TV

'Gilmore Girls' fans watched with anticipation as Lorelai Gilmore and Sookie St. James opened their own inn. Could they really come up with the money needed to make their dream a reality?

Published on April 3, 2020

Lorelai Gilmore achieved a massive goal during the fourth season of Gilmore Girls. Along with Sookie St. James, Lorelai managed to purchase, renovate, and launch a brand new bed and breakfast. Although there were a couple of small hiccups along the way, the duo managed to get the operation off the ground in record time. A little suspension of disbelief is required to believe that, though. Neither Sookie nor Lorelai was swimming in cash, and opening a new business isn’t cheap. So, how much would it have really cost to open the Dragonfly Inn?

How much does it cost to open a bed and breakfast?

Lorelai and Sookie’s desire to run their own business makes perfect sense. The duo worked together for years, keeping the Independence Inn humming. The one benefit of working for someone else is that they had no overhead and didn’t have to worry about the hard numbers. The truth of the matter is, getting a business like the Dragonfly up and running would have taken a lot of money.

According to Entrepreneur, someone looking to open a new inn should allot between $20,000 and $50,000 per room at the establishment. The Dragonfly had somewhere between 10 and 16 rooms, depending on which of Lorelai’s statements you believe. Assuming the inn had 10 rooms, Sookie and Lorelai would have needed to come up with between $200,000 and $500,000 just to get the property running. If the establishment had 16 rooms, the cost just gets higher. A 16-room inn would require an investment of between $320,000 to $800,000 to get started.

Could Lorelai and Sookie have swung that kind of investment?

Opening a new business takes a lot of cash, or, at the very least, a very good line of credit. Neither Sookie nor Lorelai seem to have had that. When the duo ran into cash flow problems during the renovation, neither had any extra cash to inject into the project. Sookie even suggests Lorelai go to her parents to get additional funding. Eventually, Luke helped out by investing $30,000 into the project, but that type of investment likely wouldn’t have scratched the surface of what was needed to bring the Dragonfly back to its former glory.

Sookie, who worked a chef before the Independence Inn burned down, likely would have made about $70,000 a year. That would be enough to pay her bills, but she probably wouldn’t have a massive nest egg sitting around to invest. Lorelai, on the other hand, likely had zero extra money lying around. With her penchant for takeout and expensive home, Lorelai, in reality, would have been working at a deficit each month.

Maybe fans will find out more in a second revival season

Amy Sherman-Palladino never seemed particularly interested in the finances of her characters. In fact, anything money related needs to be disregarded when it comes to the show. That doesn’t mean that won’t change, though. A second revival season is not yet a given, but fans have hope that Sherman-Palladino will return to Netflix, at least one more time, to further Lorelai’s story.

Maybe fans will get to learn more about the business’ finances if that were to happen. Last we left Lorelai, she was recently married and in the perfect position to expand the Dragonfly Inn and make it her passion once again. With an injection of money from Emily Gilmore, perhaps fans will finally get a chance to see how Lorelai balances her checkbook.

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