New to B & B

[Chris124]

Hi I am just trying to set up two rooms for B & B. Can anyone help by advising me what legal requirements I need to comply with, i.e. health & safety, food hygiene, insurance, etc. Thanks in advance.

[Sue: White Horse Walking Holidays]

I bought How to run a quality bed & breakfast and the pink booklet and worked from there. This site is full of info too.

Contact your local council to register with them and sort out your food hygiene training (I did mine online). The council will send someone to check out your premises. You may well have a local B&B that offers help to people just starting out.

Check the Visit Britain criteria to work out what sort of level you aspire to - whether or not you go for membership & grading.

Lots of qiuestions are answered in these forums so allow plenty of time for a good browse!

[Vic]

Hi, I am also trying to do the same (maximum three rooms) Were you successful Chris? and what were your findings re legislation etc.
What set backs did you encounter?
I've been reading alot of the advice on this site, and still a little confused.
Has anybody else got any advice? Think its good to hear from those who have actually done it!
Just in the process of being made redundant with no redundancy pay so a little hesitant at paying for expensive subscription.(although they do look very useful)

[Kim234]

As someone who has been in the trade neither Visit Britain nor the AA have ever given me any useful advice on a visit. I could also point out that the fee (this does vary with the number of rooms and how much you charge) this is on a sliding scale but more and more properties are going unrated as with the internet you can see exactly what you are getting. This is a big debate in the industry at the moment. The reason especially with fire regs things seem confused is because they are the answer you get depends on who you ask and that changes even between branches of the fire service.

[B&B_newB]

Hi Vic
It could be a little late to reply, but if you've not already found out about it, there's a book called Just Six Guests, by Helen Jackman that someone on this forum recommended to me and I've found it pretty useful as a guide to the process as a whole. In fact, a friend of mine ordered if for me the same time as I did, so I have a spare copy if you're interested!
We're in the process of setting up a B&B now and in general I'm finding that there is a lot of confusion out there with regards to what you need to and needn't do.. a lot of legislation seems to vary depending on your local authority.
Mike

[Vic]

Hi Mike,

Many thanks for your response.
'Just Six Guests' sounds a very useful book, and would be happy to buy it from you.
When are you planning to open for business? Guessing that you are planning on letting 2-3 rooms?
Have had some helpful discussions with our local authority, but there is still some areas re licensing for TV's, music etc that seem to be over the top for a small establishment?
Would be interested to know what areas you have found that required the most work?
Thanks again
Vic

[Vic]

Hi Kim,

Thank you for your response.
Very interesting point re the power of the internet.
In your experience what associations have you found to be the most helpful for your business?
Vic

[B&B_newB]

Hi Vic
Apologies for the delayed reply - I don't seem to think to check this forum that often - which I should do as it does have some good stuff on it. If you want to send me your address I can post you the book.. not sure if we're allowed to put emails on here, but here goes! mikeynoble 'at' hotmail.com
We're planning to open by the end of May, having some refurbishments done now. We'll have 2 main rooms with a 3rd that will be available if a party of 4 want to share an en-suite, but not expecting that to happen much.
As far as I can tell, you no longer need a PRS license if you have 3 rooms or less and are not going to be licenced for alcohol. Standard TV licences are also ok from what I've read if you have less than 15 TVs.
We found getting household insurance with the right cover was quite a task, I can let you know who we used if you've not done that yet.
Still got a way to go on other rules, regs and policies, the book is helpful and some of it we're making up as we go along!!
Mike

[peppermintpatti]

We're trying to do the same. Planning were fine seeing us as a dwelling, but building control have been terrible. You DON'T have to use a council building control officer (private firms are available) so phone around to check that they regard it as a 'dwelling' and get it in writing before you start any work (ie. adding en-suites, wiring etc). Once you start with one building control officer you can't change them.

As a warning to you, we started work believing they viewed us as a dwelling and then were told we were seen as a boarding house (NB. we will be living in the property, letting 50% of the bedrooms to less than 6 guests). The result was that we had to take down our lounge ceiling (we'd already built the carcasses for 2 en-suites on it) remove 150 year old beams (it was the correct load bearing for a dwelling) and replace it with a weight loading one for a boarding house. they wanted an L2 alarm system but luckily a helpful fire officer advised on an LD2 part 6 smoke detectors (we'd already put these in), and they've now said we don't have to upgrade to 60 minute fire prevention, or add the sound proofing, but we have a load of fire doors with small blue 'keep shut, fire door' on and emergency electric lights in the hallway. It's been a nightmare.
Today after sending him an e mail from a fire door manufacturer stating that all the doors were "The standard fire doors we supply are 30 minute rated fire doors and are manufactured in accordance to BS 8214:2000. The fire doors and glazing are compliant by British Standard Testing and supported by BWF certificate of accreditation scheme." he's asked "Could you ask the manufacturers for the relevant integrity and insulation criterion for the proposed doors that you wish to use, in order to meet the requirements of Table A1 of the Approved Document Part B (Fire Safety) Volume 2.
The minimum provision for both Integrity and Insulation when tested to the relevant part of BS 476 should be 30 minutes." The manufacturers have said they've never had someone what more info before and that the certificate with them would normally be enough.