Luxury B&B May 2018 Issue

CORNISH SPRING

MAKING YOUR MARK

Venton Vean charms the punters in Penzance

CHOOSING THE RIGHT FURNITURE TO CREATE A THEME

PLUS!

SPIRITS STORIES - ENGAGE YOUR GUESTS WITH BACK STORIES BEHIND CRAFT SPIRITS

UK’S FIRST

LUXURY

B&B MAGAZINE WWW.LUXURYBBMAG.CO.UK • ISSUE 26 • MAY 2018

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this month...

Welcome

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Our cover story this month features a luxury B&B in Penzance whose owners tell a familiar tale of devotion to their property and their guests (page 14).

Venton Vean – Cornish for Little Spring – is an elegant five-guestroom Victorian house lovingly transformed to by two former City lawyers, Philippa and David, who quit the rat race to bring their children up in a more peaceful setting. Their guest reviews are a joy to read.

Like many luxury B&B owners the couple are now fortunate enough to rely on a high proportion of repeat bookings. The same is the case with the owner of Meadow View in Stamford, which has now been put up for sale, where around 55% of visits are repeat bookings (page 6). There were 206 reviews of the guest house on TripAdvisor as we went to press, 201 of which ranked the B&B as Excellent.

Such properties and their owners evoke the unique spirit of the high quality British B&Bs. Guests can depend on levels of engaging hospitality not usually to be found outside the UK. Given the potency of word of mouth and the certainty of a high number of repeat visits, many such B&Bs choose not to make use of online booking agencies (OTAs). Feelings run high on this subject. However, there are still plenty of B&Bs who do use such facilities to supplement their direct bookings. There is a price to pay for this in the form of a high rate of commission. But as we find in an interview with two leading OTAs, Booking.com and Expedia (page 35), the OTA is a window on the world. It is your choice whether to pay the price for a global audience.

NEWS

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COMMENT

B&B Association chairman David Weston suggests award winners can provide a lesson for everyone in the B&B market

CORNISH SPRING

A profile of luxury B&B Venton Vean in Penzance

OUT OF EDEN

The hospitality supplier brings a wealth of information on sprucing up your B&B

ONLINE VISITOR’S BOOK

Vizzbook founder Jason Rivolta explains why his digital visitor’s book will attract thank you notes from appreciative guests

GUESTROOM ENTERTAINMENT

A round-up of some of the developments in guestroom entertainment technology

PILLOW TALK

Tips on maintaining your pillows to the highest standard

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B&B news from around the UK

INSPIRATIONAL FURNITURE

We take a look at some inspiring ideas that can create a powerful theme to your guest house furniture

ONLINE BOOKING

They’re not for everyone in the high-end B&B market but online travel agents do provide a window on the world

CRAFT SPIRITS

We look at some of the captivating stories behind whiskies from France, Australia and the Scottish Highlands – and a breakfast gin from Chicago

38

Bill Lumley

Editor

26 Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 3 - May 2018

- News -

'Friendly', 'welcoming' hosts win awards for Britain’s best B&Bs AA Hotel & Hospitality Services announced the winners of this year’s AA B&B Awards at an event held at the end of last month at The Landmark Hotel, Marylebone in London. The annual event recognises the diversity and individuality behind some of the nation’s most remarkable B&Bs and celebrates the people that devote their lives to running them.

AA Hotel & Hospitality Services managing director Simon Numphud said: “B&Bs are an integral part of the British hospitality industry, providing a unique experience and bespoke customer care. The AA B&B Awards are an important date in the AA’s calendar, as we celebrate all that is great about B&Bs and highlight those that are constantly striving beyond what is expected. I’d like to congratulate this year’s winning B&Bs for their continued hard-work and for delivering AA customers a fantastic service.”

The awards featured five categories, ranging from the friendliest to the most unique, and the winning establishments were chosen due to their impeccable service and superb offering.

Research by online booking experts eviivo, sponsors of the AA Friendliest B&B Award, found that in nearly 1,500 reviews of its top 100 properties, guests most frequently cited ‘friendly’ (17.5% of reviews), ‘hosts’ (16.5%) and ‘welcome’ (13.5%) when praising an establishment, revealing the importance of these traits to a successful B&B.

AA B&B Story of the Year – sponsored by Eviivo Fosse Farmhouse – Castle Combe, Wiltshire ----------------------------------------------------------------

England Old Town Hall – Leyburn, North Yorkshire ----------------------------------------------------------------

Owner of Fosse Farmhouse, Caren Cooper commented: “Being curious and inquisitive and always asking why - you never know where you’ll end up. For m e it took me from a little village in Wiltshire to Tokyo and around the world.”

Owner of Old Town Hall, Louise Clarke commented: “We are surprised, shocked and delighted to have won this prestigious award from the AA. When we started two and half years ago we never imagined we would be recognised by such a highly regarded organisation for doing something we enjoy.”

AA Unique B&B of the Year The 25 Boutique B&B – Torquay, Devon -------------------------------------------------------------Owners of The 25 Boutique B&B, Andy and Julian Banner-Price commented: “We’re really proud to have won the unique B&B of the year award, to be recognised at a national level and to showcase the English Riviera and Devon as a destination with an excellent offering.”

The winners of the 2018 AA B&B Awards are:

Wales Rhedyn Guest House – Builth Wells, Powys ---------------------------------------------------------------Owner of Rhedyn Guest House, Muiread O Connell commented: “It’s so nice to think that our efforts have been recognised. To be honest we’re overawed, but also really delighted. We think there is no secret in running a B&B - it’s about making guests feel like they are staying with friends; making them feel like they are being cared for; and making them feel like someone has gone that extra mile for them.”

AA Guest Accommodation of the Year Scotland Cruikshanks Boutique B&B – Isle of Arran ---------------------------------------------------------------AA Friendliest B&B of the Year The Temple Bar Inn – Hereford, Herefordshire ---------------------------------------------------------------Owner of The Temple Bar Inn, Philly Jinman commented: “We’d like to thank our amazing small team who work so hard and are like a family. We’ve had tremendous support from the AA in our time of membership.”

Owner of Cruikshanks Boutique B&B, Nanette Cowieson commented: “Although Rob (Owner) loves to pull my leg about my innately American preoccupation with winning, the really wonderful thing is being recognised for something that both of us have worked towards for many years - a special guest destination.”

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 4 - May 2018

Northern Ireland Causeway Lodge – Bushmills, County Antrim ---------------------------------------------------------------Owner of Causeway Lodge, Anne Taggart commented: “The Guest Accommodation of the Year is a wonderful accolade to have won, and we are thrilled to have been chosen by the AA - all of our hard work has paid

- News -

EDITOR

Bill Lumley bill.lumley@jld-media.co.uk 01737 852 345 CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Caroline Sargent 07076 362082 CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Matthew Attwood 01737 852 345 NORTHERN IRELAND EDITOR

Francis Higney 01737 852 345 SALES MANAGER

Dywayne Ramsundar dywayne.ramsundar@jld-media.co.uk 01737 852 342 DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Stuart West stuart.west@jld-media.co.uk 01737 852 343 DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Ryan Goble 01737 852 341 PUBLISHING DIRECTOR

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The opinions and views expressed in Luxury Bed & Breakfast are not necessarily those of JLD Media.

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Award-winning Lincolnshire B&B goes up for sale Luxury B&B Meadow View in the picturesque town of Stamford has been put up for sale six years after the owners acquired the property in an uninhabitable state.

Online customer feedback has been overwhelmingly excellent. On TripAdvisor the B&B has attracted 206 reviews, 201 of which rated it as ‘Excellent’ and the remaining five as ‘Very good’.

Owner Mark Thomas said he spent a year renovating it and putting ensuite bathrooms in all the bedrooms. The property now has planning permission for a second floor.

He told Luxury Bed & Breakfast magazine “Since we got it right and up and running around 55% of my business is repeat business. Guests tend to come time and time again when they have found somewhere nice and you get to know them because they come year after year.

“The house was derelict, so it took a year to do up, make it habitable and to put on extensions. After that first year I set it up as a B&B.” The property is in a great location, he says. “You

can walk into town, you can walk to the theatre, to Burleigh House, the Elizabethan house and home of the Burleigh Horse trials. The house is light providing for very easy living so it is good for entertaining.”

He has not yet decided what he will do next. “We just wanted a new adventure really,” he said.

The sale is being handled by Strutt and Parker.

Loch Lomond Whiskies partners with Colin Montgomerie Loch Lomond Whiskies, The Official Spirit of The Open, has agreed a high-profile partnership with golfing champion Colin Montgomerie to promote the brand’s range of award winning single malts across the world.

The independent Scotch whisky distiller recently announced a five-year partnership with The R&A to become Official Spirit of The Open and Women’s British Open. This is the brand’s first individual sponsorship agreement with a player.

Since turning professional in 1987, Montgomerie has recorded 52 tournament victories across the world and became European #1 in 1993 – a position he held for an unprecedented seven years.

Ryder Cup success followed as a player before he led Europe to a famous victory as Captain at Celtic Manor in 2010.

Montgomerie will now work with Loch Lomond Whiskies to promote the full product range worldLuxury Bed & Breakfast - 6 - May 2018

wide, including two “limited editions” specially created to mark The 147th Open at Carnoustie as well as a “Single Cask” edition that will carry his name. Later in the year, a “Colin Montgomerie” limited edition single malt will also be released.

Montgomerie said: “I’m a long-time fan of Scotch single malts and so am absolutely delighted to work with the team at Loch Lomond Whiskies who have shown great passion and enthusiasm for producing some fabulous whiskies of great quality and character.

“As a proud Scot I know that Scotland is world-renowned for both our whisky and our unrivalled golf courses. I’m passionate about telling the story of both and was really impressed by the quality, authenticity and diversity of flavours of the Loch Lomond single malts.”

Colin Matthews, CEO of Loch Lomond Group, said: “We’re extremely pleased to welcome Monty to our team. As one of Europe’s most successful and passionate players over many years, our partnership will allow us to further develop our presence in golf.

“We look forward to working with Colin as he helps us spread the message of Loch Lomond Whiskies around the world.”

Whisky from Scotland, France and Australia and gin from the US feature in our spirits feature page 38

- News -

TripAdvisor Launches Sponsored Placements

TripAdvisor has launched a new advertising solution, Sponsored Placements, to help accommodation businesses to capture the attention of travellers and drive quality traffic to their property by advertising in high visibility placements on the travel site.

Sponsored Placements allows accommodation businesses to capitalise on TripAdvisor’s influence over consumers’ buying decisions by increasing their property’s visibility and driving booking referrals.

Customers can set up a Sponsored Placements campaign by selecting from three monthly cost-per-click budget options, allowing owners to set their maximum spend threshold, with customizable budgets coming soon, according to the travel site. The ads are then automatically targeted to highly qualified traffic searching for relevant accommodation options in the area. Businesses are only charged for the clicks their ads receive.

Access to Sponsored Placements is now available to all accommodation providers with an active subscription who share rates and availability through TripAdvisor. Business Advantage is an evolution of TripAdvisor’s popular Business Listings product and empowers accommodation businesses to impact booking decisions, differentiate from competitors, and measure and strengthen their online reputation.

“Given the influential role TripAdvisor plays in the Inspiration, Shopping and Decision phases of a traveller’s planning and booking experience, we decided to build a product to help accommodation business owners reach potential guests at this critical stage of the path to purchase journey. Sponsored Placements is the smarter advertising solution the sector has been waiting for – developed to increase a property’s exposure on TripAdvisor and reach highly-qualified travellers with high booking intent,” said Martin Verdon-Roe, vice president B2B product and marketing, TripAdvisor.

Gianfranco Acamparo, owner and general manager of the Grand Hotel Aminta in Sorrento was an early adopter. He said: “TripAdvisor is currently our most effective marketing tool. With the new Sponsored Placements, we can appear above search results and people are able to contact us directly via our Business Advantage links. It’s saving me commission costs because people are contacting us directly or booking on our website. So far we’ve seen a 20% increase in direct bookings in 40 days.”

