To introduce you to innkeepers across America, this recurring column reveals how ordinary people turned their dream into a reality; how the innkeepers' lifestyle compares with their fantasies; and what makes they do to make their inn so special. In this feature you’ll meet Debbie Mosimann, who, with husband Werner, is the owner of the Swiss Woods Inn of Lititz, Pennsylvania.
What sparked your interest in running a bed and breakfast?
We were living in Switzerland and my parents were trying to encourage my husband Werner and I to return to the states. Back in 1985 bed and breakfasts were becoming the rage, and in Switzerland they were all over the place and we had stayed at several. So we thought, “Werner is a farmer and maybe if we did a farm with a couple of rooms on the side…”
How did you envision life as an innkeeper?
We actually went into this thinking it would be a sideline. We thought our major livelihood would come from the farm and I would do rooms on the side. I did not envision it would be as all-consuming as it turned out to be.
How did the fantasy compare with the reality?
I think our biggest surprise was how "all-day" it is. It is not just checking people in and serving breakfast. And granted the Internet has leveled the playing field and made things easier as far as marketing, it also puts a whole lot more work on the innkeeper’s plate. We have our own Swiss Woods blog and the Eight Broads in the Kitchen blog and facebook accounts and by the time you get it all done it’s taken a couple of hours each day.
What is the most pleasing aspect of running a bed and breakfast?
The guests. The fact that you are meeting a real need for people to get away, for them to relax, for them to regroup... that is very satisfying. Being able to do something for someone that is really worthwhile.
I think a lot of innkeepers will tell you stories about people that arrive totally stressed out and are a bundle of raw nerves and exhaustion. Compare that to the people who check out a few days later and you would never recognize them side-by-side. They are whole different people.
What do you find most challenging?
The bookkeeping and staying on top of all the things you need to do to make the inn run smoothly. There’s a business aspect of this that I don’t think I completely grasped when I started.
The other challenge in the age of Trip Advisor is trying to meet everyone’s expectations when everybody’s expectations are different -- and doing this while trying to remain true to who you are. Twenty-five years ago if you were not a good fit, your guests would just try someplace new. Today they tell a million of their closest friends in one keystroke. But because we are so personally involved in what we do, it puts an emotional pressure on the innkeeper; it adds an emotional quotient into the mix that really shouldn’t be there.
With all of the demands on your time, how do you find time for yourself?
I think the key to taking care of myself is hiring good help; people I can really trust to do check-ins a couple of nights a week so I can actually be away and not worry about it. And over the course of time we’ve tried not taking guests on Sunday, or take a whole day off, or separate days off, any number of things... But we’re not very good with vacations. When we do go, it’s usually separate and that’s more because we end up worrying too much about the inn. So it’s so much easier when one of us stays here when the other is gone.
Where do you focus your attention when marketing and advertising?
Right now you need a really good website. One that pops. I need to make sure that our website and who we are stays head and shoulders above anything out there. It’s always better to woo repeat guests than find new ones so we do an active facebook page for the inn and one for our group Eight Broads in the Kitchen which is a little different since it reaches out to the foodie population that enjoys staying with us. We try to set ourselves apart in that direction.
Select Registry is a huge part of our marketing budget and has done really, really well for us and I wouldn’t be without Select Registry or the Diamond Collection of bedandbreakfast.com.
So pick and choose. Put your money where it’s going to pay you back. And track your stats as well. It’s so easy to throw money out there like scattering grain to the wind and hope some of it sprouts, but I can tell you I have culled it down to a handful of places where I actually advertise.
What do you do to make your bed and breakfast different from others?
We did that at the beginning. We built new in 1985 and themed it totally Swiss and that has set us apart from every country and Victorian and farmhouse B&B in the county. I don’t think we did it knowingly. Actually, we went into this not knowing what we were doing and some of the choices we made were really good ones without even knowing we were doing it.
But you have to find something. You have to figure out what need is not being met for the traveling public and then meet that need.
What qualities should aspiring innkeepers have?
They should be workaholics. I’m amazed at how many people go into B&Bs thinking it’s a retirement occupation. They are naïve. I think the biggest asset anyone can bring to innkeeping is a solid, general understanding of how a small business works. Have a good accounting and financial background, be good at bookkeeping, and at least one person needs to be outgoing and gregarious and able to deal really well with people.
What one piece of advice would you offer to aspiring innkeepers?
Plan, plan, plan and plan well. Before you do anything at all, attend a PAII (Professional Association of Innkeepers International) conference. Go take their Aspiring Innkeeper Workshop and talk to people that do this day in and day out. Maybe you’ll meet someone there that you can apprentice with for a couple of months to get your feet wet. Go do it and make sure. It’s like any other profession where you need to get the education to make it a success.
PAII is an invaluable resource. It’s incredible what they have to offer but it’s one of most underutilized resources ever. In an industry where so many people try to fly by the seat of their pants, there is good information and good help out there. I would encourage anyone who wants to start an inn or remotely thinks about it to seek the information that is already there.
Located on "35 acres of bliss" in famed Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the Swiss Woods Inn near the town of Lititz offers a sanctuary from the real world. While providing a welcome sense of privacy, within a short drive are the towns of Lancaster, Hershey, and Gettysburg.
Related Features- •Debbie Mosimann was once an aspiring innkeeper. Learn the essentials of business plan visit The Seven Steps of Writing a Business Plan.
And take time to meet other innkeepers who turned their dreams into realities.
John & Diane Sheiry of the 1898 Waverly Inn in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
Lynnette Scofield of the of the William Henry Miller Inn in Ithaca, New York.
