This is a highly confusing subject, and B&Bs have to face a plethora of different regulators.  It seems wholly ridiculous and disproportionate that a very small B&B should be expected to pay three different licences to three different authorities in order to let their guests watch TV, listen to radio and CDs or discs, for instance - and four licences if the B&B also lends DVDs or video tapes to its guests.   

In this article, we explain which rules apply to B&Bs and guest houses...

There is a critical difference to you as the owner, between your property’s being treated as a home, as opposed to its being treated as business premises.   A home will be subject to Council Tax, will be allowed to use normal domestic services (eg refuse collection), and will generally be subject to less monitoring and regulation than business premises, which will pay business rates instead of council tax. In this article, we discuss how the different types of taxation might be applied to your B&B...

The definition of a B&B is not a clear-cut one as far as officialdom is concerned, and indeed different departments apply different criteria.  In this article, we look at planning and local taxation treatment of B&Bs.

Is your B&B a home or a business? 

In this article, we look at planning and local taxation treatment of B&Bs. including when you may have to apply for a "change of use" (in Planning Regulations terms) from residential (C3) to hotel/B&B (C1)...

If you have never run a hotel or B&B before, we can tell you that one of the biggest things you learn almost from day one is the importance of longer duration bookings.   Getting one two-night booking is vastly better than getting two successive one-night bookings – even though your income, RevPAR, and occupancy figures are the same...

How will you measure success?  We explain and compare Budget Variance, “RevPAR”, Occupancy Rate, Return on Property Value and other measures...

This sounds a boring subject, but it is vital to do this carefully right from the start: it concentrates your mind on the hard economics, and tells you what the potential rewards are and the occupancy you need to achieve them.  Your budget will become your main financial management tool.

You might be tempted to yawn at the idea of budgeting, but a vast number of small businesses fail because they got this basic element wrong.

There is a lot of needless mystique about Business Plans.  If you wish you can buy lengthy and complex books about writing business plans.   Firstly: yes, it is very important to have a “Business Plan”.  Secondly: don’t be put off – this all boils down to three things...

Being a people person is a vital, and of course fairly obvious, requirement for running a hospitality business.  But there are less obvious character traits you need too...