Luxury BnB Spring 2020, April

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ISSUE 42 • SPRING 2020

THE MAGAZINE FOR OWNERS AND MANAGERS OF BnB'S, INNS, BOUTIQUE HOTELS & HOLIDAY HOMES

5 HOT SUMMER SNIFTERS TO LIFT YOUR SPIRIT

THE AIRBNB TAX EXPLAINED

• 5 Hot Summer snifters to lift your spirt • The AirBnB Tax explained • Facebook Marketing, Training & Ask Tina

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LUXURY INFORMALITY & THE CARY ARMS & SPA, DEVON

LUXURY LOGISTICS OF RUNNING A POPUP HOTEL

AWARD WINNING KEYNEDON MILL A DEVON DELIGHT

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR GREAT OUTDOORS

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On a personal level you or your family may have been affected by the virus, which can have devastating effects, exacerbated by the fact that those hospitalised are generally not allowed to receive any visitors But as we await the recovery, there is help to be had, and in the news pages we outline some of the ways you can access grants available to help businesses like your own through this difficult time.

Ironically you may have been long awaiting the opportunity to complete time-consuming chores and metaphorical roof-fixing. Now that time has come. See page 5 for our top five tips for making the most of your time while isolated.

Bill Lumley Editor

We were halfway through producing this edition of the magazine, the theme of which focuses on the great outdoors, when the scale of the pandemic suddenly hit home. If you have an under-utilised outdoor area, you could address some of these issues right now, ready to reopen revitalised. And you can sharpen up your business to race to the top of the ratings when the doors open again.

If you have any experiences you'd like to share, please email me bill@miramedia.co.uk or connect with us on social media: facebook.com/luxurybbmag/.

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IN THIS ISSUE 4 || NEWS

20 || LUXURY IN A BEACH SETTING

40 || THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Industry news and analysis from around the UK

A profile of the Cary Arms and Spa in Torquay

Great ideas to spruce up and monetise your outdoor space

6 || YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED Talk it over with the Tiny Troubleshooter

30 || MARKETING YOUR PROPERTY ON FACEBOOK

44 || TAX INSIGHT

8 || DEVON DELIGHT

The second article serialising The Complete Guide to Hotel Marketing

Matt Bryant of Zig Zag Accounting explains short stay holiday let tax

We take a look around awardwinning Keynedon Mill

34 || OUTDOOR LUXURY

46 || FIRST MONTH AS A B&B OWNER

16 || AWARDS ENTRIES INVITED

We look at the logistics of pop-up accommodation

The new owner of Number 46 in Hastings is waiting to see what works best

The second Excellence in Luxury Service Awards are announced

50 || SUMMER SNIFTERS Put your spirits to work if you or your guests are under the weather

www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

Spring 2020 || || Luxury BnB || 3

CONTENTS || SPRING 2020

BLEAK as things may seem now, business will stage a recovery at some point. But in the meantime, there is no escaping the fact that pretty much the entire hospitality sector of the UK – along with just about everything else – has been devastated by the knock-on effects of controlling the COVID19 virus.

IN BRIEF || NEWS

EDITOR Bill Lumley bill@miramedia.co.uk 07710 271 099 NORTHERN IRELAND EDITOR Francis Higney 07710 271 099 CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Caroline Sargent 07076 362 082 CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Matthew Attwood 07710 271 099 MEDIA SALES Sophie Williams 01892 677 721 DESIGN & PRODUCTION Stuart West 07751 686 132 PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Dominic Johnson dominic@miramedia.co.uk 01892 711 144 No part of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher.

We regret we cannot be liable for the safe custody or return of any solicited or unsolicited material. Contributors are advised to keep copies of all materials submitted.

HOTEL RAID ON FOOD PLANNED FOR COMMUNITY The owners of a hotel and brasserie in Shropshire are devastated after the theft of £1,200 worth of food earmarked to start a community food delivery service during the Coronavirus crisis.

The Old Vicarage at Worfield, near Bridgnorth, was broken into on 20 March and intruders raided its fridges and freezers of food including chicken, beef, lamb and fish.

Owner David Blakstad said: “We just can’t believe this has happened. Times are really tough for us as a business and we have closed our doors to customers in line with government advice.

“We were planning to start up a community food service on Monday where we would offer residents nearby to order their meals and we would deliver it to their doors, but sadly we are not going to be able to do this.

“The people who have done this have not only stolen from us, but they have taken away the chance for the community to receive this help from us.”

It was planned that from the end of March residents in the village of Worfield and surrounding areas would have the opportunity to select from a daily menu which the venue’s head chef Gavin Allan was putting together. These orders would have been delivered to the door for only the cost of the ingredients, helping those who were self-isolating, or in need of a meal.

“It’s heartbreaking, we were trying to pay something back to our community, and now it looks like that is not going to be possible,” said Gavin.

Meanwhile, following the closure of pubs, cafes and restaurants across the country, David has warned other businesses to be extra vigilant.

“We would never have believed that people could do this,” he said. “But this serves as a warning to other business owners, with people stripping food, and now the alcohol sections of supermarkets and shops, our bars and kitchens are a target.”

Head Chef Gavin Allan and his team

The opinions and views expressed in Luxury BnB are not necessarily those of Miramedia. Being subject to the Advertising Standards Authority guidelines in place at the time of going to press, all data submitted by advertisers and contained in their advertising copy is accepted by Miramedia in good faith.

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4 || Luxury BnB || Spring 2020

CANCELLATION POLICIES “UP IN THE AIR” The government is under growing pressure to take steps to address new anti-competitive practices adopted by OTAs after the warnings were issued against travel in the UK. As this issue went to press the hospitality industry was intensely lobbying the UK government for clarification on cancellation terms in regard to bookings via third party agents.

The B&B Association has attacked “unscrupulous policies” adopted by OTAs just as restrictions were imposed on the UK in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Association chairman David Weston told Luxury BnB magazine: “The two biggest such agencies, booking.com and expedia, unilaterally informed B&Bs they were immediately invoking a force majeure clause, returning non-refundable deposits to bookers and not paying any of it to the B&Bs, regardless of existing booking policy. B&Bs that assumed deposits that they were legally allowed to keep found they had nothing.”

He also cited instances of B&Bs choosing “for moral reasons” to return deposits only to find the OTAs billing

them for the commission on non-existent deposits. “The property owners have zero income on that booking yet are being billed for commission, so they have negative income,” he said.

“We have multiple examples of that, and we are putting it all through to government and talking to the Competition & Markets Authority about these practices, particularly the unilateral change in terms and conditions, to establish whether that is an unfair contract term.”

He said the association is putting out advice to members as it forms but was unable to offer any firm advice as we went to press hours before it was due to hold meetings to discuss OTA policy with the Tourism Industry Council and Scottish Tourism. “At the moment it is up in the air,” he said.

OTAs faced a growing rebellion last month as a Which? Travel investigation warned travellers that in eight out of 10 cases it is cheaper to book directly with the hotel or guest house. The report found guests are paying up to 12% too much by booking with OTAs as opposed to booking direct.

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As the country goes into economic paralysis, businesses across the hospitality sector in England devastated by the impact of COVID19 are being advised to apply for cash grants The Retail and Hospitality Grant Scheme provides businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors with a cash grant of up to £25,000 per property.

For businesses in these sectors with a rateable value of under £15,000, they will receive a grant of £10,000.

For businesses in these sectors with a rateable value of between £15,001 and £51,000, they will receive a grant of £25,000.

You are eligible for the grant if your business is in the retail, hospitality and/or leisure sector.

Properties that will benefit from the relief will be occupied hereditaments that are wholly or mainly being used: • as shops, restaurants, cafés, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues • for assembly and leisure • as hotels, guest and boarding premises and self-catering accommodation

HOW TO ACCESS THE SCHEME According to government advice your local authority will write to you if you are eligible for this grant, and any enquiries on eligibility for, or provision of, the reliefs and grants should be directed to the relevant local authority.

A business rates holiday for hospitality and leisure businesses has also been introduced in England for the coming tax year.

The scheme will apply to your next council tax bill due this month (April 2020). Local authorities may have to reissue your bill automatically to exclude the business rate charge. They will do this as soon as possible.

You can estimate the business rate charge you will no longer have to pay this year using the business rates calculator.

Further guidance for local authorities is available in the expanded retail discount guidance.

Charities and grassroots sports could lose £35 million in lockdown The predicted 12-week lockdown could cost charities and grassroots sports an estimated £35 million in funds raised by pubs, according to PubAid, the group dedicated to promoting pubs as a force for good in their communities.

However, hundreds of pubs, who have seen a drastic fall in trade since the Covid-19 outbreak, are actively increasing support for their communities, helping local residents who are unable to leave their homes. Many have adapted their menus to takeaway or delivery, with a number providing free meals to local pensioners, others setting up village shops to serve those unable to travel, and generally acting as a hub to co-ordinate community efforts to support vulnerable residents.

Just as importantly, many are looking for ways to offer local people some of the social and emotional benefits they gain from a visit to the pub. A number have set up helplines to offer local housebound people a much-needed social interaction, others have organised on-line pub quizzes.

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PubAid co-founder Des O'Flanagan said: "Clearly, traditional fundraising through events in pubs will have to stop in line with Government advice to avoid social contact. With pubs raising £100m a year for charities and £40m to grassroots sports, a three-month lockdown will equate to a £35 million shortfall.

"Despite the catastrophic consequences of the pandemic for pubs, many have responded by doing all they can to support customers and local residents and remain a hub for their community in this time of need. Pubs have survived for hundreds of years by adapting to the changing world around them, and the speed with which so many have changed their business practices in the face of the Covid-19 lockdown is impressive.

"We are only at the beginning of this very difficult time, but we are confident that pubs will continue to help people to come through it, offering practical, social and emotional support. Pub doors may be shutting, but pubs will find a way to remain a force for good in their local communities. "

TOP FIVE THINGS TO DO WHILST ISOLATING 1. BUILD A NEW WEBSITE AND UPDATE YOUR MARKETING It has probably been a bugbear of yours for ages. Finally, you have the time to polish up your website so when the restrictions are lifted and people search again for quality accommodation, yours will stand out. And there are plenty of UK based designers out there needing work at the moment so you might even get a good deal!

