Living in the beautiful english countryside was my main reason for setting up a B&B.
But running a rural business does come with some problems.There’s the sat nav issue. No matter how many emails you send with directions, explaining that guests shouldn’t rely on sat nav, there’s that phone call at 6.45 – “We can’t find you”
I express regret that they are lost and give directions, whilst trying really hard not to say “Didn’t you receive the email with directions that I sent you?”
Then there’s the animals.
Waiting for guests to arrive, I heard a car horn being sounded from outside.
Our guest was parked, surrounded by our chickens, refusing to get out of the car.
She didn’t like birds.
She also didn’t like cows.
When she pulled open the curtains the next morning, she found herself face to face with the local cows checking their reflections in the window of her room.
We agreed that it wasn’t the best B&B for her, refunded her stay and waved goodbye.
And the cows come with some side effects…
Guests left a review saying they’d had a lovely time, but there were more flies in the bedroom than they’d expect for a 5 star B&B.
I did wonder, if we’d been 4 star instead, if the number of flies – flying through an open window on a summer’s day – would have been more acceptable.
Luckily it’s a small price to pay for living here – apart from the spiders of course…and that’s another story.
Read Karen’s blog to discover more about country B&Bs, inspections and more about life as a B&B owner:
