Meet Vicki and Wayne Hill of McKinney Bed and Breakfast

Today we’d like to introduce you to Vicki and Wayne Hill.

Vicki and Wayne, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We raised our family here in Dallas, in the suburb of Coppell, just north of the DFW airport, and decided over 20 years ago that when the kids had all flown the nest, we would open a bed and breakfast. It just made sense to us that our gifts were suited for inn-keeping, and it was something we could do together throughout retirement.

We always thought that if opening a B&B wasn’t just a dream and we actually made it happen, then we would have our inn somewhere in the mountains, or perhaps even oceanside. We never ever dreamed it would be right here in the great city of Dallas.

There are NOT a lot of B&Bs in the metroplex. As you travel to other parts of the US however, there are dozens in towns similar to the historic or outlying areas of DFW. Historic downtown McKinney is one of those towns that over the years (150 years!) has always had a couple of B&Bs. The busy downtown square has over 120 stores and restaurants all housed in the original buildings from the 1800s, and are filled with everything from unique high-end merchandise to one-of-a-kind artifacts. Many of the restaurants are chef-owned and enjoy 5-star reviews. For us, it just made sense to find a historic home within walking distance to a busy fun square, and plant our B&B in a town that was fast becoming a true destination for travelers, far and near.

That was over 5 years ago, and since that time we have had over 4,500 guests from all over the world. We enjoy perfect reviews on all travel sites, and our repeat guest stats grow every year! We prepare gourmet 3-4 course breakfasts at a time of our guest’s choosing, and provide a lovely coffee/tea tray with homemade biscotti outside their door each morning.

Timeout.com, out of NYC, named McKBnB one of the Top 12 Bed and Breakfast Inns in the USA last year. We receive the Trip Advisor award for Excellence every year, and recently when Dallas Culture Map.com did an article on local getaways, we were the B&B they chose to focus on as “the” place to stay. Discovery Channel’s Destination America filmed an episode of The Haunting here in the B&B a couple of years ago. (We are not haunted! I promise!)

Starting a B&B is hard work. Making it successful is even harder, especially in a review-driven society like ours. We feel extremely fortunate that our very hard work has paid off, and that our dream indeed came true!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It was a nightmare going through all the hoops that the city of McKinney required of us to open a B&B here. When we started the process in 2011, they hadn’t had a new B&B in 10 years, and all the policies were actually reflective of an era of boarding houses and small motels from decades past. We often say that if we had known how hard the city was going to make it for us to open a small residential B&B, we would have gone elsewhere.

We had one grouchy old neighbor who didn’t want us to open, and wrote letters to the city saying that we would bring “itinerants” into the neighborhood. We laugh at that now, as most days, there are Mercedes and Lexus’ parked alongside our house. (Our rates are high enough to keep out the motorcycle gangs who frequent B&Bs! HA!) Those days were hard for us, and even frightened us as to if we were doing the right thing. However, the mean neighbor lost his battle, we opened, and all of our neighbors are now so lovely and supportive!

Nowadays, our struggle is with balancing work and personal time. Since our business is in our home (also a city policy of McKinney…) we have to live our personal lives out in a way that isn’t always relaxing. We don’t “go home” at the end of a work day, and we never have weekends off. Now that we are in our 6th year, we are trying to “block out” a few days a week so that we can see our adult kids and grandkids, or just enjoy having the entire house to ourselves.

Please tell us about McKinney Bed and Breakfast.
I will say that one thing that sets us apart from other B&Bs is our “custom” and personal breakfast time. Most B&B innkeepers will tell you what time breakfast is, and if you don’t show up at that set time, you will miss out on breakfast. Also, at most small B&Bs, you are seated at a big table with others who are visiting the B&B. (This is something that a lot of people love about B&Bs. But just as many don’t want to go to a B&B because of it.) We choose to let our guests tell us what time they want to eat, and we do everything in our power to allow them the opportunity to eat alone. This allows our young couples who are getting away from screaming children the chance to stay in their “bubble” a little longer, maybe sleep in too! And for our old folks, they can have their 7am breakfast, and not sit around for 2 hours waiting for the official set meal time.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If we had known how busy and successful we were going to be, and if we could have afforded it, we would have bought a bigger house so that we could take more reservations.

Contact Info:

• Address: 406 Parker Street
  McKinney, Texas 75069
• Website: www.mckinneybedandbreakfast.com
• Phone: 214-808-6727
• Email: info@mckinneybedandbreakfast.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/mckbnbvicki
• Facebook: www.faceboook.com/mckinneybedandbreakfast
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/McKinneyBnB
• Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/mckinney-bed-and-breakfast-mckinney
• Other: www.bedandbreakfast.com/tx-mckinney-mckinneybedandbreakfast.html

Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.