New England is a region steeped in history and natural beauty and is a captivating and established destination for leisure travel getaways to romantic Inns and cozy Bed and Breakfasts. It makes sense that it’s also a great place to buy an Inn or Bed and Breakfast! New England is comprised of six states – Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. You’ll find an incredible array of landscapes in these small but diverse states, from the rugged coastlines of Maine to the tranquil lakes, forests, and mountains of Vermont.

This part of the country is also renowned for its vibrant fall foliage, quaint small towns, and historic sites that date back to the early days of American settlement. Visitors are drawn to its scenic drives, outdoor adventures, and cultural richness, with iconic cities and towns offering a mix of modern attractions and colonial heritage.

If these characteristics are a critical feature of your purchase model, buying a New England Inn might be the perfect fit for you. We have decades of experience helping aspiring Innkeepers buy Inns for sale and assisting current innkeepers in selling their property to the next owner. We also offer in-depth Inn consulting, covering all aspects of Innkeeping. If you’re in the market for a New England Inn, reach out to our team and let us know how we can help you buy an Inn today!

Why Consider Inns for Sale in New England

Fall enthusiasts and aspiring innkeepers, there’s one destination to consider that trumps all else: New England. If you love all things fall, your search for Inns for sale should start in one of these six beautiful states. Here, you’ll find a unique blend of charm, history, sensational fall foliage, and even year-round opportunities for tourism. It’s an ideal location to purchase a new Inn!

New England’s scenic beauty is a big part of why it’s a great location to start your search. The region’s picturesque landscapes draw visitors in year-round. They come for various reasons, but at the heart of it is the opportunity to experience a quintessentially American experience.

Each season brings its own appeal, from vibrant fall foliage to cozy winter retreats. For you, that translates to a steady stream of guests, which makes it an excellent place to consider running an Inn. Moreover, New England states share a strong sense of community and have a well-established tourism infrastructure network, which means they are supportive environments for innkeepers and owners. These factors make New England a great place to consider investing in the hospitality industry.

Additionally, the historic nature of many properties here allows innkeepers to offer guests an authentic, memorable stay, often in historic buildings that add to the allure. This individualized character is important when defining who you are and crafting a unique-to-you lodging and hospitality style.

Our founding business partners chose New England as their home base because of the area’s commitment to arts, cultural pursuits, and the outdoors. The other critical reason was the ease of travel between the active metro areas of New York, Boston, Montreal and beyond. You have everything within striking distance within an hour of your chosen destination and even closer if you chose the right location to operate your future hospitality business.

Why Choose the B&B Team Realtors & Consultants

When looking for inns for sale in New England, partnering with The B&B Team is an excellent choice. We have comprehensive listings of Inns for sale in New England and offer the most in-depth consulting services tailored specifically to the hospitality industry. With over 40 years of experience and a track record of facilitating successful inn transactions, we provide invaluable insight into the nuances of buying and selling bed and breakfasts and Inns.

We’ll work with you to establish what you’re looking for and then help you navigate the complexities of this diverse regional market, ensuring that your investment aligns with your financial goals and lifestyle aspirations. This commitment to personalized service and industry-specific knowledge will undoubtedly help you maximize your potential and start your Innkeeping journey off on the right foot.

Our knowledgeable team understands that each Inn is unique and requires a tailored strategy to maximize its potential. Whether you’re a first-time buyer or a seasoned innkeeper looking to expand, our team will offer guidance on every aspect of the process, from initial property search to closing the deal. Our extensive network and deep understanding of the region make us the go-to experts for finding the perfect inn for sale in New England.

Moreover, our focus on education and support extends beyond the purchase. We offer ongoing consulting services and educational opportunities to help you optimize your business operations and ensure long-term success. This level of dedication and expertise makes The B&B Team not just a broker but a trusted partner in your journey to owning a successful inn in one of the country’s most picturesque and historically rich regions. Contact us to get started on your Innkeeping journey today!

The journey with the B&B team starts early when you’re just getting started. We host regular seminars, both online and in person, for aspiring Innkeepers. These seminars are a fantastic way to learn more about the industry and what you’ll need to do to make this purchase a reality. From there, we help you by finding properties, brokering deals, and connecting you with industry professionals.

How to Start a Bed and Breakfast

Do you truly understand the Bed and Breakfast industry? Understanding this industry and how it differs from other lodging and hospitality industries is an important first step when planning out how to start a Bed and Breakfast. At its most basic, a bed and breakfast (also called a B&B or an Inn) is a type of lodging that offers overnight accommodation and usually includes a daily breakfast as part of the included amenities.

Unlike traditional hotels, B&Bs are usually smaller and located in private homes, historic buildings, or other significant buildings. They also provide a more personalized experience, with hosts often living on-site and interacting closely with guests. The charm of a B&B lies in its unique character, often reflecting the local culture and history of its location.

