# Setting up B & B in Central Portuga



## Aisling (Oct 9, 2009)

Hi,

This is my first time to use this forum not quite sure if im using it correctly but here goes.

My Husband and I (We have two children aged 14 and 4) and we want to move to Central Portugal to set up our own B & B. What we are trying to find out is this area over run with B & B's already.

We have been to Portugal many times and find the people to be so friendly and lifestyle very relaxed.

Aisling


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## PETERFC (Apr 3, 2009)

*Reply*

Hi Aisling

First welcome to the Forum.

Setting up a B & B. What can you offer that is not being catered for in the emarket place?

First find an area you would like to live. This is important as when your customers go home you still have to live there, schools for the children were and how far.

A lot has to be done for yourself before you can consider others, if you are not happy life will not be what you want. 

Research that area find out all you can about it and what can be found that your customers would like to do. Is the road system easy to get to where you want to live. If it's not easy for you then how do you thing your customers will cope.

Spend as much time as you can reading previous posts on the Forum. Do not be afraid of asking questions we all need help and we can all also be of help. 

When you find something that is of help Bookmark it.

Peter


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## omostra06 (Sep 11, 2007)

Hi welcome to the forum,

There are a few b&b´s around central portugal and a lot of guest houses, some make a good living and some really struggle to find clients.

The most important thing to think about if you are planning this type of business is the location.

starting this type of business in the wrong place, where there are no attractions, historic towns, lakes, etc and easy road and rail access, distance from airports,will lead to problems, i have seen it, 

some people have had this idea, but bought a property and started a business in the wrong place, which leads to very little interest and no income, others that have thought about where is the best place to get all year round business have had much more success.

also the further out from the things holliday makers are looking for the lower prices you will have to charge to get any business, people like to be near to things to do, and not far from the airport,

think about who your clients will be, where will they come from, local market or overseas, if your aiming at overseas, think about airport distance.

our company deals with a lot of rental properties and its very hard to rent property that is far from the airport, the big cities/towns and hard to get to.

Good luck with your plans.


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## John999 (Jul 6, 2009)

*B&B*

Hi Aisling
I do agree completly with Peter and Derek, the advices are spot on, my question to you is; Do you and your husband have any experience running B&B´S, or it is something you fancy doing? If your plan to come over requires you to have to make a living, be very careful and don´t make any decision without been “sure” that it will work , or at least that there is a really good chance to make it. Some B&B´S are using mini-bus services to take clients to and from the airport, to and from the beach, days out shopping or visiting castles, cathedrals, museums, etch… there is also some middle age tourists coming in holidays to paint some of the gorgeous views, you can find around silver coast and central Portugal. So the market is there but like Derek said, some make it work, some don´t. Make sure you do plenty of homework before you make any decision
John999


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## Aisling (Oct 9, 2009)

Thank you all for replying to me so quickly and for all your comments.


We have never ran a B & B/Guesthouse before but we had a lot of ideas as to what we could offer as additional to the B & B/Guesthouse, we chose this as a way to start our new lives in Portugal, however, we are also open to other suggestions or ideas from yourselves who are working and living there at the moment.

I have heard that Tomar, Bucaso are beautiful, can you give me any information on these areas?

I look forward to your replies.

Aisling


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## Mr.Blueskies (Feb 24, 2009)

Hi Aisling,

I don't wish to sound negative, but the demand here for B+B is pretty non existant in my opinion and nothing at all like the irish market. What people fail to take into account is that it is possible to stay in very good hotels here for as little as €30 - €40 a night for a double room. A hotel can offer a bar,plus a very varied menu and also usually some form of entertainment at usually no extra cost. Taxis are also freely available to take people from A to B.

I just don't personally see how any B+B can successfully compete
against that. "Just my personal opinion and based on what I see!


