The Daniels House is a Bed & Breakfast housed in a circa 1667 home in the historic city of Salem, Massachusetts. It is the oldest Bed & Breakfast in the United States. 

Owners Patrick Bentivegna and Adele Lee signed on for support through Business Triage in the spring of 2022. This project also welcomed our latest consultant to join the Triage team, Bruce Share of Share Business Growth Strategies, LLC.

Listen Now to podcast interview between Bruce Share and Scott M. Graves

The Daniels House presented the Triage team with solid fundamentals, resilient leadership and great ideas for how to grow the business, which are important facets for becoming a Business Triage client. 

Having opened in 2021 just before the global health crisis hit the United States, they needed the additional support that comes from Business Triage to ensure that post-Covid, they would be able to rapidly increase cash flow and find success. 

“The opportunity to help this family and do good work in a historic house in a historic city has provided our team with a remarkable experience” said SMG founder Scott Graves.  “It has been a pleasure and an honor to work on behalf of Patrick, Adele, and their team at Daniels House.” 

The Business Triage team understood that in addition to expanding the Bed & Breakfast, house tours, special events, and creating a merchandise store, the project also needed to meet the living accommodation requirements of Patrick and Adele’s growing family.  Initially, an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) was planned to provide this growing family of four the housing they need to live on site to continue operating as a Bed & Breakfast.  This project would take advantage of the city’s new ordinance encouraging the use of ADU’s.  Throughout the country, ADUs are seen as a tool to alleviate an acute shortage of middle market housing. 

Business Triage is designed to pivot quickly.  The couple were presented with the opportunity to purchase their next-door neighbor’s house, another historical home that sits on land originally part of the Daniels House property until it was subdivided around 1740, to accommodate a marriage in the family and new household.

As part of the Business Triage program, Bruce worked with Patrick, Adele, and team to maximize cash flow through more effective booking of rooms, scheduling of tours and special events, and developing a new merchandise store. Bruce states that “working with clients such as Patrick and Adele, who quickly respond with requested information and take on important tasks on their own, makes the success of the Business Triage program highly effective. I consider them the perfect clients.” 

The outstanding cooperation and input of the owners during this process allowed us to develop a solid operating plan, and create a 2-year, day-by-day financial projection spreadsheet for each source of revenue: room rentals, house tours, special events, and merchandise sales. The Daniels House is now almost fully booked with room rentals through the next two years, the owners have purchased a room reservation software package significantly reducing operating expenses while enhancing the guest experience, and the newly created merchandise store is now generating $200-$300 per day in sales. Once the purchase of the next-door house is complete and the City of Salem approves the application to combine the two homes, Patrick and Adele will be able to add 2-3 additional room rentals in Daniels House and three rooms in the next-door house, more than doubling annual room rental revenues, while concurrently improving the family’s living situation. 

Business Triage continues to assist the Daniels House in navigating the City of Salem’s final zoning, licensure and other requirements to expand their business while ensuring proper housing for the family.

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