Contact us for a list of people we’d recommend.

2. GET ROUND TO THAT SNAGGING LIST So much of your time, money and care has been invested in bringing your indoor offering up to scratch.

But even the best places have room for improvements.

3. TIDY UP THAT OUTDOOR SPACE Have you neglected the potential value of your outdoor space? See page 40 for more tips. Besides buying in new products, patio weeds and neglected flower beds are crying out for your attention. Give it to them while you have the time!

4. ENTER THE LUXURY BNB AWARDS 2020 Entries are now being invited for the second Excellence in Luxury Service Awards. Visit luxurybbmag. co.uk/awards 5. SUBSCRIBE TO LUXURY BED & BREAKFAST MAGAZINE From this month, we will be charging £19 per year (after an initial 3 issues). The online issue will remain FREE. Subscribe to both issues at luxurybbmag.co.uk/subscribe/

Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 5

IN BRIEF || NEWS

CASH GRANTS FOR HOSPITALITY AND LEISURE BUSINESSES

h t i W r e v O t I k l a T

r e t o o h s le b u o r T y in The T

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY TINA BODEN FROM THEBANDBKEEPER.COM

Please send us your questions: m tina@tinaboden.com T @MicroBizGirl F The B and B Keeper E @thebandbkeeper

Tina Boden is certianly no stranger to The hospitality industry - it has been a part of her life since the age of 2.

As The Tiny Troubleshooter, Tina works one on one with business owners, providing virtual assistance and marketing support.

As one of the B’s in the B and B Keeper, Tina will step in to run your BnB, Guest House, small Hotel or Inn while the owner is on holiday.

And then as Co-founder of #MicroBizMatters Day Tina is one of the leading voices for micro business in the UK. Please email your questions to tina@luxurybbmag.co.uk OR reach out via social media: facebook.com/luxurybbmag/ twitter.com/luxury_bnb

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luxurybbmag.co.uk/tina

6 || Luxury BnB || Spring 2020

Q A

I really struggle when we have vegan guests staying, and I go into panic mode when thinking about what to serve them for breakfast.

More and more people are turning to a vegan diet, so it is important to offer a choice on your menu that suits. Put together 5 recipes that you have to hand for quick and easy vegan breakfast ideas and ensure you always have some staples in your cupboard or freezer. My favourite vegan breakfast is grilled cherry tomatoes on seeded wholemeal toast drizzled with olive oil and scattered with chopped fresh basil leaves to serve – I love the colour on the plate and it tastes great.

Q A

Our B&B is based in a place that has not only been affected by flooding recently but has also had 3 cases of Coronavirus reported in the news.

None of this has stopped us from opening and welcoming guests but bookings and enquiries have dried up, no pun intended!

Unfortunately, news spreads far quicker now than it did back then thanks to the internet and social media. It is important that you use these same channels to help share positive news about your B & B and the current situation where you are based. Are you a member of a local B & B association? If so, get in touch and ask them what they are doing to help turn the negative news around.

Collaborate with other accommodation owners near you and create your own good news stories; share them with the media and across your social media networks. If you have a database of former guests, send them a newsletter, add

pictures of events going on or scenery around you and show them that the place you are located is open for business.

Q A

The end of the tax year is looming and once again I am extremely behind with my bookkeeping. Every year I promise myself I will be more organised, but I will do anything rather than deal with accounts. All ideas gratefully received!

If I had £1 for every business owner that I have worked with, I would be able to afford a spa day in a luxury retreat! Start by putting aside two hours per week to deal with the backlog and get on track – that must start now, no excuses. Break the time down to two, one-hour slots if two hours is overwhelming. In the first time slot you allocate yourself organise the receipts into a pile per month and paperclip each month together. Start with the first day of the month at the top of the pile and work backwards in chronological order. Next you need to embrace technology and let it help you. Download a receipt scanning app to your phone, I use Receipt Bank, at £14.99 per month it is worth every penny and saves far more than that in value of my time. I also advise you use a cloud-based accounting package that you can link the receipt scanning app to, I use Xero.

Instead of storing your receipts in a carry bag you take a photograph of them and store them electronically. Once you have taken the picture and are satisfied the details in the app are correct then you can dispose of the receipt. Storing information electronically is approved by HMRC and you can then reduce the paperwork you have in your office. To help further with account organisation follow this link – I will allow you to swerve the accounts while you read it because it will help. www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

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IN PROFILE || KEYNEDON MILL

KEY INFORMATION OPENED 2012.

BEDROOMS 4 guest COST £95 to £130 per room per night AMENITIES • 7 minutes drive from the beach • Fabulous grounds with lovely garden furniture • Selection of vintage items and inspired interior finds for sale

KEYNEDON MILL, Devon delight The owners of Keynedon Mill, awarded Best Romantic Getaway and Best Wow! Factor in our inaugural Excellence in Luxury Service Awards, find themselves fully booked every season yet they have never even toyed with online travel agents. Bill Lumley pays a visit to find out how they achieve it.

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luxurybbmag.co.uk/a20-keynedon 8 || Luxury BnB || Spring 2020

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Jennifer and Stuart Jebb, ex Interior Design & Structural engineer. Now Award winning BnB Owners.

“If it is a lovely day some people don’t bother to go to the beach – they just spend the whole day in the garden relaxing.”

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Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 9

IN PROFILE || KEYNEDON MILL

JENNIFER and Stuart Jebb are living the dream with their award-winning property in rural South Devon. The couple established Keynedon Mill in 2011, in a region great for outdoor activities including sailing, walking, golf, surfing, fishing and paddle-boarding. As I catch up with them as they are preparing to get away for a break in London before they take their first guests in March.

Jeni says they only came into hospitality by accident after having helped out a friend with their B&B. “We lived in an old farmhouse in Guildford with a barn conversion attached. When our children left home, a friend of mine who owned a B&B suggested the barn could be used as overspill for their own business. I tried it and it worked very well, largely

10 || Luxury BnB || Spring 2020

owing to the arrangement of the barn, separate but attached, meaning that everyone had their own privacy, and it grew from there.”

A couple of years later they decided to up sticks and move to Devon, where they already owned a holiday house. Not ready for retirement, they went on the lookout for a house that they could run as a business as well as their home, with a separate base for them, just as they had in Guildford.

“An agent helped us find this, which was perfect,” she says. “The miller’s house has four guest bedrooms and a sitting room and its own entrance, leaving us the whole mill,” she says.

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IN PROFILE || KEYNEDON MILL

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID: "Perfect for couples who want to get away from it all. Well done on creating such a peaceful and tranquil place."

"Jeni and Stuart have created a beautiful property at Keynedon Mill that constantly receives top marks for the romantic location, luxury renovation and also the WOW factor. Looking through the photographs on the wellpresented website and elsewhere online you can see why this property should rank high above many others in the categories that it is listed in."

"A beautiful, amazing architectural building, superbly converted.

You can see a lot of hard work has gone into it!"

www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

They spent about six months refurbishing the property. It helped that Jeni worked as a designer and stylist in interior design and Stuart as a structural engineer, she says. “He did the building work and I out all the bits and pieces together.”

One of the factors behind the subsequent success of Keynedon Mill comes from enacting the hospitality model they’d begun with in Guildford. “It had worked so well, and we had enjoyed it so much we decided that we would do this down in Devon, but we needed a particular kind of property, where people can come and go as they please. They have their own entrance, they can stay here all day, and they have their own sitting room,” she says.

Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 11

IN PROFILE || KEYNEDON MILL

ADVERTISING WITHOUT THE ONLINE OTAS “Right from the start we had decided we did not want to use any online booking websites, preferring to do our own thing and make it personal,” she adds.

The couple had never advertised when they offered B&B accommodation in Guildford, but when they opened Keynedon Mill they broke that rule just once, contacting Alastair Sawday’s Special Places to Stay.

“They came to visit us and immediately recognised this to be special and presented really well, and they agreed to take us on.

“People are looking on Sawday can expect a particular standard. It is worth the marketing spent just to have their logo on our website.”

The couple created their own website, which they update every year. They began by offering special weekend retreats for Pilates, nutrition, cookery and the like.

The booking started coming in, and soon they were spotted by The Guardian and then by The Daily Telegraph. “The Guardian asked to take a look at the property and subsequently put us in their top 10 places to stay in Devon, then the same happened with the Telegraph. We weren’t featured in either, but we do appear on their websites,” she adds.

The property has also been featured in Country Homes & Interiors, a link to which they have on their website and which brought in quite a few bookings.

“We want to be remain a personal business and have contact with each booking via phone or email” REPEAT BOOKINGS - THE MARK OF A RESOUNDING SUCCESS The success their property has achieved has been astounding and a large proportion of their bookings today are repeat business. “Our books are overfull as we are always having to turn people down. It is unbelievable that we have managed to run our business successfully without resorting to OTAs, but somehow we have.”

The website is simply a window onto the property and does not have a booking facility. “Guests email us and say they’d like to come on a certain date, or they telephone. This means we can be in control of the bookings. If you enable online booking on your website, or through an OTA, you aren’t in control of it. You may suddenly think the whole of May is booked up and you haven’t got a day off. We are able to control it, so we have a little bit of time for ourselves.”

12 || Luxury BnB || Spring 2020

GUEST TYPES The kind of people that stay at Keynedon Mill have looked properly at the website, which they will have found generally through looking for the kind of experience that the property offers, Jeni says.

“People who just want a cheap weekend away are not the kind of people that would come here – it’s not for them, it’s a bit far out needing a car and so on,” she says.

Guest profile varies greatly she says. “We have young couples, some of them on honeymoon, and we have quite a few young guests from Europe travelling around England who have simply found us through googling. We have middle aged guests who come to stay in Devon having found us online, and we have some quite elderly guests, so it is a real mixture of people.”

She adds: “We do have quite a lot of steps here as it is such an old building, so if people are terribly old I do point that out to them, and I explain that one of the rooms has a restricted ceiling height and the bath is a roll top and quite difficult to get into. I have to be quite diplomatic.”

“Thankfully we seem to attract very lovely guests.

I think they look at what we do and straight away it’s clearly either for them or it’s not,” she says.

