A bed and breakfast is many vacationers’ idea of a charming place to hang their hats when traveling. Seeing a bed and breakfast for sale can inspire you to make an intimate lodging your next business venture, but keep in mind that there is far more to running a successful bed and breakfast than renting out rooms in an old home. Bed-and-breakfast floor plan designs can pose safety and accessibility challenges that require extensive renovation to bring the house up to code and render it an attractive hotel alternative for travelers.

Give Each Room Easy Access to Amenities

One of the most important considerations when making bed-and-breakfast floor plan designs is creating a floor plan that grants guests similar access to amenities. Although bed-and-breakfast guests understand that they are not staying at a hotel and thus each room is differently equipped, renovating the floor plan to give each room similarly easy access to a bathroom, the staircase and the kitchen can make the bed and breakfast more attractive as a whole and enable you to charge profitable rates for each room.

Consider Guests’ Wants and Needs

When making bed-and-breakfast house plans, it is also important for the owner to consider guests’ potential needs. A family traveling with children might only want a room that has its own bathroom, and adult guests might want to be situated far from the noises of a young family. This might mean turning a master bedroom into a family suite and marketing it as such or building a bedroom in the attic or basement to be advertised as the home’s private quarters.

Work With the Existing Floor Plan

Because many bed and breakfasts are older homes, you might find yourself working with a challenging floor plan. This could mean a narrow staircase, rooms that do not feel like they flow together, inconveniently placed radiators and small rooms that make furniture placement difficult. One of the greatest challenges designers face with bed-and-breakfast house plans is working with existing structures.

Transforming a historic home to a functioning bed and breakfast might mean removing an interior wall to combine separate rooms into one larger bedroom or removing a closet door to turn it into an alcove. It could also mean building shelving around a column to create a four-sided bookshelf in a common area or taking advantage of a nook under the stairs to add storage space. Working with a creative contractor can help you turn the bed and breakfast into a cozy, functional space.

Bed and Breakfast House Plans for Fire Safety

When making bed and breakfast house plans, make sure they are compliant with local fire codes. Failure to comply with the local fire code could mean fines for your bed and breakfast or could potentially cause a guest’s injury or death in the event of an emergency. Examples of fire-safety precautions you may be required to work into your bed-and-breakfast floor plan designs include:

  • Smoke and CO2 detectors in each bedroom
  • A fire suppression system
  • Fire escapes for upper floors
  • Multiple means of egress in each room

It is always a better choice to be more cautious than the fire code requires than to fail to meet its minimum requirements. When planning a bed and breakfast, make guest and employee safety a priority. If you have found a bed and breakfast for sale and are now considering buying it, carefully consider the extent of the renovations it will need to come up to today’s safety codes. Sometimes, the cost to renovate an older home makes it too expensive to turn into a profitable venture.