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ISSUE 42 • AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2020
THE MAGAZINE FOR OWNERS AND MANAGERS OF BnBs, INNS, BOUTIQUE HOTELS & HOLIDAY LETS
Dining UNLEASHED
serving customers post-lockdown LAKES EDGE HOLIDAY COTTAGES THE READING ROOMS
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NEWS
ASK TINA
VIDEO MARKETING
PRODUCTS
New Remote Control for Samsung & LG Hospitality TVs Operates exactly as the original Samsung and LG remotes Less expensive and always in stock Instantly works Samsung & LG TV’s with no setup: New Dual Band technology allows you to control both Samsung & LG TVs at the same time. Great extra feature for properties with both Samsung and LG TVs
Full Function: Input/source, dash – Operates Samsung LYNK REACH and LG Pro:Centric systems including Home/Portal, Channel list/Guide
CR4
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Business is back up and running but still very fragile. While some spacious properties have returned to near-full capacity and are booked through to the end of season, they seem to be the exceptions. Lakes Edge in Herefordshire is one such business, and we speak to general manager of the luxury holiday cottages Janet Taylor Martin (page 6). Within days of reopening, their rooms were filled to the end of August and beyond. By contrast, many B&Bs have encountered a dramatic drop in occupancy. For example, The Reading Rooms in Margate is down by 17 rooms a week to just four (page 13). And while some 89% of inns had reopened by the end of July, 60% are barely breaking even, and industry bodies are calling out for more government financial assistance (page 4). Bill Lumley Editor 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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But the fact is that business is open again after those seemingly endless three months of lockdown when the only business B&Bs were making essential workers requiring overnight accommodation. To fits and starts, we are gradually emerging to make the best of the rest of summer, just as new lockdown orders reappear in some areas. Luxury hospitality is driven by some of the finest, most creative and imaginative minds in the country. We’ll get through it somehow.
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IN THIS ISSUE
28
4 || NEWS
16 || THE READING ROOMS
28 || THE KINGS ARMS NEAR YEOVIL
Industry news and analysis from around the UK
Recreating Georgian opulence in Margate.
InnKeeper Feature - delightful Inn under new management.
5 || YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
21 || DINING FEATURE
Talk it over with the Tiny Troubleshooter
How to serve after a pandemic
8 || LAKES EDGE HOLIDAY COTTAGES
26 || VIDEO MARKETING
Pudleston Court, Herefordshore.
Next chapter in the Marketing e-book.
32 || CLASSIFIED A selection of new and exciting products
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Auguast / September 2020 || || Luxury BnB || 3
CONTENTS || AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2020
WELCOME
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 Audrey Williams 01892 671 913 AUDREYW@SPACEMARKETING. CO.UK DESIGN & PRODUCTION Tracy Poulsom 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. 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.
Luxury BnB is available on subscription. UK & Ireland £19; Overseas £98.
ENTER 2020 AWARDS Nine in 10 Inns Open Entries now being invited for the second Luxury BnB Awards. The news follows the announcement of the results of the first award winners in February. Categories: Best Breakfast Best Luxury Interior Best Use of Social Media Luxury Romantic Getaway Once again entrants will be judged by a panel of industry experts. Judges include B&B Association chairman David Weston, Tiny Troubleshooter founder Tina Boden, B&B Business Coach Yvonne Halling and Luxury BnB editor Bill Lumley. The winner of last year’s overall award for Excellence in Luxury Service was The Laindons in Hastings. The online application form can be found at luxurybbmag.co.uk/awards/
The British institute of Innkeepers (BII) has released the results of its third survey of members since the closure of pubs in March of this year, revealing that 89% of members are now open in some form or another. However the results also illustrate that their businesses are incredibly fragile, with 60% making no profit currently, even with staff on furlough and other financial support packages in place. The BII has consistently called for the support that will be vital for pubs to survive and play their part in the recovery of our economy, and will continue to take the collective voice of their members to Government to provide an authentic licensee perspective. The institute’s CEO Steven Alton said: “The results of this, our most recent survey, clearly demonstrate the ongoing requirement for additional support for our Great British pubs, to ensure that they can remain at the heart of their communities, providing not only local employment and tax revenue, but also friendship, support and immeasurable social value to their customers.”
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION DECISION DELAYED Clarification as to whether hospitality businesses across the UK can expect to receive payouts from business interruption insurance over lockdown has been delayed until at least September before a court ruling on the issue. The High Court last month reviewed the policy wording of eight major insurers to decide whether or not the Covid-19 pandemic should trigger a business interruption insurance pay out. The two-week case concluded at the end of July, but a final judgement is not expected before September at the earliest. For more detailed analysis of the business interruption see luxurybbmg.co.uk/catching-covid-concerns-your-insurance-policy/.
