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 Linda Kesler who owns and operates the DreamGivers Inn of Newburg, Oregon.
What sparked your interest in running a bed and breakfast?
It was life circumstances. My husband had passed away and I was picking out what was next for me in life. I was rediscovering who I was apart from him and I was thinking about my gift of hospitality and a bed and breakfast seemed like a perfect match.
What did you do prior to becoming an innkeeper?
I worked at a Portland, Oregon, church as the pastor’s assistant. I was used to helping people and I’ve always had an interest in that.
How did you envision life as an innkeeper?
Well, I well envisioned taking care of people and helping them discover the area and things like that. I love cooking and I envisioned having fun and enjoying time with people.
How did the fantasy compare with the reality?
I started from scratch. Kristen Hardy and I are business partners, although I am the innkeeper and live on site.
After we bought the house and started to convert it into a bed and breakfast, we encountered a lot of obstacles, most of them were neighborhood kinds of things like getting a conditional use permit to operate a B&B on a farm and, of course, the county notifies the neighbors who were less than thrilled. That was a big challenge – to endear the neighbors to us. They thought we were putting up a Hilton.
Then there’s the reality that you have no personal life. Really that has been my biggest enlightenment, because once I started this business everything began to revolve around the B&B, not around my personal life. Since then it’s been trying to find the balance.
What is the most pleasing aspect of running a bed and breakfast?
I literally love everyone I have met. I have so many return guests and have a few who come back at least twice a year. They come in the back door and it’s like have your cousins coming over to visit. I love the relationships that develop over the years and I really enjoy nurturing and cooking for people and supplementing theie enjoyment and vacation. It’s fulfilling.
What do you find most challenging?
Finding time for myself in terms of getting rejuvenated and keeping myself from getting worn out. Burn out, I guess. I am literally here 24/7/365 and I don’t get a break until the wintertime when things start to slow down.
With all of the demands on your time, how do you find time for yourself?
Ordinarily the inn is closed the week of Christmas and that’s when I know I will have time for myself. I kind of gauge myself and find when I am internally churning… then I will block out maybe a couple of days. We just close it down. Because I live here it’s hard to have all the B&B activity going on if I’m hearing it but not involved in it. For me, personally, it’s hard maintain that distance – to keep your hands away from it unless I physically remove myself and go somewhere like the beach.
A few times I’ve had someone come in for me, but that’s tough because when I hear things going on I want to be involved in it.
Where do you focus your attention when marketing and advertising?
We don’t do the Chamber of Commerce, and Kristen is the one that handles the marketing, We do mostly Internet marketing. We are members of bedandbreakfast.com, not a lot of print except for the Wilamette Valley Winery Association Guide, the Oregon Bed and Breakfast Guild, Oregon Wine Inns website. We try to be strategic when we advertise.
Kristen will do a lot of things that are free… we don’t do Trip Advisor, but we get a lot of reviews and a lot of traffic from that.
What do you do to make your bed and breakfast different from others?
Our bed and breakfast is honestly all the best of being at home -- but you don’t have to do anything. We love pampering our guests and the minute they walk in, they sigh. The décor is done in very soothing Northwest colors. It’s very comfortable. We don’t have the bric a brac and things like that. We invite our guests to make themselves at home. Many older B&Bs are period – Victorian or whatever, but ours is very open and very inviting. People sit around the fire, take a nap, whatever. They feel like they're at home.
What qualities should aspiring innkeepers have?
They need to love people and need to love serving people. That’s the most important thing. If you don’t love people and serving them, then you’re in the wrong business. That is key.
What qualities should aspiring innkeepers have?
If they could possibly find a bed and breakfast to work in, then they should do that – even if it’s for free. Try to do some innsitting or shadow an innkeeper.
I took a three-day Aspiring Innkeepers workshop in Florida. After that, you do not have rose-colored glasses anymore. For me it was very helpful and it got down to the nitty gritty of how to run a B&B... I mean, you don’t have a life, really.
But I don’t want this to sound negative. I love my life. I love every minute of what I do.
The DreamGivers Inn is a four-bedroom bed and breakfast which features a spacious common area, oversized wood fireplace and expansive decks overlooking ten acres of Oregon's lovely Willamette Valley. Nearby are wineries, the Oregon Coast, Mount Hood, the Columbia Gorge, Multnomah Falls, and Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose at McMinnville's Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.
For other innkeeper profiles, visit Donald Jones of the Granville House in Ohio, and Barbara Hearn Smith of the Holly Tree Manor in Trenton, Tennessee.
