Bed and Breakfast Owners

Any experience you can obtain in the hospitality industry through internships, part-time jobs, or volunteerships will be useful.

Bed and breakfast ownership calls upon diverse skills. You must have a head for business, but you have to be comfortable working among people, outside of an office. You must be creative in the way you maintain the house, paying attention to decor and gardening, but you should also have practical skills in plumbing and other household repair (or you should at least be capable of diagnosing any need for repair). A knowledge of the electrical wiring of your house and the phone lines is valuable. You'll also need an ability to cook well for groups both large and small.

Bed and breakfast owners should be easygoing, organized, and enjoy meeting new people. They must be a gracious host to all their guests, but they must also maintain rules and regulations; guests of bed and breakfasts expect a quiet environment, and smoking and drinking is often prohibited.

If turning your home into a bed and breakfast, you should learn about city planning and zoning restrictions, as well as inspection programs. Computer skills will help you to better organize reservations, registration histories, and tax records. You should have some knowledge of marketing in order to promote your business by ads, brochures, and on the Internet.