Luxury BnB is published bi-monthly. Printed by Stephens & George Ltd
SEEKING BIZARRE GUEST STORIES
Luxury BnB Miramedia, 29-31 Monson Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1LS
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Author and Luxury BnB magazine editor Bill Lumley is co-writing a book of tales of unusual and memorable customer experiences in bars in the UK. He would like to invite you to send in your stories of outrageous, embarrassing and/or hilarious stories of outstanding customer encounters. Co-author Ron Dougal has collected many bizarre tales from decades of drinking in inns and pubs in Edinburgh and London, but for added flavour the authors feel the book could benefit from input, however strange, from the people who run bars themselves. The stories can be anonymous if you wish, and they may be brief. For instance, a man walked into a pub in Aberystwyth and ordered a large vodka and tonic. He asked for some ice, and the barmaid replied: “We’re not that kind of pub.” The book, working title Hospitality Hell – Stories from the front line - is set to be published early next year. A prize of a free signed copy will be sent to one of the Luxury BnB story contributors. Send your bizarre customer stories to bill@miramedia.co.uk.
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r e t o o h s le b u o r T y in T e h 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 certainly 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 Bs 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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Q
We seem to be getting quite a number of enquiries asking if we serve dinner - something we have never really wanted to do. There are a couple of pubs and restaurants near us that guests have always used, but with reduced space they are getting booked up quickly, especially at weekends.
A
I appreciate cooking dinner as well as breakfast is a commitment many running Bed and Breakfast properties do not want to make, especially if you are not an enthusiastic cook. However, if you feel that you are losing bookings because of it, at the moment there are a number of options you could consider. Firstly, look at it as a shortterm offer and ensure you state that dinner is available between July and December 2020 due to the Government restrictions in the local hospitality businesses on your website and social media. Secondly, why not put together a small menu? A choice of three starters, main courses and desserts is adequate. Share this on your website and also when you send out a booking confirmation and insist people order 24 hours in advance if they would like dinner. Thirdly, when it comes to preparing the meals on your menu many things can be batchcooked and frozen to save you time. With pre-order you can just take the meal out of the freezer in the morning and there is no need to spend all afternoon in the kitchen. Alternatively, find a business near you that supplies homemade meals and strike up a deal with them. Many hospitality businesses have started doing take-aways to boost their income. This could be a great way to offer guests what they want, reduce your cooking time and still bring income in to your local economy for other businesses.
Q A
During lockdown and since re-opening we have realised many of our competitors are extremely active on social media. This is something we have tried to avoid but we worry that our B & B is not as visible. I appreciate that social media can be daunting for many, but it is really important that you share stories, news of your local area and pictures of your property. Understanding which social media platforms to use and how to use them correctly is important so you get maximum benefit. This form of promotion helps raise your profile and can be a great way to interact with other local and regional businesses. There are online courses to help you or contact me for options. The thought of social media can be overwhelming, but the benefits out way this when it comes to engaging with customers.
Q A
Since re-opening reviews have been limited and when you look it feels like the reviews for our property are out-dated. What should we do to ensure the comments people see on the internet are recent? As happy guests are leaving, encourage them to go online and write a review. You could even have some business cards printed that you hand to them as they go with the correct links to follow to write a review. Highlight that positive reviews that reflect the care a business is taking to implement Government guidelines and keep guests safe are important now more than ever to keep customers old and new informed. August / September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 5
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED || TALK IT OVER WITH THE TINY TROUBLESHOOTER
h t i W r e v O t I k l Ta
IN PROFILE || LAKES EDGE HOLIDAY COTTAGES
LAKES EDGE Holiday Cottages A sizeable 19th century country estate with many acres of land and outbuildings ripe for conversion can offer a stunning landscape for luxury hospitality opportunities. Bill Lumley pays a visit to Pudleston Court in deepest Herefordshire to witness the renovation challenges and opportunities at the top end of luxury accommodation just as lockdown lifts.
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DINING AREA
Scale of Lakes Edge Accommodation Total number of guest properties Gaggles guest capacity Butlers guest capacity Farmhouse guest capacity Poachers lodge guest capacity Adam’s lodge guest capacity Eve’s lodge guest capacity Gardeners Cottage (Dec 2020)
7 8 8 12 6 4 4 4
URL: www.lakesedge.co.uk
GETTING BACK to business as usual is proving a great challenge for just about every hospitality property. Occupancy rates alone are an unknown as B&B and hotel doors open across the UK to a litany of restrictions. Yet within days of reopening on 4 July, the main rental cottage at Lakes Edge in Pudleston, Herefordshire, found itself fully booked to the end of August. The exclusive holiday location offers a number of elegant properties and gatehouse lodges in its grounds. Its first guests since the provisional end to the lockdown last month have been those who had rebooked during the pandemic, or who were returning for a few days to complete a holiday interrupted by the lockdown.