When some guests first arrive, they can be quite surprised at the property’s unconventional nature, she has observed. “They can look a bit worried, but by the time they’ve had breakfast the next morning they have kind of got it,” she says.

GOOGLE SEARCH Aside from the fee they pay to Sawdays, the couple never spend a penny on advertising. “We don’t need to as we are busy all the time,” she says. “It is difficult to know why we manage this. “ When we ask people how they found us it is a mixture of things, but a lot of people have simply googled ‘boutique retreat in Devon’ or ‘stylish small B&B in Devon’ and they have found our website, and that is how we have got many of our bookings.”

JENI’S PERSONAL TOUCH Crucially, guests at Keynedon Mill are treated all kinds of unexpected added extras, prompting them to promote it to friends and family. Jeni says: “When people arrive, we give them afternoon teas and homemade cake served on vintage china and elegant napkins.

“Then in the evenings we always offer them early evening drinks. They have their own chiller in the back hall of the guest accommodation so they can bring their own drinks in if they wish. And the www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

IN PROFILE || KEYNEDON MILL

IN BRIEF: 1. Focus on the guest experience and the bookings will come 2. Think about your target guests and what they would be looking for.

3. Think about how you’d like to be treated.

4. Add the extra touches to delight the customer 5. Use the marketing tools you feel are right for you and your business 6. Draw on your experience

www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

breakfast is of the standard of the Wolsey. Guests have a massive choice of 10 main courses, and I really make an effort to make poached fruits and homemade yoghurts so they get an amazing breakfast, the equivalent of which in London would cost perhaps £35 or more.

She adds: “We are also very flexible: if they want to have a meal at home in the evening then we will provide them with plates, wine glasses and everything they need.”

There is a decanter of port in their bedroom with vintage port glasses.

The couple grow all their own vegetables, and Jeni has her own flower-cutting garden. “I am

passionate about flowers,” she says. “I always put fresh flowers from the garden in the bedrooms as well as on the dining table and guest sitting room.”

OUTDOOR SPACE Guests have access to a huge garden area with garden lounges all to themselves along with the rest of the grounds. “We have furnished the garden with the guest in mind. We just keep a small section for ourselves just to sit in,” she says. “It’s therefore not really like a conventional B&B. It’s very much a peaceful place and a retreat.”

She and Stuart have their own terrace outside our conservatory with a special area for guests in the garden. “I call it a relaxation area, for which we have bought beautiful sun loungers, umbrellas, Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 13

IN PROFILE || KEYNEDON MILL

THE KEYNEDON MILL BREAKFAST MENU: Fresh berries, poached organic apricots, cereals and homemade yogurts with compote. Organic juices.

The Keynedon full English breakfast Smoked salmon with scrambled eggs Eggs Benedict/Florentine/Royale Avocado on sourdough with crispy bacon and poached egg Omelettes Bacon or sausage sandwiches Waffles with banana and maple syrup Organic porridge oats (gluten free available) Toast with homemade jams and marmalade and local honey All our ingredients are sourced locally wherever possible and our bread is home baked.

We cater for all special dietary requirements.

barbecue, a dining table, an outdoor sofa and arm chairs with lovely cushions – things we would not have bought if it were just the two of us living here. We also have mainly vintage garden furniture all around the grounds so if they want to sit by the stream and have a glass of wine they will find when they walk down there a little vintage table and chairs. There is always somewhere in the garden where guests can go and sit alone and have a glass of wine or a coffee.”

She adds: “If it is a lovely day some people don’t bother to go to the beach – they just spend the whole day in the garden relaxing, and if I am going out to the washing line I will periodically bring them coffee or pour them a glass of wine – and I don’t charge for any of the extra things. I just try to look after them as if they are family in a way.”

14 || Luxury BnB || Spring 2020

GREAT VALUE Pricing for the four rooms varies from £80 to £95 for single occupancy and £100 to £130 for a double room. Jeni says: “We hadn’t put our prices up for six years but with food costing so much more we just put the price up by a fiver this year.

“Guests get very good value - perhaps they don’t realise it when they are making the booking, but as they go on to discover, they do get all sorts of extras. Personally, I think it is really good value. I know it is a very competitive market, but then we aren’t paying 15% or more to an agency so we can keep our pricing down.

LINKS: keynedonmill.co.uk sawdays.co.uk

And the secret of their success: “We just base ours on how we would like to be treated if we went to stay somewhere ourselves,” she says. www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

IN PROFILE || KEYNEDON MILL

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AWARDS || LUXURY BNB SERVICE AWARDS 2020

Call for entries Luxury bnb Service awards LUxurybbmag.co.uk/awards luxury bed & breakfast and innkeeper

Entries now being invited for the second Luxury Bed & Breakfast Excellence in Luxury Service Awards.

The news follows the announcement of the results of the first award winners in the February issue of the magazine.

This year the awards will be judged in four categories: • Best Breakfast • Best Luxury Interior Design • Best Use of Social Media • Luxury Romantic Getaway Once again entrants will be judged by a panel of industry experts who will be looking for details of exceptional levels of service and luxury experience delivery.

They will also present an award for best overall winner.

EXCELLENCE IN LUXURY SERVICE BEST LUXURY RENOVATION

Best Luxury Renovation 2019

Winner: The Laindons “Our aim is to provide our guests with a place to escape and relax; be it a celebration, a break, a business trip, an opportunity to explore, or just to spend some ‘quality time’. We strive to ensure that your stay with us is extra special, so that you leave rested, content and recharged.

The Laindons has six luxurious rooms to choose from: five with beautiful high ceilings, filled with light, plus the Attic Room, which is our cosy, atmospheric rooftop retreat. Every room has its own distinct character.

Breakfast is served every morning in our conservatory overlooking East Hill’s nature park, the perfect place for a relaxing start to the day.

We’ve created a menu that reflects the seasons and sources the best of

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local produce, but if ‘full English’ isn’t your thing, we have other options to tempt you, such as: homemade Granola, Green Shot Smoothies, Salmon & Bagels, Blueberry pancakes and more. Located in the heart of Hastings Old Town, The Laindons is a gorgeous and impressive Georgian listed building that began life as a coach house in the nineteenth century. It has continued the tradition of providing comfort, and nowadays, unexpected luxury to all who visit. Breakfasts is served every morning in our conservatory overlooking East Hill’s nature park, the perfect place for a relaxing start to the day. No expense has been spared including the bed linen.”

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Best Romantic Getaway ay 2019 Keynedon Mill

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BEST ROMANTIC GETAWAY BEST WOW! FACTOR

Best Wow! Factor 2019 Keynedon Mill

Winner: Keynedon Mill “In Autumn 2011 Keynedon Mill was created as a lovely boutique retreat where guests can feel thoroughly spoilt and enjoy all the comforts of a hotel without the disadvantages. It is a converted Water Mill with guest accommodation in the attached old Miller’s House which dates back to the 14th Century. The Miller’s House has undergone careful refurbishment with attention to detail to create a chic retreat – a

tranquil place to unwind and enjoy the house and lovely grounds set in the beautiful Devon countryside. There are six acres of heavenly grounds with a stream running all along the valley, and a separate garden area for guests to relax, enjoy a glass of wine and listen to the birdsong!

You will find secret secluded areas to sit, read or just experience the peaceful surroundings.”

BEST LOCALLY SOURCED FOOD

Best Locally Sourced Food 2019 The Merry Harriers

Winner: The Merry Harriers “The Merry Harriers is a unique getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life, and also a wonderful stopover for those with a more active lifestyle whom use the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty as their playground for walks, hikes, bike rides, and runs. We pride ourselves on our local approach, with food sourced from within a 15-mile radius of the pub, and local luxury items for the bathrooms,

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bedrooms, and restaurant areas. Our bar also stocks award winning local beers, ciders, wines, and soft drinks, plus the Bar Manager creates exciting and innovative cocktails seasonally to make the best of the local produce and forage available in this area of the country, as well as taking inspiration from the unusual addition of twelve friendly llamas in the fields behind the inn.

Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 17

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE || BED AND BREAKFAST BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM

Bed and Breakfast Business Transformation Program LUXURY BNB PARTNER WITH THE B&B COACH YVONNE HALLING ON A NEW 6 STAGE TRAINING PROGRAMME • Are you working harder than ever and struggling to compete against the likes of Airbnb and Booking.com?

• Has your income reached a level that you can’t seem to break through?

• Are you depending on the online travel agents to bring you guests and fed up with their ever-rising commissions and the loss of connection between you and your guests?

• Do you just wish you could find a way to work smarter, make more money, while still serving your guests exceptionally well without working harder?

• The B&B Money Maker, Business Transformation Program is a 3 stage online training programme that will help you to GROW your B&B, Inn or Guest House.

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et me introduce myself. I’m Yvonne Halling, and since 2013 I’ve been helping owners just like you to elevate themselves both professionally and personally, and

position themselves for the new self-aware and conscious travellers who want to know that their choices make a difference.

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Case Study

Caroline Newling Ward “After 5 years in my busine ss, I am suffering with a sev ere lack of confidence in my marketing abilities and do not want to follow the route of att aching myself to any mo re OTAs.” Caroline Lisa NewlingWard runs Lancombe Co untry Cottages and Lodges in Dorset, UK. The journey with us beg

an in April 2019…

We began by getting cle ar on who she wanted to welcome and why, and the unique experience she is offeri ng, and putting her personality front and centre, so gue sts would relate to her online.

Together, we….

• Re-organized and rewrote her website copy to attract her ideal guests (families , children, dogs).

• Produced new graph ics and 12 pieces of pro fessional video content on her website, on social that she is using media and on her newly created YouTube chann el.

Next we tackled the pro blems on site, hiring a fab ulous new cook so Carol effort on Marketing and ine could focus more sales.

We then installed the 3 essential business system s: • A personalized upselli ng system for each of her different types of guests • A system for attractin g new guests, • A system to make off ers to her list of past gue sts These three systems for m the “engine” of her bus iness.

With our help and trainin g, Caroline has…

• Increased forward boo kings by 53% on this tim e last year • Re-financed her pro perty on more favourabl e repayment terms (her new bank ma nager is now a loyal fan !)

