Bed and Breakfast Suggested Reading

write a business plan to help you get financing for that B&B that's for sale which you want to buy

gain insights into superb customer service

research how other innkeepers run their inns to help you formulate or fine tune your operations

learn what your bed and breakfast guests want from their B&B inn experience

get several opinions on how to open and operate your inn

market your bed and breakfast

save money with your taxes

deal with guest complaints

buy a bed and breakfast

• Join PAII (Professional Association of Innkeepers International) to get innkeeping
• Sign up for Innfo, The B&B Lady's periodic eZine. It's distributed by email or available on her site at Articles

• The PAII Industry Survey

• This is the "bible" of B&B innkeeping. So... You Want To Be An Innkeeper by Mary Davies, et al, is a collaboration of great California innkeeping women.
• Jan Stankus shares in her book, How To Open And Operate A Bed & Breakfast, details that help keepers of the smaller inn. This is a great book to fill in where other books don't go.
• Every innkeeper I've ever known has said they were going to write a book about their journey into and through innkeeping. Dick Matthews has finally broken the barrier and published the tale of how he and his wife became innkeepers. This book may be one of the more valuable books an aspiring innkeeper can read because he tells it like it is, and with humor and grace. Notes From an Innkeeper's Journal is well written and a must read for aspiring and perspiring innkeepers alike.
• And this provides a different perspective for aspiring innkeepers. Start & Run Your Own B&B Inn, by Ripley Hotch and Carl Glassman, is written by two successful men with inns on the east coast.
• This is "new" to the innkeeping world and I frequently hear people talking about how much they enjoy the information and approach in Complete Idiot's Guide to Running a Bed and Breakfast, by Susannah Craig and Park Davis
• The eBook, Daily Operations: The 8-Ring Circus by Kit Cassingham, The B&B Lady, has a slightly different approach from the other books listed here. The B&B Lady shares her knowledge gleaned from not only years of her own innkeeping experiences but also from networking with innkeepers across North America and in other parts of the world.
• Housekeeping is a big part of an inn's daily operations. Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell, is the book to help you cut that time in half. Learn tested step-by-step techniques of The Clean Team so your inn is sparkling clean, fast and easy. It works!
• Getting your common areas and guestrooms cleaned fast is your daily focus. As well as you clean those rooms they still need extra attention once or twice a year. Spring Cleaning, also by Jeff Campbell, will help you with that daunting task as much as Speed Cleaning helps with you daily housekeeping chores. Make your life easy; adopt secrets shared in this book now!
• And if Jeff Campbell didn't answer all of your questions in the two cleaning books, try Talking Dirt America's Speed Cleaning Expert Answers the 157 Most Asked Cleaning Questions.

• Start with learning how to write a business plan by using How to Write a Business Plan by Mike McKeever. In the process of writing your business plan, you'll learn about the business aspects of your B&B concept. That knowledge will help you get a loan and run a successful B&B.
• Mark Stevens shares his business building ideas in 36 Small Business Mistakes And How To Avoid Them. Why recreate the business-wheel when others can show you how it's done?
• Sound business practices have been formed in all areas of business from the wisdom imparted by Stephen R. Covey in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People . And he has an Eighth Habit available now too, if you want to be really successful.
• The E-Myth Revisited Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work And What To Do About It by Michael E. Gerber, discusses why small businesses don't work but the people who own them do. If you want to run your business rather than have it run you, this book is a must.
• One aspect of starting a business that's often overlooked is building a solid foundation under your B&B plans. In the eBook Building a Good Foundation: So You Don't Find Yourself In A Hole, Kit Cassingham -- The B&B Lady -- guides you through that foundation-building process. A solid foundation will hold a successful B&B dream.
• Furthermore, doing research on what will make your B&B business successful, needs attention from you. You get that focus and attenion in the eBook Planning Your Business: Getting A Handle On The Nuances Of Implementing Your Idea. Kit Cassingham (The B&B Lady) shares her insights, gained from working with active and aspiring innkeepers over the past twenty years, to help you be more successful through careful planning and research.

• Marketing happens every day in a B&B. Guest interactions, ad copy writing, and website design are just some of your activities that fall into the realm of marketing. Influence The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B Cialdini, PhD, may be the most important book on persuasion you'll ever read. My friends' reactions to this book tells me it has struck a chord deep within them, and they are succeeding better with what they learned from this book.
• Learn how to communicate your market niche -- or Position -- in an over-loaded society with Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout, If you can't stand out in the market place of potential guests, you be standing out "in the cold".
• Find out about the little things you can do to make the difference between keeping and losing customers. Paul R. Timm shares ideas that will get innkeepers and their staff to think about what they can do to impress your guests. 50 Powerful Ideas You Can Use To Keep Your Customers. This book will impact your bottom line unlike most other books you'll read.
• In order for your marketing strategies to work, they must be in tune with the marketplace. The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing: Violate Them At Your Own Risk by Al Ries, shares solid information on just how to do that. Read and succeed!
• This is the PDF (electronic) version ofThe 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing: Violate Them At Your Own Risk by Al Ries.
• Marketing Warfare, Al Ries and Jack Trout, takes a military approach to analyzing your marketing strategy. Donald Trump's attitude is "it's not personal, it's business". This book takes the personal out of your decisions so that you can make good business decisions. Learn how to determine which of your strategies will or won't work, given your specific strengths and weaknesses.
• This eBook applies marketig savvy learned at the knees of these authors and successful innkeeprs across the country and applies it to the B&B industry. Learn what Marketing: Standing Out From The Competition by Kit Cassingham, The B&B Lady, can teach you about copy writing, developing your brochure and website, and how to let your market niche and guest experience shine for all to see.