Interview with two online booking agents page 35 Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 7 - May 2018

- News -

UK Hospitality welcomes online platform transparency

Plastic pact commitment signed Industry bodies have welcomed the recent progress announced in negotiations with the European Union for the UK’s departure.

Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said: “The plan will provide businesses with more peace of mind and give employers a chance to begin drawing up their plans for their businesses post-Brexit.

UKHospitality has reiterated its commitment to tackling packaging waste by signing the Plastic Pact.

Launched by sustainability experts WRAP, the Plastic Pact is a business collaboration aimed at cutting plastic waste. The pact, which is signed by 42 businesses responsible for over 80% of plastic packaging sold on products through UK supermarkets and 15 other organisations, aims, by 2025, to: • Eliminate problematic or unnecessary single-use plastic packaging through redesign, innovation or alternative (re-use) delivery models.

• 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable • 70% of plastic packaging effectively recycled or composted

• 30% average recycled content across all plastic packaging UKHospitality is also helping to spearhead a sector-wide packaging event: Unpack the Future of Hospitality, in association with the BII, which aims to address the issue of packaging waste in hospitality.

UKHospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said: “The problems caused by packaging waste is becoming increasingly salient and there is a consensus that we must, collectively, do more.

“Our commitment to the Plastic Pact highlights our ambition to spearhead the hospitality sector’s efforts to address packaging waste and ensure the sector plays a valuable role in helping develop sustainable and green practices and alternatives to disposable packaging.

“Our event will bring together the entire sector to address the problem head-on and investigate the potential of a vibrant and dynamic industry to reduce packaging waste voluntarily. I am encouraging the entire sector to throw its weight behind the campaign, not only to address the issue of waste, but also to help underline the hospitality sector’s potential to make significant progress without the need for Government intervention.

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 8 - May 2018

UKHospitality has welcomed proposals by the European Commission to provide transparency and certainty regarding online platforms.

The Commission proposals require platforms to ensure objective and more transparent procedures when setting their terms and conditions for business users and redress mechanisms; as well as more transparency regarding rankings and scrutiny of complaint handling.

UKHospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said: “Digital platforms and the digital economy has evolved enormously in a very short space of time and, in many cases, regulation has failed to keep pace. This proposal from the Commission is a good first step in ensuring that there is transparency for businesses and customers.

“All too often, SMEs find themselves at a disadvantage, so we welcome efforts to level the playing field. This is something that UKHospitality has been rigorously pushing for: across Europe through HOTREC and in the UK. We will continue to fight to ensure that SMEs, and larger businesses that can also find themselves at a disadvantage, are able to operate in a fair environment.

“Competition authorities in other countries, such as Germany are taking a proactive approach to legislation regarding online platforms to safeguard transparency and flexibility. We are urging the UK Government and the CMA to take a similar approach to the issue so that UK businesses do not find themselves at a disadvantage” she said.

- News -

KENT B&B WINS VISITENGLAND GOLD AWARD Alkham Court Farmhouse in Kent has won the gold medal for Bed & breakfast of the Year awarded by VisitEngland, which has announced the cream of England’s tourism industry with the winners of its Awards for Excellence for 2018.

The prestigious awards, now in their 29th year, recognise, congratulate and celebrate businesses and individuals who raise the bar of England’s tourism offer.

The 21 winners were announced on St George’s Day last month at an event hosted by Kirstie Allsopp at the Bath Assembly Rooms. They range from Afternoon Tea of the Year to Tourism Pub of the Year, from Dog-Friendly Business of the Year to Visitor Information Provider of the Year. The winners were selected from hundreds of submissions including accommodation businesses, attractions, food establishments and guided tour operators, spanning the length and breadth of England from Cornwall to Yorkshire, from Kent to Suffolk, Somerset to Tyne & Wear.

VisitEngland Chief Executive Sally Balcombe said: “These awards shine a spotlight on our fantastic tourism industry, with the winners showcasing the quality, innovation and excellence on offer throughout the country.

Below are the winners in each category for this year’s awards: Bed & Breakfast of the Year GOLD - Alkham Court Farmhouse, Kent - www.alkhamcourt.co.uk SILVER - The 25 Boutique B&B, Devon - www.the25.uk BRONZE - South Lodge Boutique B&B, Buckinghamshire www.southlodgebandb.co.uk Boutique Guest Accommodation of the Year GOLD - Yorebridge House, Yorkshire - www.yorebridgehouse.co.uk SILVER - Hever Castle & Gardens, Kent - www.hevercastle.co.uk/stay BRONZE - Cary Arms & Spa “Inn on the Beach”, Devon - www.caryarms.co.uk Business Tourism Award GOLD - Sage Gateshead, Tyne & Wear - www.sagegateshead.com SILVER - Rookery Hall Hotel & Spa, Cheshire - www.handpickedhotels.co.uk/rookeryhall/business BRONZE - Tewkesbury Park, Gloucestershire - www.tewkesburypark.co.uk/meetings Dog Friendly Business of the Year GOLD - Wallops Wood Cottages, Hampshire - www.wallopswoodcottages.co.uk/dogs SILVER - Bulleigh Barton Manor, Devon - www.bulleighbartonmanor.co.uk/dogs BRONZE - Salad Days Beach Hut, Somerset - www.dunsterbeachhut.com/dogs-at-salad-days Guided Tour of the Year GOLD - York’s Chocolate Story, Yorkshire - www.yorkschocolatestory.com SILVER - World of Wedgwood, Staffordshire - www.worldofwedgwood.com BRONZE - Cotswolds Distillery, Warwickshire - www.cotswoldsdistillery.com

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“From an outstanding boutique hotel in the Dales to a guided tour of York’s chocolate-making history, from pine holiday lodges on the sandy beaches of Cornwall to a quintessentially English country-pub in Hertfordshire, these winners provide outstanding and truly memorable visitor experiences.”

In addition to the winners across 18 categories, there were three special awards: Outstanding Contribution to Tourism awarded to Historic Royal Palaces, Tourism Superstar winner Jim O’Reilly following a public vote and Travel Article of the Year awarded to journalist Richard Mellor.

Historic Royal Palaces received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Tourism in recognition of the powerful draw the royal palaces have on domestic and international visitors. VisitEngland’s Annual Attraction Survey found that in 2016 there was a seven percent increase in the number of visitors to historic houses and castles compared to the previous year.

The Tourism Superstar competition, run with the Daily Mirror, was this year won by Jim Reilly, a customer service adviser with Red Funnel Ferries.

Nigel Thompson, the Daily Mirror’s Travel Editor, presented the accolade.

Latest VisitEngland statistics show that in 2017 Brits took more than 47 million holidays in England, up six percent on the previous year. Brits spent more than £11 billion on domestic staycations in 2017, up six percent on 2016.

Tourism in England contributes £106 billion to the economy.

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Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 9 - May 2018

- News -

Rural broadband continues to lag Broadband speeds in rural areas are lagging up to three times slower than neighbouring cities only a few miles down the road, with council leaders warning they are at a ‘competitive disadvantage’ to urban areas.

New analysis by the County Councils Network (CCN), which represents England’s 37 county councils, reveals that 72% of England’s counties are below the national average download speed of 45Mbps and more than a quarter (27%) have average speeds below Ofcom’s definition of superfast (30 Mbps).

The findings are based on average county figures compiled by Grant Thornton using Ofcom data. These feature in a joint CCN and Grant Thornton UK LLP report released last month.

For some counties, it means that their areas have average download speeds that are far slower than large urban and city areas that they neighbour. Locations in North Yorkshire have an average download speed

of 30.2Mbps, compared to neighbouring York’s average speed of 102Mbps. Ryedale shares a boundary with the city of York, yet residents and businesses in Ryedale get average speeds of less than one fifth of those enjoyed in the city.

Areas within Derbyshire have an average download speed of 31.6 Mbps, almost half of that of the county’s city, Derby, which has average download speeds of 59.3Mbps. Just a few miles north of the city, residents and businesses in Amber Valley have average speeds of just 25.9Mbps.

The figures show there is no regional variation to the urban v rural broadband divide, with rural Dorset having half the average download speed than urban Gateshead, and less than half the speeds enjoyed by residents and businesses enjoyed in neighbouring Bournemouth (61.2Mbps).

In total, 169 areas in England have broadband speeds below the national average. Four fifths of these locations (83% are based in England’s counties). There

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Metropolitan boroughs

English unitary (non-CCN):

Analysis of data by Grant Thornton from major fixed telecom operators

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 10 - May 2018

are 79 areas in the country that have average speeds below Ofcom’s definition of superfast; all but four of these are based in counties.

The highest speed in England is 102.9Mbps in York, whilst the lowest average speed is 21.8Mbps in West Devon.

County leaders say their rural areas need to have the digital infrastructure to compete with cities and urban areas, otherwise there is a real risk they will not be able to attract the businesses of the future as England moves towards a greater prominence of financial, tech, and communications sectors, at the expense of traditional sectors such as manufacturing.

Last year, economic forecaster Oxford Economics warned that county economies are lagging behind the rest of England in those high productivity sectors reliant on digital infrastructure and fast broadband connections, such as information and communications, finance and insurance.

The study concluded that when comparing economic growth in counties to that of England, their information and communications sector make a lower contribution to national growth in counties. The report also concluded that productivity – the measure of how ‘competitive’ an industry is within a local economy – was already 14% lower, in counties, in the information and communication sector, and 30% lower in the financial and insurance sector, in rural areas, compared to the rest of England.

Oxford Economics argue that to improve productivity and offset future jobs losses, particularly in manufacturing, county economies needed to ‘transition’ towards a greater reliance on these high-value added sectors in the coming years, supported by specific interventions within the Government’s ‘Industrial Strategy’.

CCN warn that these latest figures show

- News -

that a lack of investment in digital infrastructure in counties and a continuing focus towards cities in the government’s Industrial Strategy and post-Brexit policy could leave counties continually lagging behind urban areas.

The network argues that counties should have similar powers to drive forward local economic growth as city region metro-mayors, working as ‘strategic authorities’ alongside Local Enterprise Partnerships, and should get a fairer share of infrastructure investment which is currently skewed towards urban areas.

Cllr Philip Atkins, County Councils Network Vice-Chairman, and leader of Staffordshire County Council said: “The government’s commitment to provide superfast broadband to as many areas in England as possible has resulted in some significant steps forward in rural connectivity in the last few years. Counties like Staffordshire are working with national and local partners to connect hard to reach rural areas and improve

broadband connectivity.

“Counties are great places to live and work, but these figures show that businesses in shire counties and rural areas are being left at a competitive disadvantage. It cannot be right that in some areas, businesses and residents in a city less than 10 miles down the road from a rural county benefit from average download speeds of more than three times faster.

“While the government has announced investment in this area, we remain concerned that digital infrastructure in counties isn’t getting the attention it desperately needs.

“The ultimate success of the government’s Industrial Strategy will hinge on ensuring we drastically improve national productivity in all four corners of the country post-Brexit. This means ensuring we invest in digital infrastructure.

“More investment is only part of the answer; county authorities need to be empowered as ‘strategic authorities’, alongside city region metro mayors,

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 11 - May 2018

with devolved powers to drive forward infrastructure investment in their areas.

The government’s promised ‘common devolution framework’ is an opportunity to ensure a practical framework for achieving this, placing county authorities as lead, accountable bodies as recommended by leading think-tanks Localis, ResPublica and IPPR.” Whilst broadband coverage in rural areas has slowly improved over the past decade, with more rural homes connected, their average download speeds still lag far below other parts of the country.

For example, a household in Leicester could enjoy download speeds of 16.4 Mbps more compared to a household less than ten miles away in Kibworth Harcourt in Leicestershire.

Guy Clifton, the head of local government advisory at Grant Thornton, said: “As someone who has been travelling around the country for the last 15 years largely by train I would add to the rail and road infrastructure, effective broadband.”

- Comment / David Weston -

Learn from the winners!

We can all learn from the best in the business – so I always try to invite acclaimed and awardwinning B&B and guest house owners to share their “secrets of success” at conferences when I am responsible for arranging the speakers. And of course, I always look forward keenly to hearing what they say. I’m not the only one: these are typically the most popular sessions with other B&B owners.

