Moving to a new town can be stressful. Doing so because you need to look after elderly in-laws even more so. Deciding to give up your job in teaching to open a bed and breakfast no doubt piles on more pressure. And by the time you factor in the need to redevelop your new property there are people who will consider you "totally barking mad".
Patricia Greenwood, now the owner of the Seaflowers B&B but in past lives a teacher, a publican and a number of other things, did precisely that. She surrenders her home to strangers every day, keeps antisocial hours to ensure her guests are fed and watered and goes through all the stresses that go with the lifestyle.
"It started when my in-laws suggested we should move down to Devon to look after them," she says. "They were increasingly frail. We agreed; at first we weren't going to open a B&B, I was going to continue with college, and commute, but we thought that would be an awful strain. So we decided to make some changes to the building."
She and her husband Anthony had already decided to convert part of the house to an annex for the in-laws; they had to scrap some plans, get back to the builder and start planning for the new business. It was an area with which the family was familiar. "We had quite a long history in hotels and catering," she explains. "We'd run restaurants, pubs and hotels, the last of which we sold in 1999." They then had separate careers, her husband working for Bupa as a catering manager and Patricia teaching.
Then they went to South Africa on holiday two years ago. "We stayed in some fantastic bed and breakfasts there and thought, one day we'd like to do this – and that was it. Having worked together for so many years, we thought, do we really want to spend our lives together on a motorway because of the work commute?"
It sounds straightforward but it wasn't all plain sailing, she admits. First there were regulations to navigate. "Initially I rang the planning authority, who agreed we were going to have six guests at best so we didn't need planning permission." They complied with fire safety regulations, upgrading the standard of fire doors and installing smoke alarms. So much that could have been stressful initially was relatively simple in the event. However it was once they opened that the difficulties started.
"A neighbour who had a holiday home down here wrote to the council saying we needed planning permission" – which the planning officer had said they didn't. They had to apply for planning permission retrospectively. "It was a bit tricky because the planning officer was confident but the neighbour insisted we had six bedrooms even though only three were used for the B&B, so there was a grey area of how many people we could sleep including our in-laws rather than how many we accommodated as guests." The neighbour, when told everything should be OK by the planning authority, went to the Highways Authority with a concern about access.
The process was drawn out and took months. "I asked how many other B&Bs in Devon had planning permission and the answer was 'not many'," she explains. Months later, having had professional plans drawn up to illustrate that access would not be an issue, permission came through.
Other regulations applied too but they were prepared for those: her husband, a chef, had a good knowledge of food hygiene requirements. They both took a general hygiene course to be compliant. "We had inspections by the fire officer, too."
Insurance was essential. "We have to have a fairly comprehensive insurance policy," says Patricia. The business is covered for public liability as well as for fire, theft and a range of other specified incidents which could affect the business. The B&B is considered a business rather than a home from the insurer's point of view.
No business can ensure a good profit, and planning in this case was a little haphazard. The couple had intended to supplement their income and enable Patricia to give up work rather than run a thriving business. "It took off rather faster than we thought and we had a successful business on our hands but I have to say we didn't think terribly carefully about it – there was no question of sitting down and doing a big forecast or anything!" She doesn't regret the approach, though; it's more successful than they'd have envisaged.
So, sharing living space with strangers – is that comfortable? This is where the nature of the building is a help. "We do have our own space. We have three bedrooms on the ground floor, and a large entrance hall so we can lock off the doors that lead into our areas." They can lock off upstairs, where the family lives, so it's secure.
Not that the guests are a problem. "All of our guests are lovely," she says. Experience has taught them how to handle difficult people but sometimes the ones they imagine will be a problem turn out to be charmers: "The one person that comes to mind was someone who sent us emails about what sort of linens we had, whether they were hypoallergenic and whether we had any pets," she explains. "Food allergies and all sorts of things were coming through and I wasn't looking forward to it – but she was absolutely lovely."
The B&B sources everything it can from local suppliers and has its own chickens for breakfast eggs. If there's one thing she wishes she'd understood then it's the importance of TripAdvisor. "We've been lucky and had some very good reviews, but all that's got to happen is one person takes a dislike and you can be quite upset," she says. "It hasn't happened to us but I've been told by about it by a few others, and it isn't pleasant."
For the moment the 66 reviews online are positive – and the couple is determined to make sure that continues.
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