of booked rooms. On average, an interim innkeeper can expect to make $100 to $200 per day, above and beyond room and board.

Who Becomes Interim Innkeepers?

Interim innkeeping is rarely an full-time career, due to fluctuating tourist seasons and the expense of travel to a destination. But it can be a lucrative and enjoyable "side career", allowing for travel to new destinations and meeting new people. To be an interim innkeeper, you should have the following qualities:

• Outgoing, "people person" personality
• Dependability
• Ability to assess and "think on feet"
• Computer literacy
• Bookkeeping ability
• Ability to absorb knowledge of an area
• Basic maintenance ability (plugged toilets, leaking showers and sinks, jammed windows, slow draining tubs, icing air-conditioners, etc.)
• Physical ability to keep up with housekeeping and yard work
• Awareness of kitchen compliance issues, certification in ServSafe
• Ability to cook quality food in quantity
• Willingness to be "on call" 24/7

Some people stumble on to the career, by helping out a friend or working part-time at a local bed and breakfast and developing a relationship wtih the owners. Sisters Anne Hart Stuble and Sue Hart Kalis begin their business (Two Hearts Inn-Sitting, link below) after enjoying a couple of individual gigs. Working from two locations (but traveling to and meeting at any one location), they have been able to build a business boasting a very full availablbility calander. There are some individuals who create innkeeping businessess, but often the businesses are created by couples (usually retired or semi-retired) or two people working together. A good resource for innkeepers to find interim innkeepers is Interiminnkeepers.net (link below).

The Interiminnkeepers.net site also offers information about becoming a certified interim innkeeper. One does not have to be certified, but certification does increase an inn owner's trust in your ability to cover all the basics. Certified businesses are much more likely to be contracted for stays than uncertified ones. On-site training is very specialized and sporadic, and finding a hands-on training opportunity is difficult. There are some training options listed on the Interiminnkeepers website, with the training taking place in Illinois, Colorado, California and New Mexico.

Another source of information is the Professional Association of Inkeepers International (PAII, link below). While training options are not listed for interim inkeepers. there is an innkeeper forum where opportunities are sometimes mentioned. There is also information on the 2012 Innkeeping Conference & Trade Show (to be held in Little Rock AK). The conference covers many aspects of the latest trends in innkeeping, and might prove valuable to those interested in trying their hand at an interim situation.

I know before I can run my own bed and breakfast (even on a small scale), I need to learn more about the industry and get some hands-on experience. I can't think of a better way than becoming an interim innkeeper. Therefore my latest bucket list addition is to become a certified interim innkeeper, and be paid to learn. Sounds like a win/win to me!