Be aware that there may be a guest house and or B&B association in your area this is worth joining as they can often be involved in joint marketing events and can negotiate bulk discounts in certain cases. It may well be that you make friends with other owners this way and you may club together with them we tend to work with the people in our street to get bulk discounts.
I cannot stress this enough if you are just starting out as being your own boss have a good business plan. A few notes on the back of an envelope is not going to cut it! Shop around and ask a ton of questions for example:-

1. What is the interest rate and what will you have to make from the business to pay for it every month does this seem manageable as the bank will always want their money.

2. Never plan to be full all the time this is madness and your bank will think so to and write you off right away. If you can pay all the bills on 30% occupancy then this is more reasonable. By occupancy I mean if you only let rooms 30% of the time ie one third of the year would you make enough money to break even.

3. Look at figures for Gas, Electric and Water if you have a three bed house now then at least triple what you are paying now.

4. Marketing costs – ring printers and ask they will be happy to tell you how much 1000 business cards costs, brochures etc.

5. List everything and anything you can think of and then add a bit more. If it can go wrong then it will.

6. Specialist insurance costs ask a broker.

7. Soaps, shampoo, mending kits and so on they are all on the internet have a look.

8. Cleaning products

9. Renovations and be realistic about what needs doing and then double it.

10. Have a really good look at the property I would go to see at least three times before purchasing and make sure you look at everything from the basement to the loft!

11. If you are going to buy in an area that you don’t know the advice in a book I am currently reading is go to the local tea room and ask what the reputation is like. This may be useful but what is more to the point is get on trip adviser and speak to the local TIC I find they are terrible gossips and you are more likely to get a good picture of the real state of affairs.

12. If you are going to do your own laundry then get down to the shops and see what the prices of pillowcases etc really are not what you think they are. Something to consider is using catalogue that allow you to spread the costs of things. It does mean more cost in the end but it does spread your initial costs. On the other side of this if you are buying a going concern make sure whether they are leaving the linen or not as if not you have to have enough sets ready to go from day one. The same goes for duvets and pillows never assume what people are going to leave make sure of everything! Also Joanne says make sure they are leaving the linen they showed you not the scruffy rags left over and taking the good stuff with them!

13. A good point is to look at what the previous sellers are spending money on Joanne Muller in her book points out if they are spending no money or very little on advertising but say they are nearly always full then where are the people coming from?

14. Also if you have fallen in love with a place in a remote location check things like is the place on mains sewers, gas, water etc as these can be very expensive and tricky to run if you have always lived in a city and have no experience of them. If you are experienced in this area you’ll probably be fine but if the property was previously only domestic it may be worth reassessing capacity as you will have a lot more turnover than previously. (especially the septic tank!)

15. Joanne also mentions how they were taken in as the owners told the surveyor that a guest was in a particular room so he could not see it but it was fine. When they completed and went in the room it stank of damp there was water pouring down the back of the wardrobe and it turned out the roof was leaking and a costly repair. Now you can sue them for this but it doesn’t get your roof mended right away.

16. Try to avoid a place with little or no off street parking whatever you think about the quietness of the street and ability of your guests to get parked also you will not be popular with your neighbours if they can’t get parked either.