Traipsing through Ireland on one of our beloved Rick Steve's tours, our tour guide, Stephen, took us to Dingle where we stayed in the Bed and Breakfast that he owned with his business partner. It was a cute Inn, called Milltown House Dingle, on the outskirts of the picturesque seaside hamlet.
Like I mentioned in my first post about Barro Station, I was completely enchanted. The Milltown House had a bar, a beautiful sitting room, and a greenhouse like structure where meals were served. It was only later I'd learn what went into that cheerful facade.
Several years later, after the pandemic, my family and I visited another Inn in the highlands of Scotland and had a similar experience. A delightful lunch, a warm demonstration of how to make traditional Scottish scones, and innkeepers who made the act of serving guests look completely effortless.
I now know that those innkeepers were likely very sincere with their cheer but that there is a lot that happens behind the scenes to run a safe and reputable Bed and Breakfast or Inn. My husband and I are learning all about these things as we prepare to open up the Greenlake Guest House to receive guests later this month.
Here's a taste of what that actually looks like in practice.
First of all, there's something called a Transient Accommodation License. Governed by the Department of Health, this license is a regulatory permit for housing short-term rentals and it applies to all hotels, motels, and inns that have more than three rooms. In order to get our license, we had to apply, and then we had to be inspected. A very nice man named Sanjay came out one day to inspect, and he literally had a clipboard and we walked through each room, making sure we had the proper items in place – fire detectors, CO2 monitors, in all guest areas. He also ran his finger across most surfaces to make sure there was no dust, and he inspected the bathrooms in each room to make sure that there was no mold and that the temperature of the water was between 110 and 120 degrees. I guess this is important because it kills Legionella bacteria, which thrives in water below these temperatures.
We also needed our permanent food establishment license. We will only be serving breakfast, but the license ensures that everybody on staff has their food handler's permit and that one person onsite (me) is called the person in charge. This involved me taking a 10-hour class and passing an ANSI test to gain my certification, the end result being that we know how to store, prepare, and serve food so that it is safe for our guests.
And finally, we needed a Section 11 liquor license so that we could legitimately serve (not charge) our guests wine or beer.
While these three things seem straightforward, I think that Chris and I nearly pulled our hair out while trying to navigate the government sites to figure out which forms we needed to fill out!
Luckily, because we purchased the Guesthouse from Julie and Blayne, its previous owners, they already had so many things in place. They have also been an invaluable resource for us.
There have been many other preparations underway as well. Probably the most fun for me has been working with our two innkeepers, Christel and Lena. The two of them have been instrumental in getting things ready from an operational perspective — bringing both warmth and sharp attention to detail to everything they touch. As a longtime and avid cook and baker, this meant that I got to put my chops to work in the kitchen alongside them, testing recipes and then translating them for serving at the guest house. The picture, below, is of Christel testing out some new cookie recipes – namely our peanut butter miso cookie and gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe, both of which are delicious.
Meanwhile, Chris has been putting his old IT background from the way back to use setting up the guest network, making sure our phones are working, and equipping each guest room with a Roku streaming device so that guests can stream all of the platforms that they would normally access at home.
The dogs have been in training as well, doing their best to curtail any barking and trying to be good dogs.
If our trip to Dingle taught us anything, it's that the magic of a great inn feels effortless to the guest — and that's entirely the point. The cheerful innkeepers, the perfectly timed scones, the warm sitting rooms: none of it happens by accident. There is paperwork and inspections and 10-hour food safety classes and many, many government websites standing between a dream and a doorbell.
But here we are. Licenses in hand, cookies tested, Rokus installed, and dogs (mostly) trained. We cannot wait to welcome our first guests through the doors of the Greenlake Guest House and, hopefully, make it all look effortless.