If you’re here learning how to start a Bed and Breakfast, odds are you understand just how immensely rewarding this business venture can be!  Even so, like any business, it demands careful planning and consideration. Below are several critical factors to keep in mind:

1. Legal and Regulatory Compliance: First and foremost, ensure you are well-versed in local zoning laws, health and safety regulations, and business licensing requirements. These can vary significantly depending on your location and can impact your ability to operate as a Bed and Breakfast.
2. Financial Planning and Budgeting: A clear and realistic financial plan is essential. This includes not only the initial investment required to purchase or renovate the property but also ongoing costs such as maintenance, utilities, insurance, marketing, and staffing.
3. Market Research: Understanding your target market is vital. Conduct thorough market research to identify potential guests, their preferences, and the competition.
4. Property and Design: Evaluate a prospective property’s size, layout, and condition. Consider the number of guest rooms, private and shared spaces, and amenities. The design and décor should reflect a warm and inviting atmosphere while ensuring comfort and functionality. Attention to detail in furnishings, bedding, and cleanliness will significantly impact guest satisfaction.
5. Guest Experience: Exceptional guest service is at the heart of a successful B&B. This includes personalized interactions, attention to detail, and anticipating guests’ needs.
6. Marketing and Online Presence: Effective marketing strategies are crucial to attracting guests, and you should have a dedicated marketing budget set aside from the start. Develop a professional website with high-quality images and detailed information about your B&B, and work with an industry-specific company that knows how to help you improve your visibility across platforms.

Once you’ve worked your way through the process and thoroughly understand how to start a Bed and Breakfast, it’s time to start considering how to buy the property of your dreams. There are plenty of things to consider when starting a new business, including the types of financing and understanding things like Small Business Loans. Refer to our blog for tips, tricks, and information when it comes to buying a Bed and Breakfast.

By carefully considering the factors outlined above, following a strategic approach, and working with the experienced brokers at The B&B Team, you have a great start. Attend one of our upcoming seminars to learn more and to get started on your journey to Innkeeping today!

‘Twas the night before Christmas

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring

Except the Bushnells’ singing carols to a mouse!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

In hopes that Linda would leave Hanukkah rugalach for St. Nicholas there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds;

While Tish and Eliot danced to the Grateful Dead.

Rick in his ‘kerchief’, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains on a cocktail or two.

When out on the lawn their arose such a clatter;

We sprang from the couch to see what was the matter.

Away to the window Rick flew like a flash,

Tore open the drapes and…WTH.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,

Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,

When what to our wondering eyes did appear,

Dana taking a selfie with St. Nick and eight tiny reindeer.

And then in a twinkling, we all heard on the roof, the prancing and pawing and…

Down the chimney Peter and Peggy came with a bound.

They were dressed all in fur from their heads to their foots (sorry but it needed to rhyme)

And their clothes were tarnished with ashes and soot.

A bundle of wine Peter had flung on his back.

With hopes that Peggy had added some snacks.

We all laughed when we saw them in spite of ourselves,

As they spoke not a word and went straight to work,

Opening bottles of vino and a feast fit for elves.

Then the team made a toast and we all exclaimed;

“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

Happy Holidays from all of us…Peter and Peggy Scherman, Rick and Janet Wolf, Scott and Marilyn Bushnell, Dana Moos, Eliot and Tish Dalton and Linda Hayes

and…Thanks for Listening to my silly rendition of this timeless classic! Janet Wolf

I enjoyed writing the last Christmas Memories blog so much that I decided to continue the thread. I requested that all our team submit their holiday memories. So here they are. Each memory is very different and very special. Enjoy and hope these holiday memories bring to mind some of yours.

Peggy Scherman – Puppy Love

It was Christmas Eve and I was twelve.  I was desperate for a puppy, and wouldn’t it be wonderful if I got one for Christmas? That’s all I wanted.  Mom and Dad were not encouraging, saying that puppies arrived on their own schedule and not likely in time for Christmas.  I should be patient and perhaps in due time I could have one. We were waiting for the arrival of dear family friends, “Aunt” Peg and “Uncle” Guy, who always celebrated Christmas Eve with us.  But before their arrival I had one thing I wanted to do.  I had made a wreath from greens I had gathered in the woods, and I wanted to give it to Chuck who lived across the street.  He and his family were also close friends, and this year was a sad one for them. “Uncle” Chuck was bed ridden and dying from cancer.  I hoped my visit and the wreath would cheer him up a bit. Chuck always put on a brave smile for me, and this time was no different as he asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  I said I was hoping for a puppy but had pretty much given up on that idea.  Chuck’s response was similar to my folks’, adding that we don’t always get everything we want . After our visit I returned home to find that Peg and Guy had arrived.  But what grabbed my immediate attention was the adorable little dachshund puppy nestled in the stocking I had hung on the mantle.  Words cannot describe my joy!  And how did all this happen?  It seems that everyone was in on the surprise, including Chuck and also Peg and Guy who had been keeping the puppy until time for the big surprise.  Even my Uncle Bob knew about it, and had made a beautiful bed for Ginger out of pine boards.  I felt pretty lucky that all these people had cared so much.  Ginger became my loyal best friend, and celebrated many Christmases with us.  Sadly, that was Chuck’s last Christmas.  I will always be grateful for his friendship and the chance to spend that Christmas with him.  The memory of that bitter sweet Christmas will be with me forever.

