Concrete Steps

After months of deliberating, and email drafting, and Googling, I finally took the plunge and sent off one email to an Alaskan B&B.

It came back undeliverable.

Not deterred so easily, I decided to broaden the net – this time I emailed 10 places. In each email, I expressed interest in learning more about their experience in the field, and wanted to know if their would be opportunities to work with them in Summer 2017, when I would be in Alaska and planning to find a job working for a B&B.

Immediately I got a form response from one place stating they were busy and would get back to me soon (I’m still waiting…).

But over the next few days I heard back from five more places. One told me they were family owned and run and didn’t need help, but the other four expressed interest in speaking further.

While I didn’t know what to expect, I certainly didn’t expect a 50% response rate, and for it all to be so positive!

As my brother told me (not the one in North Dakota) – “Luck favors the bold!”

Stay tuned for more updates on this front!

In-Person/ On the Ground Research

Getting more serious about this goal, I started talking to my family.

Turns out that my mom has some interest in joining in on the adventure.

I was planning a visit to see my brother and sister-in-law in North Dakota and we wanted to take a quick trip to Minneapolis area while I was in town. Since we were going to stay overnight anyway, I floated the idea of all of us staying in a B&B to do some on the ground research.

This ended up being more difficult than I initially imagined.

Did I mention that there were two small children in tow as well? Ah. I guess not.

Most places I talked to have a policy against having young children stay at their B&B, it turns out. There were to main reasons for this:

• First, many places catered to a more romantic atmosphere, and as one owner put it, “Having children around tends to make the couples feel guilty they are not with their own children, and ruins the getaway.” Fair enough.
• Second, there are regulations/ limitations on how many people can be in a room.

At least one place was open to working with us, but we would have needed three rooms – and that would put one adult with one child in two rooms and one adult alone in the third room. Not ideal.

Eventually I did find a place that worked. In large part because they had no other guests booked that night, and because they have a little family suite (that used to be the inn keepers suite).

Being the only guests ended up being the biggest benefit (for a research perspective) of this visit.

Our host told us we could pick the suit, or any two rooms at no extra charge. So, we got to wander around the whole house checking out the various elements each room had to offer.

It also meant we were the only people at breakfast the next morning, and our host was kind enough to answer a lot of questions about his experience entering the world of owning and running a B&B.

Hearing his experience and answers to questions was very helpful – he asked me questions as well. At the end, his statement was, “I think you’d make a good B&B owner candidate.” Talk about confidence building!

Seeking Advice

Talking to people, and hearing lots of people’s perspectives and experiences, has always been a big part of decision making for me. I love extracting gems and combining lessons learned from others into my life.

While talking to a friend I’ve known since third grade about my desire to go to Alaska and work for a B&B there, she told me she had a family friend who runs a multi-generation fishing lodge in Alaska with her brothers. Check it out - it's pretty awesome: http://docwarners.com/

Not a B&B, but related, and my friend was happy to put us in touch.

We scheduled a time to talk, and it was incredible. She was so generous with her time and in sharing her experience. 

The stories she shared, and the advice she gave was wonderful. We talked about a wide variety of things from the pros and cons to working with family on business ventures (she recommended a great book) to the added cost of running a business in Alaska (she told me to double the cost of anything you bring in from food to bedding due to shipping costs) to seasonal vs year-round opportunities in Alaska (closer to the North Pole, and the Northern Lights expands your year round guest pool).

This made me excited to do two things: 

   1) talk to more people about their related experiences and 
   2) look for a job in Alaska for the summer :)