Open up your home
A farmhouse B&B option may be just the way to bring in some handy cash for you and your family.
Stick to less than four guest suites and you will not need planning for change of use
Many families hard pressed by the recession live in homes with even occasionally unoccupied bedrooms. Open your mind and you could make those square metres count by taking in a paying guest to help foot those bills.
&If your house is rangy enough, with adequate fire escapes, insurance, bathrooms (preferably en-suite), boasting local amenities or a route to places of interest, you could consider opening a B&B business. Approval and a start rating by Fáilte Ireland (www.discoverireland.ie) is preferable but not necessary or even compulsory.
If you’re not with the body, you will need to get on board with other marketing groups online such as GoIreland.com to get your property out there in good view for foreign and domestic travellers. These services charge a fixed annual fee or take a commission on bookings, but allow potential guests to search your area and find you quickly. If you have something extra, for example, taking in pets or gorgeous walks on the doorstep, this will make your property shine&.
Stick to less than four guest suites and you will not need planning permission for change of use, but if you have more ambitious plans contact your local planning office for advice as soon as possible. If you do take on more than four suites, and are working alone, key in the cost of occasional help to ‘turn’ the rooms in high season. The greatest single challenge beyond start up costs will be the periodic invasion of your private spaces, as B&B guests will generally expect a homely environment over a formal hotel atmosphere.
You will be effectively self-employed and responsible for submitting your income after costs from the business to the Revenue each year. A short course on simple marketing and how to keep small business accounts is advisable for a beginner. Have your guests recommend their stay on Trip Advisor if they claim to have had a great time. This will draw more business.
Take in a lodger: like B&B work, this can prove a seasonal financial relief, but here’s a key piece of information to get you started.
“Where a room in a persons’ principle private residence is let as residential accommodation and the gross annual rental income is less than €10,000 per annum this rental income is exempt from tax. Where it exceeds €10,000 the rent is taxable in full.”
The tenant will also be eligible for tax relief in the form of credits, (www.taxation.ie).
The tenant can be on a short-term stay to attend a college course, or be present year round for personal or business reasons. Most lodgers will eat at least some of their meals with you, or will expect set times to use the kitchen to summon up their own meals.
Large local companies, hospitals, educational centres and even busy smaller firms may have need of occasional hospitality, so do some local research. Keep in mind that all public/private crossover areas, especially for business-style guests, will now have to be maintained to a high standard.
Hosting younger visitors here in Ireland to learn English and enjoy a cultural exchange will be more demanding than entertaining a fully independent adult. However, if you’re temperamentally suited and have more time on your hands, it’s a fertile form of income. Horror stories of wildly over demanding diva children running up the immersion bills and abruptly disappearing with their friends after hours, do exist, but courses for language students from overseas are tightly run and well managed, offering host families plenty of support.
Transport is key, and if you are taking youngsters for a few weeks, a straightforward bus route to their learning centre or the ability to give them lifts will be expected. Students often stay in groups of two or more, and will be minded by you, with their supervisors from the home country staying elsewhere. If you have children of close in age to the host children all the better.
This kind of work particularly suits teachers with free time in the summer to take on host children. If you’re up to the challenge of taking total responsibility for a teenage or young person, including their English lessons, there are agencies that place travellers in specific types of home, such as farms, for an intimate cultural exchange.
Language Travel Ireland. www.englishireland.com. MEI are an association of 51 English language schools located at 120 locations throughout the country always interested in accommodation in safe residential areas. www.mei.ie.
Grub’s Up: The full Irish is expected in quality accommodation.
Anyone running a B&B or renting out accommodation on a rolling, short-term basis will tell you it’s far from ‘easy money’. Even letting self-contained accommodation requires effort and your presence on-site if things go wrong. Having the guests on your side of the door offers even greater personal challenges. Laundry, cleaning and cooking must be served up with an ever present glow of gracious welcome, even if your jaw is atrophied with inane grinning as you weather incessant demands and fault finding by the clientele.
Breakfast is not at one time, but over a period, starting as early as individual guests demand. Americans are notoriously spry in the early hours. If you’re not a morning person this is going to be a tough learning curve. For a larger guest house, breakfast alone can devour four hours of every day before rooms are even ‘turned’.
A continental breakfast of toast/croissant/fruit and yoghurt may satisfy some visitors, but a full Irish option is expected in quality Irish accommodation.
Weekends away will be a mere dream in high season, so how are you going to organise your own holidays? If you love a busy household, can travel off season, cook for strangers at dawn, and still be cheery enough to recommend a good pub at 9pm that night, B&B might still be for you.
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