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## patsy (May 8, 2009)

Hi Aisling i set up my own buisness here, and it took a while to get of the ground its not a b&b but i do a lot of work for them, if you are prepared to put the work in and make your b&b stand out, i think you could make it work its not easy at first, so make sure you have the right area and stand by cash to fall back on, when you first get going but i allways say you can have anything you want if you work at it it, wont come to you go get it, good luck if i would have lisend to negitive i would not have tried. patsy


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## John999 (Jul 6, 2009)

*B&B*

Hi Aisling
It is true what patsy says. When she started not many believed that she would make it, but she did, and she does quite well
John 999


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## omostra06 (Sep 11, 2007)

i know some b&b owners that do very well, lots of repeat guests, but getting it right is hard if you buy in the wrong place, location is key to a success in that type of business, oh and the ability to cook a good breakfast....lol


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## John999 (Jul 6, 2009)

*B&B*

Huummm, bacon, sausages, eggs, mushrooms, black pudding, baked beans, tomatoes, potato cakes and a few slice of toast with best butter, yummy!!!


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## omostra06 (Sep 11, 2007)

John999 said:


> Huummm, bacon, sausages, eggs, mushrooms, black pudding, baked beans, tomatoes, potato cakes and a few slice of toast with best butter, yummy!!!


if you had wrote that before i had lunch it would have drove me crazy....


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## Aisling (Oct 9, 2009)

Thanks for all your comments, it really helps getting difference of opinions from everyone.

 Omastra I have been known to make a mean breakfast, lol


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## Aisling (Oct 9, 2009)

John999 said:


> Huummm, bacon, sausages, eggs, mushrooms, black pudding, baked beans, tomatoes, potato cakes and a few slice of toast with best butter, yummy!!!


Huummm, but it has to be real back bacon, Irish Kearns Sausages (believe me they are the best), Clonakilty Black and White Pudding, potatoe cakes, hash browns (don't forget them), i could go on and on, But when we eventually get there Ill make the meanest Irish Brekkie for you all


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## omostra06 (Sep 11, 2007)

Aisling said:


> Huummm, but it has to be real back bacon, Irish Kearns Sausages (believe me they are the best), Clonakilty Black and White Pudding, potatoe cakes, hash browns (don't forget them), i could go on and on, But when we eventually get there Ill make the meanest Irish Brekkie for you all


oh, dont say that to us lot, we will hold you to it...


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## John999 (Jul 6, 2009)

*B&B*



omostra06 said:


> oh, dont say that to us lot, we will hold you to it...


I´m with you can´t wait to see that


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## Mr.Blueskies (Feb 24, 2009)

"When I was a kid and going to school in Dublin, an irish breakfast was a
bowl of porridge "if you were lucky!
lol :eyebrows:


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## Aisling (Oct 9, 2009)

Yep good old porridge thats what i give my two and they get a fry when they are very lucky otherwise, Stuart (my eldest) wouldnt be able to run up and down the soccer pitch.


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## Mr.Blueskies (Feb 24, 2009)

"And for lunch we got prairie sandwiches !

"Nothing but wide open spaces between the bread !


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## Aisling (Oct 9, 2009)

You mean to say you didnt have the Weetabix Sandwiches, they were so dry you felt like you were choking if you didnt get water


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## Aisling (Oct 9, 2009)

Omastra, can you suggest any good locations that we should start researching on in the Central Portugal close to Coimbre area. 

Our problem is that we have spent the last approx. 3 years researching the Minho, we absolutely loved it but what we found was that the weather was not that great, obviously thats why it is so beautiful and green. This is why we have decided to travel further south, we love the green but we like the nice sunny days too. 

Another option apart from the B&B/Guesthouse we were thinking of (like everyone else was maybe have an additional house on the land and let it out or maybe an Apartment, can you recommend anything on your website

Hope you dont mind me asking all the questions  Thanks again for your comments


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## omostra06 (Sep 11, 2007)