T

David Weston Chairman of the Bed & Breakfast Association.

heir messages can vary hugely, particularly on marketing aspects of our business. I’ve heard awardwinners discuss how they successfully get most of their business though online travel agencies (OTAs) – and this year heard from one who not only does not sell though OTAs at all, but does not even have online booking.

Yet with direct telephone bookings only, Wendy Veale has led the Old School B&B to the accolade of TripAdvisor’s “Best B&B in Europe” this year (and fourth best in the World).

So successful businesses can adopt very different techniques for their operation and especially for their marketing – but are there any common factors between the winners? Yes, I think so. The key things that always come out from the winning B&B owners are passion (almost to the point of obsession sometimes), perfectionism, attention to detail, wanting to go beyond just meeting guests’ expectations – and a warm welcome and real care for guests: in a word, hospitality.

Wendy Veale said she was "thrilled" to be recognised by the awards this year: "As other worthy B&B owners will know, it's a jolly hard job, requiring stamina and a big smile and I do it with pride, welcoming guests from all corners of the world 'back to school', our lovely home here in the largest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England," she added.

"I have lived in the Cotswolds for over 40 years now and enjoy showcasing our outstanding countryside, ensuring our guests day starts and ends experiencing true traditional English hospitality (always lots of cake involved!) and in between all the jobs, I sneak in my passion for our rescue animals which have quite a following with guests and on social media."

This year's TripAdvisor awards also confirmed Brits do B&Bs the best, with five of the top 10 in the world located in the UK. Other winners include Bindon Bottom B&B in West Lulworth, Dorset, which has been named the second best in Europe and the UK and fifth in the world and

34 Argyle Street Guesthouse in St Andrews, Scotland, which was ranked third place in Europe and the UK and sixth in the world.

Are these awards good for the winners?

Our member Sue Burrell joined the Association, read our book ‘How to Start & Run a B&B’, and then opened her B&B, Millgate in Masham, North Yorkshire, in Spring 2012.

Sue was kind enough to say “This book really set the standard for our business… I do not believe we would have been as successful in business without [the book and the B&B Association’s] guidance - thank you!”

Soon Millgate was awarded an EnjoyEngland Breakfast Award, then in 2013 it was voted 23rd best B&B in Europe and 15th in the UK in TripAdvisor's Awards. In 2014 Millgate reached the World "top ten" – then in January 2015 the call came from TripAdvisor that Sue’s three year old B&B had been voted TripAdvisor's “Number 1 B&B in the world”.

“The next few days were just a blur”, Sue remembers. TripAdvisor telephoning to book in journalists from the national press. BBC Radio and TV, ITV, local press reporters, Press Association photographers and cameramen were all booked - in total secrecy - to be ready for the day the news was to be announced to the world at the end of January 2015.

The morning the news of Millgate’s award was announced at 05.00 hours UK time, the first booking came in at 05.09, and after Chris Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 12 - May 2018

Evans began telling everyone to book Millgate B&B the bookings were coming in at the rate of four a minute.

Sue was on the telephone doing radio interviews about the award from as far away as Cambodia: “We had to unplug our telephone as it was ringing constantly and I couldn't take the bookings fast enough. We relied on our Freetobook booking system for over a month to take the bookings for us as we had 1,427 email enquiries on the first day alone. We were booked up for almost the full year in just four days in January”.

Any regrets? Sue sighs, “with hindsight, I wish we had booked some days off for ourselves, as we only had seven days off until the following October!”.

So, learn from the award-winners: put your heart and soul into your business, focus on your guests, strive to continuously improve – but don’t forget to set aside time in the diary for a holiday for yourselves, to take time out and experience someone else’s hospitality!

The Bed & Breakfast Association is the UK trade association for B&B and guest house owners, and exists to inform, support & represent owners. Membership costs £60 a year. www.bandbassociation.org

- Comment / David Weston -

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 13 - May 2018

- Feature / Running a Luxury B&B -

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 14 - May 2018

- Feature / Running a Luxury B&B -

Cornish Spring Venton Vean guesthouse in Penzance is a luxury bed & breakfast run by former lawyers David Hoyes and Philippa McKnight, who in 2010 quit their jobs, sold their London property, packed up and moved to Cornwall.

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a or a long time before then they had been considering leaving the rat race to move to live and work somewhere they had both grown to love. Their first child was born in 2004 and their second in 2006. "We wanted them to grow up with fresh air and with an outdoor life," says Philippa.

Using the proceeds of their London property, the couple bought a large Victorian villa in Penzance and then spent the next 12 months renovating it and converting it into a boutique guest house, adding en suite bathrooms to each of the five guest rooms.

Philippa says: "We chose the route of setting up a bed and breakfast because we love food, design and travel.” But she admits: “We really had no idea what was involved to begin with.”

Perhaps inevitably she says they were in for a few surprises. The first was quite how rapidly their savings were eaten up by the cost of renovating and furnishing the property. The biggest surprise they found in setting up and running the new business, however, was just how much hard work it involved and quite

how little time they have for anything else during the peak summer season. “Actually, a lot of people who go into running a B&B find the same thing, while a lot of people who don’t work in a B&B assume that by midday you are at the beach,” she says.

The second surprise was to discover how pleasant most of their guests tend to be.

“Most people are really nice,” she says. “They are on holiday, in a good mood, and they want to have a good time, and perhaps 95% of guests are delightful people."

The couple don’t find much time to take holidays in the peak summer season, pursuing the B&B life of a round of early-morning starts, late check-ins, paperwork, health and safety, fire regulation compliance, managing guests’ high expectations as well as, from time to time, guests who will complain no matter how perfect the service they provide. However, they usually close up for four to six weeks in the winter and take holiday then as both feel it important to travel and keep ahead of food and hospitality trends.

The owners of Venton Vean – Cornish for

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 15 - May 2018

‘Little Spring’ - have actively chosen not to use online booking agencies. Philippa says: “We only take direct bookings, with personal contact with people. If people ring up requesting a particular aspect of the room such as a view or bath and a shower we can tailor the offer for them, and that probably helps.

“So far, we have been fortunate enough to be able to run the B&B profitably without the need for online booking agents,” she says.

Although she acknowledges there are B&Bs that stand to benefit from the business generated through OTAs, she says: “The danger is that they are putting a great strain on some of the kind of B&Bs that are charging perhaps £10 to £20 a night less than us, because they then have to hand over 20% of whatever the room price is.

“Also, guests don’t appreciate this – they’ve have no idea about the commission the B&B owners have to hand over, and when you tell them they’re really amazed. If I wasn’t doing this for a living, I probably wouldn’t know either, because the message they give is that you’ll get the best price if you use online booking agents, when that’s not the case,” she says.

Despite amassing a wealth of practical legal experience as lawyers before taking the move to B&B operator, neither Philippa nor David finds the time to take on freelance work to bolster the income they generate from the B&B, which she suggests is a blessing. “When we quit, both of us hoped that we wouldn’t have to do that anymore,” she says.

Asked if their law expertise helped initially

- Feature / Running a Luxury B&B -

in acquiring the property and setting up the business, she reflects: “I think it probably did to a certain extent. A lot of City professionals have skill that can be transferred. It’s nice to own your own business and both of us had to manage finance as part of our jobs as lawyers, which comes in useful. And I’m using my people skills every day, in a more enjoyable way. Instead of confronting someone coming in desperate because they have a child-related court problem, you have people coming in relaxed and on holiday and hopefully enjoying themselves. But it’s a similar skill because you never quite know who is going to come through the door.”

Both keen chefs, they put on a remarkable breakfast which is much appreciated by those who stay. For example, they cook Mexican, Spanish and Indian breakfasts as well as interesting vegetarian options such as grilled halloumi with spinach and roasted tomatoes.

However, despite their highly acclaimed breakfasts, they don’t share their culinary expertise with their guests in the evenings by opening their restaurant for dinner. Philippa says: “We did it a few times early on and it

proved to be just too much hard work. You get out of the kitchen at half past 10 or 11pm having got in there at around 7am and that’s your whole day gone. In the past we have done a couple of po-pup restaurants, which were really good fun, but I can’t see us going into evening meals."

Seven solid years after taking the leap into the unknown they have picked up some top tips on how to go about setting up and operating a B&B. The first is to be rigorous in you planning. “Plan plan plan,” says Philippa.

“Be meticulous about how you set it up and, in particular, quite how you set up and design the rooms to be not only aesthetically pleasing, but also practical and user-friendly."

Her second tip is to get some very high-quality photographs taken to show off your property. “That’s very important with a luxury bed & breakfast. Get the best photos you can afford and make sure you employ the best photographer you can within your budget.”

Thirdly she says it is very important to know the area around you. “If it is somewhere you already knew and loved, like we did, that is all well and good, but still exhaustively research your local area. People always appreciate good information like that – restaurants, cafes, places to visit, walks etc.”

The fourth tip she has relates to cashflow, a problem at times for any small business but particularly ones led by seasons such as B&Bs. To help address this you should take cash

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 16 - May 2018

up front from your guests, she says. “Don’t be afraid to take a deposit from anyone who books,” she says. “This is something online booking agencies often fail to do – and they let people cancel right up to the last minute. As a small B&B, we’re strict about this - but the fact is that people genuinely want to come and stay and don’t seem to mind paying a deposit to secure the room they are after.

“Don’t be afraid to say: ‘These are our terms and conditions, and if you are booking we do need a 30% or 40% deposit.’ And be confident. People are going to start to make bookings in January and February, and it will mean you will be starting to get a bit of cash in the bank then when you are not so busy with staying guests.”

Another tip is that if you aren’t already a member, you should consider consulting the B&B Association, which she says proved to be a helpful source of pertinent information specifically for B&B owners – particularly on essential issues like fire safety and food hygiene.

- In Depth / Running a Luxury B&B in France -

THE CHARGING STATION is the perfect accompaniment to your restaurant or bar The Charging Station is perfect for people coming in for a quick lunch or few drinks after work. Our kit includes one dock, plus 8 portable chargers which slide in and out of the dock to charge.

Each portable battery contains two in-built cables.

One for iPhone (lightning) and one for Micro USB. By including the cables on the power bank, we eliminate any tangles and hassles associated with wires.

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Global Entertainment Management (UK) Ltd

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 17 - February 2018

401 Centennial Park, Centennial Ave, Herts, WD6 3TN Tel: 020 8953 0160 Email: sales@globalentertainment.co.uk

- In Depth / Personal touch -

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 18 - May 2018

- In Depth / Personal touch -

How to be a great host before, during and after your guest’s stay Being a successful B&B host has very quickly become more than just service-with-a-smile and great hospitality solely during the course of a guest’s stay, writes Holly Alderson, Out Of Eden.

A

lthough these aspects are still essential and very much appreciated, there is an increasing pressure for a B&B owner to be as attentive as possible, even before a visitor has arrived and long after their departure.

Creating, building and maintaining a guesthost relationship can be time-consuming if you allow it, but the rewarding results that come with it can be absolutely priceless in securing a great client-base, outstanding reviews and repeat, direct bookings.

BEFORE About a week or so prior to guests’ stay, send a quick, friendly email to let them know you’re expecting them, and enquire if there’s anything you can do to make their stay more special and enjoyable. This simple gesture of reaching out will assure guests that you genuinely care about the quality of their stay from the get go, as well as being an opportunity to learn more about their reasons for visiting, allowing you to really gage the ways you can make this a great stay for them.

Perhaps you have a couple staying over to celebrate their anniversary, so why not treat them to a complimentary bottle of prosecco upon arrival? On the other hand, a guest could be staying over for a business trip, so offer them a room with the best phone signal, or most convenient plug sockets for their laptop.

These considerations will certainly help to leave a lasting impression and showcase your willingness to go the extra mile.

in each room, for instance, with your guest’s name or a simple ‘enjoy your stay’ is a fun and quirky way to engage with your guests, and it is these fun little additions that are likely to be shared on their social media.

As well as personalising each visitor’s experience, providing locally-sourced fresh produce on your breakfasts, such as fruit and vegetables from a local farmer’s market and lamb sausages from a local butcher, are just some of the ways you can offer elements of locality and seasonality too. Add a fresh bunch of seasonal flowers to their rooms or breakfast table – daffodils and tulips are ideal for the springtime – to really showcase your attention to detail.

