What’s Your Story?

A lot of our guests ask “what’s your story” and want to know how we got into innkeeping. Our story isn’t that different from many other innkeepers. We had a dream to someday own a bed & breakfast. We honestly thought it would be after careers and family – something we would do after we retired, probably in our 60s.

Donna had worked in marketing and event planning but got laid off in 2001. She did a career change and went to pastry school, and then worked for a wedding cake designer and for a 5-star hotel as pastry cook. Meanwhile, Greg took a buy-out from his job as a computer programmer. A lot of people were getting laid off at this time and we had the choice of looking for jobs along with everyone else or figuring out what we wanted to be when we grew up.

Greg started doing online research into inns for sale and we spent weekends traveling up and down the east coast looking at properties. Our criteria was it had to be as close to the water as possible and we wanted at least 4 guest rooms. A bed and breakfast was going to be our career so we needed a market with a long season where the business would support both of us. We did not want to have jobs outside the home to supplement our income.

We looked from Maine to New Jersey and found Newport, Rhode Island. It had a long season – April through October – with an outstanding Convention & Visitors Bureau that did a lot of marketing and events to build off season business. We found a great property with 5 guest rooms that was just “perfect”. Our offer was accepted and then it all went downhill. What looked “perfect” from the outside wasn’t so perfect after inspection and we could not come to terms with the seller. No Newport b&b for us.

By that time we were so frustrated, disappointed and ready to give up. We had spent about 4 months looking and Newport was what we wanted but there was nothing else available in that market that would work for us or fit our budget. We took a few weeks off and then Greg decided one day to start the search again. He planned a trip to Rhode Island to visit 3 properties.

Our first stop was to a small island called Jamestown across the bay from Newport. The house was called “East Bay Bed & Breakfast” and had been a b&b for about 15 years. The owners had already moved out and stopped running the business. We walked in the house and in about 5 minutes knew that this was the one. We didn’t need to see the other 2 houses that day.

And Jamestown, Rhode Island is where it all began for us.

Welcome to Our Blog

Welcome to Fig Street Inn’s blog and our first post. We’ve never blogged before and hope this will be a place for us to share a little about innkeeping, living the “bed and breakfast dream”, and maybe just about travel and tourism in general. We’re certainly not the most experienced or most knowledgeable, but we are in our 7^th year as innkeepers and on our 2^nd property. Perhaps we know a thing or two – and we hope some will find it worth following. 

We don’t have a set plan as to how often we will post but know it will not be every day (we wish we had time every day to sit at a computer and share our thoughts). We would like this to be interactive – what do you want to know about innkeeping? What do you want to read about? What would you find interesting?

Sign up to follow us. Ask your questions. Let us know what you want to read here. And we pre-apologize for our mistakes as we enter this vast unknown of blogging.