“How much does a bed and breakfast owner make?” It’s one of the first questions people ask me, and I understand why. You’re thinking of putting your savings, your home and your heart into this, and you want to know it can pay the bills.
So here’s my honest answer, and then I’ll show you my own numbers. What a B&B makes depends far more on how you run it than on how many rooms you have. I know, because I ran the same house both ways. As a hobby, my little B&B in Champagne never made more than around €10,000 a year. Run as a proper business, with four rooms, it brought in €103,495 in a single year.
The short answer: it depends on your business model
I can’t give you one tidy figure for “a small B&B”, and I’d be wary of anyone who does. Two B&Bs with the same number of rooms in the same area can earn completely different amounts, depending on who they welcome, what they charge, what else guests buy and how much they pay away in commission.
Your business model decides your income and your lifestyle. That’s the biggest lesson of my 17 years running my own B&B, and I’ve seen it with clients ever since.
My own numbers: from €10,000 to €103,495
The hobby years
I started doing B&B casually in 1996, from our home in Champagne, and in 2001 we opened a “proper” two-room B&B in a vineyard village. I loved it: welcoming guests, cooking for them, sharing champagne and showing them places they’d never find on their own.
But I didn’t really care about the money. My husband had a good job, so I took guests when I wanted to and didn’t when it wasn’t convenient. In those years the B&B never made more than around €10,000 a year.
The day the bailiffs came
Then life changed. My husband left his job, we moved back to the UK, and our next business was lost in the 2008 crash. In January 2010 I reopened the B&B, this time because the family needed it.
A couple of months later, I opened the door to the bailiffs, holding papers to repossess our home. Once I’d got over the shock, I made a plan: make €40,000 that year, and grow from there. I had no idea how. My best year ever had been about €10,000.
What happened next
In the next nine months I didn’t make my €40,000 goal. I made €51,195. The following year I made €103,495, with four rooms and no listings on Airbnb, Booking dot com or any other online travel agent.
What I changed
Nothing about the house was magic. What changed was how I ran it, mostly within the first six months:
- More rooms to sell. We moved out of our own bedrooms into the basement, and suddenly I had four rooms instead of two.
- I stopped doing the low-value jobs. I hired two cleaners and sent out the laundry, so I could focus on getting bookings and looking after guests. (Here’s why getting help matters so much.)
- I chose my guests. There were more than 300 other B&Bs in my area. I became the go-to B&B for international guests who wanted to discover the hidden gems of Champagne, including visits to small family producers that nobody can walk into without an appointment.
- I stopped discounting. I added value and put my prices up three times in the first year. No one noticed, except me and my bank account! I explain how in How to Double Your Rates.
- I sold experiences, not just rooms. Before guests arrived, an email invited them to add a champagne tour or other extras. I also created some high-ticket experiences.
- I built relationships from the moment they booked, so guests didn’t cancel and couldn’t wait to meet me.
- I became the face and voice of my area online, with blog posts, articles and videos, and I partnered with local businesses who sent guests my way.
How to work out what your B&B could make
You can estimate your own potential with three numbers and an honest pencil, or let my free calculator do it for you (more on that in a moment).
1. Start with your ceiling
Multiply your rooms by your average nightly rate by the nights you could be open. With one room at 100 a night (pounds, euros or dollars, the maths is the same), open 365 nights a year, your ceiling is 36,500. Nobody is full every night, of course, but now you know the top of the range. (I first walked through this in What is the earning potential of a properly running B&B business?)
2. Be honest about occupancy
Then decide how much of the year you’ll realistically fill. At 25% occupancy, that one room brings in 9,125. In my experience, 25% and even 35% are very achievable; 50% across the whole year takes real marketing skill, and still leaves you plenty of time for yourself.
3. Add what guests buy on top
Room income is only part of the picture. Extras that genuinely enhance a stay (a dinner with wine, a champagne tour, something delicious to eat and drink) add to your income without adding many more nights of work. People don’t like being sold to, but they love to buy.
4. Let my B&B Income Calculator do the rest
If you’d rather not do the sums by hand, I’ve built a free B&B Income Calculator that does them for you. Pop in your number of rooms and your average nightly rate, and it shows you what your B&B could bring in over a year at 25%, 35% and 50% occupancy, what your extras could add on top, and how many rooms you’d need to sell each week to get there. It’s a simple spreadsheet, and on the same page there’s a short video tutorial walking you through it.
Download the B&B Income Calculator and watch the tutorial here. It takes ten minutes, and it beats guessing.
Why two B&Bs with the same rooms earn very different amounts
I think of it as a value pyramid. At the bottom are hobbyists, as I was, who open when they feel like it. Next come generalists: professional, but marketing to everybody, so price is their only point of difference. And there’s always someone cheaper.
Above them are the specialists, who know exactly whom they want to welcome and add real value through their knowledge of the area, and at the top, the experts on a particular topic. The higher you climb, the less you compete on price.
My clients show what’s possible. Katia and her husband Jon left corporate jobs in London and bought a run-down guest house in Scotland with no hospitality experience, and by the end of her first season Katia had made just over £100,000. Marie, after 27 years in business, had eight record months in her first year working with us. John in New Zealand increased his takings by over 20% in one season, even though they closed for six months to renovate two rooms. These are individual results, not promises, but they all came from the same principles.
A quick check: where are you now?
Score yourself from 1 to 10 on each of these:
- I know exactly who I can best serve with my own knowledge, skills and talents.
- I’ve handed off (or plan to) the low-value tasks, so I can focus on bookings and guests.
- I offer (or plan to) extras that guests love to buy.
- I charge (or plan to) more than the average in my area.
- I’m known as the go-to B&B in my area (or plan to be).
Your lowest score is usually where your income is leaking.
Want the whole system?
Everything I changed, step by step, is in my book, How to Start, Run and Grow a Bed and Breakfast Business that You and Your Guests Love. It comes with its own AI assistant, so you can ask it questions about your own B&B and get answers straight from the book.
And if you’d like to talk through your own numbers, book a free 15-minute call with me.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a small B&B make?
There’s no single honest figure. Work it out as rooms × rate × nights open, apply a realistic occupancy and add your extras (my free B&B Income Calculator does this for you). My two-room hobby B&B made around €10,000 a year; the same house run as a four-room business brought in €103,495.
How many rooms do you need to make a living from a B&B?
Fewer than most people think. I went from around €10,000 to over €100,000 a year with four rooms. Who you welcome, what you charge and what else guests buy matter more.
What is a good occupancy rate for a B&B?
In my experience, 25–35% across the year is very achievable for most owners, and 50% takes strong marketing. Remember that higher occupancy at lower prices can leave you working harder for less.
Should I list my B&B on Booking dot com or Airbnb?
There’s nothing wrong with it at the very beginning, but it isn’t a long-term strategy. You pay 15–30% per booking, you look like everyone else, and you don’t own the relationship with your guests. I ran my B&B with no booking-site listings at all.