DURING In order to create a truly special experience for each individual, try to play into three elements: personalisation, locality and seasonality. Given that Bed and Breakfasts are renowned for their warm, friendly hosts and homely feel, making the effort to ensure you personalise each person’s stay is a perfect way to fulfil this expectation. Providing a personalised chalk board mug Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 19 - May 2018

Depending on each guest’s reason for staying with you, you could provide an information pack in the rooms or communal living area with brochures and information on local events and attractions, whether this be music festivals, food shows, seasonal lambing or great walk routes, as your visitors will look to you for dependable knowledge of the local area.

AFTER If your guests are happy to receive emails after their stay, make sure you keep in contact, letting them know of any special offers, events and so forth in which they may be interested. Try to be as personal as possible, instead of sending a

- In Depth / Personal touch generic email to your entire customer base.

Maintaining this positive relationship with individuals even after their stay is a great way to ensure repeat and direct bookings, regardless of whether their very first stay was booked through an online travel agent. As an incentive for direct bookings, you could offer a reduced price or exclusive offer otherwise unavailable on a mainstream booking site. In this digital age, you could also keep in touch with those that have stayed with you via social media, encouraging them to ‘like’ or follow your business’ Facebook or Instagram page, as social media platforms are a great way to not only share news, but also show a more personal and fun side to your accommodation.

CONCLUSION Above all else, consistency is key when creating and maintaining a guest-host relationship. With a few personalised emails before and after a guest has come to stay, and a few personal touches during, you can really create a lasting impression long after their visit. www.outofeden.co.uk | T: 01768 372 939 | E: sales@outofeden.co.uk

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- In Depth / Technology -

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 22 - May 2018

- In Depth / Technology -

Attracting great visitor reviews

An end may be in sight to the frustration of aligning your business to make the best out of online guest reviews with the emergence of a new technological approach to the traditional guest book.

Bill Lumley reports.

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izzbook has taken the old-style visitor’s vook, put it online, and linked it to everyday social networks to create a unique platform to help businesses drive recommendations from satisfied customers sharing their experiences with their friends and followers on their social channels - uniquely at the time of the experience.

The new system was formally launched last year and makes it easy for customers to leave positive feedback and share their posts on their Facebook and Twitter accounts promoting their business and giving their product or service exposure to the ideal demographic.

Vizzbook is connected through an API with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Luxury bed & Breakfast caught up with developer Jason Rivolta to find out how the system works.

He explains: “I came from as background in content provision on mobile, and my journey in business took me to hospitality, where I became involved with hotels and began doing business with them.”

He says he noticed these hotel’s old-style visitor books were not being put to any practical use. “They had all this fantastic content created from pen and paper. I asked what they were going to do with it, and they replied essentially that the procedure was that they’d wait for the book to fill up, put it in the back of the cupboard and bring out a new one.”

That gave him the idea of creating an online visitor book. “Initially I built the app, embedded it into a Samsung Tablet then encased the tablet in a fully-branded wrap and that’s how Vizzbook was first invented - on a 10” Samsung tablet with the app built in.”

He says he found that it both worked and was appreciated by those who used, it but he says the larger hotels he had initially targeted could not afford to buy the devices in big enough volume.

“So, it was a brilliant idea, but it didn’t have any scalability,” he says.

Next, he and his team of developers looked at using the same technology within their application to see if there was any way they could activate it quickly without the use of such hardware.

“We found we could create our own unique code which is a visitor book for a venue and

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 23 - May 2018

that is how people activate it,” he says. “We first launched the visitor book in a Samsung tablet two years ago. We then revamped the website and made some changes to the technology, mobile-optimised it and then launched last year.”

The idea of being able to activate a visitor book directly by simply scanning a code opened up a great many vertical markets for the development team which now has visitor books in such places as orthodontists and cosmetic surgeries. “We are talking to lots of verticals, and I think the B&B market is a great marketplace.”

He says he likes the idea of being able to help the local B&Bs open themselves up to Facebook and Twitter, and do so in a really “intelligent, cool and inexpensive” way.

“We trial-tested the app in many big hotels where found the visitor book got lost in such large organisations.

Is it guest relations? No, because this or that hotel does not have guest relations.

"Is it any good on reception? Well some people don’t like it situated on the reception desk because when people check out there might be a queue of people who want to check out and they don’t want to hold anyone up.

"Would it be good to have a visitor book at concierge? Yes, it would – that’d work pretty well."

"Would it be good to have Vizzbook on the end of an email that goes out post-visit? No, because that will then just sit there with every other review email."

“We thus found Vizzbook works better in a smaller organisation because the relationship

- In Depth / Technology -

is so much more personal,” he says.

He suggests he is yet to find any resistance to technology, saying he would envisage resistance at the non-luxury end of the B&B market, where he suggests the owners are old school. But he says technological expertise is not a prerequisite of a B&B owner. “The technology is there for the guests,” he says.

“The actual B&B itself doesn’t have to get involved in the technology. All they need to do is put something alerting guests on the wall or on the reception area, the menus or the breakfast table tops.

“That’s quite a nice way of marketing it. The guests are simply asked if they can scan that onto their mobile phone and leave us a note in the B&B’s visitors book. The B&B doesn’t need to get involved in any technology that they may not understand.”

Of course, many B&B locations are in remote areas where they are still unable to get decent broadband let alone wi-fi. However, he says: “What we found when we were out there was that the big branded case needed to be connected to Wi-Fi, and we were working with a lot of spas and other such businesses that were located underground in the basement and it wouldn’t work.

“However, the great thing about mobile, as we discovered through working with businesses in America, is that the Americans are now getting rid of their Wi-Fi because 4G is proving to be so good:

they don’t need to have Wi-Fi at all. It is an expensive addition to their business, it is temperamental and connecting to it can be a pain, whereas nowadays with as smartphone everyone is connected to 4G,” he concludes.

personal so it can be carefully managed by the B&B owner making sure that their happy guests use Vizzbook before they leave the property. Vizzbook is a live platform - offline to online - so the content is always positive: If a guest is not happy with their stay they won’t use Vizzbook.

VIZZBOOK Q&A How does the system of codes and vouchers work?

Each B&B registers their business with Vizzbook and each B&B receives a unique code (Vizzcode). Their Vizzbook can be activated by scanning the Vizzcode with their mobile. It will work using their iphone camera, Snapchat APP, Shazam APP, Facebook QR scanner or any other code scanner. Guests no longer need to download an APP to scan anymore.

Each registered account with Vizzbook will have access to their dashboard, the B&B can simply upload their voucher and it will automatically attach to every post on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn. Vizzbook is the ideal platform to distribute vouchers to their guests’ friends and followers on their social channels.

How does it make it easier for guests to leave positive (rather than negative) reviews?

Vizzbook is a quick and fun way to say thank you for a great stay. The relationship between B&B owners and guests is normally close and Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 24 - May 2018

How does Vizzbook compete with the existing platforms of online reviews both on the B&B’s own website and on those of OTAs such as Expedia?

Vizzbook is used in a different way and is not really a review platform. Vizzbook is a platform to say ‘thanks’ and to receive a voucher for their next stay and to send a voucher to their friends on Facebook and Twitter. Most other online reviews are not shared on social channels and do not distribute vouchers.

Also, Vizzbook shows up to 60% of guests will happily leave a note and pic in a Vizzbook, as compared with other review platforms emailing guests 24hrs after is only 2% engagement.

You have big hospitality customers such as Hilton, Marriott and Best Western: Do smaller businesses such as luxury bed & breakfasts and inns stand to benefit to the same, lesser or greater degree?

Yes, we do work with bigger brands, but our mission is to help the smaller local businesses achieve a social presence and maximise their exposure using Facebook and Twitter. If a

- In Depth / Technology -

B&B was to use Facebook to promote a special offer they would be connecting to their guests that would have liked their Facebook page. This would only reach 10% of those guests, they would have to pay Facebook to get to more people. With Vizzbook, when a guest leaves a note and posts it on their Facebook account, it reaches over 30% of their friends with the same demographic: so much more powerful….and its free!

We are working with a major brewery to show how Inns can promote themselves using Vizzbook and distribute vouchers to get customers returning and to capture customer data that they have not been able to do in the past.

Is there anything else out there that competes with you?

Not all other review sites seem to connect with guests/customers after the event has happened on email or expect customers to leave an online review and get nothing in return. That’s why Vizzbook gets a 60% engagement and others 2% to 3% Do you have any statistics to illustrate to what extent a guesthouse owner can benefit from Vizzbook?

Yes - we can show that if a guest leaves a note and posts it on Facebook, an average Facebook account has 300 friends, so if a B&B gets just one note a day then that’s potential exposure to 9,000 people per month, so the

more notes in Vizzbook, the more exposure, thus resulting in more voucher redemption for the B&B. The B&B in turn can also add a link from the posts it gets on Facebook and Twitter directly back to their website, increasing direct bookings and reducing OTA fees.

Is there not a danger some guests will leave unfair poor reviews, and if so do the owners have more control over vetting these to prevent the comments backfiring and hurting revenues?

Historically people don’t normally share negative reviews on social media. Facebook in particular is mainly used to ‘show off’ what people happen to be doing. However, we have an editing suite in the client dashboard that can remove any inappropriate notes

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 25 - May 2018

from a Vizzbook. Furthermore, the B&B can click the ‘submit and review’ feature, where they can manually add notes into their Vizzbook ‘live’ from their dashboard.

Can you explain how it helps SEO and why this is a good thing?

Vizzbook has added a new feature where the B&B can add direct links to Trip Advisor, Google +, Trust Pilot and Yelp. This feature allows the user to push their post onto the B&B’s chosen review/ranking platform. The more notes left in Vizzbook the more opportunity of pushing content that will help SEO on Google and Trip Advisor. The more positive content you post on these sites the more chance you will be seen when a user is searching for a B&B in your area.

- In Depth / Entertainment -

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 26 - May 2018

- In Depth / Entertainment -

GUEST ENTERTAINMENT Are your rooms equipped with entertainment facilities that will keep all your guests happy? The services you provide beyond a basic TV service can have a big impact on guest’s experience and therefore, ultimately, on online reviews.

Bill Lumley reports.

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any loopholes stand between B&Bs with no guestroom entertainment facilities and those equipped throughout with a fully functional TV show and/or movie offering.

Internet facilities are increasingly incorporated into such systems. While the cost of installing and maintaining such a system can seem high, such considerations must be set against guest expectations and associated reviews.

HotelTVCompany supplies TV hardware and accessories and distribution systems. It offers device-mirroring solutions, local and cloud based interactive guest communication platforms, hard-wired and Wi-Fi internet solutions, as well as digital signage and conference solutions. Its services also include consultation and site survey, installation, finance, maintenance and extended warranty.

Marketing executive Natali Barbova says there are many distinct trends that are currently emerging in the provision of guest room entertainment as guests’ expectations of what should be on offer evolve.

The first relates to high-speed Internet. “Free, high-speed Wi-Fi is one of the most desired services by guests,” she says. “Nowadays most hotel arrive with multiple devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops etc.) and expect good quality, free Wi-Fi access in their rooms. Providing equally distributed bandwidth throughout the building can be a challenge for many hotels, both large and small. For this reason, we offer a solution that can provide internet without the need to re-cable the building.”

The second trend is about more TV Channels.

Barbova says: “TV Channels are key to providing guests with a top level of hospitality. Guests expect the same channels or more than those they can watch at home, when visiting a hotel or guesthouse. In addition, a lot of hoteliers are missing free channels which are available to them. Many hotels also face higher demand from international guests, thus, need more foreign language channels as well as Freeview channels. Therefore, we focus on communicat-

ing with hoteliers regarding the channels they would like to have, and we devise a solution to add these channels to their channel list.”