PUDLESTON COURT
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August | September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 7
IN PROFILE || LAKES EDGE HOLIDAY COTTAGES
Lakes Edge: Holiday Cottages Country Elegance and Luxury
IN PROFILE || LAKES EDGE HOLIDAY COTTAGES
LODGE STAIRS
lakesedge.co.uk f. @lakesedgepudleston
OWNERSHIP Current owners of the estate George and Bridget Sideras had lived in London for many years before they left the UK for Cyprus with their family a decade ago. After a few years they decided to move back to the UK, and rather than returning to the bustle of the capital they came to acquire Pudleston Court in deepest Herefordshire. The county itself is situated in the West Midlands between Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south, Wales to the west and Shropshire to the north. George and Bridget found the property and its 50-acre plot advertised in Country Life, represented by Savills Estates, and were immediately taken with its stunning parkland, woodland trails, lakes, streams and formal gardens, including a wonderful walled garden. STUNNINGLY REMOTE Pudleston village itself is a long way from any population centres. Situated 7 km east of the town of Leominster, 20 km north of Hereford, 25 km due west of Worcester or 30 km southwest of Kidderminster from where it is accessible by country roads, Pudleston Court is splendidly 8 || Luxury BnB || August | September 2020
remote. To give you an idea of how far off the beaten track the property is, it suffers almost zero light pollution, with the result that guests can see all the stars in the sky on a clear night. A HOLIDAY LET BUSINESS IS BORN Unsurprisingly, large projects are not cheap, and a great deal of money was spent in renovating the main house alone. Upon realising the enormous expenditure required to maintain the estate, the couple decided that Pudleston Court could become self-funding in order to continue the restoration and maintenance work needed, as well as providing an income for the estate. They set about renovating existing cottages on the estate into luxury holiday let homes. They then appointed a general manager, Janet Taylor Martin, to develop a holiday let business, and renovations began on the existing staff quarters, the gatehouse lodges. Janet was then appointed, and with a background in luxury international hospitality and the presentation, brochure production and promotion of destinations, her key function is to market the business, deal with all procurement and on-site management at the newly developed holiday let business.
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GATEHOUSE LODGES AND COTTAGES The estate has two historic, grade-II listed gatehouse Lodges - Adam and Eve - surrounded by woodlands and overlooking the lake. “It’s a very secluded romantic setting whatever the season, and each has hot tubs, barrel saunas and covered outdoor social dining area with BBQs.” The profile of the guests here is mainly couples, says Janet. “We have anniversaries celebrated here which was also the location of a recent marriage proposal!” The Gaggles sleeps eight guests and offers a luxury cottage with its own leisure facilities, an indoor swimming pool, a sauna and a steam room. Guests here are predominantly families, sometimes involving multi-generational groups or various households, she says. Meanwhile Butlers cottage sleeps eight and is popular for family gatherings and groups of friends.
GUEST PROFILE Although Lakes Edge attracts a wide cross section of visitors seeking a relaxing stay in opulent surroundings, its guests typically fall into three main categories: Groups of ladies. Often on a luxury catch-up weekend, such guests come to stay at Lakes Edge primarily for the leisure facilities, the sizeable properties, and the privacy. They want to bring their shopping with them and hunker down with a glass of wine in the hot tub. The romantic getaway couple. They want the seclusion of the estate but like the ease of which they can access the local towns for a meander around the markets or a ramble along the walkways with a pit stop in a local pub. They like restaurant recommendations and local knowledge. They also enjoy the woodland walks here, and there have been several proposals by the lakes. Families. Families really make the most of our properties with the swimming pools, we accommodate food deliveries so they can have everything they need ready for when they arrive. Many families come to us for that time away: they want to know the kids will be entertained, but they can also relax. They are getting back to nature on the estate, walking the dogs in the woods, getting the children away from screens and enjoying their time together in a safe, quiet environment.”
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August | September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 9
IN PROFILE || LAKES EDGE HOLIDAY COTTAGES
THE BUTLERS KITCHEN
IN PROFILE || LAKES EDGE HOLIDAY COTTAGES
FEEDING GUESTS As a self-catering holiday business, Lakes Edge does not offer on-site catering yet. However, the estate can organise a chef to come into each individual property and cater for parties of eight or more. Meanwhile plans are afoot to open a bar in the main house for guests use at weekends. “Our management is well versed in recommending exceptional eateries in the area,” adds Janet. STAFF Lakes Edge currently employs seven staff but as we go to print a new employee is preparing to join to manage the grounds, bringing the groundsmen staff total to three. The estate also has a full-time and two part-time cleaners whose number may increase to four as the demands of pandemic compliance are evaluated.
WELCOME PROCEDURE Check-in at Lakes Edge has in the past been a great way to welcome and greet guests and explain the functions of the house, says Janet. “We can offer them an insight on what is on offer to do during their stay. We offer a discreet on-site concierge service where guests are confident they can contact a member of staff on-site at any time. “Our welcome pack includes in the basket, an array of local products, including preserves, biscuits, savoury snacks, local cheese and wine.” Guests are also encouraged to pre-book a supermarket delivery, where our staff will pack away if it arrives pre-check in, she adds. “Due to the new WHO guidelines we are now only leaving a bottle of Champagne as a welcome gift,” adds Janet, “whereas before COVID-19 guests would have received a welcome basket with a variety of local produce.”