• Won a local tourism aw ard • Relinquished all house keeping duties to her tru sted housekeeper • Taken a holiday!

'I am utterly overwhelmed by the transformation tha t has taken place, both per professionally since my tim sonally and e with Yvonne. Thank you lovely lady'.

Take a look: Facebook Page: www.face book.com/LancombeC ountryCottages/ YouTube Channel: www.y outube.com/user/lanco mbe/videos Website: www.lancombe. co.uk/

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Spring Spri 2020 || Luxury BnB || 19

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE || BED AND BREAKFAST BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION RMATION PROGRAM OGRAM M

FREE EBOOK FOR ALL ENQUIRIES: NQUIRIES: visit: luxurybbmag.co.uk/training mag.co.uk/trainingg

LUXURY Situated in the sunny, sheltered haven of Babbacombe Bay, The Cary Arms and Spa on the Beach in Torquay is a large inn dating from the early 17th century. It has gone through many changes over the past 400 years before the sprawling property was adapted in the last decade into a highly successful boutique hotel.

Babbacombe Bay

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Cary Arms & SPA, Babbacombe Bay

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IN PROFILE || THE CARY ARMS

AS its name suggests, The Cary Arms was originally an inn when it opened on the bay, and boasts some famous visitors including Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. “We have a lobster bar in the summer based around visits from Winston Churchill and his team during the war. But it has been an inn on and off for 200 years,” says general manager David Adams, who has been in charge of the property for the past three and a half years.

The business today comprises a mixed bag of guest accommodation. The original building itself has the original 10 accommodation units including two cottage suites that the current owner opened with 10 years ago. Then in 2016 and 2017 a total of six beach huts were added.

ONGOING RENOVATION The process of keeping such an old property and its associated structures up to scratch providing premium luxury comfort for all its guests is a constant challenge.

David says: “It’s a very old building by the sea. The oldest part of our site, the thatched Rose Cottage, is over 400 years old. It is a constant job to keep it ship-shape.”

In fact, every room is routinely refurbished every two years, he says. “We have just started work on putting new bathrooms into the rooms within the original inn building. We bought two new selfcatering cottages online last year, and we are looking forward to bringing on an additional fivebedroom self-catering unit later this year. There always seems to be something going on!”

MIXED BAG OF ACCOMODATION Original Building - 10 accommodation units; luxury doubles, which are sea-facing, with balconies or ground floor terraces, ensuite bathrooms, king sized beds – “everything you’d expect in a luxury hotel.”

One two-bedroom family suite in the original building and two cottage suites, named Shell, one bedroom, lounge, kitchenette, and with a bathroom freshly refurbished in March. The other such suite, Pebble, has two bedrooms with a lounge, kitchenette and bathroom.

EMBEDDED LUXURY The heart of the operation occupies a building nearly 200 years old offset by rooms that have a premium mix of modern facilities to go with the classic design: White Company toiletries in refillable dispensers to reduce single use plastics; voiceactivated Alexa devices with Spotify music libraries along with free outgoing calls; Nespresso coffee machines; and Netflix-enabled flat screen TVs. 22 || Luxury BnB || Spring 2020

The property includes a new development that opened in 2016-17: six beach huts and two beach suites, modelled on the quirky original design of the brightly coloured traditional beach hut you see dotted along the classic seafront promenade, but with a modern luxury twist. “The beach huts all feature one bedroom, but with the bedroom itself on a mezzanine floor and with a lounge and bathroom downstairs with underfloor heating and Sonos sound systems, heated mirrors in the bathroom to prevent condensation when you shower, plus Smeg fridges, Nespresso coffee machines, and the same flat screen TVs and Netflix,” says David.

There are also bi-folding floors and terraces, and to round off guests’ luxury experience, lying on the pillow they have full view of a porthole looking straight out to sea.

Finally, there are a range of self-catering cottages ranging from three to five bedrooms, sleeping from four to nine people. David says: “These are sold on a self-catering basis, but guests have full access to the full hotel range facilities including the spa, restaurant and bar.”

DINING EXPERIENCE This is a dining experience to remember, for the restaurant itself offers what it claims are two of the best tables at which to dine in Devon: The Captain’s table which seats six and the Pod which seats four. The restaurant also offers Gastro Nights, with menus specially designed for the occasions by the head chef and paired with wines chosen by the head sommelier.

For a final touch of luxury all guests’ rooms have a decanter of sloe gin on arrival, plus a variety of different confectionery treats which, as David puts it, “give a real sense of nostalgia: sticks of rock, Kit-Kats and Orange Clubs!”

LOCALLY SOURCED FOOD The Cary Arms takes the whole idea of locally sourced food very seriously. “Wherever possible our food is locally sourced depending on the seasons,” explains David. “We are right on the sea, and very lucky to be less than 10 miles from Brixham fish market, one of the best locally operated landing fish markets left in the country. It still has a fully working fleet of day trawlers, so when we say the fish has landed that morning it really has landed that morning on a small day trawler fleet, unlike some of the bigger fish markets where even if it had landed that morning it could have been frozen out at sea in the hold for two or three weeks before they come back into port,” he says.

EXTRA TOUCHES “Many of the rooms have Voice activated Alexas, giving access to a huge library of music along with free outgoing UK calls. There are decanters with sloe gin on check in, Kit Kats, orange clubs, sticks of rock."

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IN PROFILE || THE CARY ARMS

Rock pools

The bar serving Sammy’s Ale

A Dog's dinner

The best bit will always be that amazing view of the Jurassic Coast out of the window though, it just can’t be beaten” .

He adds: “We have a great guy down there who picks our fish for us in the market every morning and brings the best of the day's catch straight to chef for that day’s menu.”

While using local produce as much as possible, the Cary Arms is remarkably self-sufficient when it comes to freshly grown herbs, with its own herb gardens dotted around site. “We have recently planted a few patches of perennial veg around the site, rhubarb, horseradish, Jerusalem artichoke, and we have two local places dedicated to growing vegetables for us.” www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

REACHING OUT TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY One of these is in partnership with a local care home, Maidencombe Manor, which supports adults with additional needs, both learning and physical. This has a five-acre skills workshop garden, where its residents spend the days potting around in the fruit gardens and vegetable beds, learning skills whilst staying active.

David explains: “We have a standard agreement with them to take all their surplus fruit and veg.

This supplies us with almost the volume of fresh produce we need in the summer months and is a great way to support a local community project.”

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IN PROFILE || THE CARY ARMS

MENU Our one rosette restaurant offers a great mix between high end dining and nostalgic classics.

A breakfast buffet where guests can help themselves to items such as smoked salmon and real honeycomb is there along with our cooked to order breakfast menu featuring classics like bubble & squeak with fried duck egg, smoked kippers, eggs hollandaise however you like it and of course the show-stopping full breakfast.

We offer a really relaxed lunchtime service with guests ordering at the bar in a traditional inn style with menus displayed on blackboards on the wall, a great selection of light bites, including the ever popular handpicked Devon crab sandwich offer are available along with mains such as fish and chips, steak and ale pie and catch of the day. Chef also offers up some great specials too, last week saw an incredible corned beef hash absolutely fly out of the kitchen, he’d cured his own brisket for nearly two weeks and the whole thing was made from scratch, I’d never tasted anything like it.

Dinner sees the white linen come out, lights turned down, candles lit, roaring open fire and live pianists every Friday and Saturday night. It’s an incredible setting and Chef really makes great use of the fresh seafood he receives each morning from Brixham market, just a short hop away.

The local food initiative does not stop there: “We also have a training allotment which we use for our apprentice gardeners to learn how to grow vegetables, then three quarters of a mile from here, providing a lot of the vegetables for the chef. Meanwhile we have a local wholesaler who works for a number of local farms for everything else we need,” he says.

Partnership with Combe Pafford School, a centre for children with additional learning needs. We take 2 students on work placement 2 days per week to help them acclimatise to the workplace and learn skills they need to have successful careers. We’ve had one student from them for 2 years on work placement with our gardening team.

He then stayed with us to do his apprenticeship and is now full time and is actually looking after the next generation of students from his own school. It’s absolutely great to see how he has grown and developed with us over the last 4 years.

We had 4 apprentices start with us this September across the hotel and it’s really great seeing the next generation come through.

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A local brewery produces Sammy’s Ale for us, named after the resident seal who spends most of the day taking mackerel from fisherman at the jetty outside the hotel, 50p from every pint sold is then donated to the RSPCA. Rowcroft, a local hospice, is doing a 2 day sponsored walk along the South West Coast Path in May, we’re looking forward to welcoming the 100+ walkers taking part for what will most likely be a welcome break from them halfway through their second day. They do great work in the local community so we’re of course more than happy to provide complimentary food and drink to those taking part so they can keep their energy levels up.

We’ve started a new partnership with a local care and support provider this year, Maidencombe Manor, who provide both residential and outreach care to adults with additional needs. They have an amazing 12-acre site with both a carpentry workshop and 3 acre vegetable garden they use for skills therapy. Our cottages are already showcasing bird tables made by them and this www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

IN PROFILE || THE CARY ARMS

Sea-facing Luxury Double in Cove Cottage

Beach Huts with Lounge area and bedroom in mezzanine floor.

year we have agreed to take all their surplus fruit and vegetables off their hands. It allows them to add funds to their operation and gives us the incredible opportunity to have organic produce grown less than 3 miles away.

SPA The spa is a major attraction for guests to the hotel. David says: “It gives people something to do on a rainy day. We are in England and we can’t get away from the rain, even located as we are on www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

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IN PROFILE || THE CARY ARMS Relaxation area Coastal Spa - waterfall hydrotherapy pool

the English Riviera. However, many palm trees we plant round here, we can’t make the sunshine all year round!”

The spa certainly contributes to the status of the hotel as a compact boutique hotel, he says. “It is designed for our hotel residents: we do not allow membership for non-hotel residents, so there is always that exclusivity and privacy,” he explains.

Within the spa are a hydrotherapy pool, a sauna, a steam room, and an experience shower that can be set to anything from blast of arctic winter to temperate rainforest depending on which button you press. There’s also a singles treatment room and a couple’s treatment room.

