Room Design and your guests.

Was discussing this in connection with comfy chairs, when designing your rooms or picking out new furniture you should think about the main aspects of your market and what they will need. For example most of my guests are here for work and need a desk and wi-fi and a handy plug socket. If your guests are mainly leisure travellers then perhaps a comfy seating area where you could sit and read may be of more importance. In an ideal world we would all have these things in every room but I appreciate space can be an issue. So make sure you design your rooms to suit your guests one item of furniture at a time.

Possibly the most Grumpy B&B book ever!

Running a Successful Bed and Breakfast Venture  the Pleasures and Perils - Read this in about 2 hours but will be honest was not impressed. The author seems very focused on not letting the guest inconvenience you and that they abide by "rules" and if they want to be in the B&B throughout the day they should have booked somewhere that does and they should be encouraged to do outside (the BB) activities! Where I am it is very competitive and no guest would ever expect not to have access to his or her room during the day! For a book that is supposed to be revised and updated it was very old fashioned. Some of the advice is valid for example equipment in rooms, networking locally etc but there was nothing on the Internet or any other type of advertising which might have been helpful with the only comment really being that you have to get going with your business and then you can cut back which isn't particularly helpful. The suggestion about how to pick your site IE near a attraction and other factors to look for was helpful but to be honest have read other books which were more helpful.
www.http://www.soyouwanttorunabedandbreakfast.com/

Wipe Your Feet Please! by Marie Sever

I seem to be doing a lot of book reviews lately but this one I must mention! It is an absolute scream and has had me in stitches for 2 days solid. If there is anyone out there looking for an idea of what the daily life of a B&B owner is like this would not be far from the truth. The story follows Simon an intrepid B&B owner in Devon who seems to get embroiled in all sorts of mishaps from problems with guests and the local constabulary. Sally his long suffering wife also gives her view from the other side of the fence as well as bringing in the lives of their 3 children and the various staff that they employ through the season. As the year goes on they seem to be getting more of a handle on things with two really good staff and successfully expand into next door. For the bargain price of 77p I can definitely put this down as recommended reading and look forward to the sequel "No food in the rooms please".

links to article

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/hotel-star-system-to-lose-official-backing-2192474.html

Be aware that there may be a guest house and or B&B association in your area this is worth joining as they can often be involved in joint marketing events and can negotiate bulk discounts in certain cases. It may well be that you make friends with other owners this way and you may club together with them we tend to work with the people in our street to get bulk discounts.
I cannot stress this enough if you are just starting out as being your own boss have a good business plan. A few notes on the back of an envelope is not going to cut it! Shop around and ask a ton of questions for example:-

1. What is the interest rate and what will you have to make from the business to pay for it every month does this seem manageable as the bank will always want their money.

2. Never plan to be full all the time this is madness and your bank will think so to and write you off right away. If you can pay all the bills on 30% occupancy then this is more reasonable. By occupancy I mean if you only let rooms 30% of the time ie one third of the year would you make enough money to break even.

3. Look at figures for Gas, Electric and Water if you have a three bed house now then at least triple what you are paying now.

4. Marketing costs – ring printers and ask they will be happy to tell you how much 1000 business cards costs, brochures etc.

5. List everything and anything you can think of and then add a bit more. If it can go wrong then it will.

6. Specialist insurance costs ask a broker.

7. Soaps, shampoo, mending kits and so on they are all on the internet have a look.

8. Cleaning products

9. Renovations and be realistic about what needs doing and then double it.

10. Have a really good look at the property I would go to see at least three times before purchasing and make sure you look at everything from the basement to the loft!

11. If you are going to buy in an area that you don’t know the advice in a book I am currently reading is go to the local tea room and ask what the reputation is like. This may be useful but what is more to the point is get on trip adviser and speak to the local TIC I find they are terrible gossips and you are more likely to get a good picture of the real state of affairs.

12. If you are going to do your own laundry then get down to the shops and see what the prices of pillowcases etc really are not what you think they are. Something to consider is using catalogue that allow you to spread the costs of things. It does mean more cost in the end but it does spread your initial costs. On the other side of this if you are buying a going concern make sure whether they are leaving the linen or not as if not you have to have enough sets ready to go from day one. The same goes for duvets and pillows never assume what people are going to leave make sure of everything! Also Joanne says make sure they are leaving the linen they showed you not the scruffy rags left over and taking the good stuff with them!

13. A good point is to look at what the previous sellers are spending money on Joanne Muller in her book points out if they are spending no money or very little on advertising but say they are nearly always full then where are the people coming from?

14. Also if you have fallen in love with a place in a remote location check things like is the place on mains sewers, gas, water etc as these can be very expensive and tricky to run if you have always lived in a city and have no experience of them. If you are experienced in this area you’ll probably be fine but if the property was previously only domestic it may be worth reassessing capacity as you will have a lot more turnover than previously. (especially the septic tank!)

15. Joanne also mentions how they were taken in as the owners told the surveyor that a guest was in a particular room so he could not see it but it was fine. When they completed and went in the room it stank of damp there was water pouring down the back of the wardrobe and it turned out the roof was leaking and a costly repair. Now you can sue them for this but it doesn’t get your roof mended right away.