POST-LOCKDOWN MEASURES The business is carefully following not just WHO guidelines but also the advice being given out by the tertiary sites it uses, including Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Booking.com and HomeAway. “We were looking at having to leave 72 hours between bookings. This has been reduced to 24 hours on the condition that we conduct a deep clean between every set of guests,” says Janet. Most of Lakes Edge decorative soft furnishings have been removed, including throws, rugs and cushions, she says. “Our properties are immediately aired as guests leave and our staff access the following morning 24 hours later.”
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Cleaning procedures include steam-cleaning upholstery and curtains and ensuring all surfaces are cleaned or wiped down with antibacterial products. “Attention to detail is now imperative as everything metal or plastic could be a conductor of the virus,” she says. All staff must now also be dressed in PPE, and they must wear masks whenever there is any interaction with guests. Before the sudden lockdown brought about by COVID-19 in March, property turnaround was six hours, with a 10am checkout for one set of guests and 4pm check-in for the next. “We are now following WHO/government guidelines and allowing at least 24 hours between bookings,” she says. “The properties are immediately aired, and our domestic staff are following new deep cleaning procedures and to ensure the safety of guests, hand sanitisers are provided. Our cleaning staff are now fully kitted up with PPE, gloves, shoe protectors, masks, aprons.” She adds: “We are taking measures to ensure the handover of keys to property can be carried out in a socially distanced way, for example ensuring that keys are cleaned.
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“Ultimately our procedures ensure that we only leave guests with goods and facilities that are verifiably COVID-free, down to ensuring all TV remote controls are thoroughly cleaned between guests. “COVID-19 has meant a whole new way of working for us/our staff, and it is critical that this is embedded in the operational culture at the estate,” she stresses.
THE GAGGLES KITCHEN
Like so many other high-end properties around the UK, Lakes Edge finds itself having to cancel plans it had made to improve the guest experience. Abandoned ideas for this season include picnic hampers, BBQ packs and breakfast hampers. EVENTS CENTRE Before the lockdown, building application had been approved to build a multi-million pound events centre on the estate. These plans are on hold due to the wish to “pilot” weddings in the Main House. “George and Bridget have already successfully held large-scale weddings for family members here, and they could allow the change of use to certain areas of their house to be used for functions. We are currently awaiting council approval for this change of use,” she says. “We could accommodate 80-100 guests at an event with 50 overnight guests. Initially all catering and wedding arrangements would be outsourced, but we hope to include this in-house in the future.
THE POOL AT THE GAGGLES
Government work safety advice: bit.ly/lakes-advice
"OUR TWO GROUNDSMEN SOON TO BE THREE - MAINTAIN TO A HIGH STANDARD THE PARKLANDS, WOODLANDS AND ALL GUEST HOUSE GARDENS."
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A feel for the customer experience can be seen on TripAdvisor where reviews for the main cottage are 100% positive, being awarded a Certificate of Excellence bit.ly/lakes-ta
COUNTRY ELEGANCE Again in keeping with the entire estate, two new properties - The Farmhouse and The Poachers Lodge - have been finished in an elegant country style, with farmhouse flag-flooring, oak furniture, vintage leather and tweed seating, wood burners and bespoke handmade shaker-style kitchens. Both properties have an indoor pool. All bedrooms have a luxury en-suite with shower. The master bedroom in the farmhouse has a bathroom with large walk in shower and roll top bath. There is also a wet room rain shower for potential guests with reduced mobility. Both properties can be accessed without steps. The new properties will be able to achieve 12 weeks minimum throughout the year and at least 24 weekends, and increased overall capacity from 24 to 42. August | September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 11
IN PROFILE || LAKES EDGE HOLIDAY COTTAGES
“We also ensure that staff cleaning the accommodation between stays follow full government handwashing guidelines, and we maintain a comprehensive checklist of all hand contact services to be cleaned throughout the property when each guest vacates.
FESTIVALS IN PROFILE || LAKES EDGE HOLIDAY COTTAGES
Pudleston may be remote but a few miles in every direction there are festivals and fairs staged for locals and visitors alike. IMAGE FROM www.hayfestival.com/home
In a typical year there are dozens of worthy festivals and events that attract visitors in their droves to the county of Herefordshire. This year of course is far from typical, and many events have either been cancelled owing to the coronavirus pandemic or postponed. Herefordshire Country Fair for example (delayed until 1 August) features country fair favourites terrier racing, working gun dogs, inter hunt relay, scurry racing, clay shooting, fly fishing and a parade of foxhounds. There is the Hay Festival, the Ludlow Spring and Ludlow Food festivals, the Three Choirs Festival, as well as many other worthy local events. For example: Postponed until 2021, a few miles west of Leominster, the Kington Vintage Show. This includes all sorts of classic and vintage vehicles and machines as well as a great line up in display ring including Inspire Mountain Bike Trails display. Also in Kington, and delayed until September 2021 .is one of the largest agricultural shows in the country, the Kington Show https://kingtonshow.co.uk/vintage/ Southwest of Hereford later this month on 22-23 Augstin Hellens Manor in Much Marcle, re-scheduled from its usual June date, find the beautiful garden and parklands brought to life with Hellens Garden Festival www.hellensgardenfestival.co.uk
”After the summer season has quietened, I will be looking at introducing corporate events and team building activities. GREEN ENERGY The Estate has invested in green energy, being accredited with both the Government RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive) & FIT (Feed-In Tariff) Schemes. A Biomass multi-fuel burner, which can work off pellets or wood chip, provides heating to all the cottages (except the Gate Lodges, which are situated too far away). The huge 8,000 litre tank supplies heating and hot water. Electricity is provided through 400 photo voltaic panels, supplying the Estate with 100 KVA. Emergency back-up systems are provided through more traditional fuel sources, with five gas boilers working off LPG. In the event of a power cut, a generator meets the electric needs of the estate.