Conveying the satisfying, elite experience of luxury this provides, he says: “Sitting back in the hydrotherapy pool you have 180-degree views out to sea; you lean back at 34 degrees and bubbles go in. No matter how wet the weather is out there, you can lie there and pretend you are in the sea, you’re nice and warm, and it’s amazing!”

While the spa gets less use in the summer it’s still popular year-round for treatments, he says, noting 26 || Luxury BnB || Spring 2020

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IN PROFILE || THE CARY ARMS

Locally sourced seafood

Lobster BBQ

our guests,” he says.

The inn also serves local wines from Devon and local ciders. “If you can get a product locally then we have an option for it,” he says.

GUEST PROFILE The Cary Arms attracts a wide mix of guests.

“Typically, guests tend to be people who want an exceptionally high quality, refined service, but delivered in a relaxed, informal and unpretentious way,” David says.

that it has definitely proved a massive benefit to the hotel.

THE INN The local sourcing extends to the inn itself, which is open to non-residents from noon and serving lunch until 3pm and dinner until 9pm.

David explains: “A local brewery provides us Sammy’s Ale, named after our local seal that hangs around our sea jetty in the summer months, with 50p from every pint donated to the RSPCA. “We offer a full range of Devon gins as you’d expect, and we have a partnership with a local rum distillery which supplies our dark and spiced rum distilled from scratch up the road in Exeter. It’s a great sustainable partnership with no packaging waste, and we have our own three litre oak barrels behind the bar which they come down and refill for us, poured straight from the barrel at the bar to www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

It is hard to say how guests differ from the typical visitor to Torquay, he says. “We are a premium property with premium service and premium standard, so there is obviously a different price point between us and a lot of the other properties in Torquay. But then we also rate very high in value for money as well from the people who do come to stay.”

The age range of guests is remarkably wide. “We have a couple of guests in their 70s who have been staying in Torquay every summer for 50 years in pretty much every hotel in the bay. They found us three years ago after having stayed in the same place for 10 years, and now they are with us for three weeks every summer. It just goes to show that all visitors to the area can find something they like at the Cary Arms.”

OUR PEOPLE He says it is hard to pin down quite what it is that makes the Cary Arms such a great success. “It is down largely to how welcoming and relaxed we are. We are a small and compact team and have been together for a while now. It is a cliché, but Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 27

IN PROFILE || THE CARY ARMS

A bathroom in the original inn building

people do really seem to like to work here. We are relaxed, we have a laugh, and we get on well with the guests.”

He adds: “If we need to be incredibly efficient and get the job done, we can, and if we have time to relax and have a chat with the guests, we can do that too. I think that’s what people like. The staff here are real people with life stories and jokes to tell. I think the guests really like being able to come in and get what they are used to getting when they used to go to their local pub 20 years ago in terms of that friendly, relaxed and welcoming experience but delivered to a much higher standard with refined service levels.”

That informality appears to underpin a remarkably high staff retention level at the hotel in a competitive market of which many properties would be envious. “Staff retention is absolutely amazing,” says David. “It is very rare that we would lose a full-time member of staff. Obviously, we have temporary staff called upon through the high season but in terms of the core team it is exceptionally stable. In fact, a lot of staff have been here since we opened 10 years ago.”

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When asked about the secret to this success, David said: “A lot of it comes from developing staff from the bottom up. Nearly all my senior and HOD positions are filled by staff who have been with us since the start of their careers. It's also a great place to work, we usually get it right so my team get to spend their day around happy guests and aren't dealing with complaints and grumbles all day so are happy themselves. It's a bit of a snowball effect, happy guests equal happy staff, happy staff equal happy guests.”

PET FRIENDLY The Cary Arms is notably dog-friendly, and in this regard has won a number of awards over the years. David says: “A couple of luxury doubles are dog friendly, a couple of beach huts, all the self-catering cottages, and we have two distinct sections to our restaurant and dining area, one dog friendly and one dog free. The only communal area in the hotel where dogs are not allowed to go is the spa.”

SOCIAL MEDIA We use what we call the holy trinity of social media – Instagram twitter and Facebook. I think Instagram www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

IN PROFILE || THE CARY ARMS Sea-facing double

is best for telling a story if you have an event enabling you to have videos and photos posted on it as people are arriving, while they are here and as they are leaving, and things like that, with a story board, which is particularly effective for us. It’s also useful for promoting upcoming events. There needs to be a discipline to how that information is used, with the right links. We have loads of tags.”

“In the last couple of years, we have considerably increased our number of followers to 27k across our social media platforms.

“We used some stunning imagery, ran some competitions to encourage the interaction with our followers, created some interesting & exciting content, for example; events, news, offers, www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

research popular hashtags, trends, ect…and kept a friendly & informal tone to our posts.”

CONCLUSION Today this historical property has a total of 23 units, which includes the self-catering cottages and two-bedroom suites. Excluding the selfcatering cottages the total is 18, currently sleeping a maximum of 75 guests.

Its success as a high-end hospitality destination today is down to a combination of the heritage of the site, the regular attention to detail when it comes to equipping the rooms with luxury, and perhaps most notably of all, the informal approach to guests adding a comfortable feel of ease to the sense of luxury.

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IN DEPTH || THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO HOTEL MARKETING

MARKETING YOUR HOTEL

on Facebook Each Issue, we will be serialising a section of the Complete Guide to Hotel Marketing, an eBook by our partners, SiteMinder.com

ENGAGING with travellers on Facebook has never been easier or more valuable. Consider these statistics: • 52% of social media users said their friends’ photos inspired travel plans • 76% post their vacation photos to social media • During research, 55% liked pages relating to the trip they were planning • 69% of ads use images while 18% of ads use video Before you can influence travellers on Facebook, you need to grow your following. You could accelerate this process through paid advertising, but you should grow your audience ‘organically’ as much as possible.

To get more likes through organic traffic there are a number of things your hotel can do on Facebook. Take note of these quick wins: 1. INVITE CONTACTS AND FRIENDS People you already know will be more than willing to support you and you can quickly bolster your likes this way. You can even use the ‘Build your Audience’ feature to import all your email contacts and invite them to your page.

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2. ADD LINKS TO FACEBOOK ON YOUR WEBSITE AND EMAILS This is a simple way to give your Facebook page more exposure, especially to potential guests. Always ensure your links are correct and functional.

3. PUT UP SIGNS This is as simple as putting small displays on tables, on the front desk, or in rooms inviting guests to like you on Facebook. You could even add links on the bottom of receipts.

4. OFFER INCENTIVES AND HOST CONTESTS Even something as small as a free coffee will encourage guests to visit your page. This will give them a chance to look at your posts and like your page. When it comes to competitions, make sure one condition of entry is that people like your page.

5. POST GOOD QUALITY CONTENT CONSISTENTLY Follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of posts should be about the local area and only 20% of should be about the hotel itself. Use Facebook Insights to see the type of content your fans enjoy, and post between three and 10 times per week.

6. CROSS PROMOTE YOUR PAGE ON OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS If you have Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or other social media accounts for your hotel, post a frequent call-to-action for those users to jump across and like your Facebook page as well.

7. FILL YOUR PROFILE PAGE WITH SEARCHABLE INFORMATION Add as much information as possible to your profile page and add as many relevant categories to your page. This information helps Facebook serve up your page to people in various ways across the site. It’s also good for search engine optimisation so use plenty of relevant keywords. www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

9. ENGAGE ON POSTS THAT MENTION YOUR BUSINESS If another local business or organisation mentions your hotel in a post on their Facebook page and tags your page, thank them, like the comment, and join in with the conversation.

Facebook is a community and so a sharing mentality here will serve you and your hotel well.

After this you can begin experimenting with paid Facebook advertising. Start with a small budget and set up a page likes campaign that targets those who have been on your website the past 30 days, who also meet other criteria, such as age or gender.

Once you have established a credible Facebook page and following, you can start using advertising tactics to get more bookings through the platform. There’s plenty of advice to offer in this respect.

To start with, Facebook has a number of tools designed specifically to help you advertise your business and nail the Facebook conversion funnel. People spend 5x more time on Facebook than on travel-related apps, sites and searches.

More than 50% percent of respondents to a survey found trip ideas while browsing on Facebook, so the guests are there to be won.

IN DEPTH || THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO HOTEL MARKETING

8. THANK YOU MESSAGES When people sign-up for your local tourism guide or fill out your contact form, redirect them to another page thanking them for getting in touch. Add some text and a Facebook button to the page asking them to join you on Facebook, while you have their attention.

Trip Consideration can be used to prioritise the delivery of your content to people who plan to travel. These audiences may have a general intent to travel, but have no specific destination in mind yet. As opposed to DAT for Broad Audiences, these ads aren’t dynamic and instead use a static creative that you select, rather than drawing from a catalog.

In conjunction, focus on these five steps: • Correctly define your hotel’s audience • Use the right content for that audience • Target ‘lookalike’ audiences – those who have a similar profile to your existing audience • Use retargeting tools • Give warm leads your top quality content BUT HOW DOES ONE INCREASE DIRECT HOTEL BOOKINGS VIA FACEBOOK? Since a friend’s recommendation is more powerful (and less expensive) than any ad, focus on word-of-mouth strategies first. Even giving a single traveller the best possible experience could result in thousands of dollars more revenue if they’re impressed enough to share your hotel around their social circles. This could be triggered from as little as one message or comment from your business to the customer that leaves them impressed with your service.

Enticing customers with exclusivity can boost your volume of followers and engagement on Facebook, by treating your page more like a ‘club’. Offer promotions and deals that are only available to those that have liked your page.

Below is a simple example from the Argus Luxury Apartments, Darwin.

Dynamic Ads for Travel (DAT) allows advertisers to engage with users lower in the funnel who have already visited your website but are yet to convert. Travellers are tracked through their browser so they can be shown an offer for your brand when they’re browsing different sites.

This kind of retargeting can often prove quite useful in securing bookings from travellers who are still undecided.

