Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan DeFrancia.
Hi Dan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
After I graduated from college I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. So I had various positions, mostly in a sales capacity. I enjoy speaking with people, learning what they do and how they do it, and helping people. I had several friends that worked in hotels and at times I reached out to them for a job. When I ended up in Tucson, AZ I wasn’t happy with my job so I reached out again. They encouraged me to pursue local options in Tucson, so I did that. My hospitality career started there and took me to three more states as well. I really enjoyed the environment of hotels and resorts and the genuine helpful attitude of the entire staff.
After 30 years of that and now being empty nesters, my wife and I wanted to do something on our own and work together. We decided that a bed and breakfast would be a great way to share our talents and open our home to visitors. With my hospitality background and her art background we thought our skill sets complimented one another.
We tried to build it outside of Seattle but after searching for the right property didn’t work out. We opted to move to wine country in the Willamette Valley and we built our bed and breakfast from the ground up. It was the best choice we could have ever made.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Construction of our b&b started well. We found the right property and a great builder and construction went smoothly, on time and well done. We were excited to get our doors open and begin “practicing” on friends and family. We had our structure and we had our plan so away we went. The biggest challenge occurred three months after we opened and there was a pandemic. We had to close our business except for essential travel, but there was no essential travel coming to Newberg, Oregon. I had left my job in October to help with the final details, we opened our doors in December and then had to close in March. We didn’t have any income and the bills kept showing up. The weather was pretty nice that spring so we worked on the landscaping by ourselves. We didn’t qualify for any financial assistance because we had not been open for a full year yet, so we were on our own to survive.
The ban was lifted three months later and we were able to take business with some operating precautions in place. So we did our best to make that work efficiently but were delighted to finally see some income flow our direction. It was still a slow start but it was finally going in the right direction. We were happy to finally share what we had built and continue on our journey.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
In short, we do everything. The two of us handle all aspects of our bed and breakfast, we cook, we clean, we promote, we garden, we act as the concierge, we maintain the grounds, we network, we participate in the community, we do whatever it takes to make things happen. We are proud to do things well and still do it our way. We don’t have to dress up, we don’t put on our work faces, we just get to be ourselves and share our home with some of the nicest people from around the country and some from other countries.
Physically, we have a beautiful property that sits on six acres and have very comfortable guestrooms. It is finished in a modern farmhouse style – there are not doilies in our b&b. All of our guests sit together for breakfast so there is great conversation. We make a large four-course breakfast from scratch each morning with lots of produce from our garden and fresh eggs from our chickens.
Upon arrival we greet each guest with a glass of sparkling wine and bag of popcorn. When they depart they get to take home a ceramic flower, made by my wife, as our thank you gift.
I think we are most proud of being genuine and authentic in opening our home and sharing ourselves with each and every guest. The comments they leave in our guestbook confirms that and it can be emotional reading those comments.
What does success mean to you?
By making each guest feel comfortable and enjoy their visit to wine country. When they write warm and wonderful comments in our guest book, I think that shows we did our job well.
One person said that we offer an elevated wine country experience but with all the comforts of home.
We also have a good number of repeat business which is another example of showing that we do things well.
Additionally, while we don’t ask for anyone to write a review, those that do have only given us five stars! I think that is a good measure of success.
Pricing:
- We offer a lower rate Sunday-Thursday and a higher rate on Friday-Saturday
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.willametevalleybandb.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WVBNB