If you are thinking about b&b or guest house or even a medium to long term rental property, i would suggest trying to find a place in the area where most people want to live, visit, holiday etc. 
South of Coimbra that is without doubt Tomar region, Tomar is a UNESCO world heritage site, it a lovely old historic town, with a great selection of resturants, the top 2 resturants listed by the tourist board for the Ribatejo are both in Tomar. we have plenty of art galleries, museums and cultural events. as well as all the normal stuff like sports centres, cinema, bowling etc etc, there is a university here so plenty of night life too. 10 mins drive from Tomar you have Castelo Do Bode lake, the second biggest lake in Portugal, 40 miles long, with hundreds of miles of shoreline, very popular all year round with water sports people, sailing, speedboats, diving, snorkling, water skiing, canoeing etc etc, all goes on here at the various locations around the lake, there are loads of marinas where holiday makers keep there boats and come for weekend breaks, these people are always looking for places to stay.( a lot of people from Lisbon,come here for short breaks) as its only about one hour to Lisbon, its easy to get to, the same applies to the airport, people dont like to drve too far to thier holiday rental when they get off a flight.

We get visiters and holiday makers all year round so any accommodation based business will do well, i know several people here that already have very good businesses here.

I cant recommend any properties to you here on the forum, my advice is just start researching the region on the web, get to know what is available for sale in the region and at what price.

You will find the prices of property here in the Tomar region are slightly higher than some more remote regions further north and east, these higher prices are a result of this region being very saught after, lots of people want to live here, there are good employment opertunities here, so a lot of the locals from smaller towns and villages move here and to other larger towns to find work, go to uni and have more to do, this leads to property here selling faster and at a slightly higher value.

As has been mentioned before, if your just looking for a house for you to live in, then you can choose any region that you like, but if you want to run a business and make an income, it is very important to buy and start that business in the right place. otherwise you will spend more money buying a place that is suitable for this type of business but get no return, therefore it would have been better to buy a cheaper smaller place and leave the extra money in the bank or invest in something else to make you an income. location is key to this type of business, some people do get it wrong and assume that if they open a b&b build a website, people will just come...they wont!

do a search around the web for b&b and guest houses, rental cottages etc, for the region one hour north of Tomar, you will find plenty of websites where the owners have been forced to place images of Tomar and the lake on the site to try to attract attention, so the gur~est will think its near by the lake, only to find when they arrive that its not....and done come back or recommend your place to others, better to have a place where you are close to these attractions rather than just try to trick your clients as some do.


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## Mr.Blueskies (Feb 24, 2009)

"I have also seen properties advertised (with sea view)

They do not mention that to see the sea, you would need to have a
telescope and a very tall ladder. lol


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## PETERFC (Apr 3, 2009)

*Reply*

Hi Mr Blueskies

I saw one that had a great looking pool. I enquired about the property went to view and there was no pool. I was told that's how it would look with a pool installed. I walked away. 

Last time i looked at anything from an Illegal agent.

Peter


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## Mr.Blueskies (Feb 24, 2009)

"You have no imagination Peter !


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## John999 (Jul 6, 2009)

*B&B*

Too old to see the investment opportunity


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## Jamesie (Sep 17, 2009)

Hi Aisling

Welcome to the forum !
A good place to look is around the Vila Nova de Poiares area as it is only 20 minutes from Coimbra and the new 18 hole golf course will be built there in the next couple of years.
Also around Lousa as work has started on upgrading the rail link from Serpins to Coimbra. Property prices are reasonable and there are not many B&Bs around.


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## Aisling (Oct 9, 2009)

Thanks a million this is great information  It leaves me a lot to get on with checking things out etc etc.


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## Jamesie (Sep 17, 2009)

Good luck with your search.
If we can be of assistance please contact us 
Regards
Jim.


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## Paul Sard (Nov 20, 2008)

Aisling said:


> Hi,
> 
> This is my first time to use this forum not quite sure if im using it correctly but here goes.
> 
> ...


Hi Aisling

Its always good to know that someone have chosen Portugal as a Home and in your case as business location as well


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## John999 (Jul 6, 2009)

It is true that. This country is one of the friendliest countries in the world. It is in 7th place, regarding the international critic. Get it right and you will love it
John999


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## omostra06 (Sep 11, 2007)

I would agree with John that Portugal is one of the friendliest countries around, i have visited quite a few countries and lived in a few different places and Portugal is the best for me


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