Opening a Guest house questions

[Eliphas]

Hi

My mother is thinking of using a part of our home as a guest house and neither of us have any idea how one must go about starting one. I have looked it up online as much as possible but there is only so much it tells me, unless I am looking in the wrong place. I know where we should advertise (Air bnb, tripadvisor - any others?)

Do you need to register anywhere/need to pay vat somewhere ect?

Can anyone give any other pointers on how one must go about starting this?

Thanks

 

[satanboy]

Prepare to work LONG hours and put up with the weirdest people on the planet.

 

[xbmcfan]

If you open a guest house also remember to take out insurance.
There was a story in the papers about a Canadian woman that hurt her leg on some steps in the garden of a guest house in South Africa that were unequal in height and didn't comply fully with all the building laws and she sued the guest house owner for over R350 000.

 

[FNfal]

What area ?
Council licencing department then it is fire dept. health dept, , the council will send fire and health once you have applied for a licence .

 

[jeandrevisser]

Hi

My mother is thinking of using a part of our home as a guest house and neither of us have any idea how one must go about starting one. I have looked it up online as much as possible but there is only so much it tells me, unless I am looking in the wrong place. I know where we should advertise (Air bnb, tripadvisor - any others?)

Do you need to register anywhere/need to pay vat somewhere ect?

Can anyone give any other pointers on how one must go about starting this?

Thanks

To expand on xbmcfan's comment. My parents-in-law also ran a farm guest house (more like a lodge), and an incident I can recall is when one of the guests broke the inner glass of the oven in one of the units. They cleaned up the broken glass and took it with them when they left. Only after they had been long gone, did my parents-in-law see the missing inner glass when cleaning the oven.

Long story short, they did not get hold of the guests that broke the glass, but luckily they had business insurance that covered the repair and did not need to pay the repair completely out of pocket. Insurance is not something you think you need until an incident occurs. And let's also face it, an oven door glass is not a really expensive thing to repair (depending on the brand, LOL), but there are greater risks out there which can have a financial impact in the millions.

Imagine a guest walks into the reception area and slips on a wet floor. The cleaner forgot to put out the warning sign, and the customer did not see that the floor was still wet and got severely injured. That is where the Public Liability insurance cover kicks in for the accommodation provider for the legal claims arising from this event.

But there are various insurance coverage types for a guest house that can help if something goes wrong and impacts your business.

Take a look at Bi-me if you need to get quotes for your guest house. You can compare quotes from leading insurers side-by-side for your guest house without paperwork or a seemingly endless phone call, and if you find one that suits your needs and budget, you can purchase it instantly online. Visit Bi-me to compare accommodation insurance quotes.

I hope this helps you and future thread readers out.