Story and photos by Joseph W. Richardson

Gail Bruntjen, owner of the Chestnut Street Inn, prepares the dining room for an evening dinner party. The dining room table has served as the room's centerpiece for over 100 years.

"I break every rule that's ever been written about a successful Bed & Breakfast," Gail Bruntjen says over a hot cup of hazelnut coffee. "You don't want to put it where I put it, you don't want to have as few bedrooms as I do, and you certainly don't want to do this as a start-up business." It's late afternoon in mid-December and the sun is burning red and gold through the windows of the Chestnut Street Inn, riding ripples in the plate glass before spilling the same colors, diluted, onto a polished hardwood floor. "All those things aside, I think if you do anything really, really well, to some extent, you can make it successful."

To a large extent, Bed & Breakfast owners around the state are proving her right.

For the uninitiated, B&Bs are the cottage industry alternative to mass market motels. The basic concept is simple: homeowners let out a room or rooms and include a morning meal with each night's stay. But refine the idea to reflect 150 years of Illinois architecture, pepper it with the vision, tastes, and eccentricities of over 125 innkeepers, then toss attitude and economy into the mix, and you begin to get an idea of the shapes, sizes, and colors they come in. From cabins to cottages to pseudo-European spas, Illinois inns run the gamut. And all with an average of just under four guest rooms.

"There's a whole industry set up for aspiring innkeepers," says

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Recipe for a successful B&B Take several rooms, mix in one well-made meal, a pinch of atmosphere, add a dash of tradition for spice, market thoroughly and — voila' — instant B&B. If only it were that easy. In truth, an inn's chances for success rely heavily on its keeper. "So many try and choose not to continue," says Gail Bruntjen, owner of Chestnut Street Inn, in Sheffield. On average, the relationship between keeper and inn in Illinois lasts about three years. Why such a high turn-overrate? . "People underestimate the investment of money, and they underestimate how much work it is," says Bruntjen, who's already bucked the average. She suggests aspiring innkeepers ask themselves the following questions; "Are you in good health? Because the physical demands are pretty big. Are you financially stable; do you have an additional source of income? And do you enjoy people? Do you place a high value on service?" Bottom line — can you make a living from running a Bed & Breakfast? "You can," Bruntjen says. "But it's exceptional that someone makes a living at it." If you're (still) an aspiring innkeeper, talk to people established in the trade. Ask them what they wish they'd known before they started. Then contact the Illinois Bed & Breakfast Association. For $25 they'll send you a starter's kit which explains the rules, regulations and standards of innkeeping. Another $10 will buy you an apprentice membership, which includes the starter's kit, a subscription to the IBBA newsletter, plus entrance to regional and annual meetings. For more information contact La Verne Waldbusser, association administrator, Illinois Bed & Breakfast Association, PO Box 82, Port Byron, IL 61275, or call (888) 523-2406.

Brant and Carolyn Hansen of Champaign share a quiet moment at Country Dreams Bed & Breakfast.

Bruntjen. "You can go to seminars all over the country on how to operate Bed & Breakfasts successfully. And in all of those you will hear all of the don't-do's I've done. I've paid big bucks to know how wrong I'm doing things," she says, laughing. Which is ironic, considering the pains she took to do things right.

As an aspiring innkeeper, Bruntjen began her search by contacting 1,600 Bed & Breakfasts in the Midwest. She sent each B&B a postcard requesting brochures from owners interested in selling. "I got a cardboard box full of them, literally, from small three-and four-room Bed & Breakfasts in little towns just like mine. And I smugly said, 'I'm not going to put myself in this trap where I'm doing a little business in a place that won't make me a living, and what has been my dream for so long is going to become a nightmare.' "

That's when a realtor sent her information regarding something in Sheffield. The perfect floor plan built into an historic, stately home sitting on a quiet corner lot. Something that resembled a New England inn. Something Bruntjen had been looking for. "So I looked at it and that's the end of the story. I just dropped all the rational stuff I'd learned in the seminars and fell in love with the house."

Bluffdale Vacation Farm, north of Eldred, combines a home steeped in early Illinois history with newly constructed cabins to provide the perfect getaway. After a day of hiking, canoeing, or horseback riding (all included), guests can retire to their cabins to soak in a spacious hot tub, then warm the fireplace with the touch of a button. For information call (217) 983-2854.

