In response to our first comment, we figured this blog should be our story. Although most “blog experts” will tell you that you shouldn’t blog about yourself, we guess that at least one reader has an interest.
In college, Jill studied Entrepreneurial Studies and Marketing at Babson University, Wellesley MA, and James studied Hospitality Administration at Boston University. James spent four plus years at the Boston Harbor Hotel, with jobs as the Front Office Manager, Conference Services Manager and as a bellman. Unhappy with the corporate world and a strong desire to own our own business, we left the corporate world and purchased the Carriage House Inn (also located in Chatham) in 2003. Although we were (and still are) young, we figured that if we failed miserably we could sell the property and start over again in the corporate world. Using information gained in our studies and from the corporate world, we were able to triple the yearly occupancy in two years. Now knowing that we wanted this as a career, we looked for ways to get bigger. In June 2006, we were able to purchase the Captains House Inn and sell the Carriage House Inn and we couldn’t be happier that we did.
We are really glad that we had a corporate background that helped in the inn business. Many people think of the running an inn and think that it is just meeting people and telling them about the area. While a lot of it is, there is a lot of work that goes behind a successful property. Knowing a little bit about everything (maintenance, cooking, housekeeping, accounting, marketing, etc) really helps. We are also glad we started young (you need a lot of energy) and small. Starting small helped us understand the inn business better, showed our bank that we can do it and made us realize that this is what we want to do.
I will work on a blog about how to start your own search soon. But in the meantime, if you have any questions, we do not profess to be experts, but we have some experience.