SCREEN SHARING The third trend relates to screen sharing. She tells Luxury Bed & Breakfast magazine: “Screen sharing is becoming more and more popular, especially with the increase in demand for devices such as Chromecast. Furthermore, many hotels gain more interest in adopting such devices in their hotel rooms. Our screen-sharing product, ScriptCast offers wireless screen sharing and is compatible with all mobile devices making it more suitable to a hospitality environment. In other words, guests can connect any smart device and screen share instantly.”

Many B&B properties are in rural areas that, for the time being, are poorly serviced by broadband.

While they wait for government and telecoms monopolists to address the underperformance of broadband in so many areas in the next two years, she says there is a certain level of advice she can give to proprietors of inns wishing to ensure their guests' in-room entertainment expectations are not dashed by poor or non-existent Wi-Fi. Barbova says: “Broadband issues are fairly common not only amongst properties in rural areas but also in listed buildings. In this case, we offer several solutions to help distribute Internet throughout these types of properties.

For instance, Internet can be run via the hotel coax cabling if the building does not have cat 5/6 and/or if it cannot be re-cabled. This way, Internet can be distributed evenly throughout the building using its existing cabling and avoiding any disruptions that re-cabling can cause.

“Alternatively, Internet can also be run over the power line, allowing guest houses without any coaxial or cat 5/6 cabling to provide Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 27 - May 2018

guests with Internet and TV Channels. In this case, internet is run through the power line to the TV and online TV apps are used to provide guests with TV Channels in their room.”

The kind of services being sold to smaller hotels, bed & breakfast operations and pubs with accommodation is constantly evolving.

The majority of products and services HotelTVCompany sells to B&B's comprise new Smart TVs, Internet & TV Channel solutions and inroom Screen Mirroring. She says: “Most small hotels are looking to upgrade their TVs and Internet offering before adopting any entertainment solutions. Many small hotels also opt in for our Screen Sharing services and Movie on Demand as these can be seen as more cost-effective entertainment services. Information and Interactive TV Systems, on the other hand, are less desired by small hotels.”

CUSTOMISED CONTENT While they offer hotels the opportunity to have customised content on the TV and allow guests to buy hotel products off the TV, small hotels and B&Bs are less likely to buy a TV system due to the cost associated with putting one into place, she says.

Assuming there is a good broadband service at a given guest house, and since many guests carry with them their active subscriptions to online providers such as Netflix and simply want to access these in the room to catch up.

Where there is good broadband, there are several in-room entertainment services that can be provided. Barbova says: “One of the most in-demand services is in-room screen sharing. This solution allows guests to share content from their devices (mobile phone, tablet, laptop etc.) to the TV. In other words, they can watch videos, listen to music and access apps on their devices to display any content

- In Depth / Entertainment -

they like. Screen mirroring devices also allow guests to use streaming apps such as Netflix, which are otherwise unfit for use in commercial environment.”

For example, she says, adding the Netflix app directly onto a smart hospitality TV raises the risk of the guests’ log in details being stored on the TV and other guests using these log in details. “Our screen mirroring device simply shares/mirrors the guest’s content to the TV, and, since the guest logs into Netflix on his/her device instead of via the TV, no personal information is stored.

Our screen mirroring product is also compatible with both Android and Apple devices as well as Windows and Chrome OS.”

of a smart phone or tablet that they would use daily,” says Coonan.

“It is something familiar, approachable and usable that people with perhaps a little encouragement would go on to explore and make into something of their own,” he says.

It lends itself to both holidaymaker and businessman who should be able to get back at the end of the day and put on Netflix, he says.

The kind of application RoomNetTV provides are ones that a typical legacy system would not accommodate, by being a system that can be tweaked or personalised.

Most people would know what an app store is these days, he says. “They know that is where they go to get things that they like. In many cases they will bring these with them. For instance, most of us today have subscriptions for our favourite content be it Netflix, Bloomberg or Huffington Post. If we want it, the chances are we are paying for it and that we travel with it. The idea is that on entering a guest room and logging on to those subscriptions that you have already paid, you should be able to get bang up to speed with any box set or game or TV series that you follow at home while you are away.”

Fundamentally everybody expects to see a TV when they walk into a bedroom for which they are paying for the evening, he says. “When they turn the TV on they expect it to behave. Live linear TV should feature.

There might be a welcome or landing page.

PORTABLE SUBSCRIPTIONS The days of making money out of expensive on demand video services are long gone, so guests should just be allowed access to the system they carry around with them. That is the view of RoomNetTV business development manager James Coonan, who says the company’s mission is to create a home-from-home entertainment experience in guest rooms.

The guest room streaming specialist provides its solutions predominantly using Apple products, with Apple TV as the base of its platform, the latest version of which it is bringing to the guesthouse and hotel market.

“Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are very familiar with the Apple interface, and most non-Apple users would find it easy to understand, the interface being quite like that Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 28 - May 2018

Today we expect that businesses would seize that digital opportunity to inform guests of the facilities on offer, and both young and old would now even expect that to be offered."

UPSELLING THE DIGITAL EXPERIENCE There are many opportunities to seize with a digital signage panel, says Coonan. “Most of our clients in the hospitality sector prefer to be fairly discreet. Discretion tends to be more effective than loud upselling of services, but there is an opportunity. The easiest way for guests to take a glimpse at more added services is often simply to watch a tastefully filmed welcome video and to have that playing in the background while guests unwind when they first enter the room,” he says.

This is a very effective way of presenting an idea of what is going on at a venue, be it spa treatment, a restaurant or a local tour, he says. “It is convenient for a guest to be able to buy something like a beauty treatment with just a couple of clicks.”

Some information services or entertainment functions work well on a large screen, while others fare better on a mobile phone, he says. “There might be a film about local season produce, followed at the end for example by an invitation to order a local hamper to be delivered to your room. This

- In Depth / Entertainment is another effective way of upselling a digital experience. Video is a great medium to deliver an experience rather than just a printed list of phone numbers for the concierge, restaurant and so forth,” he says.

Music is less suited to the television, he says. “Most of us carry around with us access to digital music services such as Spotify, and it is of benefit to a guest for him or her to get into a room and be able to share that with a speaker. Most of us also have some kind of audio wireless so that would be familiar to listen to some familiar music while getting on with some work. If you are an avid Spotify user you should be able to enter a guestroom, log in to Spotify and just pick up where you left off. The onus should not be on the innkeeper to guess what people like.

People know the music and services they like,” stresses Coonan.

BANDWIDTH All these forms of guestroom entertainment hinge on bandwidth. There are some fundamentals that are more important than others, he says. “Great bandwidth into a building will facilitate lots of these services.

A broadband Wi-Fi service that works well is a greater and more pleasant surprise than something that is a bit ‘legacy’ on the TV, because it facilitates many of the other services a guest may like to use.”

A familiar, flexible and seasonal offering as the final endpoint is something an inn could put to good use and bend to its guests’ requirements, Coonan suggests.

Consumers are now being targeted with 4K, ultra-high definition. As consumers become more adoptive of ultra-high definition content as they did for HD content then the expectation will start to shift towards hotel rooms.

He says: “At present such expectations in the hospitality sector are fairly low given that guest rooms have typically been lacking in the technological wow factor compared with home users because consumer technology has just leaped forward and become quite affordable. We are all pretty spoiled at home.

I’d suggest nailing Wi-Fi and speeds of Wi-Fi.” If a B&B has a problem getting access to broadband it should consider that a high proportion of its guests are bringing with them large 4G data packages. “Locally streamed content is important and a great information service when you turn the tv on with some discreet well-made content.

Knowing what is on locally is important when you go and stay somewhere,” he concludes.

NEW GUEST EXPERIENCE IS A GEM Hospitality technology specialist Global Entertainment Management (UK) Ltd, has upgraded the guest experience at the Holiday Inn, Salisbury-Stonehenge with Samsung’s new state-of-the-art premium displays, which transform a standard hospitality venue TV screen into a multi-device content and entertainment hub with a host of interactive features.

The Samsung 43” HG43EE690 provides a secure private wireless connection between the TV and up to four mobile devices. Guests can transfer personal content, such as music, movies and photos from their mobile devices for viewing on the larger display screen creating the essential home-from-home experience.

The personalised home screen delivers welcome messages, promotional offers and information on local attractions, providing guests with easy access to up-to-date hotel information for the duration of their stay.

The hospitality operation is part of the largest hotel brand family in the world and is an independently managed franchise operation.

Global Entertainment Management UK sales manager Pradeep Kotak says: “With the average person using up to four different mobile devices a day, seamlessWi-Fi connectivity and the latest HD television technology have become ‘in room’ essentials for both business and leisure travellers.

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 29 - May 2018

“Guests still prefer to watch content on a TV rather than a mobile device – as long as the television is up to date. By using the latest TV technology, as we did with this project, hotels can differentiate their offer and elevate the all-important stay experience, something which is a priority in terms of meeting customer expectations and building brand loyalty in an increasingly competitive environment.” said Nick Rubin, director, Bowling Green Asset Management says: "We have now used Pradeep and Global Entertainment Management for two hotel projects and they are efficient, great at what they do and always have the best information at hand. They are there to provide us with recommendations for the most suitable products so that our guests are always happy. I look forward to continuing our work with Global Entertainment Management.” Global Entertainment Management upgraded the existing infrastructure to accommodate an IP network and supplied and installed 103 flat screen TVs to the hotel’s guest rooms and suites over a five day period to minimise operational disruption and hotel downtime.

The company is a hospitality technology specialist, supplying, installing and maintaining innovative in room entertainment systems to order with the aim of creating a home-from-home experience for hospitality guests.

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- In Depth / Entertainment -

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Tel: 020 8953 0160 Email: sales@globalentertainment.co.uk Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 30 - May 2018

- In Depth / Entertainment -

Pillow talk Much of your business is subject to a high level of wear and tear, and steps to address the high level of use that the pillows undergo in your guests’ bedrooms is often overlooked.

Bill Lumley talks to two UK pillow suppliers for tips on such matters as maintenance and pillow life expectancy.

CARE AND MAINTENANCE Star Linen senior customer care executive Sally Patterson says that in order to ensure the pillow stays bouncy and full of life it is best to plump them every time you change the bed.

She suggests: “To extend the life of a pillow then we always recommend a pillow protector, this is a zipped cover that you place around the pillow. These will help keep dust mites and other bacteria from getting into the pillow itself and will help extend your pillow’s life. As well as keeping your pillows fresh it will also protect from stains, this is particular important when using white linen as no customer wants to see a stained pillow.”

Simba Hybrid Pillows are designed with outer sleeve pockets filled with either lightweight ethically-sourced duck down or microfibre with an inner pocket of removable Nanotubes. Simba Sleep partnerships manager Chris Read says: “We recommend that customers wash the outer sleeve at 60 degrees every so often such as every three to six months depending on usage. Perhaps sooner for busy commercial use, say every one to two months.”

Nanotubes are highly responsive and should keep the pillow springing back to shape, but occasional plumping is recommended to all for full reformation, he says.

PILLOW LIFE EXPECTANCY The life expectancy of a pillow is highly dependent on the level of usage and soiling, but the Simba Hybrid has been designed to last longer with its machine washable outer sleeve suitable for washing at 60 degrees, according to Read Patterson concurs. “This is dependent on usage and occupancy of the property,” she says.

Best practice is to maintain them well and machine wash the covers every 1-2 months for use in hospitality.

Star Linen's Patterson says: “We usually recommend replacing pillows every two years, particularly for a B&B or hotel as they usually have a high turnover of customers.”

PILLOW CHOICE There are various different styles of pillow, from feather & down, to microfibre, to memory foam and gel, Read says. “The Simba Hybrid has a combination of thermoregulating OUTLAST outer layer developed by NASA for use in space suits, height and firmness adjustability - adding or removing Nanotubes - while providing ultimate air circulation via the 3D vented side panels. It is the pillow for every type of sleeper, in one, you just need to make it your own to your preference.”

Patterson says: “Our Blenheim pillow is our best-selling pillow. The microfibre filling is the lightest and finest of all the synthetic fibres and replicates the luxury of natural down and is great for allergy sufferers. We offer a soft and firm so our customers can offer a choice.”

DOS AND DON’TS There are the obvious rules to follow with regards to allergies to feather and down.

