L is for Location, Location, Location!

Good morning faithful readers. My apologies for being away longer than expected.  We had to get the house ready for being on the market and for open house.  It looks great now, and just waiting for the right buyer to come along.  My realtor  has us on the caravan list for today, so many agents will be seeing it and I know that is important.  It is a lovely, unique home in a beautiful setting, so although I know it might take a little while, I am not too worried about the perfect person coming along.   We are out of our freezing weather here, and 70 sure did feel good the other day!  I made it to the beach with my new camera and had some fun playing with the settings.  Couple of okay shots, but mainly it just felt good out in the warmth.

Location has always been an important variable in choosing to buy or open an inn or b&b.  Being in a destination point usually means longer stays and more repeat business.  It is much more work and worry being located in an area that gets people for one night while they are on their way somewhere.  However, there is a new trend going on in the innkeeping world and that is creating the inn as the destination itself and weather-proofing the rooms.  The room becomes the destination, so no matter the weather guests or place, guests are happy .  More and more, guests are choosing to get away just to relax and be together; not to spend a lot of time playing tourist.  Being close to good restaurants, hiking, the beach, antique stores, etc..while still very nice, becomes secondary to the inn itself.  I love this idea and think it makes a lot of sense.  I’ll be writing more about this concept in the future when it is relevant to the post.

L also covers what may seem like some mundane areas like lighting.  I have stayed in many places where the lighting was so poor and inadequate.  Part of opening an inn is staying in each room for a night before opening.  This can help tweak any problems, like too little lighting or poor reading lamps, etc.  As they say, the devil is in the details and lighting is one of the important ones.

L does stand for another big-ticket item, especially today.  And that is Loans.  I know that even with previous innkeeping experience, banks are being very, very tight with their money in today’s economy.  So having all  the i’s dotted and t’s crossed is important.  I think it is going to take some persistence and work, but am going to remain optimistic that someone will believe in me and the inn I am going to buy.  I truly believe it will help that I want to buy an existing business instead of starting up a new inn.

Yesterday, I started a new total body conditioning class!  I want to remind everyone how important stretching, core strength, balance, and flexibility is for our bodies.  Along with diet I believe it is one of the key ingredients to a long and happy life.  Women especially, have a hard time with upper body strength, so I just wanted to put a word in about taking good care of ourselves as we get older.

Everyone have a great day!  Thanks for reading.  M is next-the perfect mattress anyone?

Advertisement