Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Sure, you can play happy host, but can you play it with your hands full of cleaning supplies while you're shelling out a small fortune?
By JUDY STARK
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 13, 2000
Think you'd like to run a bed and breakfast?
Think long and hard, says Ed Caldwell, proprietor of the newly opened Dickens House in St. Petersburg's Old Northeast neighborhood. "It is much more work than I ever imagined, and I'm not at the point yet where I'm booked solid for a full week. I've been getting a very gentle baptism."
Caldwell admits that "housekeeping has never been my strong point," and says family members will attest that "I never made my bed since I got out of the service in 1969."
But things are different now: "Everything has to be perfect all the time."
That means no old newspapers stacked up, no dusty lamps, no unwashed dishes on the dining-room table. When guests are finished with breakfast, "their coffee cups and plates are in the dishwasher as soon as possible."
Caldwell is up by 6:30 a.m. to prepare and serve breakfast. When guests leave, "I spend an entire day scrubbing, cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, getting ready" for the next guests. His work day may last until 9:30 at night.
"I thought I was going to be putting chocolates on the pillow, doing turndowns and welcoming guests," Caldwell said. He quickly learned that's the least of the job of proprietor.
"Some days I have to switch from wearing a hard hat" -- doing work on the house or on the apartment above the garage where he lives -- "to being the hoster with the toaster. Some days I'm really tired, and not in the mood to chit-chat. But you do," because a congenial host is part of the experience people want when they stay at a B&B, Caldwell said.
Recently a couple from Ohio stayed at the house: he, a former potter now starting a new career in cabinetmaking; she, a nurse considering a writing career. The couple went out and picked up a pizza; Caldwell made a salad; and they spent the evening sitting on the porch eating dinner together and talking. "That's what it's all about."
But behind those storybook moments are hours of labor and a huge investment. "The laundry goes for six or seven hours a day. I'm ironing pillowcases. You scrub the bathroom, top to bottom, after a one-night stay." Caldwell's sister, Jane Phair, who made all the window treatments for the house, comes in for three or four hours five days a week to help with the housework.
Caldwell estimates he spent $1,000 per room on linens: two and a half sets per room of 270-thread-count Egyptian cotton sateen sheets and British-spun Egyptian-cotton towels (those alone are $20 apiece). Even shopping at the Pier 1 closeout shop, he spent almost $400 on china.
The most expensive room in the house is one guests never see: the area under the stairs that houses a sophisticated phone system (it offers individual private voice mailboxes for each room and caller ID, and will soon add high-speed Internet access in each room) and the fire alarm/sprinkler system. Those two items alone cost $20,000.
"People think they're going to rent out a spare room in your home for $40 a night," Caldwell said. "They have not a clue what it costs."
Another major expense: advertising. "You can easily spend $5,000 to $10,000 the first year" on Internet listing services and professional innkeeping associations "so people can find you. A Web page is cheap, but to get hosted, posted and linked, that's a whole 'nother story."
Then there's local advertising, brochure and stationery design and printing costs (design and printing totaled about $2,800).
He looked for creative ways to get the word out: He advertises in the magazine that the Renaissance Vinoy Resort hands out to its guests. (Those people may want to come back to St. Petersburg at a more modest price.) He hosted a reception for real estate agents and relocation specialists who may need a place for out-of-town house-hunters to stay, and another for the Chamber of Commerce. He and other local bed-and-breakfast owners network and refer guests to each other.
Caldwell has never spent a night in his own luxuriously renovated guest rooms. "I'd have to wash the sheets, scrub the bathroom, vacuum and dust the next morning!"
The Dickens House is at 335 Eighth Ave. NE in St. Petersburg, telephone (727) 822-8622. The Web site is http://www.dickenshouse.com. Rates through Oct. 31 range from $70 to $170, higher in high season.
The Professional Association of Innkeepers International maintains a Web site at http://www.paii.org with a section targeted to aspiring innkeepers and a library of helpful books on innkeeping.