EVENT CENTRE Before the lockdown, building application had been approved to build a multi-million pound events centre on the estate. These plans are on hold due to the wish to “pilot” weddings in the Main House. “George and Bridget have already successfully held large-scale weddings for family members here and they could allow the change of use to certain areas of their house to be used for functions. We are currently awaiting council approval for this change of use,” she says. THE FUTURE After being confronted with the greatest challenges hospitality owners have ever faced, and then having worked through the immediate aftermath and seen its promising results, Bridget and George are now contently looking forward to years of happy guests and a prosperous and growing luxury hospitality business.
FACILITIES Heated outdoor infinity swimming pool sun loungers and with a gloriously bubbly hot tub Relaxation rooms Gym & fitness studio State of the art equipment, personal trainers and classes including yoga and pilates Heated indoor swimming pool Indoor pool with spa bath, steam room and sauna Sandpiper lounge Tennis courts
12 || Luxury BnB || August | September 2020
Occasionally you find a property with so much more to its design and its name than a simple backstory. The owners of The Reading Rooms in Margate take their guests back to the opulence of an elegant 18th century seaside retreat with a passion for elegance, authentic restoration, and experiential recreation
THE READING ROOMS MARGATE
THE Reading Rooms is a luxury boutique bed and breakfast in a restored, Grade II-listed 250-year-old townhouse in Margate, arguably the first of England’s Georgian seaside resorts. Situated in a residential square based on the vernacular of a London Georgian square, the luxury B&B was the winner of Dorset Cereals best overall bed and breakfast in their 2017 awards bit.ly/dcavlink.
"IN THE 1960S ROCK BAND HAWKWIND’S CO-FOUNDER BOB CALVERT INHERITED THE SIZEABLE PROPERTY, WHICH WAS THEN IN A COMPARATIVE STATE OF NEGLECT, AND IT BECAME A BOHEMIAN SQUAT BEFORE ITS USE AS 10 BEDSITS IN THE 1970S. IN 2007 THE CURRENT OWNERS BOUGHT THE BUILDING, SEEING GREAT POTENTIAL IN ITS RESTORATION."
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August/September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 13
IN PROFILE || GEORGIAN OPULENCE
THE READING ROOMS MARGATE RECREATING Georgian Opulence
IN PROFILE || GEORGIAN OPULENCE
In the 18th century, forming part of the new invention of sea bathing, reading rooms were institutions around the town. These would be places in Georgian Margate that could be best described social libraries, with journals to read alongside cultural activities and card-playing. “We picked the name as something that tied into the era of the construction and purpose of the property and evoke the atmosphere that we wanted to develop,” says Louise Oldfield who owns the property with husband Liam Nabb. Liam had moved to Florence as a child in the 1970s with his mother and they were for a time living caretakers of the Casa Guidi, the Elizabeth Barrett Browning Institute, where his mother, Magdalene Nabb, became a successful crime writer and author of novels set in the Italian city.
The Breakfast Tray Sent to your rooms
“That shaped us in the way we live in and run The Reading Rooms,” says Louise. “It’s a little like that aspect Dennis Severs' House in Folgate Street, Spitalfields, where there is a certain amount of artistic licence over the presentation of historical interior and a living museum experience,” she explains, alluding to a ‘still-life drama’ created by the previous owner that serves as a historical imagination of what life would have been like inside back in the day. “We were passionate about the house’s original purpose as a retreat, and we wanted to give the building a name that would fit, rather than just a number,” she says. PERIOD RENOVATION The couple were ahead of the curve when it came to period building preservation in the UK. Louise says: “Our approach was more akin to that of mainland Europe and Italy’s approach to works on historic building, and not faking things. We would peel back layers of the interior to reveal what was beneath. Then, depending on where the historical evidence happened to be in the building, we would decide whether to leave it or treat it as a new area, for example the bathrooms.” Believe it or not the building never had central heating or bathrooms in its 250-year lifetime until Louise and Liam took over.
REN Soaps
Their trademark brand was preservation of the original Georgian plasterwork walls with the original paint and painted plaster. She says: “In the hallway, our front room and in the Attic guest room, we peeled back the layers until we reach something really beautiful and we left the scars and the passage of time still visible, 14 || Luxury BnB || August/September 2020
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FIRST IMPRESSION?