Read says if anyone suffers from such allergies they should make sure they check the Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 31 - May 2018

pillow materials first. “With memory foam pillows, these are more likely to trap heat, so if you live in a hot climate, we recommend something with cooling properties, like gel or well ventilated designs like the Simba Hybrid pillow,” he says.

Patterson says: “Don’t buy on personal preference, what you may like may not suit your customers.

“Do think about the temperature of your room. A cotton-covered pillow will be more cooling to lay on than a microfibre cover.

“Consider offering a choice of soft and firm, depending on the way the customer sleeps depends on what weight of pillow they will prefer.

“If you choose feather and down pillows have a synthetic fibre alternative in the room, many customers have allergies.”

Finally she advises B&Bs to offer two pillows per guest. “It not only allows the guest to decide how high they want the pillows but also makes the bed look more attractive when the customer enters the room."

- Feature / Furniture -

Standing out Bill Lumley talks to One World managing director Jason Bensohn about

I

assembling a high-end look and feel when furnishing a luxury B&B

f you have attended major hospitality exhibitions in London recently you may be familiar with exhibitor One World, which provides the kind of out-of-the-ordinary furniture as the illustrations you see on these pages – beautifully crafted and curated ranges of furniture.

One World sells higher-end pieces, but also the kind of pieces that are unusual, if not quirky. It does not compete on the same level as providers of standard pieces of hospitality furniture, for example: it is more about the prints for the walls, or some of the chairs or table lamps. “When we have been involved in supplying luxury B&Bs or boutique hotels, we often find that those kinds of customers come to us because they are looking for something different. They want to put their own stamp on the space they are designing, and they feel One World can help them achieve this,” says managing director Jason Bensohn.

The company’s evolution has been fairly organic, he says. “One World has been going

for 20 or so years, but in that time we have largely sold to retailers - independent stores or large department stores. Those are looking to sell the product on – rather than the end user,” says Bensohn.

“We have been working with interior designers - but more recently we have found they are coming to us as a onestop-shop, when they are working on a project; whether that be a B&B, a hotel or a residential property. It no doubt has a lot to do with how our offering has changed over the years. These days we are arguably less about individual items that are commercially a great buy, and more about achieving an overall look and aesthetic.”

He says it is hard to determine quite when the company developed its focus on upmarket hospitality businesses such as luxury B&Bs. “It has been an ongoing process. We first exhibited at the Paris trade fair Maison et Objet four years ago and met a whole bunch of boutique hotel owners and luxury B&B

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 32 - May 2018

owners from all over the world at the show.

Off the back of that show we did a number projects for small hospitality businesses. We have more recently exhibited at the Independent Hotel Show, which has been a great place to meet more of these types of customers closer to home”.

He says he finds it rewarding to work with B&Bs and other hospitality operations. “We’re lucky that we have a diverse range of customers from independent stores to interior designers, but if we had to choose a favourite type of customer, then definitely the projects where we can work closely with an interior designer on the end product are the most rewarding and tangible for us.”

If you are a guest in a luxury B&B you will want to feel you are staying in something that is a bit special, a bit different, and that is the look that One World achieves, he says.

“That’s the attraction of it – that you are not staying in a homogeonised hotel environment. That is what One World sets out to fulfill. B&B owners can pick and choose the

- Feature / Furniture -

products and at the same time put their own stamp on the venue – an industrial look, for example, or something contemporary, or something more traditional. "There is something for everyone.

We carry a lot of products and change the products all the time, and we have a lot of interior designers that come to visit the showrooms regularly, perhaps once a month, and there is always something new for them to see or a one-off piece that may spark some interest that keeps our offer fresh.”

He says it is hard to get an accurate number of luxury B&Bs in the UK that display One World’s products because interior designers do not always disclose where they will be presented, but many of them will be B&Bs, he says. “Increasingly we have done projects with boutique hotels,” he adds.

One World’s two fastest-growing categories are wall prints, he says. “This category seems to just grow and grow. They are a good example of the kind of item that works well for a B&B. We recently had a customer designing a 12-bedroom B&B who bought four different style prints to share across the rooms. That’s a quick and easy way to put a

stamp on a guest bedroom.”

The other growing category is storage, he says. “We are doing a lot more hooks and individual shelving units. For whatever reason this category is just getting bigger, and I think B&Bs are finding them to be quite useful solutions where they need additional space on the walls, in the bathroom or wherever it might be.”

Lighting meanwhile has traditionally been the company’s strongest category, closely followed by mirrors.

So how would B&B owners sprucing up their property look to in the first place in order to go about creating that enticing and unique look and Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 33 - May 2018

feel they wish to present? Bensohn says: “We would firstly suggest they come to our showroom in Chessington. Some customers are quite clear in their minds about what they are looking for. Others will share floorplans, pictures of the property and even images of what they are looking to achieve from tools like Pinterest. Our showroom presents all the different looks in one place, so is a great environment to work in.”

It can sometimes be quite tricky for B&B owners to choose the items they like, he says. “But ours is a working showroom and what we have done in the past is measure out a part of the showroom to the scale of one of the rooms in the property they are working on - and then start playing around with bedside tables, lamps, perhaps a chair for the corner of the room etc.

“We are careful to retain a brand identity and our look - but within that scope we carry a lot of products and a variety of ranges. Whether you are looking to achieve a relatively clean aesthetic or are looking for something a bit more traditional or possibly more industrial, we cater for various styles.

“We are a small company, but we are eager to help and work closely with our customers. We have found working with B&Bs to be some of the most fulfilling and interesting projects to do. It’s always good fun to be involved with these kinds of projects and we can be as involved or uninvolved as the customer wishes,” he concludes.

- In Depth / Online -

International flavour Putting aside the issue of commission fees, Luxury Bed & Breakfast magazine asks two leading online booking agencies about best practice with regard to B&B reservations via the Internet.

Bill Lumley reports.

A

s this issue of Luxury Bed & Breakfast went to press, UK guesthouses were awaiting the outcome of a report by the Competition and Markets Authority on its investigation into the practices of online booking agencies.

Many guesthouses that have always relied on word of mouth and other traditional ways of generating business continue to resist the use of OTAs altogether.

Traditional hospitality operations including luxury B&Bs are still seeking reassurance as to whether they really need to take advantage of the services provided by online booking agencies.

However, Expedia Group’s director market management, JET UK & Ireland, Krishan Kadodwala suggests the use of an online booking agency by UK B&B owners should be beyond question. “Online Travel Agents (OTAs) are the leading resource during the planning phase of a

trip for vast numbers of travellers, and remain prevalent through the booking path, with OTAs converting the most travellers into guests,” he says.

“Not only do we provide travellers with a variety of accommodation options, but we put clear, visual information about their chosen lodging at their fingertips. Visibility that comes from using an OTA not only builds vast awareness of your accommodation, but it helps generate trust from the traveller. OTA customers recognise brand value and 82% of them like to book with familiar chains.”

Consumers, especially younger, tech-inclined travellers, prefer the options on offer from OTAs vs supplier direct channels, he suggests.

“These savvy customers are looking for the best accommodation that fits all their needs and preferences, and they prefer to crossshop. They rely on the online reviews, mapping services and comparative capabilities that OTAs can offer them.

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 34 - May 2018

“Our own suite of self-service tools helps hospitality owners get closer to their goals of filling rooms, building the bottom line, and keeping travellers happy and comfortable for their first stay – and every visit after. The Tools, data and insights available via our extranet sites, like Partner Central, is easy to access and it offers all hoteliers and hospitality owners – no matter how new they are to online bookings - the opportunity to inspire and convert travellers, set expectations, create personalised experiences for their guests, identify and address issues to better meet guest needs, improve guest experience and drive repeat bookings.”

Booking.com area manager Jitka Foralova says: “One of our primary aims is to help our accommodation partners, including B&B owners in the UK and beyond to reach new customers and grow their business via our platform. It's no secret that most people now book their travel online and increasingly with their smartphones.

- In Depth / Online We make it easy for small business owners to take advantage of this digital, and increasingly mobile opportunity and empower them to find customers from every corner of the globe who are looking for their unique, local stay experience. Because we localise content into 40-plus languages, we ensure that customers from China, Japan and Brazil can easily find and book their accommodation just as easily as domestic customers. The best part is that it's free to sign up and list on Booking.com. You only pay for our robust marketing services when it results in a guest who stays at your property, for example when you earn actual revenue from a customer we have brought you. We also back this up with round-the-clock support and free, easy-to-use business tooling and insights.”

One of the biggest concerns of B&B managers is preventing their rating from suffering from overly harsh online guest ratings. A certain proportion of guests seem hell-bent on awarding unfair one-star reviews irrespective of the level of effort you put into making their stay as comfortable and enjoyable as you possibly can.

The most obvious way of limiting this kind of online review is of course to try to ensure you deliver the best possible service your guests.

But there is a minefield of best practice to negotiate, according to the OTAs themselves.

Expedia Group’s Kadodwala says: “Understanding the phases leading up to the trip, and the traveller experiences throughout, is a fundamental part of maintaining an online reputation.”

There are four phases of a traveller’s journey, he says: dreaming and planning, shopping and booking, the trip itself and post-trip. “Throughout this journey, today’s tech-savvy, mobile-first travellers are looking for personalised content that is relevant to their preferences – not generic.”

Once a traveller has booked, the hospitality owner can begin delivering on guest experience by opening the lines of communication. Expedia Group has developed a guest communication platform, Partner Central Conversations, to help create first impressions and set expectations with custom welcome messages or check-in instructions.

“The tool allows hospitality owners to acknowledge, confirm, and manage special requests and provide information about the property’s offerings helping to enhance engagement,” says Kadodwala.

“To further facilitate guest engagement, after a guest checks into the hotel, Expedia Group helps capture real-time feedback. With real-time feedback, guests receive a brief email questionnaire to gauge how their stay is going, which allows hoteliers to instantly read

and respond. When hoteliers immediately address and resolve traveller issues, they can create a positive impression and potentially increase the likelihood of receiving higher post-trip guest review.”

Booking.com’s Foralova agrees that online customer reviews are extremely important for any business today. In recent research conducted by the company, consumers cited reviews as being the most important factor in their decision-making process about where to stay, just after price and location, and even more important than the opinion of family or friends.

She says: “We're exceptionally proud of the integrity and authenticity of our reviews programme at Booking.com. Only customers who have actually stayed at an accommodation are invited to leave a review and once submitted, these are never altered or edited by us in any way.

“We believe it's absolutely essential for customers to see the good, as well as the not so good, so they can make an informed decision about the stay that's just right for them. To that end, a negative review is not the end of the world. We provide our partners with the ability to respond to their reviews and to share their side of the story.

“We also encourage them to think of reviews as not only a source of constructive feedback about what can potentially be improved at their property, but also see it as an opportunity to demonstrate how they handle criticism and potential issues. This often says more about the overall experience a customer can expect when they stay at their property and can lend even more credibility to the great reviews submitted by other guests.”

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 35 - May 2018

AVOIDING POOR REVIEWS It is not uncommon for small accommodation businesses such as B&Bs to believe they have been harshly tainted by one or two unfair but influential reviews and that they are now suffering financially as a direct result.

Kadodwala says: “Online reviews are a powerful marketing tool, but there is of course the worry that guests may can misuse a review opportunity. If a review is genuinely misguided or completely fabricated, there is the option to report the review and Expedia Group will determine whether the review will be removed.

“In Partner Central, you can check and respond to reviews from Expedia Group, Hotels. com, Travelocity, and Orbitz. This gives you the opportunity to acknowledge each and every guest's opinion. Hospitality owners should prioritise should responding to negative reviews and aim to reply to a selection of positive and/or neutral reviews. The best way to protect your inn’s online reputation is to respond and then investigate. In fact, 62 percent of users say that seeing hotel management respond to reviews generally “makes me more likely to book it” and 87 percent of users agree that an appropriate response to a bad review “improved my impressions of the hotel” “As for future guests, continued engagement with a traveller once they embark on their stay is key to creating a positive experience and useful for avoiding negative online feedback. It is important a hospitality owner is proactive and talking to guests while they are at your accommodation, particularly when a guest arrives at their destination and experiences the property for the first time. It’s key to uncover potential issues and communicate with guests while

- In Depth / Online -

they’re on-site, as this is when hotels are in the optimal position to resolve or avoid a potentially negative guest experience,” he says.