16. Try to avoid a place with little or no off street parking whatever you think about the quietness of the street and ability of your guests to get parked also you will not be popular with your neighbours if they can’t get parked either.

Mrs Moneypenny's advice for ambitious women Book Review

Bought this as a bit of light reading but felt a little let down. Its well written but is solely aimed at women who want to get on in companies which is not a bad thing but there was no advice for any women who might want to start their own company. A lot of their advice is applicable accross industries for example - get help you don't have to do everything on your own and don't expect to! Get assistance from friends, families, professionals ie cleaners or nannys and so on and most importantly make you partner in life carry his fair share of the load! It contains good career advice and would recommend women in their second year of university read it in helping them decide their career plan and how quickly to move along the fast track.

Running Gites & B&B's in France by Jo Taylor Book Review

I am writing this review as I read as she makes some good points no matter where you are starting up and I don't want to forget them. Such as the main causes for failure are -
(1) paying too much for a property or buying one that is too large and therefore being stretched to the limit to pay your mortgage every month.
(2) purchasing a property in an unsuitable location - ie middle of nowhere or where there are too many of your type of business already.
(3) underestimating how much it will cost to get the property to the required standard
(4)underestimating the time it will take to get the work done - I work to the rule of 2, whatever time the builders say it will take double it and add on at least 1/3 to the cost.
(5) underestimating other running costs ie tax, advertising etc and or if you have staff things connected with that ie tax, payroll etc
(6) over estimating rental income
(7) over estimating occupancy ie how many weeks you will get let in a season
(8) failing to allow for problems such as tenants that cause damage, who demand refunds, illness, family emergencies etc If you work for yourself there is no one to fill in when you need a week off at short notice.
MORE POINTS -
(1) be accessible, I know this is less important in the USA as people tend to drive but for example in France it is a huge advantage to be near an airport so as to attract the UK holiday crowd who only want a short trip from their arrival point. Also being near a ferry port could have the same advantage. In the UK I would advise the same it never hurts to be accessible however you don't want to be right up close to an airport! we are 20 mins from Leeds Bradford which has a shuttle bus every 30 mins and costs £3 we are a 5 min walk from the bus and train station as well which is a distinct advantage over our more distant competitors. Depending where you want to buy and your target market you may want to look at where the flights come from ie you are looking at targeting the UK market you want to be near an airport that does UK flights so look at where those flights are coming from. If they don't come from your target market are they planning on expanding?
(2) to extend your season are you near any of the following - beach, theme park, area of natural beauty, water parks, sports facilities, ie tennis, golf, pony trekking? Golf attracts all year round so is worth thinking about.
(3) remember toooo much land can be a liability not an asset! it all has to be looked after. If you fancy growing some vegetables and having a few hens you don't need 10 acres.
One of the people she has interviewed says whatever you estimate you will make in the first year decrease it by 25% to get a more accurate figure. I always say it is better to underestimate and be pleasantly surprised than be in a financial mess! (that info was from Bob and Celia Christmas (fab name!) www.larochecolombe.com.
I find this book generally very useful even though I am not moving to France. It focuses on the facts and figures and provides good sources of information to investigate further and doesn't look at the industry through rose tinted glasses as so many do. It points out there will be weeks when you don't let your property and to allow for that in your business plan.
Ive now finished this book and found a lot of it is very France focused which is the purpose of it so that's common sense. I would say this would be the very first thing you should read if you are thinking of buying a B&B in France or rent out a holiday home or Gite. There is alot of information on where to advertise if you want to have French visitors which is useful as well as large sections on tax and employment which would be a good place to start. Some of the information in the gite section and B&B section is repeated as the author is assuming you are picking one or the other. All in all  a good read for the price.

Book Review "Successful marketing get brilliant results fast by Pauline Rowson

ISBN - 9781854584816 - would say this is a very basic marketing book at the level where if you were thinking of starting a business and were looking for a placed to start this might be it. Is a good tool for looking at your strengths and analysing your competitors but has nothing in social media marketing at all. The tips for how to make your newsletters and e-shots interesting are helpful and putting in a request for people to forward them to anyone they think may be interested in your product is not something I had thought of. The main thread of this section is to make anything you send out interesting so that people will send it on as something to read therefore free advertising to people who havnt heard of you before and so potential customers. It reminds you that marketing is a long term job and is all about making people realise you are there and is something that you build into everything you do not an after thought.

Some sensible advice even if you arn't in France!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/expatproperty/9059433/Expat-guide-to-running-gites-and-BandBs-in-France.html

The article gives some good advice and I have bought the book and it is next on my review list!

Be a web Savvy accommodation business

This is an older volume now but would be a good place to start if you didn't know anything about the internet and the accommodation industry. Susan Briggs the author writes in an easy to read non technical style which is accessable to all. I would point out that as an update to her books she has a web site called www.tourismknowhow.com which has free classes and worksheets on and is much more up to date.  ISBN 9780709584315
www.Soyouwanttorunabedandbreakfast.com