To discover the secret to crafting the right first impression visit www.borderbiscuits.co.uk/foodservice
Available in catering packs of 48, 100 or 150 in a variety of five classic recipes.
It’s never been more important to show you care about the little things. And with 88% of consumers directly linking the quality of your biscuit offer to the quality of your establishment, Border Biscuits make it easy to do just that. Now on offer through leading wholesalers
Contact sales@borderbiscuits.co.uk for more information Insight Source: Cambridge Direction February 2017 (1,038 consumers)
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August/September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 15
IN PROFILE || GEORGIAN OPULENCE
Are you crafting the right
IN PROFILE || GEORGIAN OPULENCE
rather than making it look like a newly-constructed mock-Georgian 18th century-style wedding cake.” The result, forming part of the guest experience, is to step into a grand hallway with blue-layered walls stripped back from a yellow wood chip vinyl painted hallway that had led to a 10-bedroom bedsit. They have now been restored to their original Georgian plasterwork, revealing all the colours, with scars indicating how they have been treated over the centuries. BOUTIQUE B&B It had not been Louise and Liam’s plan to turn the property into a B&B when they first bought it, but their plans were influenced by Ian Schrager, coinventor of both Studio 54 and the term boutique hotel. Louise explains: “Since we first met, we’ve always worked together, primarily within an entertainment service industry offering club night parties. When Ian Shrager inherited a hotel as a debt payment, he rethought the way things had always been done within the hotel sector before going on to personalise the whole system. “We didn’t buy this building to do B&B, nor did we plan how to base our B&B around what existed in that market,” she says. “We had this building that we wanted to restore, and we had a house we’d moved to in Margate. We really just wanted to save this building just as the crash happened in 2008 and we realised we were going to have to try to make it work as a business, rather than trying to restore it and deciding which house we were going to live in.” The financial crash was a call to action. They used their experience of running parties and nightclubs in Italy and applied the Schrager principle.
MARGATE ATTRACTIONS
She explains: “If you can successfully work out, effortlessly, how to get people to come to a party and to have an amazing time, then you have the skills to run any hospitality business, whether it be a restaurant or a hotel. In hospitality, when other people are at play, you’re at work,” she says.
The Turner Contemporary gallery showcases historical and modern artwork. The Harbour Arm has stylish spots to eat, drink and watch the setting sun that inspired many of Turner’s artworks
TV ADVANTAGE They put a call out to the council for their views on a boutique B&B in this particular area of Margate. As fate would have it, that very day their local council had been contacted by a TV production company planning to do a new C4 programme with Ruth Watson.
Stroll through the Old Town and visit its chic eateries, galleries and vintage shops mixed with traditional seaside delights
“She had jumped ship from Channel 5 as The Hotel Inspector to present Hotel Rescue. We were introduced to her, and we worked with them for a year. We became friends with Ruth and her husband, and she gave us the confidence to design something new as a room service breakfast, which is central to how we ended up developing this boutique B&B,” says Louise.
Watch live bands perform at Margate’s Winter Gardens Visit the 18th century Theatre Royal or the miniature tom Thumb Theatre HALLWAY 16 || Luxury BnB || August/September 2020
ROOM 2
INVESTMENT They had to invest heavily from the start. “We threw everything at it, which has always been our ethos in terms of planning to attract people that are going to expect this amazing quality,” she says. www.luxurybbmag.co.uk
IN PROFILE || GEORGIAN OPULENCE
The call to action itself came from a contradictory source when they took a visit from Quality & Tourism, familiar with hospitality in the East Kent area. “Their advice was this is the kind of bedhead rug you will need, this is the minimum size of bathroom sink, and you will never get above £95 a night,” says Louise. “We simply didn’t believe that.” They needed to create something spectacular that people would hear about, whose stunning nature would override the need for an advertising budget, which they had deliberately already spent in order to make The Reading Rooms special. She says. “In hospitality, and even in the boutique sector, there is a prevailing fallacy that you should commit a certain amount of your turnover to advertising. “Our ethos is to spend money on the guests’ experience offer, and thus people will hear about it by word of mouth rather than from an unspectacular advert, which wouldn’t reach our target market.” No advertising budget also means no OTAs. “We pay our staff well above the living wage and we have a high staff retention and bigger rooms than average for example, because we are not spending £30,000 to £40,000 a year to booking. com,” says Louise.
ROOM 2
BREAKFAST Breakfast at The Reading Rooms is truly a treat to behold. Louise and Liam like to deliver guests a very personal service with breakfast, presenting it like a treat. “The menus say you can have whatever you want for breakfast, at whatever time you want it,” she says. “There’s none of this ‘choose one of this, one of that’. We don’t segregate the menu into one juice, one fruit etc, because when it comes to breakfast, people are creatures of habit, and you want them to feel as if it is a treat.” Guests do not abuse their generosity, she says, but she adds: “Some of our guests have come from different cultures and not known what the items are on the menu. Once we had a period when there were a number of guests who circled everything on the menu. And we delivered it! Literally I took up salmon scrambled egg, full English breakfast, sandwiches, porridge, boiled eggs, and the whole thing went into the room and disappeared – so I don’t know what they did with it.” The room-service breakfasts at The Reading Rooms requires two people to prepare and take up to guests, which explains why many small B&Bs and even larger hotels don’t deliver breakfast room service, she suggests.