Dana Moos- Department Store Magic

DC’s grand department store, Woodward & Lothrop (Woodies) flagship store had Christmas window displays that along with many, we’d go see for the Christmas decorations (despite that we are Jewish and celebrate Chanukah!). There was a “Secret Santa” shop in the store (which I think they started in the mid-60s) with a two way mirror which allowed parents to watch their kids shop inside the store alone, while they chose gifts for their families (I don’t recall how the payment took place but we paid with a few dollars and I gather the parents paid the balance later!). The shop was decorated and I think I recall a live Santa as well. I remember shopping in the store when my brother and I were probably 3 and 7 or so! Some fun memories for us as a family to celebrate Chanukah, at Christmas time! We did pick out our gifts for Chanukah there!

Scott Bushnell – USO Gift

One of my Christmas memories…and there are many, especially going back to my family when I was a kid…was when I was in the Army stationed in what was then West Germany.  I could not afford to fly home for the holidays and spent the holiday in Viernheim, near Mannheim.  The USO, however, delivered boxes of cookies to the troops at our kaserne.  My gift box was filled with Spritz cookies…those kind we used to make with my Mom using one of those press-thingies.  Decorated with colored sugars and those small silver balls that nearly broke your teeth when you crunched them.  To this day I support the USO annually for bringing a childhood memory from home to this soldier.

Eliot Dalton – Christmas Dinner and Bingo

Every Christmas Eve until I was around twelve my Mom & Dad and three older sisters would have dinner with my maternal grandparents, Ammie and Umpie. It was quite a formal affair with jacket and tie, passed hors d’oeuvres and sitting up straight for what seemed longer than necessary. Dinner was roast beef, carved at the table with much ceremony. My grandparents were well into their 70’s then, prone to common maladies of that age and just pretty darn “nonsensical” at times. This was most evident during the after-dinner festivities, which centered around a game of bingo. After dessert, while still seated at the dining room table, my grandmother would pass out the bingo cards, display all the wonderful gifts to be awarded the winners, and place the “bird-cage” in front of her. This “bird-cage” was a round cage which you could turn with a handle. Inside the cage were numbered wooden balls. If you turned the cage slowly (key word slowly) a ball would nestle itself in a little cup which could then be plucked out and read to the awaiting bingo contestants. Ammie would ceremoniously work the contraption properly for the first two numbers – and then – pandemonium! She would start to crank the “bird-cage” at high speed until the little cup catapulted one of the numbered balls into the room at high speed. The assembled group would feverishly scramble to find the projectile and read off the number, amidst howls of laughter. However, the ever increasing speed with which Ammie spun the cage and the resulting onslaught of little numbered balls sailing all over the room made it impossible to continue the game due to the cry to STOP so that we could regain or breath from laughing so hard. The game would then resume and the whole process repeated until Ammie would halt the proceedings and hand out a gift to each of us. This happened every year, mind you, with the same outcome. Yet we looked forward to it with the same excitement and enthusiasm – it was Christmas Eve with the grandparents after all.

Marilyn Bushnell – Cherished Possessions

The first memory pertains to my Christmas stocking.  This stocking has always been the one I have used, from my earliest days as a child to today.  We always received an orange and a coin in our stockings, because my mother would tell us how during the Depression, they always got a dime and an orange in their stockings, and it was truly a big deal for them.  My Dad was a coin collector, so the coin was usually something collectable (and yes, I did spend my coin on a bracelet at Woolworths and baby doll clothes, something I truly regret to this day!).  Well, the year my twin sister and I were in 6^th grade, we both got a twenty dollar bill in our stocking and thought that was a fortune!  The twenty was actually used for a school field trip to Williamsburg VA for 2 nights (such a deal!).  I can remember the trip to this day, but most of all I remember my stocking and how it has endured over the years (even though one year Scott hung it too low for our dog Arthur, filled with chocolate- you get the picture!).