Dynamic Ads for Travel for Broad Audiences takes this a step further. This is a feature created specifically for hotel advertisers that allows you to reach people with travel intent – even if they’re yet to visit your website or app. You’ll need a Facebook pixel implemented on your website, and use dynamic ads for travel events to report which properties from your catalog are being searched, viewed, and purchased. www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

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IN DEPTH || THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO HOTEL MARKETING

Simple promotions like this can often be the only small push travellers need to book directly with your hotel. Source: Argus Luxury Apartments You should also try establishing your hotel as a traveller’s guide by: • Posting reviews • Giving travel advice and tips • Keeping a running list of local events • Using captivating images and videos to provide insight or direction On the right is an example of The Jazz Corner Hotel that is generating extra traffic by tagging another local business while also offering helpful advice to visitors and guests.

To really generate direct bookings through Facebook, you need to make instant booking available. With the right online booking engine you can connect your booking engine to your Facebook page so travellers can make their purchase without even needing to go to your website. Facebook also has the capability to build the ‘book now’ tab into your ads and posts as a call-to-action which can also make a huge difference. It’s as easy as the example below from the Kah-Nee-Ta Resort & Spa. Just like this hotel, you should have a ‘book now’ button, which can link directly with your online booking engine.

Finally, always remember to interact with and reward loyal followers. All feedback, be it negative or positive, needs to be responded to. Reply to comments and messages in a polite tone. Any new visitors will be looking at the way you deal with customer feedback and studying your reviews. A helpful way to handle this is to migrate your communications to Facebook messenger

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and encourage followers to also pursue this avenue of communication. That way, any negativity or hostility can be resolved in private.

NEXT ISSUE: Experimenting with paid Facebook advertising

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Orange Tree

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LUXURY LOGISTICS

of a PopUp Hotel Glamping is an attractive and potentially lucrative way of earning a decent return on your land provided you plan everything in advance. Bill Lumley talks to Pop-up Campsites managing director Elizabeth Cartwright.

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Spring || Luxury Bed & Breakfast || 35

IN DEPTH || FESTIVALS

POP-UP Campsites in Sussex service most levels of the events industry including a number of high-end boutique hotels. It has three campsites across Sussex and the Southeast catering for self-pitching, bell tents and teepees. It also offers exclusive land for parties, weddings and corporate events, and for the past six years it has provided bell tents for temporary luxury accommodation for Pop-Up Hotel during the Glastonbury Festival.

The company works with Luxmode Glamping Service, which owns high-end equipment from safari suites to junior tents to the mogul suite.

Managing director Elizabeth Cartwright says: “With Luxmode we have set up a number of Somerset, Dorset and Sussex campsites that carry larger equipment. If for instance you wanted to offer a week’s camping outside Rye or Camber Sands we can accommodate that. If you wanted an exclusive section of your field with toilet facilities, we could also build that for you.”

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ELIZABETH CARTWRIGHT, MD POP-UP CAMPSITES POPUPCAMPSITES.COM @POPUPCAMPSITES

PLANNING If you are thinking of deploying luxury tent facilities, the first consideration is to establish where the land on which the proposed luxury camping actually lies: whether it is within the curtilage of the hotel or B&B, and whether it is classed as agricultural land. If so, then the law dictates you can only operate a campsite for 28 days continuously from the day you are set up or 28 days at any given point, she says.

There are other considerations such as ease of access and the kind of water available, which will dictate what facilities can go in and how many can be supported.

“The next stage we would discuss with them how much the long-term hire was and conveying the responsibilities that they must face having to look after the tents once they were in,” she says.

WASTE AND OTHER PRACTICALITIES It is important before at the planning to determine how you would have your toilets spaced out. “It depends on the volume and scale of what you are doing,” says Elizabeth. “If you are just going to operate for 28 days and shower water can be seen as ‘grey’, as would washing-up water – noncontaminant. You want to avoid having PCP free shampoo and washing up liquid so when it goes back into the environment it is not affected by it.”

Safari suite

Safari suite

If you were running for a short time you wouldn’t have to worry about building large quantities of infrastructure, so the shower or washing up water could be deemed as grey. Toilets are a different matter, however, she explains. “One of our clients was discussing composting toilets which are great depending on the entry level on which you want to operate. If you want to operate boutique higher end, then you would have to have something like propel air toilets of the kind you get on yachts that resemble flushing toilets.”

If you are operating on the 28-day model you want to get your maximum return. You may routinely be returning at least 2 rooms away or some people have guests staying for four to six days. “It is really difficult to know what people’s marketplace is,” she says. “It comes down to whether it is short or long term stays because facilities need to fit accordingly.

It’s not just a five-minute conversation: you have to make sure the facilities they are booking in would bend and flex accordingly.”

For example, the horse boxes that Popup Campsites converted into toilets and showers are fitted with portaloo chambers that can be cleaned out for £10 each on any given weekend and they have a large capacity servicing 25 people

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Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 37

IN DEPTH || FESTIVALS

"A B&B OWNER MAY HAVE AN ACRE OF LAND ON WHICH TO DEVELOP A LUCRATIVE HIGHEND CAMPING FACILITY TO EXTEND THE NUMBER OF GUESTS THEY CAN ACCOMMODATE"

IN DEPTH || FESTIVALS

Stancombe Park

Safari suite ensuite bathroom

per portaloo over a 2-day period. “They would certainly accommodate large quantities of bell tents and do cheaper, shorter stays,” she says.

Much also depends on the buyer’s marketplace.

“If you are looking for just weekend stays, and your demographic is high say Oxfordshire they pay a large amount of money for the rooms anyway perhaps near Haymarket, then you would get away with safari suites and high-end bell tents. For the high-end wealthy guest, you absolutely need the safari suites that the Popup Hotel has,” she says.

Luxmode Safari suites owned by Johnny Townsend for instance have toilets and showers at the back, the sleeping area in the middle and the living area towards the front with the balcony, and they come as part of the package.

MODEST SCALE LAND-USE A B&B owner may have an acre of land on which to develop a lucrative high-end camping facility to extend the number of guests they can accommodate. Elizabeth says the owners must first establish what they need in terms of the number of beds and on what level, for example four higherend suites and 10 mid-budget range suites. “We would take a look at the land and how we would put that infrastructure in place then come and then come out for a site visit to give a costing and pricing. Then as we approach the point where they know exactly what they want, we drill down better on pricing.

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“It comes down to what it is they need us to provide. We can provide structure and facilities including the things that go inside those structures,” she says.

You’d need to service those rooms whatever the weather, and Elizabeth suggests using either a quad bike or a 4x4. “When you are trying to transport clean linen in a muddy field you need to think outside the box. First of all, what we encourage our clients to do is think about rollout packway/trackway like you’d find on golf courses.

That comes in as bolt on packages – we deliver, and they can be rolled and pinned down.”

Essentially you need a frame of mind that expects challenges, she says. “Think of your worst-case scenario where it is raining and windy. You need firstly to have people who understand the tents and are not afraid to go out and check on them when it is pouring and howling gale, and secondly you have to have people capable of chambermaiding that experience.”

You cannot take on something like these tents if you are not able to think in anyway about an outdoor experience, she says. “The moment you think of trying to do something inside you have to consider how your user experience is going to be. Guests are going to find it that much harder because they aren’t going to have the luxury of being in the hotel and just being able to wander down to the bar.

Therefore, you need to work out what things you are going to need to provide those guests. It could be something simple like lit walkways or giving them walkie talkies,” she suggests.

If it is a proper high-end client, they will want to have some kind of concierge service on hand in the event they need something, and they don’t want to leave the tent, she adds. www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

IN DEPTH || FESTIVALS

Panorama suite

LOW END BUDGET CHALLENGES One of the dangers is people turning up on site having booked what you yourself class comparatively as a budget room that gives them very little. The same issues arise where they have been advised to bring their own bedding, and they have not heeded the advice and turned up with nothing as they believe they have booked expensive package. “It can go hideously wrong on a budget level,” says Elizabeth. “People say, ‘I want that one!’ but they don’t want to pay for it, so instead pay for the lowest priced one without even considering where the disconnect happens.”

HIGH END BUDGET CHALLENGES They may absolutely lose it because there isn’t an espresso machine, or they have brought their hair dryers and straighteners and haven’t worked out they can’t operate these inside their tent, which would normally only give them enough power to charge mobile devices, she says.

There are ways around it, but they cost. “We have brought in things like mini generators to boost power to a particular tent. Some hotels offer wellington boots, but some don’t. Some automatically offer toothbrushes – the list is endless,” she says.

FORWARD PLANNING The over-riding message here is planning.

Determine the precise size of the land you propose to erect your temporary luxury camping facilities, establish who owns the land and whether it is agricultural land. Ensure you call in an expert firm to carry out a comprehensive site visit, and listen to every piece of advice you get from that visit – and be sure to convey it to your guests. That way they will have the time of their life, and you will be remunerated satisfyingly for land you may not otherwise be putting to any practical use.

Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 39

IN DEPTH || OUTDOOR SPACES

THE GREAT outdoors There are plenty of ways to spruce up and monetise your garden by paying it with the same attention to detail you pay to some of your interior design. We take a look at some innovative and practical ideas.

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working, cost-effective and sustainable fabrics.

There is no need for them to throw away their existing outdoor cushions. They can simply update them and give their outdoor space a makeover.”

Many properties – hotels, guest houses and B&Bs – are equipped with an outdoor space associated with their business, be it a garden, a courtyard or other adjoining land. In many cases this land can be put to good use for entertaining overnight guests, increasing catering capacity or hosting family or corporate events.

She says the covers are made with a highly resilient and wipe-clean fabric that can deal with all the elements expected outdoors from rainwater to snail trails, ketchup to red wine, coca-cola and mayonnaise. “A child may wipe ketchup or ice cream on the cushion. Wipe it off with a damp cloth and that stain will never show,” she says.

OUTDOOR COMFORT Often property owners in the overnight hospitality sector have focused massively on their property’s interior design but with a tendency to neglect the potential of their outdoor space. Often this amounts to unloved areas with seats bedecked with old and faded cushions.

OUTDOOR HEATING One of the most dependable features of the British climate is its intermittently disappointing weather.

There are ways many venues get around this, often through the hiring or permanent installation of gas-powered standing heaters.

Premium handmade outdoor cushion company Altair Living is run by Chris and Elaine Altair, who believe they have spotted a major gap in the market. They are now helping B&Bs, hotels and restaurants to enhance their outdoor spaces with beautifully made cushion covers.