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ROOM 1
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IN PROFILE || GEORGIAN OPULENCE
She explains the economics: “You may be paying staff 10 per hour PAYE, but factor that into the £190 a night room rate and you still find you can add better services, notably from not having to manage a buffet with a very high level of food wastage. A five-star breakfast buffet for example must still look full when the last guests of the morning to come down to eat.” Every now and again a guest needs to leave at 4am for the airport, and they do not slip through the net, she says. “The traditional early breakfast is a miserable affair – a small tray with a box of cereal,” says Louise. “We live on site, so if someone is leaving at that time of day, we get up and do the whole thing. Because it is such a small business rather than a hotel, I can do that.” Prior to the March lockdown, they would check people in and give them two menus on A4 cartridge paper with an old-fashioned pencil, she says. Adapting to the immediate post-lockdown period, instead of moving their ordering onto apps or text messages, Louise and Liam have been asking wherever possible for guests to photograph the menu once they’ve filled it out in their room with a pencil, which still keeps the personal, friendly approach.
QUALITY AND CHOICE “Whatever type of milk the guest requests with their breakfast they can have,” Louise says. “On the day they arrive I will go out and buy whatever they want, be it gluten-free food, almond milk or soya milk. “You have to find a balance to be able to give people a feeling that they can have whatever they want and that you have thought about them. People want to feel special. And you can cleverly write a menu which sounds like you are giving them lots of choice.” Louise says the key is to treat breakfast like a brunch menu. “It should come with good flavour and high quality,” she says. “It is your opportunity to shine and not to skimp and to give it that extra.” For example, The Reading Rooms breakfast offers a salad of fruit rather than a fruit salad. “If you were having lunch in a really smart restaurant and you ordered a berry salad of fruit, it would entail carefully sliced strawberries laid out on a plate in the way you group food items together, and not mixed up in a bowel with orange juice poured on it, and not boosted with cheaper items. We make sure it is presented beautifully,” she says. SUPPLY CHALLENGES One of the challenges they found when starting up was finding dependable supplies for a business offering just three guest rooms.
”You have to find a balance to be able to give people a feeling that they can have whatever they want and that you have thought about them “It was quite difficult to get things like fresh berries when we first opened, and we found it better to go to the local shop to collect our fruit and ripen it because we only did six breakfasts for our three rooms. We’re not a restaurant knocking out 100 covers.” COVID-19 has brought about a change in this dynamic, she says. “Now, provided we order the night before, the local farm supplier that would have been supplying local restaurants will put on a delivery for orders as little as £10. I can therefore get my strawberries, raspberries and other fresh produce.”
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“Our rooms don’t have curtains or carpets, so there are no soft furnishings apart from the headboards, pillows and mattresses and some furniture upholstery.” The most significant change they have taken is to only run with two rooms and not take bookings during the week and to close from Sunday to Friday. She has also installed professional Nespresso machines and fridges in each of the bedrooms.
ROOM 3
She is also concerned about protecting her own staff when they return, making the environment safer for both guests and employees. “If you have to wear a mask in a shop, what does that mean for the employees that have to work in that shop? And what does it mean for the owner of that shop employing the employees? I have an obligation under employee law,” she says.
QUARANTINE REGIME Louise decided to quarantine the guest rooms to get through the summer period, and for this she has had to refinance, she says. Right now, although the future is far from clear, she is confident she will get through the challenges as the country recovers from the effects of lockdown. “I’m having to wait until our laundry service reopens. The government also needs to look after tourism supply chain business. We’re 17 rooms a week down, running on a total of four rooms a week now,” she says. “But I can keep it stable. I aim to bring a member of staff back once we have got through this, to see where things go,” she concludes.
ROOM 2 www.luxurybbmag.co.uk
August/September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 19
IN PROFILE || GEORGIAN OPULENCE
POST-COVID CLEANING “I am exhausted!” says Louise when I ask about the post-lockdown cleaning regime at The Reading Rooms. She has followed the Public Health England advice as it has evolved, complete with advice on quarantine and the life of the virus. “The original public health advice on cleaning a non-clinical setting of 72 hours has been adapted by the UK government and industry trade associations,” she says.
IN DEPTH || DINING AREAS UNLOCKED
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DINING AREAS
Unlocked
DINING @ ST MORITZ
There is no one-size-fits-all in hospitality, particularly at the higher end. Post-lockdown guidelines are not exhaustive. Bill Lumley looks at some of the creative approaches to the dining challenge made by luxury hotels and B&Bs.
