Published: November 28, 2008 04:29 pm      

Inn keeper brings German roots to America

INDIANAPOLIS — Growing up in Germany when she was young, her mother always said it would be nice to own a nice house where people could stay when they were out of town, as she frequently traveled with her boss on work trips.

Renata Swope said the comments from her mother were what planted the seed in her mind to open her own bed and breakfast someday.

In 2006, Renata’s Bed and Breakfast, 2201 S. Lynhurst Drive, Indianapolis, opened to guests offering four themed rooms — America, Indiana, Romance, and German — and her Gingerbread House out back, which has room for 35 guests.

Now, after retiring from Napa Autoparts after 35 years in the customer service department in April, Swope said she is loving retirement and fully devoting her time to the bed and breakfast.

“I retired this year and I love it,” Swope said. “I thank God every day that I’m able to do what I’m doing. I can’t just sit still, I love entertaining and getting paid for it.”

Swope came over from a small town near Nuremberg, Germany, when she was just 18 years old and lived with her first husband’s family in Springfield, Mo. She didn’t know the language or how to drive, so she taught herself how to speak English by reading, conversing, and watching television, and she took driving lessons on her lunch breaks at work.

“When you’re a foreigner, you have to learn their language,” she said. “I learned by just talking and I taught myself how to read and write from watching TV.”

Swope lived in America for 20 years before she made the decision to become an American citizen. She said the immigration problems that are going on in the country now are disturbing to her, as an immigrant herself.

“It’s an honor to become an American citizen, it was 20 years before I decided to do it,” she said. “With the immigration problem we’re having now ... I had to take the classes and take a test ... they should know how to speak the language.”

Swope’s patriotism shows in her American room, which is decorated with a red, white, and blue quilt on the bed, red, white, and blue towels in the bathroom and a quilt of President John F. Kennedy hanging on the wall.

When she opened her bed and breakfast, she said she wanted it to be a place where people could just come and feel comfortable. She completely remodeled the house, which was built in 1930, and furnished it with furniture she found at Goodwill, garage sales, and flea markets. It took her a year to finish, but she said she’s just tried to make it as “homey” as possible. She did buy brand new mattresses for the beds, however.

While she says she has felt the economic turbulence like everyone else, she still tries to keep her prices low and within her own budget range.

“The last four months, the business with the races has been good, but everything is tight and I try to do my prices within my own budget,” she said.

Her prices start at $85 a night and include the room with a private bathroom, cable TV, wireless Internet, snacks, and a breakfast in the morning, which Swope makes herself.

For people needing a place to have a meeting or party, Swope said her Gingerbread House holds 35 people and comes equipped with a kitchenette and bathroom, costing $100 per day. She also has special packages available on her website, www.renatasbandb.com.

Though Swope lives in the basement of the bed and breakfast and she’s devoted to being a hostess, she’s also busy as a grandmother to her two grandchildren, who reside in Brownsburg. She also sells cash-and-carry gifts and Partylite candles, to make a little extra cash.

“You have to like what you do, and I do enjoy what I’m doing,” she said.

Swope is hosting an open house at her bed and breakfast 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 12-13 for past and future guests or just friends interested in stopping by for some food and beverages. She is asking for RSVPs to be turned in by Dec. 11.

For more information about the bed and breakfast or to book a reservation, call Swope at 486-4577 or visit her website, www.renatasbandb.com.

charlee.beasor@flyergroup.com