He suggests there is certain best practice B&B owners can follow in managing guest reviews.

“We always advise any of our properties to focus on their content on the website to really showcase their venue,” he says. “The value of investing in high quality photography of the property and things to do nearby can make such a difference to the online conversion. We know that consumers look for experience, so you really must promote the experience of your inn to those looking to book.”

OTAs play a significant role in the traveller journey, particularly in the early stages, and are critical for capturing the eyes of potential guests from all over the world, he says.

“Travellers want to imagine themselves in a destination and experiencing their vacation.

Expedia Group can help travel shoppers to conveniently visualise their stay, whilst also differentiating between properties.

“With more than 600 million traveller visits to Expedia Group’s portfolio of brands each month, our hospitality partners can really understand that consumer interest and increase their visibility. The tools available in Partner Central (PC) can help hospitality owners inform, influence and engage with travellers throughout their journey."

Recognising the value data can play in their partner’s success, the OTA has developed a set of tools to help hospitality owners understand their performance, to be more competitive in their market, and to grow their business in the marketplace.

As travellers move into the booking phase, they have usually narrowed down their options and are closer to purchasing, but hospitality owners still need to account for travellers’ diverse needs and budgets. “B&B owners can attract more travellers, and increase the likelihood of converting a booker, by offering a variety of board types and rate plans to appeal to the diverse traveller needs,” he says. “Understanding the market and offering competitive rates and availability can be what helps travellers make that final booking decision.”

As with a traveller’s purchase decision, making pricing and strategy decisions is easier when guesthouses have market data to back them up. Leveraging performance and market information, paired with public shopping data, can help hospitality owners set strategies that convert travellers. Expedia Group offers sev-

eral analytics tools to help with revenue management and property performance, which provide valuable information on a property’s revenue performance.”

There are fast-growing trends in the world of technology and mobile is a key trend affecting all industries. In travel, the number of mobile bookings is increasing all the time and OTAs are seeing the growth of mobile impacting the industry more and more, so any lodging partner needs to be mobile ready, he says. “Of course, with this trend comes the soar of people booking online for travel so we really urge everyone to think about their online presence to tap into this growing market,” he adds.

There are many OTAs. The process of choosing the right OTA platform via which to advertise and sell your rooms can be complex.

Luxury Bed & Breakfast -36 - May 2018

Word of mouth may be sufficient for many B&B operators, but those wishing to attract guests from further afield may be drawn by the international audience that OTAs provide. Foralova says: “In addition to our expertise in finding new customers on their behalf and bringing them into our highly-optimised online marketplace where they can quickly and easily find the stay that's just right for them in their own language, regardless of whether they're booking on a computer, a tablet or a mobile phone, we also provide 24/7 support in 40+ languages.

“Our teams of employees worldwide are extremely dedicated to making sure every great place to stay has a real opportunity to compete, thrive and attract a global customer base in this increasingly international and mobile-dominated travel environment,” she concludes.

- In Depth / Online -

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- In Depth / Whisky -

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 38 - May 2018

- In Depth / Craft spirits -

The potency of a spirit’s back story If a luxury bed & breakfast is equipped with a bar, it has the opportunity to stir the imagination of its guests simply by presenting them with the stories behind the spirits it sells.

Bill Lumley takes a look at the way some of these stories unfold

l

uxury B&Bs attract the kind of guests who enjoy exploring and encountering new experiences.

In a world away from the Holiday Inn or Hilton, they come to your hospitality business to encounter something special, and as a rule they do not leave disappointed.

You pay a high level of attention to detail in presentation of your abode to help enhance the guest’s experience.

If you are fortunate enough for your premises to be equipped with a bar, then you can take that experience to a new level not by intoxicating your guests but by introducing them to new sensory experiences via the back story to an intriguing drink such as a craft whisky.

Your bar is the perfect platform from which to lead them to try and enjoy spirits they may never have tried by simply immersing them in the brand’s own history and the way in which its drinks are created.

Craft spirits distributor Maverick Drinks is shamelessly particular about the brands it works with, focusing entirely on the kind that have provenance, have a strong story and the right people behind them.

Co-founder and head of brand development Michael Vachon tells Luxury Bed & Breakfast magazine: “We call the brands that we work with craft spirits, a catch-all term that we have defined for ourselves.

“Every one of these craft brands has six points to which it adheres: Craftmanship, authenticity, provenance, high-quality, having a purpose, and being founder-led.”

Having a purpose ties into the idea that a craft spirit brand such as a whisky should have a story behind it to tell, he says. Every one of the brands with which the company works has a reason for existing more than simply filling a gap in the market. “It’s something that guides them. That’s important, because there are so

many new products on the market that are designed around either what they manufacturers perceived as a market need, or what they saw as an opportunity to get into the same game.

That has never been part of our objective.

“By contrast everyone we work with has a purpose, which may be to pursue their grandparents’ legacy, or a belief that they have great local grains that give their product a unique edge.

“It is important to identify what makes the brand stand out from those that may just be in the game to make a quick buck,” he says.

And he explains what he means by brands being founder-led: the distributor does not necessarily insist on the brands being independent. He says: “Just because a brand has extra investment shouldn’t mean their ethos is

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 39 - May 2018

any different; we believe that having a vision with a founder who is actively involved with that brand is important.”

The brands with which Maverick Drinks partners don’t believe they are in the business for five years, instead every one of them is doing this as their life’s work, and as people they remain involved with the brand, he says. “That is so important to me.”

DISTILLERY RESURRECTION Vachon is proud of the company’s stable of brands, a portfolio that it is building slowly with carefully selected brands. His company is the sole UK distributor for a number craft spirits brands in the UK. For example, Wolfburn is a whisky distilled in Thurso, in the far north of Scotland close to John O’Groats and the northernmost town on the British mainland. The brand was one of the newest stories in decades up in the highlands but in a place where there was an existing distilling heritage, says Vachon. “There had been a distillery in in the early 1800s that they decided to resurrect to bring back whisky distilling to the area,” he says.

The founders wanted something they could pass on to their children and their children’s children. They said they were not for sale: the brand is their life, their passion, and the whole purpose of this brand is to create something of meaningful legacy, he says.

“I think that is incredibly powerful. It speaks to the products themselves which are patiently and lovingly crafted and matured for longer than they necessarily need to because this is not a business they need to make a quick return on,” says Vachon.

- In Depth / Craft spirits -

Most importantly, he adds, Wolfburn only makes whisky. “Many other producers making whisky are also making a gin for the purpose of bringing cash into the business to keep it going while they lay down and age more whisky.”

That singular vision that nothing is going to cause them to deviate from that path is highly unusual, he says. “It is whisky made by people who are truly committed to whisky. Wolfbern’s products are extremely well received by the market and they are as dedicated to what they do as anyone we work with.”

FRENCH SINGLE MALT Further south to France, Maverick Drinks has a whisky that is brand new to the market, having

only been launched this year, called Brenne. It was founded by a former US ballerina named Allison Parc. She had always been interested in food and drink from around the world, notably fine wine, but in 2012 she decided to get into whisky. She discovered that while terroir was at the forefront of every discussion about wine – the soil, the environment, the weather – people weren’t really talking about these elements as much with regards to whisky.

After she left the world of dance she wanted to see if she could create a whisky that has its roots in terroir. She chanced upon a single malt distiller in the Cognac region. At that time, Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 40 - May 2018

a majority of the oldest whisky was around three to four years old in new French Limousin oak barrels.

Upon tasting it, she immediately identified it as something special. She and the distiller collaborated over the next four years to refine the aging spirit and continue laying down more barrels as each year’s crop of barley was ready to be harvested.

The breakthrough came when she decided to incorporate his previously used Cognac casks in the whisky aging process. This stimu-

- In Depth / Craft spirits -

lated the whisky in a beautiful way; ultimately creating a new profile within the single malt category that became Brenne Whisky.

Brenne Whisky is crafted from seed to spirit in the heart of Cognac in very limited batches.

Allison’s first expression, Estate Cask, has no age statement as every barrel is bottled in single barrel releases and the aging time on each cask may vary slightly.

“Brenne is more linked than any product we work with,” says Vachon. “The flavour is dominant and the brand is very much driven by its sense of place. It ties in very well with the concept of craft, it is authentic, it has provenance and it has craftsmanship in the sense that nobody else is doing this: it hits every note with us.”

try to provide a personalised experience and add a bit of charm and character to your place but when the guests go to the bar and find just Gordons and Bombay Sapphire then it doesn’t illustrate that same level of thought and care that you are putting into the other details of your establishment,” says Vachon.

Punters will absolutely be willing to pay an extra pound for their G&T because it’s form a more well though-through selection, he adds. “That’s the real craft element here: you are creating experience that should show you have put thought into every aspect of that hospitality. When I see a bar stocked with the bog-standard gin then you are still providing a bog-standard experience.”

Another brand Maverick Drinks distributes is one called Few, based in Chicago, which makes a breakfast gin – ideal for a bed & breakfast, and the only gin tailored to the glory of the first meal of the day. It features a recipe based around Earl Grey tea and bergamot as a botanical with a good dose of juniper. The people at the distillery are trying to innovate and to do so very much on the craftmanship side, rolling out new products every few months so they are quite agile. We come at them with ideas and they come back with some products. They are trying different things pushing innovation and having fun along the way.

Guests who visit a luxury bed & breakfast demand more out of an experience: The story, the heritage and the craft, he says.

“I don’t think you are providing a good enough experience if you are leaving out any detail, but this is actually a pretty important detail because it is so visible in the bar.

When you first walk into the place where most guests will spend at least some time.

“A bar in a B&B is potentially high yield commercial element of the business. A B&B guest is looking for a personal experience, so why give them an impersonal experience? That’s the customer right there,” he concludes.

LOCALLY SOURCED When you go into a B&B or inn’s restaurant guests may be told that they source their meats from a local farm a few miles down the road, that they grow some of their own vegetables in their own garden. Vachon says: “That is increasingly important to the kinds of people visiting these places.

Yet nobody really thinks about this sense of origin when it comes to spirits. But interest is growing, and people are definitely more in discovery mode.”

He says he was staying in a B&B recently in Cirencester, a beautiful old town in Gloucestershire, where on the menu was a list of local gins. “You could identify with one gin from the region produced within a few miles of the B&B, and it was a highlight of my stay to discover where the gins came from and how they were made,” he says.

“Furthermore, the B&B itself faced onto an artisan food market where the local gin distillery bottles were on sale.”

The wider craft message here is that to be able to provide an offering your guests are increasingly moving towards with products that have more character. “You may Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 41 - May 2018

- In Depth / Craft spirits -

AUSTRALIAN WHISKY Scotch whisky dominated the category for decades – centuries even – before the emergence on the international stage of whisky from North America and Japan.

Relatively unheard of here in the UK is Australian whisky.

In fact, there are 120 listed distilleries in Australia with quite a few of them down south in Tasmania. Whisky was being distilled there in the late 18th century, but the price of Scotch whisky fell, and it killed off the domestic whisky trade. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that Aussie whisky saw a revival.

Starward Whisky founder David Vitale set out in 2007 with a goal of creating a uniquely Australian whisky. His idea of an approachable, affordable whisky to be served neat or as a cocktail with food was a big leap of faith at a time when Australia had a small-scale ultra-premium whisky scene.

The whisky was founded at a Qantas hangar in Melbourne suburb Essendon Fields. Here it produced the first whisky, Starward Solera, in 2013, and last year produced a product to commemorate the brand’s 10th anniversary.

Starward is now Australia’s fastest-growing whisky brand.

Starward has been in the UK since 2016 but was only picked up by distributor Axiom Brands in late 2017 and following the soft launch in the UK it is now in the position to step up, says UK brand manager Pete Garraway.