Ironically, modern technology may be one of the primary forces driving people to seek out businesses based in historic homes. "The more we proceed into a high-technology civilization, the more we need high-touch to counterbalance that," Bruntjen says. "And a good B&B is high-touch."

Along those same lines, the unassuming town which failed to meet the tourist traffic numbers Bruntjen initially had in mind has also turned out to be an asset. "When you get off work on a Friday night, it's not necessarily the most fun thing to do, spending five or six hours in a car driving to a wonderful tourist place, where you meet how many other thousands of people that have done the same thing. If you're looking for more in your weekend getaway than caramel corn and T-shirts, then this is a wonderful location."

A doorbell chimes and Bruntjen leaves the room.

The sun fades behind a neighboring house and the colors in the window change and grow cold. Quiet, excited voices carry from the next room: guests seeing

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the inn for the first time. The last light of the day drains from the glass, leaving it filled with winter.

"Sometimes it doesn't matter so much where you are, but what you're getting away from," Bruntjen said before leaving. "When people seek out a Bed & Breakfast, they're not necessarily so concerned about the location. What they want to do is break their routine. They want to have time that they don't have in their normal lives. They want to have the experience of connecting with people that are important to them. It doesn't really matter where you are to do those things," she said. "Just so you do them."

Ralph Muhs, co-owner (along with wife Kay) of Country Dreams Bed & Breakfast, steals a rare minute alone by the fire. Country Dreams strikes a successful balance between informal and elegant by choosing pieces that accentuate, rather than dominate the living area. Light colors, a cathedral ceiling, fine fixtures and dormer-room window seats complement the open, airy house design that Ralph Muhs, a builder by trade, customized to create the inn.

You're thumbing through a listing of Illinois Bed & Breakfasts, all inspected, all approved, and in the absence of a well-timed phone call — all a mystery. What do you do?

Simple. Search your engines.

With its capacity for updates, downloads, sound, video, and quick correspondence, the Internet is a B&B hooker's dream come true. Or should be. In truth, relatively few Illinois innkeepers are using the Internet to their full advantage. So while queries fed through the magnificent seven of search engines churn out pages of B&B directories, actual owner websites are pretty scarce.

Ralph and Kay Muhs, owners of Country Dreams Bed & Breakfast, a new inn east of Springfield, are among the few rural innkeepers showing cyberspace market savvy. "When you're new, you're not in any guide books or magazines. You're an unknown," Ralph Muhs says, defining a problem common to fledgling businesses. "And people have to find you to know about you."

Enter the 'Net. "Our website has just been a godsend to us. Without it, we probably would have closed the doors and given up," Muhs noted a few weeks before Christmas. At present, closing the doors doesn't seem to be an option; several guests were relaxing in the living room during our mid-week interview, and the inn was booked for the following weekend.

Muhs attributes the inn's penchant for netting younger travelers to the Country Dreams website, which mixes trendy technology with small town charm to communicate the true flavor of the inn — elegant country.

Their website reflects a similar style. Photographs, background information, a map and contact numbers — all backed by sparing, well-placed graphics — combine to create a website both functional and user friendly. Country Dreams online also includes what may be the biggest boon to innkeeping since the telephone: e-mail.

Kay Muhs (left) serves the morning meal at Country Dreams Bed & Breakfast. The inn, which opened last year, is located near Rochester. For information call (217) 498-9210.

"We started e-mailing two or three weeks before I came here," said Darlene Hollinan, of Cobden, a frequent traveler and favored guest at Country Dreams. Hollinan went online to search for accomodations that would provide a more homey feel than the typical motel. "I knew I'd feel safe, comfortable here," she said. "I felt like I knew the place before I ever set foot in it."

To meet the Muhs and tour Country Dreams Bed & Breakfast, visit their online site at http:// www.softfoundry.com/countrydreams. For further online listings, access "Along the Way" — an electronic guide to Midwest Bed & Breakfasts, at http:// www.flinthills.com/~atway/index.html, or try the TravelASSIST inn directory at http:// travelassist.com/reg/reg_m_us.html. For a listing of inns approved by the Illinois Bed & Breakfast Association write to the IBBA at PO Box 82, Port Byron, IL 61275. or call (888) 523-2406.

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