• As a self-employed B&B owner, you probably want to pay less taxes. Keep Your Hard-Earned Money: Tax-Saving Solutions for the Self-Employed by Henry Aiy'm Fellman and Star Parker, is the book for you. Information you can learn from this book will save you money, big money.
• Show Me The Money!: Great Expectations by Kit Cassingham -- The B&B Lady, covers questions of how much money you need to get into the business, what kind of money you can anticipate earning as an innkeeper, and how to fair well financially when you sell you inn. Learn how to project income and expenses, to price a B&B for sale, and how to price your guestrooms.

• It's the little things that make the outrageous differences. T. Scott Gross, in his book Positively Outrageous Service: How to Delight and Astound Your Customers and Win Them for Life, illustrates with personal examples how to make your business a repeat winner.
• And he continues his lessons about how outstanding customer service makes a great business in Outrageous!: Unforgettable Service, Guilt-Free Selling. Learn to give people the service you promise them.
• A Complaint Is A Gift by Jannelle Barlow and Claus Møller, beautifully explains why the complaints, suggestions, or requests guests make are gifts for you to accept with a smile. Furthermore, the authors delve into the notion that every guest who comes through your door is a consultant who is paying you to hear their advice. This is one of my favorite books.
• Add emotional value to your guests' and employees' experiences as you read Emotional Value: Creating Strong Bonds With Your Customers by Jannell Barlow and Dianna Maul. By promoting positive emotional states for your employees and your guests, you promote success at your B&B because of the increased guest loyalty that results.

• Buying a B&B Inn, Kit Cassingham, The B&B Lady
• Questions B&B Buyers Should Ask, Kit Cassingham, The B&B Lady
• B&B Inspection Tips and Checklist, Tim Carter, Ask The Builder

• An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's book
• Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough, Michael Braungart
• Green to Gold, Daniel C Esty, Andrew S Winston
• The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success -- and How You Can Too, Andrew W Savitz, Karl Weber
• Hot, Flat and Crowded, Thomas L Friedman
• Hotel Sustainable Development Principles & Best Practices, edited by AJ Singh and Hervé Houdré
• Greening Food and Beverage Services, edited by Cheryl Baldwin

• My husband's funny -- yet thought-provoking -- book on weird lawsuits, The True Stella Awards:, Randy Cassingham
• A witty and educational, best selling book on punctuation, Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss is a must-have for anyone who writes.
• Susan Vreeland's The Passion of Artemisia, is the novelized biography of Artemisia Gentileschi. Artemisia was a 17th century painter who gained fame during her own era, despite being a woman in a man's age.

• So... You Want To Be An Innkeeper, Mary Davies, et al.
• How To Open And Operate A Bed & Breakfast, Jan Stankus
• Notes From an Innkeeper's Journal, Dick Matthews
• How to Write a Business Plan, Mike McKeever
• The PAII Industry Survey
• Influence The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B Cialdini, PhD
• The Complete Collection: The Seminar Series: The Innkeeping Balancing Act: Business vs Hospitality and The Buying Series, Kit Cassiangham, The B&B Lady

• innkeeping newsletter
• "http://www.thebandblady.com/cgi-bin/redirect.pl?b25" target="new">Notes From an Innkeeper's Journal, Dick Matthews
• Keep Your Hard-Earned Money: Tax-Saving Solutions for the Self-Employed, Henry Aiy'm Fellman, Star Parker
• Influence The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B Cialdini, PhD
• The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing: Violate Them At Your Own Risk, Al Ries
• Positively Outrageous Service: How to Delight and Astound Your Customers and Win Them for Life, T. Scott Gross
• A Complaint Is A Gift, Jannelle Barlow and Claus Møller
• Speed Cleaning, Jeff Campbell
• Spring Cleaning, Jeff Campbell
• Talking Dirt America's Speed Cleaning Expert Answers the 157 Most Asked Cleaning Questions, Jeff Campbell
• Daily Operations: The 8-Ring Circus, Kit Cassingham, The B&B Lady
• Marketing: Standing Out From The Competition, Kit Cassingham, The B&B Lady