3B: RENOVATIONS

If you are considering a renovation/refurbishment, remember to consider your level of accommodation and the type of guests you provide for.

Consider:

• Will you close your entire property for the duration of renovation, redecorating or refurbishment?

• Will you only close half the rooms and run at half occupancy whilst you get work done on the property?

• How often do you want to update your property, either interior or exterior?

• Do you need more regular touch ups?

During renovations take plenty of photographs of hidden areas to help with future maintenance. Remember: Everything in a holiday let gets used more, so it will deteriorate quicker than your own home.

For regular, on-going maintenance, keep a list of items you like so you know where you can find replacements that are exactly the same. Keep all user guides either for the guests or to order replacement parts.

If you need to repaint well used areas, keep a list of the RAL Codes (the unique paint identifier). This will ensure you can always get your specific colour in future even if they stop selling the trade name.

Finance

• Will you pay a professional company to do it all for you?

• Can you save some money by doing odd jobs yourself, or by asking a family member or friend to help you?

• Are there any local tradesmen or suppliers you can support?

When updating, you could add features guests might find useful, for example:

• Drying room

• Dog washing area (E.g. outdoor hose with a hook to tie the dog to and sufficient drainage)

• Bike storage

3B: CONFIGURATION

It can be hard to decide how big you want your business to be. Maybe the number of bedrooms you have available is dictated by the building you have. Or maybe you’re lucky enough to be building from scratch and able to decide, specifically, how many rooms you want.

You would have already researched the type of place you want to create from your target customer. Be it separate rooms / suites or individual family units, you now need to kit these rooms out.

Main Considerations:

• How many bedrooms do you want?

• How many people (maximum) per bedroom?

Personal feelings:

• How do you feel about having multiple groups of people in your B&B at once?

• Would you prefer to cater for just 2 guests at a time?

Bed options:

Think about your family or group bookings and what types of beds they will need.

• Do you want to offer single rooms with a single bed?

• If you want double beds, what size would you want? (Small Double / Double / King / Super King)

Family Rooms:

If you want to offer a family suite, how would you want this set up? Consider whether you need to reserve larger rooms for your family groups. You will then need to consider the set up of the beds:

• Permanent Double bed

• Permanent Single bed

• Single sofa bed

• Twin Singles that make a Double

• Movable cot (think about where you will store a travel cot)

Remember that the youngsters have shorter legs than us! Consider looking into the height of the beds that younger guests will be using.

Summary Of Chapter 4

This brings Chapter 3 to a close. Hopefully this has provided you with some helpful food for thought when deciding on how to run your business. We hope you gleaned some helpful tips and advice that you can use to your advantage should you cater for families, dog owners and guests with disabilities. We also hope you found the information regarding technology, furnishings and renovations helpful. The next Chapter (4) will introduce you to booking and management operations, outlining what you may want to consider when looking at rental periods, T&Cs and the payment process and more.