“We help them to fill their outdoor spaces with colour, vibrancy and a plethora of high-performance outdoor fabrics,” says Elaine. “These are hardRentbelltents.com

New technologies are now available that replace the need for such equipment. Mensa heating is the UK distributor for Danish outdoor heating specialist Vireoo, which makes a range of units that lend themselves to the hospitality market providing warmth to guests using infrared technology.

They supply are four such products all with infrared light, all water-safe with IP44 certification, and all with safe-to-touch function.

CEO Irma Stevens says: “They’re fantastic when it comes to electricity use, costing just 10p per hour which is extremely low cost for heating compared to a gas heater, and much more eco-friendly.

“The motion sensor means they only turn on when someone stands or sits beside them, and therefore they won’t be turned on unnecessarily, and they turn off when the tables are unoccupied.“

Cusion covers by Altair

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Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 41

IN DEPTH || OUTDOOR SPACES

ONCE the current pandemic is over and life in the UK returns to normal – which should happen in a matter of weeks – so too will demand for the provision of much sought-after accommodation.

IN DEPTH || OUTDOOR SPACES

Menas-Heating-Header

OUTDOOR COOKING & EATING If you have the outdoor space, barbecues can provide an attractive and potentially lucrative addition to your hospitality business.

Lancashire-based manufacturer Cinders Barbecues has been in the business now for over 30 years and its products are used in all sectors of hospitality from cruise liners to care homes.

Marketing director Karen Swift says: “Our barbecues are designed specifically to punch through quantity when needed, but the numbers that can be catered for is related directly to how much of the food offering is barbecue and how much is pre-prepared or even pre-cooked.”

Cinders TG160

Determining factors for instance concern whether the menu for the evening consists entirely of prime cooking from the grill or whether a significant proportion comes from the kitchen, she says.

The company has provided equipment to major events through the years including Glastonbury Festival, at which a number of their barbecues cook for four or five days, sometimes through the night.

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But it’s no longer just about cooked meats. Last year the company launched StreetWok. “Stir fry is a tremendous crowd pleaser,” she says, confidently predicting that rental supply will grow with demand as that trend progresses.

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The rental company can provide anything up to 100 tents from 4sq m to 6sq m, sleeping up to 10 people.

“Business used to be just camping and a little bit of weddings and major festivals but now it is becoming a lot more commercial,” he says.

Unsurprisingly, she says, the greatest challenge for their market is the huge peaks and troughs of demand through the year, made all the greater by having to invest without paid pre-orders.

OUTDOOR BEDROOMS If your business wishes to appeal as a venue for a local festival or if you hold events such as weddings but don’t have the accommodation space indoors, provided you have outdoor space, you can always consider hiring in tents for additional overnight guests.

Rentbelltents.com owner Barry says: “If a hotel or B&B have the land, they can use to pitch tents

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The company itself even provides its own B&B service. “We turn up, set up the tents, provide an evening meal, then the outdoor guests sleep in the tents. We provide them with breakfast the following morning before packing everything away again and leaving.”

CONCLUSION The opportunities for outdoor furnishings are huge, from developing safe play areas of children, to decorating the garden with durable artificial plants for those like me with grey fingers.

As Summer approaches and you find yourself with more time on your hands than is traditional for this time of year, now may be the best time to pay attention to the opportunities you could milk to capitalise on your outdoor space.

Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 43

IN DEPTH || OUTDOOR SPACES

then we can help. We provide that service to venues that do not have the interior capacity for certain events and enable them to increase their space to accommodate the extra guests.”

IN DEPTH || FINANCE

Airbnb / Short-stay holiday let tax: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE Whether you run a B&B or guest house and wish to know how the burden your competition faces, or you rent out any of your property as a furnished holiday let, it is useful to be aware of the parameters of so called Airbnb tax.

FOR many Airbnb UK hosts, no income tax may have been paid on that income as a result of a relief targeted at lodgers called rent-aroom relief. Rent-a-room relief allows for gross income of up to £7,500 a year to be received on a property that is the individual’s main home and the legislation does not currently include any requirements for the landlord to be living in the home at the time.

However, from April last year rent-a-room relief has only been available where the host also lives in the property at some point during the rental period. That’s an added extra which many guests want to avoid if they are looking to rent the entire property.

The restriction on rent-a-room relief has been described by some as the ‘Airbnb tax’, but for many the platform still offers its hosts the opportunity to benefit from valuable tax reliefs and could drive more entrepreneurial behaviour as they seek to operate more like a business.

LEGAL OBLIGATIONS The reality is that people renting out rooms via Airbnb are deemed by the taxman to be running a business. Therefore, just like any busiw READ ONLINE & SHARE >> ness, they are legally required to pay tax on the luxurybbmag.co.uk/a20-finance money they earn.

Matt Bryant, Zig Zag Accounting

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This means that a host who earns a small amount each month from renting out a room, provided that amount over the course of the financial year does not exceed the personal allowance of £12,500, will not be required to pay tax on Airbnb earnings. If, however, the Airbnb revenue exceeds that amount, there is a responsibility to declare that money and pay the relevant taxes.

HOW MUCH TAX MUST HOSTS PAY? There’s a difference between renting out a room in a property owner’s main residence and renting out a room in an investment property.

If someone is letting a room in their own home, there are several tax-free allowances and advantages that can be gained in relation to paying tax.

Hosts running an Airbnb business involving an investment property or a property you do not live at full-time will be taxed as a business owner.

BUSINESS RATES ON FURNISHED HOLIDAY LETS IN THE UK Airbnb hosts who own properties in the United Kingdom may be subject to business rates. www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

Owners of guest houses and B&Bs that cater to more than six people at a time could also be liable for business rates.

WHO PAYS COUNCIL TAX ON A HOLIDAY LET? When you are renting out your holiday home or investment property on Airbnb and it’s available to let for less than 140 days per year, you will need to pay council tax – not business rates.

CAN I OFFSET MY LETTING LOSSES AGAINST OTHER INCOME? Unfortunately, the UK government no longer allows Airbnb hosts to offset their furnished holiday letting losses against other income.

You can only offset your Airbnb income losses against future profits for the same property.

DON’T FORGET ABOUT VAT Remember to consider the VAT threshold of £85,000. If your total Airbnb rental income exceeds this threshold, you will need to register for VAT. THE ADVANTAGES OF PAYING AIRBNB TAX If your property qualifies as a Furnished Holiday Let you can benefit from the following: • Profits can be counted as earnings for pension purposes • Allowances can be claimed for fixtures, furniture and certain types of equipment in your home • Capital Gains Tax relief programs such as the Entrepreneurs’ Relief or Business Asset Rollover Relief may apply.

w www.zigzagca.co matt-bryant-1a29a828

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DOES MY PROPERTY QUALIFY AS A FURNISHED HOLIDAY LET? It is important to define the term ‘Furnished Holiday Let’ so that you know where you stand. To qualify, your Airbnb must: • Be available for letting on Airbnb for at least 210 days of the year • Have to be let out for at least 105 days a year • Have a sufficient amount of furniture for everyday use • Exist in the United Kingdom or European Economic Area (EEA) • Be rented out as a commercial let to the public for at least 105 days per year.

CAPITAL GAINS RELIEF TAX If your property qualifies as a Furnished Holiday Let and if it’s not your main residence, you are entitled to capital gains tax relief. This may include: • A 10% capital gains tax rate instead of 28% when you sell your property under the Entrepreneurs’ Relief scheme.

• The ability to defer capital gains tax on the sale of your initial property when you sell one Airbnb residence and buy another under the Rollover Relief scheme.

• The ability to avoid paying capital gains tax under the Gift Hold-Over Relief scheme which involves owners giving away their business assets or selling them for less than they are worth in order to help the buyer.

• Access to capital allowances for property furniture and fittings.

WHAT IS THE 90 DAY RULE? The 90 Day Rule which was formerly called the Airbnb’s 90-Day Limit in London, is currently effective only in the city of Greater London.

The 90 Day Rule is simply a rule that applies to property owners setting default limits on their entire space. Such property must be registered on Airbnb listings before the rule can be effective. Property owners are required by Airbnb to put a limit of 90 days of occupied nights per calendar year. It was introduced by Airbnb in January 2017, in the city of Greater London.

Airbnb has put a limit on the number of nights people (for lets) can occupy your apartment per year to 90. In other words, a property on Airbnb listing can’t be let out for more than 90 days of occupied nights per calendar year.

Once the 90-day limit has been reached, bookings for your property will be automatically closed by Airbnb until the end of the year.

The 90 Day Rule does not apply to you if you are able to confirm that you have the necessary permit to rent your space for a longer period i.e. more than 90 Days on a consecutive let. However, anyone that does not satisfy the above condition and thereby go against the Airbnb rule may be penalized and pay a fee of £20,000.

The Airbnb’s 90 Day Rule was put into practice with the focus of legalizing short lets in London.

To its effect, property owners were required to apply for planning permission so as to rent out their homes for vacation lets (a short time lets).

Max can be contacted at www.zigzagca.co.

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IN DEPTH || FINANCE

This will depend upon the length the property is available for let if it exceeds the maximum days each year then the property is classified as a self-catering property and is subject to business rates.

ON THE MARKET || NUMBER 46

MY FIRST MONTH AS

a B&B owner

Rick Sciuriaga bought Number 46 in Hastings this year, and is trying not to fix what isn’t broken. Bill Lumley talks to the first-time B&B owner, whose strategy is to cherry pick what works best Sunset over Hastings Seafront

WHEN you take over your first commercial hospitality property whether it be a terraced suburban B&B or a large boutique hotel, the temptation to put your mark in it can be huge.

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luxurybbmag.co.uk/a20-no46 46 || Luxury BnB || Spring 2020

Many is the time new B&B, guest house or hotel owners will tell you they were unable to wait to start renovations and running things the way they consider best. It is not often you hear owners saying they want to see what works best before making any changes. Yet that is exactly what Rick Sciuriaga is doing with Number 46 Rooms & Apartments in Hastings.

