The Perfect Second Career for Educators: Bed and Breakfast Innkeeper

American Historic Inns, the nation’s leading publisher of Bed and Breakfast guidebooks, reveals that a surprising number of teachers have become B & B innkeepers. A closer look reveals that innkeeping is a natural second career choice for enthusiastic and social educators.

Parkview Bed & Breakfast

In an age where second careers are becoming even more common, many former teachers are finding satisfaction in B & B innkeeping. Just like a successful innkeeper, a good teacher is one who is impassioned about people and stories.
 
Consider the qualities of a fine educator: 
A good teacher has excellent social skills; a teacher interacts with large numbers of diverse people who are initially strangers. A teacher connects with each person individually to assess needs and interests to best teach, mentor or coach that student.
A good teacher is actively involved in the learning process. In order to bring a curriculum to life for students, a teacher must know how to be a student as well. An open mind and curiosity is requisite for both teaching and learning.
 
A good teacher has higher-than-average levels of energy and enthusiasm.
On the other hand, the daily rigors of teaching: the excessive repetition, skyrocketing class numbers, and the increasing state and federal demands of No Child Left Behind legislations are leading to higher numbers of burned-out teachers than ever before. Fortunately, all of the skills of a good teacher lend themselves perfectly to innkeeping.
 
A bed and breakfast experience is completely different than a night at the Ramada or Hilton; a stay at an inn is more like staying in somebody’s beautifully restored home and the specific pleasures of your visit depend very much on the personality of your hosts: the innkeepers. A successful innkeeper naturally enjoys meeting new people on a constant basis throughout the year, although as with teaching, there is a seasonal rhythm of work and rest: school and summer is replaced by peak and off-season.
 
Furthermore, a happy innkeeper loves sharing information, not just about the inn itself, but also local and historic information about the surrounding area, and is likely to keep a wealth of information in an inn library for informal lending. Carriage Barn B & B host Marilee Rouillard says that innkeeping is the perfect retirement job for her former-educator husband Dave, because he loves people and stories. People and stories – that’s what makes a good innkeeper – and that’s why so many teachers are not just frequent repeat guests at bed and breakfasts but end up becoming innkeepers themselves.
 
See what teachers have to offer – visit one of these three fine inns run by former educators. It’s no surprise that they mention interesting discussions at the table:

Try Dave and Marilee Rouillard’s hospitality in Keene, New Hampshire at the Carriage Barn B&B. This quaint colonial inn is located right on Main Street across from Keene State College, so you are likely to run into stimulating conversation over a homemade continental “plus” breakfast. Visit in the off-season for incredibly reasonable rates – or splurge just a little to go in the autumn to see the stunning fall foliage.

If you are health-oriented you may appreciate innkeeper, Celeste Carducci’s, physical education and nutritional expertise. The main attraction of The McClelland-Priest Bed & Breakfast is for most visitors, the inn’s proximity to Historic Old Town Napa and all of the surrounding wineries. However, if you want to supplement wine-tasting and enjoy nature, Celeste will be happy to direct you to some of the best hiking, walking, or cycling tours around. She is a fitness educator at the local college and can also just give you tips when you work out in the inn’s private gym!”

If you prefer even more countryside, Copper Beacons Bed & Breakfast is located on 40 acres of a colonial herb farm in upstate New York. Former teachers, hosts Eileen and Gerry Collins will delight in sharing their four acres of organic herb beds and demonstration gardens.
 
Still undecided? Log onto www.iloveinns.com and browse through the 19,000 B&Bs and country inns that specialize in other events and locations that may interest you. Many of the properties listed above are also in the best-selling bed and breakfast guidebook Bed & Breakfasts and Country Inns with a Buy-One-Night-Get-One-Night-Free Certificate. ILoveInns also offers Bed and Breakfast Gift Certificates, a perfect solution to help celebrate any occasion.