The second is when our son, Christian was young. This is a picture of whom we call “Baby Dan”.  My family would gather every Christmas around 2 pm (all of our Holiday gatherings are at 2, just because), and when our children were young would exchange gifts.  One year, when Chris was just two, he received a toy fire truck from my sister, while my nephew received a doll called Dapper Dan that would teach you to tie shoes, button and snap clothes.  Well, while we were all chatting away, Chris apparently eyed up Dan and manipulated an exchange right there- fire truck for Baby Dan.  Dan became Chris’ best bud and that doll has traveled the world with us.  He has become a bit worn, the jacket is gone, his eyes were replaced, along with his nose, and his ties for the shoes were removed.  But Dan remains a part of our family, now hanging in our room set for the grandchildren.

Both items are symbols of simple times gone by, family missed and memories endured.

Rick Wolf – The Perfect Auntie Mame

One of my special Christmas memories goes back to December 1958!  My parents and I were on an eastern Christmas trip from California with family visits in Chicago and Boston.  Along our travels, we spent a couple of days in NYC, how perfect during the Holidays!  My Dad had business appointments one day so Mother and I went to Rockefeller Plaza to see the Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall.  Yes, with the Rockettes!  Back then, you not only saw the Christmas stage show but also a movie!  The wonderful movie Auntie Mame premiered in NYC prior to Christmas as part of the Radio City Christmas program.  Not sure when the movie was later released on VHS, then DVD and now streaming, but ever since then, there hasn’t been a Christmas where I haven’t spent one glorious evening watching one of my all-time favorite feel good movies.  The sharing of this movie continues on to this day!  Roz Russell was the perfect Auntie Mame, and for all Auntie Mame’s eccentricities, it was her ability to express her love for her family and friends that was so special.  The connection has been made all the stronger because I see in my mind’s eye, my Mother, both physically and emotionally as Auntie (Roz Russell) Mame.  Sometimes great memories only get stronger and better……….I love it!

Tish Dalton – My Borrowed Christmas Memories

There are so many transformative, deeply meaningful Christmas memories. Mine, however, are unremarkable, so I have learned to borrow memories to make my Christmases snowier, merrier and inspired. Every December I go to the garage and retrieve the “Christmas box” where stockings, stars, tiny trees, gnomes and lights are stored. At the bottom are the books – favorite Christmas stories that kindle the spirits.

For the children:

• How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. The Grinch has an epiphany and is transformed from a hater to a lover by joyful Cindy Lou Who and the citizens of Whoville.
• Brave Irene by William Steig. Irene braves a blizzard to deliver a ball gown to the duchess, on behalf of her ill mother. She prevails, is rewarded for her bravery and returns home with delicious food.
• Babar And Father Christmas by Jean De Brunhoff. The King of the Elephants sets off on behalf of his children, to find Father Christmas (in Bohemia) and convince him to come to the land of the elephants.

For all:

• A Child’s Christmas In Wales by Dylan Thomas. This is the one we read aloud by the fire, passing it from person to person. The author recounts delightful episodes of an imaginary Christmas day in Wales in the 1920’s.
• A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. The story of the last Christmas seven-year-old Buddy spent with an elderly cousin, making fruitcakes for friends and “persons we’ve met maybe once, perhaps not at all”. Nostalgic, uplifting, heartbreaking and beautiful.

Peter Scherman- A Formal Affair with Paper Hats

Because both sets of my grandparents lived in our hometown, we would alternate visits Christmas Eve and Christmas day. When I was very little, we weren’t invited to the evening gathering at my mother’s mother’s house (“Goggie”), so we’d have a quiet dinner with my dad’s folks (“Grammy” and “Grampa”) at our house (no cousins, so a small gathering). But the affairs at Goggie’s, when I was old enough to be there, were both formal and kind of off kilter. Aunts and uncles and cousins from all over were all there. Once a year Goggie broke out the caviar, which I thought was pretty disgusting. And when we finally made it to the huge table for the meal, it was an endless chore to get through the courses, as my Uncle Frank made movies of the entire event. “Frank, sit down and eat!” “Frank, everyone is waiting on you.” “Frank, can Sykes carve now?” “Frank….” You get the idea. I’m sure the tapes are all somewhere, though I’ve never seen one. Oh, and were all wearing those paper hats that came out of those snapper thingies that had plastic toys inside. At the end of the meal everyone would read funny poems they had written about someone in the family, accompanied by a gag gift. These were hysterical and made it hard to get through dessert! But it was family. And family is still what Christmas is all about to me. Nothing is more important than the love that cannot be shaken nor forgotten. Merry Christmas!

Thanks to The B&B Team for sharing. Hope you all enjoyed the read. I certainly enjoyed putting it all together.

Janet Wolf