250-858-7308
1-800-730-4790

Very calm and tranquil a beautiful and peaceful and lovely spot.  Thankful for Dieter a great trip with his Boat.
- Ralph
Beautiful, romantic place to stay. Hospitality was great, view was amazing! Perfect spot for our new adventure as husband and wife!
- Aaron and Sherelle
We had a wonderful time! So relaxing and a beautiful place to call 'home' on our honeymoon ~ a perfect blend of warm hospitality and...
- Ray and Ula
Fabulous accommodations and breakfast!! We spent the day at Hatley Castle and would recommend it highly. We walked there and back...
- Cindy, Rick & Simone Brodner
Way too short of a stay, but absolutely beautiful. Thank you
- Bill and Larita
Thanks for the wonderful hospitality, we had a great time! This was our first time experiencing a B&B, and it was a memorable...
- Fredrick Roberts
A family get together to celebrate Patricks 80th birthday. We had a family dinner in your dining room with guests, Daniel & Faith...
- The Vincent Family
Dieter, thank you so much for sharing your lovely home with us. I very much enjoyed our breakfast conversations ! Our day on the ocean...
- Barbara
Thank you for the stay. We enjoyed it very much. It was so cosy. We would recommend you to anyone.
- Danny and Rocro
Wonderful place you have here in a gorgeous location. Hope one day to be back and visit in person.
- Steven Savary

Course #1: How to start a Bed and Breakfast / Vacation Rental - for Aspiring InnKeepers

BOOK DIRECT - Best Price

Cost: $485.00 (add $150.00 for each extra person) plus cost of accommodations where required

4 to 5 hours over 1 day covers the items listed below.

All Bed & Breakfast and Vacation Rental courses are taught one-on-one custom scheduled for you and usually taught on location at our B&B, or if you prefer at our QCollege.com
 

Legalities

  • making it legal
  • a business structure
  • taxation
  • income tax
  • business license information
  • zoning regulations
  • building code and fire safety regulations
  • permits
  • identification signs
  • fire regulations
  • fire containment
  • egress
  • detection
  • suppression
  • insurance

Financial

  • write-offs
  • research costs
  • miscellaneous start-up costs
  • calculating business portion of home
  • how much are my rooms worth
  • helpful hints
  • Reservation / Booking systems

This is the B&B / Vacation Rental Business

  • where to begin
  • what's in a name
  • register your name
  • what is a B&B
  • can you operate a B&B
  • who will be my clients
  • smokers, pets, and children
  • neighbourhood assessment
  • tourist attractions
  • know your competition
  • advantages
  • disadvantages
  • skills required
  • brochures and other print material

Setting up an existing Home - if you get to me before you build, or renovate I am also available for consulting both on site at your location, and/or blueprints

  • renovations
  • bedrooms
  • extra touches
  • beds and bedding
  • bathrooms
  • hallways and stairwells
  • common areas
  • guest eating area
  • your private space
  • decorating and upkeep
  • gardens
  • house rules
  • wedding parties
  • please don't come back
  • stolen goods
  • accidents
  • asking for payment

Digital Marketing

  • This is a separtate 2-part course about social media, web sites, blogs, channel partners, channel managers, OTA's, guest reviews including TripAdvisor

Odds and Ends

  • B&B associations
  • networking
  • internet considerations
  • accreditations
  • Food Safe certification
  • casual labour versus employees
  • WCB

How To Name Your Bed and Breakfast and/or Vacation Rental

  1. Make a fairly long list of potential names before settling on one.
  2. Ask some friends whose opinions you trust to give honest input.
  3. Consider using your inn's location in the name. But be careful -- names like Inn by the Sea are overused.
  4. If your inn has a special history, consider working that into the name.
  5. Think about alternative meanings. For example, "Harry" sounds like "hairy" and might not always be particularly inviting.
  6. Say the name out loud several times, and have people who aren't familiar with it do the same. Names that are hard to pronounce aren't the most useful.
  7. Make sure it's fresh. Search for the name on the Internet -- if dozens of hits come up in any context, or if even a small handful of other bed and breakfasts are already using the name, throw it away.
  8. Think about how it will look in a logo. Long names can be hard to use on brochures and business cards.
  9. Look up potential URLs. If you want to be Smith's Bed and Breakfast, look up URLs like smiths.com and smithsbb.com to make sure a good one is available for you. And, since domain registration is relatively inexpensive, you may as well go ahead and reserve any domain name you might want in the future.
  10. Don't forget that someday you'll want to sell the inn. Personal names (e.g. Smith's Bed and Breakfast) generally don't pass on as well as names like Golden Eagle Bed and Breakfast.
  11. Think alphabetically. Some B&B directories list inns in alphabetical order. Apple House Bed and Breakfast scores better here than Yellow Frog Inn.
  12. Remember that naming your inn should balance all of these suggestions. AAA Bed and Breakfast might get you good placement in some inn directories, but it sounds stale and institutional.
  13. Make sure you like the name. After all, it's your bed and breakfast

 

Dieter Gerhard

northStudio | StikkyMedia | QCollege | QAcademy | BirdsofaFeather | MarineEcotours

T: 250-391-8889
T: 800-730-4790
E: dieter@birdsofafeather.ca

 

Other courses offered: