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Ann Blythe – Owner of BnB Haven

Ann Blythe - Owner of BnB Haven

Everything I have done in my life has led me to the short stay Host business.

I love people and have an intuitive ability to create an environment that is both Classy, Comfy and Clean and acceptable to most.

Areas I have worked in:

  • Hospitality
  • Retail
  • Health
  • The property industry

My career started in hospitality as a Qualified chef in England, a barmaid in an English pub and waitressing. I was a catering manageress at 19 years for a Catering company. Separately, I cooked and served the food, prepared the tables and managed the waitressing and bar staff for weddings and functions.

Moving to Australia, I quickly found chef work. After three months, I was again in a managerial position. I moved to Head Chef on a resort project where I designed the kitchen and restaurant and sourced local produce for the menu.

Moving to Canberra, I needed work and was lucky enough to waitress at Parliament House serving breakfast to the local politicians and chef work at the NASA Space station.

My chef mantra is ‘Never serve what you would not eat yourself’.

Meeting my husband started two decades of retail experience, building a small failing Gem and Opal shop in the suburbs to winner Retailer of the Year in the Canberra Centre Excellence in Retail Award.

Ann Blythe

This was a fine achievement for a small retail business in the main shopping complex in Canberra.

Building this business involved initially wholesaling our stock as well as retailing, designing charms of tourist attractions in Canberra including the War Memorial, Corillian and Telstra Tower. It wasn’t long before we had the opportunity to mine opal on the Mintabie Opal fields during the winter months whilst running the shop. This lasted 12 years and meant driving 2656kms from Canberra to the Opal field several times a year.

During my time in the Opal fields, I would make movies of our mining adventures and how opal is mined. On our return to Canberra, we gave talks on our life on the Opal Fields to the Embassies in Canberra, local groups and the International Woman’s Association.

It was a harsh existence, but whilst my husband mined, I built our camp and raised our son.

I built many camps over the years of mining. The camps progressed from my bed in the back of a Range Rover, my kitchen a campfire, a scary drop toilet, and a shower in a water-filled open cut mine to a tent that was shredded in a sand storm, a caravan that wavered in the huge wild storms and the annex was ripped off, to a tin shed with a running water from a gravity-fed tank above our camp.

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My camps improved with each challenge that hit us until I built a camp that was sheer paradise in the harsh desert of central Australia, miles from civilisation. I lived by the saying ‘There is no excuse to be dirty.’ even with the dust and flies. The business grew and our reputation, for service, knowledge, cleanliness and professionalism grew along with it.

Life then took me on another path when my marriage broke down!

I had always been interested in health, diet and exercise. I considered life ’A daily discipline’. A discipline of what we eat, think and do.

As a natural progression in this mind-body-soul awareness, I began studying to become a Massage Therapist. A hobby in my marriage that turned into a successful massage business for many years. Caring for people and understanding their needs is close to my heart.

Personal References

Kalie Blavius

Ann and I over the last 6 months have been in a Joint Venture partnership within the Airbnb/Short Term Accommodation realm. We have been amongst the same property investment & personal development circles for approximately 6 years.

Ann has a meticulous tenacity to achieve results! From her extensive and very successful renovation business to property investment & development involvement, Ann is an impressive Woman.

Lauren Laing

I have now had the privilege to sell two incredible houses for Ann in Canberra.
From the moment I met Ann I knew I had to work with her.

Her classic style, attention to detail, vision and how she delivered such amazing homes in a short amount of time, without cutting corners just blows my mind.

Ann, you are an inspirational woman and can’t wait to deal with you again in the future.

Brendan Smyth

Shadow Treasurer, Shadow Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism, Emergency Services, Territory Owned Corporations and Gaming & Racing

To whom it may concern I have known Ann Blythe for more than thirty-five years. I have always been impressed with Ann’s determination, her dedication to task, her knowledge of her chosen field and her high level of people skills which she combines to ensure that any task that she sets her mind to will have 100 per cent of her attention.