Looking for tourists! We're moving to the White Mountains (Conway: for sale, coupon)

[dubstyle247]

i hope some people can help us with this. my wife and i are finally going to put our dreams into motion and try to make our move a reality. i currently own a landscape company that i'm selling and we want to move to the white mountain region to try out our dream of opening an inn or b&b.
my question is that after several trips we really are in love with so many different locations. in the beginning we liked sugar hill and we looked at a defunct inn but passed on it because we felt we hadnt looked enough. then we found a place in lancaster. a wonderful farm house with a huge barn with loads of potential. on our most recent trip we stayed in lisbon and then onto jackson where we may have fell in love for sure!!!
i guess our requirements are such that, i would like to start up another small landscape business to help supplement our inn. it seems n. conway has lots of business for me. what about the other areas i mentioned? our other requirement is that we need tourists!!! obviously! is lancaster too far out of the loop? does sugar hill have enough draw for 4 season tourism? what about jackson? jackson seems like the best bet from what we've seen. we fully understand that there are slow parts of the tourism seasons but we just dont want to move to a place where we see one guest a month and i cant find work anywhere. we are planning many more trips up that way so please, any help is greatly appreciated.

[GregW]

Littleton, Sugar Hill and Franconia are very active tourist areas summer, fall and winter. You may even consider Landaff (uphill from Lisbon) as the place is about a scenic as it gets. I suggest you look up the New Hampshire B&B organization and see where your competition is located. The most important part of B&B sales is satisfied guests and advertizing in the higher end magazines in the rich cities and suburbs. Articles in magazines like “New Hampshire” or “Country Life” are invaluable.

A friend of mine ran a very successful B&B in southwest Vermont and had the best results advertizing in NYC. In order to provide the fancy setting his guests expected he had to raise prices beyond our means so we stopped staying there. Sadly he has since passed away but he had a wonderful time running the place. A ‘by the drink’ liquor license is mandatory along with a collection of good wine and whisky. I suggest trying for the richer clientele with some slack in prices for your less wealthy friends.

IMHO an attractive B&B is far enough out of town so the peace and quiet is absolute and the night skies are as dark as possible. The location does not have to be near breakfast and lunch because you will be serving b'fst and your guests will most likely be out being touristy for lunch. A possible added attraction would be some form of light supper along with cookies in the evening. Consider a separately ventilated smoking room for the folks that want a cigar and brandy after supper. I have considered running a B&B after I retire but at least one of my personalities is appalled at the very idea.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

[NH2008]

Jackson is great and it is near North Conway but the flip side is that for that reason, it does already have a lot of inns. That doesn't necessarily mean there isn't room for one more, but you might look into the competition before buying there. There definitely isn't a vacuum in the area. North Conway has tons of hotels, motels and inns as well. Good luck!

[fishnfool]

You're going to get a lot of business from the ski crowds so keep that in mind....try to stay close the some of the mountains and work with the resorts to get some sort of coupon or discount......that right there would attract me and most of my friends. We stayed at a BB in N. Conway last year for xmas and loved it. I'm hoping to make it a yearly thing. If you have ski options you'll get business all winter as opposed to just the fall season,holidays, and summer.

[dubstyle247]

great advice. keep it coming!

[gradRun]

You could try the Crawford Notch - Mount Washington area. Lots of tourists in the summer and Bretton Woods traffic in the Winter.

If you're up and around Conway, it might be worth your while to checkout the Maine towns near the border. I've always liked Bridgeton, it's a cute lake town with a much larger touristy lake (Sabago) and skiing near by. The weather seemed a little milder too, at least milder than my end of the Kancamagus.

[JMishy]

I live in N. Conway and would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. I have noticed a few B&B up for sale in the N. Conway area. As some of the previous posters mentioned, we have a TON of hotels, motels, lodges, B&B and vacation rentals. However, it is a tourist town and there are always plenty of tourists that frequent the area. I really like the Bridgeton idea! Fryeburg, Maine would also be nice and could use a few more nice B&B.

Good luck!