Bethnal Bec &
This is a column for owners, by owners. Vicky and Chris Saynor designed and created Bethnal&Bec Luxury Staycations, a true homegrown family business.
Chris
City chic meets countryside cool, in a stylish yet cosy home-fromhome setting. For grownups only, and maybe the dog too – escape to your own luxury rural retreat with everything you need to relax. FB: Bethnal & Bec IN: @bethnalandbec www.bethnalandbec. com
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Renovation: What we learnt the hard way when launching the Foaling Box
On October 1st we welcomed guests to our 3rd luxury accommodation, exactly 4 years after we opened and welcomed guests to our first 2 retreats. What this rather innocuous opening sentence doesn’t convey is the absolute hell that the building process was, and the fact that our guests had to wait in the pub until 8pm as we were literally still finishing the building, and missed their scheduled checkin time by a few hours. Not the worst place to have to wait, but not what they had paid for. For those readers who are either embarking on a major renovation or new build, (or those who are thinking about it) I am going to give some advice which we learned the hard, hard, hard way. My #1 piece of advice is that no matter what, do not open up for bookings until your building work is 100% finished, even if this means you think you may miss out on a few weeks of business - it’s just not worth it, financially or emotionally. Based on our builders estimates of completion date we gave ourselves a good 6-8 weeks leeway before we opened up our calendar for bookings. This time would be for snagging, testing, soft launch etc.
However, covid + supply issues + dodgy builders = a highly unpleasant process and a scramble to welcome our first booked guests to a lovely property. But it was not 100% perfect as it should have been, and indeed 5 weeks later we are still having to get tradesmen in during the 5 hours we have between guests as we are fully booked every day for the first 2 months of opening! In hindsight we wouldn’t have opened bookings until we were completely happy with a finished product. Even financially this may have been better, as we ended up paying for additional labour to try and make our open date as well as paying more for supplies that could be delivered or sourced quickly. Not to mention that we sometimes had to compromise on what we really wanted due to time constraints. Emotionally, how our marriage survived the stress is unknown. I was often doing the finishing touches and decorating, which was in the builder’s contract, at 2 or 3am, as we just knew the builders simply would not be able to complete it in time. We are going to practice what we preach, as
The Foaling Box - BEFORE
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A column for owners, by owners
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23/11/2021 09:33
