Since 2007, Jay Karen has been the president and CEO of the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII), the world's largest bed and breakfast organization. In this recurring feature, Jay will speak on topics of interest to members of the industry.
In this installment, Jay offers advice to Aspiring Innkeepers.
In our first conversation, we spoke about PAII membership for innkeepers. How can PAII help aspiring innkeepers?
We have two levels of membership for Aspiring Innkeepers – Silver at $89 and Gold at $399 – and there’s a big difference between the two.
The Silver level benefits are similar to what a Silver level innkeeper receives, such as access to newsletters as well as watching live discussions where real innkeepers talk about what challenges they face and how they are solving their problems.
You also receive a subscription to Innkeeping Quarterly magazine. Every B&B owner receives this, but outside the industry only a dues-paying Aspiring member can receive the magazine.
There’s a $310 difference between that and the Gold Level. What do those member receive?
You’ll be impressed. We send them a box filled with educational books such as ‘Running a Bed and Breakfast For Dummies’ as well as an innkeeper’s journal book and other really good books that we’ve hand-picked to introduce them to the life of an innkeeper. In addition, you’ll receive the industry operational study that includes invaluable information on what bed and breakfasts are doing as far as average daily rate, occupancy, revenue, expenses, and trends.
We also give then access to some of the recorded Webinars -- hand-picked ones that we think aspiring innkeepers would appreciate. So for the more serious aspiring innkeeper you get a whole box full of benefits right up front.
But there’s something to be said about learning from the “voice of experience.”
Absolutely. We offer some pretty good opportunities to get lots of knowledge right up front, and so we have a mentoring program to connect Aspiring Innkeepers with actual innkeepers.
If you know this is something you’ll be doing and you’re very serious about this, we will hook you up with a veteran innkeeper who would be happy to mentor you and be available for what I call “spot coaching.” This is someone you can write to and, for instance, say “I’m looking at this property, but it has six rooms and only five baths. Would you do this?”
To have a veteran innkeeper advise you and explain “No, I wouldn’t do it. If you can’t have all private baths, I’d look for another property.” It’s a great resource to have that kind of coaching and feedback.
So PAII can help make those connections. We’re kind of a matchmaker as far as that’s concerned. It’s a really nice benefit that I don’t think you get anywhere else.
And if they want to get practical, hands-on experience?
Definitely. I will say there’s nothing like hands-on experience, and PAII can help figure that out, too. If an aspiring innkeeper knows the kind of inn they’re looking for and they want to work somewhere for a few weeks or a month -- and they're willing to donate their time in an effort to learn the business -- we’ll help find that match for them.
Say they want to go to a New England inn and work at a busy country inn with a restaurant or whatever. Our staff will put out an e-mail to our New England members and help do that matchmaking.
In addition to having a mentor and, perhaps, working at an inn, what other training would you suggest for Aspiring Innkeepers?
At our annual convention we host a workshop for Aspiring Innkeeper that features consultants from around our industry. This lasts all day and speakers focus on different parts of innkeeping; finance, marketing, choosing a property, etc. Part of the point of is to overwhelm people and show them an unvarnished view of what innkeeping’s really about.
In all honesty, we’re hoping it’ll scare away people who shouldn’t be in the business. I acquaint it to that professor who’s going to make the first day as difficult as possible because they want students who are not serious about the topic to quit. I don’t think that’s the kind of approach the presenters purposely take, but we want that effect so people don’t think this is going to be a part-time retirement gig or that it’s going to be easy.
Innkeeping is a challenging profession. And honestly, selfishly, I’m a person who looks after the entire industry and our welfare and our future and I want people who are very serious about running B&Bs so the experience becomes better for the traveler and then the traveler tells all their friends through social networking how wonderful it was to stay at a B&B because, ultimately, they stayed at one that was run by a professional.
