What would you want from a Diving B&B??

[Gunpowderboy]

My wife and I are thinking about relocating to a location that has really good diving and starting a B&B catering to divers. We are not looking at starting a dive operator business, but rather team up with a good operator in the vicinity.

What would you as a diver want from a B&B more than the normal expectations of a B&B (clean, friendly, safe and good service)?

So far I have come up with the following.

1. Very good knowledge of the local diving and dive operators.
2. Lots of space for setting up and working on your kit.
3. Lots of space to dry and rinse kit.
4. Good and healthy food
5. Transport to and from the dive operator that we partner with.
6. Special pricing for B&B combined with diving.
7. Dog friendly (i.e you can leave your dog at the B&B while diving as long as it gets along with our own dog)

Any other things you would like to see? What would make you choose our place over another non diving B&B?

Any input is appreciated.

 

[Insta-Gator]

3a. Outdoor shower and changing facility to keep the salt and sand stay outside (as much as possible)
3b. Outdoor lockers for kit and clothes

These will be especially helpful if shore diving is available, either withing walking distance or B&B transport.

 

[OBXDIVEGUY]

Like on a liveaboard, take care of all of the gear for the customer. ie. rig it, rinse it, store it.

 

[Doc]

If you are serving North American divers, they will likely want as many dives as they can do in a day.

4. Good and healthy food

Most such places that I go assume that I will only want to do 2 of the 4 scheduled boat departures on any given day. That's what they are used to from their guests. If I stay wet, I can get the 4 in a day, if....

If I can get a quick lunch, this is important so that I can stay at the dive op and let them change out tanks while I'm eating quickly.

7. Dog friendly (i.e you can leave your dog at the B&B while diving as long as it gets along with our own dog).

I travel with my cat. Your dog will get along with my cat, or likely your dog will hide in the back yard. As to other dogs that are brought diving with the other guests- they're on their own. Any problem with that?

What you have already seen at Sharm w/ Camel would be a good model to start.

 

[nimoh]

Like on a liveaboard, take care of all of the gear for the customer. ie. rig it, rinse it, store it.

This one I think is tricky. A lot of divers (including myself) don't like others to handle their gear. So, your staff would need to have a way to keep track of what divers to provide this service for, and what divers to leave on their own.

Perhaps if you had something like a drop-off area for gear that is to be rinsed and stored by the staff where divers coming back from diving could just drop off their gear, and I could just walk right past that area. Then the staff could store that gear separately so that the next day, they can pull it out and set it up, while I go retrieve my gear from my locker and set it up myself.

 

[BluewaterSail]

I did my OW while staying at a dive B&B in Curacao. I chose them because they were highly recommended on Trip Advisor, and they were willing to run the course even if I was the only student (which is what happened).

They managed to provide for all of the guests varied requests with a fairly small staff by creative scheduling. Also, the instructors also were the bartenders and could handle hotel desk work (check-in, check-out, recommend restaurants and make reservations, etc.). Really all employees except for housekeeping were dive instructors (various levels) who also were very knowledgable dive guides.

You could do shore dives from the waterfront right at the B&B, or they would organize transportation to other sites.

All guests that I had contact with were very pleased with the place. Flexibility and treating every guest as an important individual were their keys to success.

I don't think that "teaming up with a good dive operator in the vicinity" could have provided anywhere near the customer satisfaction level that this B&B did. Convenience is important. Someone wants to do a simple shore dive, maybe a night dive. Having the tanks and everything right there is a friendly convenience. Talking to the bar tender over your beer about tomorrow's dive site, and when you will want to wake up and go there is a friendly convenience. Coming back from a dive, dumping your gear in the rinse tank and heading straight to your room for a shower is a nice convenience.


Another very different example from my experience is a motel that I stay at in Florida cave country that caters to divers. Not only is it very reasonably priced, but you can park right in front of your room, and at each entry door is a covered area (like a roof on columns) where you can hang your stuff on hooks to dry. There are also a number of hoses conveniently located, if you want to rinse something. Each room has a power strip perfect for charging lights. They don't serve breakfast, but there is a nice fridge in the room and a supermarket close by. Also a diner across the street. I am not sure that I would pay alot more money to stay in a B&B, because this motel is so convenient and cheap.

That being said, a good friendly B&B in a desirable location will get clientel. Given what you described, I wonder if I would prefer to leave most of my gear in a locker at the partner dive shop, so that I don't have to schlep it back and forth each day wet.

 

[TSandM]

On my first big dive trip, I stayed in a B&B in Byron Bay, Australia, which I think was just about perfect. The buildings themselves were very pretty, and in a nice setting (nowhere near the beach, and not even in town; I liked that). There were outdoor lockers for hanging gear, and hoses for rinsing, but the bathroom floors were also tile and had drains, in case you wanted to bring some wet stuff into your room. The owners were divers, and very knowledgeable, and they had an upstairs room that had a TON of reference books on marine life of the area, and also on the geography and land attractions. I think that would be a big plus for any B&B for divers.

Another thing that would be nice, although we didn't need it on that trip, would be for the B&B to keep a supply of frequently needed spares, like batteries, o-rings, zip-ties, clips, AquaSeal and other things that divers break or lose, so people could do minor repairs on their own gear.

I really loved Planula Lodge, and the people were extremely friendly -- if you aren't thinking of setting up in West Australia, I'm sure they'd be happy to talk to you about their experiences running their place.

 

[ronscuba]

This can get a little tricky with the operators. Ideally you would want to be close to an operator, but then not necessarily limited to only that operator.

For me what can separate you from others is food. Fresh food that caters to your customers tastes and needs. A bag breakfast and/or bag lunch for people to take with them when they head out in the morning. For the organized types offer to take their order the night before so their food will be there ready for them when they leave in the morning. Homemade snacks like cookies, brownies, etc.. Divers love this in between and after dives.

 

[knotical]

handicapped accessible

 

[GROBIOG]

What the hell is a B&B?