Lincoln's bed-and-breakfasts may be appealing
KENDRA WALTKE/Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Saturday, April 7, 2007 7:00 pm
Nearly 25 years have passed since Nora Houtsma and a few friends first thought about opening a bed and breakfast in Lincoln.
The concept was popular on the west and east coasts and was slowly spreading through the Midwest.
Today, Lincoln has five bed and breakfasts — or B&Bs, offering a total of 19 suites or rooms.
At least one more may be in the works. But more stringent fire and safety regulations passed a few years ago make it difficult to retrofit a historic home, so the number of B&Bs is unlikely to grow very quickly.
Lincoln’s B&B innkeepers say they don’t consider each other as competition. “We are all so different,” said Larry Stoll of the Atwood House.
But the houses do appeal to the same B&B crowd. With one exception — the Hawley Bed and Breakfast — all cater to couples looking for a romantic setting for a wedding night, honeymoon, anniversary or special birthday surprise.
“The guests I had in the first year are in some ways not much different than what I had in the beginning,” said Houtsma, who went on to open the Rogers House in 1984.
“At first it surprised me that people in Lincoln were staying with us,” she said, yet she’s found that guests come seeking a special experience, rather than just a place to rest while passing through town.
How the bed and breakfasts get the word out to potential guests — now that has changed.
Until the Internet became a staple of everyday life, “You had to advertise in these guidebooks, and you had to give the publishers your information a year in advance. You had to anticipate your costs and demands and changes,” Houtsma said.
Brochures from Nebraska and Lincoln tourism also helped, as did local media and magazine mentions.
Now, almost all marketing is done online through the inns’ own Web sites.
The sites have pictures of rooms and amenities and some even offer reservations and payment online.
“Two years ago, 40 percent of our business found us on the Internet,” said Westview Bed and Breakfast owner Jim Burden. “Now it’s easily over 70 percent.”
That helps draw customers from far away, who sometimes are surprised to find large rooms with their own Jacuzzis, private dining areas and TVs and VCRs.
Burden said his research turned up about 150 bed and breakfasts in Nebraska, though only a few dozen are members of the Nebraska Bed and Breakfast Association.
Omaha has just one bed and breakfast within its city limits, grandfathered in before fire codes were stiffened.
Lincoln lost one B&B recently when the owners of the F.M. Hall House moved away and put it on the market. It may gain one when the Leavitt House opens east of town, where the shell of a historic home on the VA grounds was moved and rebuilt completely from the inside.
Innkeepers say you have to love love people to stay in the business.
It’s a lot of work. A single room can generate three loads of laundry, said Cynthia Hoesch of the Anniversary Mansion.
Sometimes a bed and breakfast is not successful enough to offset expenses, the Atwood House’s Stoll said, “Other times they’re too successful and you kill yourself with the work load.”
However, “You serve people who are in a happy mood. That makes it rewarding, and you get to be part of their special occasions,” he said.
Longtime Lincoln bed and breakfast advocate Houtsma agreed. She said she’s stayed in business as long as she has because of the joy of meeting new people.
“I really believe bed and breakfasts are going to continue,” Houtsma said. “It’s not a flash in the pan.”
Reach Kendra Waltke at 473-7303 or kwaltke@journalstar.com