Salary
Average Salary: $60,000
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $2,600,000
Owning a B&B is no "get rich quick" scheme. It's more of a "pleasant way to get by" scheme. It's not the sort of thing we can provide an accurate average salary for, because it depends on a lot of different factors. Let's look at some math to illustrate.
Let's say you've got a B&B with six rooms, and you charge $100 per night. If every room is packed with satisfied customers, that makes for $600 per night in total income. At that rate, if you were to keep each room booked for every night of the year, you'd end up with roughly $219,000.
Don't get excited. We don't mean to burst your bubble, but that number is based on the best possible scenario. The truth is, hardly any B&Bs are totally booked year-round. Even if you had a place directly beside the newly-discovered Fountain of Youth, you'd probably have a few empty nights.
On average, most B&Bs kick it with about half of their rooms filled, which takes that number down to $109,500.
But wait, that total gets even lower. Next you've got to think about all the overhead expenses of operating a B&B. Taxes, insurance, utilities, food costs, general upkeep—all that practical stuff needs to happen if you don't want your B&B to turn into the Bates Motel.
Of course, not stabbing your guests in the shower or keeping the corpse of your mother (or in this case, Mrs. Bandersnatch) around will also help a lot in that regard.
After expenses, the income rounds out to about $60,000 per year (source). It isn't terrible, but it isn't amazingly awesome either—and we gave you a pretty sweet scenario here. To make more money from your B&B, you have to make sure you have one with more rooms.
Also, it'll definitely help to be located in a popular area, and it's absolutely necessary that you maintain a solid reputation as a clean, friendly, and overall chill establishment.
Why bother with a B&B if it doesn't pay much? Well, tax laws differ by state, but usually, turning your home into a B&B can land you massive write-offs, so you can get a portion of the money you spent on those expenses back at the end of the year. If you have a side job, running a B&B from your home can give you write-offs there as well.
Basically, it can help cover a huge chunk of your living expenses and maybe even leave a little gravy on the side for fun. (We mean that figuratively; you can have fun with more than just gravy.)