“For B&Bs guests will come in and the owners will appreciate a story to tell. There are a couple of stories here. The wine barrels we use give it an absolutely Australian flavour: where it is produced in Melbourne is surrounded with fantastic wineries and wine producers and has four seasons in one day “We get the barrels as fresh as possible from the wineries and our new make spirit goes straight in to clean the barrels up a bit and there is still a lot of the wine character in the wood “The climate helps too with Melbourne weather - as anyone who has visited will testify - famously able to offer four seasons in one day. While in Scotland the whisky is put into the barrels to rest, in Melbourne it goes straight to work: the whisky is constantly expanding and contracting, creating the colour and character from the wine that is still in the wood given the barrels are so fresh from the wineries.”

A major factor behind the brand is that Starward drinkers aren’t established whisky drinkers, says Garraway, which reflects

founder Vitale’s original goal of approachability. “We try to create an accessible whisky both in terms of price but also flavour. We want people playing around with it and use it in different ways. For example, we create a whisky and tonic for example which raises a few eyebrows.

“As a distillery we are curious and always encouraging ways of thinking differently with different products and at the distillery always having fun and trying new and wonderful things. That will resonate both with luxury B&B owners and their guests, who want to try something a little bit different. We are trying to challenge the perceptions of what whisky is and for us it is not about sitting by the fireplace and sipping a dram, it’s all about exploring the flavour and do something a bit different.”

There are currently two Starward expressions. One is aged in apera barrels – Australian style sherry barrels, while the other is made with Australian wine barrels. “Australia is at the forefront of changing the market in the wine world and we very much want to follow that route with whisky. Mention the big flavours of an Australian shiraz or cabernet and people know what you are talking about. If you like those big flavours then take another step on that journey and try this fantastic whisky,” Garraway says.

“We use brewer’s barley and brewer’s yeast in the production process which is very different to classic scotch produced with yeast and barely. We are seeing quite an explosion in craft beers among beer drinkers and now they understand the brewing process.”

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 42 - May 2018

ESTABLISHED BRANDS There is still a great story to tell with traditional, long-established whisky brands, of course. With two Royal Warrants and more than 300 years of history, Berry Bros. & Rudd is Britain’s original wine and spirits merchant. In March this year it launched a selection of own-label whiskies when four blended malt whiskies, each representing the epitome of a classic style of Scotch, joined the recently relaunched Berry Bros. & Rudd London Dry Gin to form The Classic Range.

The new blended malt whiskies include an Islay and Speyside as well as the distinctive cask styles of Sherry and Peat.

Each expression has been hand-blended by Berry Bros. & Rudd Spirits buyer Doug McIvor and brands heritage director Ronnie Cox. Their mission was to create an accessible and perfectly balanced dram to be great enough to bear the Berry Bros. & Rudd label.

McIvor says: “For excellence, I look for balance and complexity, maturity and texture. Equally, age is not king: maturity counts for much more.”

Cox adds: “The name Berry Bros. & Rudd in connection with wine and spirits means liquid in a bottle which exudes ever-trustworthy quality and flavour. It was with these values that Dougie and I assembled this range – a hugely enjoyable task. The result is a variety of top quality blended malts not only delivering what they say on the label but a ‘go-to’ portfolio to suit a variety of palates and moods.”

If you run a luxury B&B you are likely to enjoy a good chat with your guests. If you introduce some unusual whiskies to your bar you can be sure to stimulate some good conversations.

And if you don’t have a bar but have the space, perhaps you might just consider introducing one.

- In Depth / Whisky -

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 43 - May 2018

GUEST HOUSE INSURANCE - Feature / Insurance -

Sting in the tail

An insurance excess can be ruinous if your margins are low, particularly in the winter months.

Bill Lumley takes a look at how this can be avoided.

PROTECT YOUR B&B, GUEST HOUSE OR SMALL HOTEL FROM UNEXPECTED LOSSES. he last issue’s insurance feature is not a legal requirement. Every B&B has to she says, because if it does encounter a

T

looked at business interruption due to bad weather that is not covered by mainstream insurance policies, and it touched on the existence of insurance cover against an insurer’s excess, in other words the first few hundred pounds of any claim that the insurer won’t pay.

This month we catch up with the brains behind the XS Cover Company, Julie Rodilosso. She identified the fact that many small businesses would struggle to pay the first few hundred pounds of a claim for perhaps storm damage that was not their fault and pioneered Excess Protection.

As a result, four years ago she developed insurance against paying the dreaded insurance policy excess, both for commercial and for personal lines of insurance. The insurance policy covers all classes of business with the exception of directors and officers and professional indemnity cover.

The cover includes public liability, so for example if a B&B’s guest were to injure himself falling downstairs, the excess insurance would cover the loss of the first few hundred or couple of thousand pounds of any related claim that is not paid out by the insurance provider under the terms of the standard policy.

The company provides public liability for many higher risk operations in the hospitality sector such as night clubs, but she first put the insurance together for commercial vehicle fleets. She explains: “If you are an SME or a haulier and you only make a one or two percent profit margin, if you have to make a full claim then your excess is probably £1,000, which is a lot of money to find, particularly during an economic downturn. How much extra business do you have to do in order to raise that sum? Insurance excess affects the bottom line of a business for something that is not its own fault.”

The other motivation to develop this type of insurance premium is that, as she put it, everyone hates insurance. “Everyone hates buying it. Only 25% of UK households have household cover for the simple reason that it

have certain types of commercial insurance, and on the road every driver has to have insurance,” she says.

“But insurance premiums are rising and now there are an estimated 1.2m people uninsured, so I am quite evangelic about giving something back.”

The whole concept behind this insurance was to help the commercial market of small and medium sized businesses to help them to get back 100% of their loss in a fault claim.

“There is a huge amount of money you can save versus the cost of the premium, and that is the whole idea behind it,” she says.

There is one important consideration to bear in mind, she says, which is that if a B&B suffers an insurable loss that is less than the total excess charged by the insurer, meaning that it received nothing from the insurance company, then a claim cannot be made against the excess with this policy.

“Obviously insurance companies allow you to increase your excess, and in so doing decrease your premium, but you need to be aware that anything below that excess doesn’t get paid. For example if you increase your excess to £2,000 and you have a claim of under £2,000 you can’t make a claim and therefore the excess insurance product does not cover you. We only pay out if your main insurance policy pays out.”

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disaster then it can recover the entirety of the loss. She says: “To me it’s a no-brainer: everybody should have excess protection on every insurance product they have. The frequency on commercial claims will be about 20% of all policyholders,” she adds.

“Excess is the sting in the tail. There are thousands of businesses in the economy all at risk of major loss from excess on top of the premium that they must pay the insurer.”

She recommends any B&B situated in a location prone to flooding should automatically buy excess insurance cover.

“You insure some things because it is a legal requirement to do so but you also insure because if something untoward were to happen, you are protected. For a small business having to try and find £500 could mean the difference between eating or not eating that week.

The process of claiming back the excess not paid by the main insurance company when making a claim is not complicated, she says. “All you have to do is give us your certificate when you take out the cover, then the proof that your insurer has paid out in the event of a claim, and we pay you. If the insurer has not paid out then the claim for excess must be invalid.”

She concludes: “When you have experienced the pain you want to enjoy the gain. There are still vast numbers of people who do not realise they can actually buy insurance against the excess on their main policies.”

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Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 44 - May 2018

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, BurnChapter View,House, Burn View, , EX23Bude, Cornwall, EX23 8BZ. 8BZ. Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 45 - May 2018

- In Depth / Accountacy -

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 46 - May 2018

- In Depth / Accountacy -

The greatest tax relief you have never heard of You could be entitled to a significant tax rebate against your bed & breakfast, according to Kieran Murphy

A

lthough capital allowances have been around for many years, there are few individuals that have ever heard of the term, and fewer still that understand the potential positive ramifications it can have on a business, especially a Bed & Breakfast, where so often the line between profit and loss is so narrow.

Capital allowances are a form of tax relief that allow you as a bed & breakfast owner to make a claim with HMRC to significantly reduce your tax burden by using your actual bed & breakfast property itself as the claimable vehicle.

Any money you spend on your business is a capital expenditure that allows your business to operate. This means that as an owner of a Bed & Breakfast you will have spent money on purchasing, renovating and running your property for the purpose of hosting guests.

According to HMRC, this expenditure counts as a business expense for which you may make a claim for tax relief under Section 35 of your SA105 tax form for property. This is what Capital Allowances are, tax relief for the money you have spent on your business premises, which in your case is your Bed & Breakfast.

To put it another way, you could find yourself entitled to claim back a proportion of those personal savings you may have poured into your property when you first set up your B&B business.

Picture 1: An image of a Bed & Breakfast room, indicating what an accountant would normally claim for business expenses on your behalf.

Picture 2: An image of a Bed & Breakfast room, indicating what James Nazir & Co would claim under Capital Allowances on your behalf.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU? As the owner of a bed & breakfast then you may be eligible to make a claim for this capital allowance tax relief through firms such as James Nazir & Co that specialise in Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 47 - May 2018

- In Depth / Accountacy -

"you could find yourself entitled to claim back a proportion of those personal savings you may have poured into your property when you first set up your B&B business"

Kieran Murphy, James Nazir & Co.

this niche area of accountancy.

It has been estimated that fewer than one in 10 commercial property owners have actually claimed their capital allowance tax relief, and if your accountant hasn’t conducted a full on-site survey of your property, then it is likely you haven’t either.

This isn’t surprising, because as with all professions, you cannot expect any one person to have in-depth knowledge of every facet of their industry. Capital allowances are a specialist niche form of accountancy that requires a firm that deals exclusively with them to make an adequate claim on your behalf.

This means that you could be missing out on signifcant levels of tax relief potentially in the tens of thousands of pounds for your business that you should be enjoying.

To understand what this actually means for you, it is typical for between 30% and 40% of a bed & breakfast’s purchase price Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 48 - May 2018

to be claimable under capital allowances with HMRC. This means that if you spent £300,000 purchasing your property, it could result in around £100,000 of capital allowances being identified as claimable assets to make a claim with HMRC for tax relief on your behalf.

This level of capital allowances will then be calculated against your marginal tax rate to provide you with the tax relief you are owed. Therefore if you currently pay 20% tax, then you could be seeing tax relief in the region of £20,000 from the above scenario, and even more if you are a higher rate tax payer.

That is a signifcant amount of tax relief that you may claim against your previous and future years’ tax, allowing you to claim both a refund (if you have owned your property for at least one year and have paid tax), and relief on future tax depending on the level of capital allowances claimed.

- In Depth / Accountacy -

gym, spas, sauna, hot tubs and so forth then you can make a claim for capital allowances for the work that you put into making your property what it is, regardless of when you actually made the improvements.

MAKING A CLAIM

WHAT CAN BE CLAIMED? According to the Capital Allowance Act 2001, Section 23, List C, a commercial property can make a capital allowance claim on items that are known as "plant". List C therefore contains a vast list of items that can be claimed, varying from business to business. This includes, but is not limited to: heating and ventilation installations, lighting and general power systems, fire and security alarms, data and telecoms systems, carpets, ironmongery, lifts, incoming mains (water, gas, electric) right through to kitchen cabinets, toilets and everything in-between.

So whether you have a traditional bed & breakfast that offers a basic room and eating facitilies, or own an extensive property with a

The work involved in ascertaining your entitlement is considerable and capital allowance specialists charge a fee of 6% of the capital allowances they identify for your property as an industry standard, but there is no payment of that fee due until HMRC confirm that your claim for tax relief will be successful.

Once you engage a specialist in this accountancy area, they will be in touch with you, your lawyers, and your accountants to enable them to conduct a full review of your property on your behalf, and ensure a smooth process for all involved.

If the pursuite of capital allowances interests you, and you would like to see if you are eligible to claim this unique form of tax relief, then contact a capital allowance specialist such as James Nazir & Co to find out more.

This article was written by Kieran Murphy of James Nazir & Co the leading Capital Allowance specialists in the UK, as an educational piece to bed & breakfast owners about their tax rights.

Kieran may be contacted directly via phone on 07525 160527 or email at kieran@jamesnazir. com if you wish to speak with him about a free consultation to assess the Capital Allowances that your may be able to claim on your property.

Luxury Bed & Breakfast - 49 - May 2018

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