Should I start a B & B or not - Part I?
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Bed and Breakfast and Farmstay Queensland recommend three rooms with a tariff of $150 per night coupled with 50% occupancy as a rule of thumb for making a basic living in Bed and Breakfast. You would be looking at sales of approximately $82,000 (AUD). These are good guidelines and a must to take note of for budding Bed and Breakfast entrepreneurs.There are other considerations that need to be looked at as well and I think that there are three important areas when deciding on whether to open as a B & B or not; in particular, the suburb that your property is in, the standard of the accommodation be it luxury, economy or somewhere in the middle, and the start up fees. Today I shall be looking at the suburb.
It is no revelation to know that the council rates in Paddington, Brisbane are higher than those in Logan and consequently a Paddington property requires a higher selling price per unit of accommodation for the night to cover costs. But it also means that the $150 tariff recommended by Bed and Breakfast and Farmstay Queensland can be scaled down to $100 per night in Logan or similar suburbs due to the proportionate reduction in the fixed cost of rates and other council fees, whilst you can still remain solvent. The suburb and locale are also likely to be an indicator of whether people are going to come and stay and what they might be looking for:
An inner city property can be targeted at business travellers who want somewhere close to the CBD, particularly in Brisbane where there is a shortage of beds;
A property in Daisy Hill can highlight proximity to the Daisy Hill forest for the Koala Centre, bikeways, walking and family barbecues, also only 30 minutes from the beaches of Surfers Paradise, 45 minutes from Mt Tamborine.
But it does take thought to decide if your property could be successful in the business of B & B. I have had a couple of people contact me recently to discuss viability and I think that both would be successful but my advice is always:
Go to council and have a pre- approval meeting (usually free);
Be realistic in what you have to offer and have an alternative action plan if B & B does not work out e.g. homestay or short-term accommodation for all the people coming to live in Queensland;
Make sure you have an income coming in from another source particularly for the first six months whilst you become established i.e. do not give up your day job or do not let your partner give up theirs, unless of course you are independently wealthy.