Welcome to the April 2008 Issue of our Running a B&B Newsletter
In this Edition:
· Update from My Own B&B
· Latest Course Dates
· New Hopton House Website
· Fancy a Holiday in Cornwall
· Who looks after the place whilst you’re away?
· Country Living Magazine
· Gadget of the Month
Update from Hopton House
We’ve had a frantic week hurrying to get the B&B ready for our first guests ( following 4 months of building work to update the B&B ) who are arriving this afternoon. The floor in the dining room was only laid at the beginning of the week and the decorator and builder were still on site on Wednesday. This meant I couldn’t start cleaning till Thursday so I’m now feeling a bit worn out having spring cleaned the house from top to bottom, removing several inches of building dust, in just 2 days.
Last year’s dreadful summer weather really affected my own B&B business. The new sunroom/dining room looks great and I’m really hoping it will be attractive to guests giving them somewhere to sit and unwind if the weather isn’t good enough to sit outside. It’s got lots of books for guests to borrow and I’ve put in scrabble, backgammon and cards as well.
The weather aside, it’s really difficult to say how the general doom and gloom about the economy will affect the B&B business. You could take the positive view – this morning’s news told us that the strong euro would mean holidays abroad would cost an extra £700 this summer – a good reason to stay in the UK? More Europeans holidaying in the UK? Perhaps people will take several short breaks instead of a long summer holiday – again good for the UK B&Bs. Or it could just mean that people stop going to B&Bs altogether!
I think the important thing to bear in mind is that your previous occupancy levels aren’t always a good indicator of how you’ll do in years to come, not to get complacent and to continue to review your product and your marketing to ensure you get enough guests to meet your business goals.
Latest Course Dates
I’ve renamed the “Are Your Ready to Run a B&B One Day Course” to “How to Set Up a B&B”. The course content hasn’t changed and covers the same material as Day One of the2 day course Setting Up, Running and Marketing a B&B.
The 2 day course in May is now full. I will be adding future dates but I still have availability on the one day “How to Set up a B&B” on Monday 28th April. The course costs £125 per person with discounts for 2 or more people booking.
I’m really pleased that both courses will be held at Hopton House again. Past course attendees have always appreciated the opportunity to see the B&B and experience the day to day running.
You can book online with your credit or debit card using paypal or, if you prefer, you can ring me direct to pay over the phone by card or by electronic bank transfer. For both courses the costs include lunch, light refreshments and all course material but not accommodation or evening meals. Accommodation is still available at Hopton House. Book Soon!
New Hopton House Website
Rather perversely, having won gold in the Enjoy Excellence in England regional awards for Tourism Website of the Year, my web designers. www.perfectarc.com and I decided to redesign my website. The old one did a tremendous job for me but was beginning to creak a bit with all the information I had added and wanted to add.
The new site is much fresher with lovely big photos ( never leave your house without a digital camera in your pocket !) www.shropshirebreakfast.co.uk
We’ve made it much easier for people to check availability by putting a “Check Availability” button on every page and also encourage people to sign up for our newsletter by putting a newsletter sign up box on each page as well.
If you are having a website designed it’s essential that you have the facility to update it yourself. A website that has lots of content and is regularly updated will encourage people to keep visiting it and will also appear higher up on the search engines such as Google.
With the content management system I can’t change the template but I can add new words, photos and even new web pages. I’m also having a blog incorporated into the site to replace the old static news page.
I’ve also started using Google Analytics to review how my website is doing. It’s a great tool for reviewing how many people are coming to your website, how they got there, how long they spend and which pages they are most interested in.
Country Living Magazine
I’m very excited to say that the one day course will be reviewed in the June edition ( out in May ) of Country Living magazine. I’ve also been interviewed for the NFU magazine – I’m not sure which edition but if you do get it – keep an eye out. And last month I did my first television appearance on BBC News 24. I had prepared about 20 minutes worth of answers and ended up being on for a whole 20 seconds.
The News 24 item was about how increasing fuel costs are affecting rural tourism businesses. One of the disadvantages of being in the countryside is that you usually need to drive everywhere and, for me, the nearest decent shopping centre is 10 miles away. However I have to balance that with the fact that, because I work from home, I only need to use the car several times a week rather than daily commuting.
B&B in Looe, Cornwall
If you’re looking for a break in Cornwall in the summer then one of our newsletter subscribers, Tamsyn Berry, is in the process of setting up a B&B. Take a look at her website here http://www.glenfeaden.co.uk/ . If you’d like to promote your new B&B website in this newsletter – which goes out to out to about 500 ( and increasing monthly ) subscribers – then please let me know.
Looking after your B&B whilst you’re away
We’ve just come back from a weeks holiday in San Francisco, having taken the chance to get away before the summer rush at the B&B started. It’s not easy getting away when you have pets. I don’t put the dogs in kennels and the chickens obviously can’t be sent to a boarding hen house. It’s made more complicated when you’re running a business from home as you don’t want to leave your business phone unattended – my experience of potential B&B guests is that if you don’t answer the phone they’ll go and find another B&B elsewhere.
We normally get our parents to come and stay but it’s becoming difficult because they both have dogs and commitments of their own. So this holiday we decided to get in housesitters. I looked at a number of agencies and decided on Animal Angels http://www.professionalpetsitting.co.uk/ . The couple who stayed with us were lovely – the dogs were distraught when they left – and ably looked after my B&B bookings and kept the builders and decorators supplied with tea and coffee.
I personally choose to shut the B&B whilst I’m away. I could get someone in to run for me but the B&B is very much my business and the interaction with guests important to me.
Gadget of the Month
So after a week swanning round California we came back to 4 months of building dust. I don’t enjoy cleaning so I’m always looking for anything that will make it easier and quicker. I’ve just bought a steam cleaner and have found it really useful. It’s particularly effective at cleaning around taps and removing dirt from tiles. www.lakeland.co.uk sell both a handheld and a larger model.
Having a nice new alder wood floor I’ve also invested in a Californian Floor Duster from Lakeland. It does do a very good job of sweeping the floor and means I don’t have to keep getting out the vacuum cleaner ( my robotic vacuum cleaner has yet to be delivered )