He acquired the property in February this year and is running the business with his sister Jocelyn. Their mother worked in tourism and the two of them grew up staying in all standards of B&Bs, hotels and guest houses. These were mainly in Europe but more recently in sevenstar properties in the far east. Rick says that gave him a taste for the kind of service and offer that he likes, and that he would like to offer his guests.

He quit his job in high-end retail because he sensed a need for change. www.luxurybbmag.co.uk

“It is a perfect situation in terms of her knowledge and my knowledge, and we work well together,” he says.

“With my previous experience I know what the luxury end of the market wants in terms of service delivery and I want to put some of that experience of dealing with the public which comes as second nature,” he says.

He explains: “Most of my immediate family live in Hastings. This opportunity came up and it set the ball rolling. I started looking at what other B&Bs were for sale up and down the country, but I really wanted to be in Hastings.

Having found this one it ticked so many boxes – location, size, affordability and an excellent track record.”

The property was in good condition when they moved in and, owing to the fact that it had been running so well and had received so many good reviews he saw no rush to change anything just for the sake of changing it.

“In time I will put my own stamp on it with new décor and so on, but as for changing the infrastructure or the way the business is run I don’t think I will need to change anything drastically,” he says.

One of the first decisions he made was to keep on the existing housekeeper, whom he described as fantastic. “A lot of the reviews are based on the cleanliness of the establishment and she has been cleaning there for the past five years, so she is an asset to the company and keeping her on was vital,” he says.

PREVIOUS OWNER The previous owners built up the business over 12 years from next to nothing, and Rick says he counts his blessings for the help they have given him and continue to provide. “We have become friends; we talk a lot and I look on them as mentors and they still offer advice for example if something crops up that I am not so sure about they are always happy to help us out. When it comes to the handover, I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” he says.

The owner wanted someone with a passion to buy it. “She saw that in me and was very keen to sell it on to me and to come back and see what I had done with the place over time.”

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Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 47

ON THE MARKET || NUMBER 46

Rick was jointed by his sister who worked and owned restaurants overseas.

ON THE MARKET || NUMBER 46

TOP TIPS FROM TINA BODEN, THE TINY TROUBLESHOOTER PRE-PURCHASE:

1.

As yourself, are your priorities for purchase life-style or income focused?

2. What type of customers do you want to attract – business, leisure, focused on a specific market.

3. How much can you afford? Just like buying anything, you need to know this before you start looking not once you have your heart set on something.

4. Understand the income you can generate and the expenditure you will have. Put together a 2 year cash flow plan including services you may have to buy in. This list should Include items like marketing, bookkeeping & maintenance. Look at what you can do yourself.

5. Speak to people in the industry and understand what owning a BnB entails. It’s not just cooking a few breakfasts, making a few beds and having the rest of the day off, it’s hard work.

POST-PURCHASE:

1.

Accept that what you saw at the property pre sale may not be reality post sale.

2. Maintain a relationship with the previous owners if possible so they can help if you need a little advice.

3. If you have staff ensure you hold a meeting with them and set out your plans so you keep them onside. Transfer of ownership is often hard for them and having to recruit new staff can be hard enough without taking on a new business as well.

4. Commence positive marketing to previous customers through a newsletter and social media. Start this as soon as possible starting with an introduction as the new owners.

5. Make a plan for any upgrade work and create a timescale based on the actual cash flow in the business not what you predicted. This is often very different and what you planned originally may not be achievable post sale.

LINK w www.numberfortysix.com

OTAS & MARKETING One of the first things Rick is looking to change is the look at the website - the shopfront of the business. The previous owners admitted they hadn’t really given that much attention to it over the past few years, so it is looking dated. But before I change it I need to update some of the rooms and the décor to mirror them on the website.” He says he has given himself three years to get the property looking the way he would like.

We use all the usual OTAs managed by a channel Manager. They are basically our advertising.

Provided you can keep up with good reviews they are a perfect platform and the commission we pay to the OTAs can be offset against a non-existent marketing budget.

Rick can be contacted at numberfortysix.com.

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ON THE MARKET TO VIEW THE FULL DETAILS: LUXURYBBMAG.CO.UK/ONTHEMARKET

SUPERB GUEST HOUSE IN TORQUAY FOR SALE

SIX BEDROOM FREEHOLD HOLIDAY COTTAGE IN CUMBRIA FOR SALE

SUCCESSFUL HOSTEL BUSINESS IN ILFRACOMBE FOR SALE

Excellent location, close to the harbour in Torquay, this guest house is well presented, with 8 en-suite letting bedrooms, double and king size, plus good size owners’ accommodation with lounge, 2 bedrooms & office/3rd bedroom.

The owner has conducted a full refurbishment programme and built up the business with many repeat guests. Just a short walk from the harbour and very well-placed for tourists.

Asking price: £449,000 Furniture / Fixtures included bit.ly/s20-bfs1

Business Resale have been instructed to find a buyer for this spacious, modern and successful freehold Holiday Cottage in Cumbria. The owners run the cottage as a lifestyle business and are on track to generate around 38k net profit for the YE April 2020. The current owners are looking to restrict bookings this year to weekend only so that they remain below the VAT threshold.

Asking price: £600,000 bit.ly/s20-bfs2

Substantial 4 storey period property, centrally located in the town centre in a busy position and close to the popular Quay area of Ilfracombe.

Currently operated as a backpackers Hostel business. This imposing end terrace property boasts large open-plan living areas including a Residents Lounge, Dining room and a second Lounge. Reception area and small Office, large communal Kitchen, and two separate W.C's.

Asking price: £550,000 bit.ly/s20-bfs3

BEAUTIFUL FREEHOLD HOTEL RESTAURANT AND BAR FOR SALE

FREE OF TIE PUBLIC HOUSE STRETFORD GREATER MANCHESTER FOR LEASE

GUEST HOUSE IN DORCHESTER FOR SALE

The White Lion Hotel, a 16th century coaching inn, owned by our clients since 1997 and only being offered for sale because of their decision to retire. Offering quality accommodation, public bar, lounge and restaurant. The bar has a long-standing entry in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and the restaurant has held an AA rosette for 20 consecutive years. The hotel includes 13 guest rooms, 2/3-bedroom private owners accommodation, private parking.

Asking price: £1,200,000 Furniture

The property is a substantial period building, located on a sizeable plot and holds a prominent high visibility trading position.

The property is a favourite watering hole for Manchester United fans on match-days and is approximately 3 miles south west of Manchester City Centre. This densely populated location provides high footfall and attracts high levels of passing trade, which generates an excellent turnover with potential for further growth.

Asking price: £134,950

A stylish late 19th century house which has been imaginatively transformed and extended by the current owners to provide very comfortable accommodation for both guests and proprietors. There are 7 letting bedrooms in the main house and in addition there are four more letting rooms in two self contained lodges to the rear of the garden which are situate in their own garden setting together with a further cabin currently housing a gymnasium.

Asking price: £950,000

/ Fixtures included bit.ly/s20-bfs4

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Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 49

IN FOCUS || HOT SUMMER DRINKS

Some remedial suggestions on putting to good use premium spirits that work wonders if your own spirits are low.

Find yourself with a summer cold, or you are self-isolated with a certain virus? They will work wonders should your guests feel under the weather when business is back up and running

THE PENICILLIN

DEAD RABBIT IRISH COFFEE

TRADITIONAL HOT TODDY

A double shot of white rum 15g plain chocolate 50ml strong espresso coffee 3 tsp caster sugar

50ml whisky 3tsp honey 1 cinnamon stick, snapped in two 1 lemon, half juiced, half sliced 2 cloves

• Heat up white rum, dark chocolate, espresso coffee and sugar, stirring until the mixture boils.

• Allow it to cool for two to three minutes.

• Garnish with a scatter of chilli flakes.

1 tbsp ginger (ideally freshly grated) A large shot of premium Scotch whisky 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp honey A (washed) hand-ful of ice Into a cocktail shaker put the ginger, whisky, lemon juice, honey and ice.

Shake vigorously and fine-strain into a glass.

Truly a wonder drug.

• Whisk the whisky and honey together and split between two heatproof glasses.

• Add half of the cinnamon stick to each, then top up with 200ml of boiling water.

• Add a splash of lemon juice to each, then taste and add more to your preference.

• Finish each with a slice of lemon studded with a clove, and serve immediately.

HOT GIN PUNCH

HOT COUGH AND COLD REMEDY

1 litre gin 1 litre port Juice of three lemons 3 slices of pineapple Segments of one orange 50ml honey 6 cloves 2 tbsp ground nutmeg 2 tbsp ground cinnamon 3 tbsp brown sugar

Whisky (good quality) Hot Water Honey Ginger Lemon Juice

• Mix together gin and port with lemon juice, pineapple chunks, orange slices, honey, cloves, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon and brown sugar.

• Simmer on low heat in a saucepan for about 20 minutes. Pour a glass and relax.

• Mix whisky, water and lemon juice • Microwave for 1 minute until hot • Stir in honey and ginger for that extra kick • This hot toddy for your cold will soothe your throat in no time.

Perfect as a bedtime drink to help you get some sleep

w READ ONLINE & SHARE >> luxurybbmag.co.uk/a20-drinks

50 || Luxury BnB || Spring 2020

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Spring 2020 || Luxury BnB || 51

IN FOCUS || PRODUCT WATCH

PLUMP CUSHIONS

BY ALTAIR LIVING Visit our lovely new website showcasing our extensive selection of scatter cushions. These are for on SALE NOW. If you are stuck inside. Go outside into your back garden in style! We have a lovely collection for you to choose from and more being added every day! Visit thisisplump.com today.

Where versatility, usability and individuality count

The new X10

Coffee pleasure – freshly ground, not capsuled Customised coffee via 4.3" colour display thanks to One-Touch function for 31 programmable specialities Professional Aroma Grinder for ideal grinding results over the entire service life One-Touch Lungo function for delicious, aromatic barista specialities

Ideal areas of use: breakfast rooms, pub bars, restaurants, small bistros, private clubs and function areas.

Recommended maximum daily output: 80 cups

JURA – If you love coffee

JURA Products Ltd., Vivary Mill, Vivary Way, Colne, Lancashire, BB8 9NW, Tel: 01282 868266, Fax: 01282 863411, sales@uk.jura.com, uk.jura.com