FINE DINING @ THE KINGS ARMS
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August / September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 21
IN DEPTH || DINING AREAS UNLOCKED
THE chances are you are tiring of reams of new guidelines and interpretations of guidelines issued by various trade bodies that provide you with rules that officially enable you to operate safely in this post-lockdown age. Here we take a look at some inventive interpretations of guidance to enable you to host and feed your guests in your dining area.
KINGS ARMS, NEAR YEOVIL
BREAKFAST The disappearance of the breakfast buffet is one of the most significant changes in routine to hit B&Bs and hotels. However, this has not been so severe everywhere. For example, manager of The Kings Arms Inn in Somerset Sarah Vigo says: “When it comes to breakfast there hasn’t been such a great change, as all our cooked food is table service anyway.” The only major issue relates to the serving of cereal and the juices, she says. “That was all self-service, and there were toasters for guests to make their own toast while waiting for their fry-up or their salmon and egg. Since reopening now we are just providing these ourselves, with guests ordering them as opposed to helping themselves.”
THE FULL ENGLISH @ THE 25IN TOQUAY
She is happy to report that three weeks after reopening, the new arrangements have worked out well. “Chef completely revamped the breakfast menu with things like poached egg and avocado and bircher pots, which is like Granola and a yoghurt that guests can take with them if they have to leave early and is in addition to the traditional bowl of cereal and a fry-up breakfast. These are listed on the menu, but people haven’t really been asking for cereals. We have taken more orders for poached eggs and avocado than we have for fry-ups.” She adds: “It has gone really smoothly, and I actually think it’s been a nicer way of serving, taking away the help-yourself approach.” The new regime means considerably less food wastage, she says. “We used to put out big jugs of milk and fruit juice and a lot of it went to waste. Now we will pour our guests a glass of orange juice to drink.”
ST MORITZ, CORNWALL
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IN DEPTH || DINING AREAS UNLOCKED
ST MORITZ, CORNWALL
CROWD CONTROL The World’s Best B&B for the second year running, The 25 in Torquay is limiting its guest numbers only selling up to four out of its six rooms in order to avoid having too many people crowding the dining room at the same time for breakfast. Co-owner Andy Banner-Price says: “When we have three or four rooms booked, we ask guests for their chosen time slot for breakfast the day before so we can try to split them up somewhat.
“From our point of view breakfast now takes a lot longer and takes considerably more effort to serve the guests.” Breakfast at The 25 was traditionally served as a buffet and has had to be restructured for as long as restrictions are in place. Andy explains: “Everything including every aspect of the buffet has to be served individually, to all guests, down to salt, pepper and jams. All the things that would have been on the table, and then all the buffet items including cereals, yoghurts, fruit salad, juices – the whole lot has to be served to them rather than any of our guests helping themselves.”
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He adds: “If the guests did their usual trick of all coming down for breakfast at once then it would take forever to serve everybody.” SUSTAINING QUALITY The 25 is still offering all its guests the same broad range and high quality of breakfast food and drink as before the virus crisis. “It just means everybody has to ask for what they want to eat rather than helping themselves,” he says. Fortunately not everything has had to change. For example, all the B&B’s suppliers are back as they were before the crisis. “The butcher is working as normal, and we haven’t had to change anything with regard to the actual menu itself. A lot of the items were homemade anyway,” he adds. In some regards the leading world class breakfast experience has taken a knock from the COVID-19 contact restrictions. For example, instead of guests using elegant grinders, both salt and pepper are now provided in sachets, which they proprietors have had to order in for the first time. “We have sachets for sugar and sweeteners too, but we already had these for the bedrooms anyway,” he says. “We have tried to keep the breakfast experience as similar to normal as possible. All we have done is tweak it so you don’t have your normal menu but instead guests have a printed menu. PHOTOGENIC FAYRE “As regards the buffet, we print out colour photographs of our buffet in its full elegance like a virtual buffet along with a list of each of the
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available items. But we have always had a fairly detailed menu with signs on everything on the buffet. The only difference is everything is in front of them in picture format.”
English breakfast, sandwiches, porridge, boiled egg, and the whole thing went into the room and disappeared – so I don’t know what they did with it!”
They have resisted the temptation to take the digital route. “We did discuss it but then we decided it’s just faff for the sake of it,” he says. “Many of their guests wouldn’t bring their phone down with them to breakfast as it’s just a bit rude to be using it at the table. And when you get to a certain age you need your glasses, and on a tiny phone trying to read the menu simply makes it even more difficult than it is normally. We thought it was best just to stick with paper version of the menu that we can just chuck afterwards.”
The room-service breakfast at The Reading Rooms requires two people to prepare and take up to guests, which explains why many small B&Bs don’t deliver breakfast room service, she suggests.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS The only downside he sees comes from an environmental point of view. “We are using more sachets and using things only once. It’s the same with the guest information folders in the rooms. Whereas it used to be on a folder on the wall now we print out one per stay. We’ve slimmed it down, so we only have essential information, but it’s still eight sheets that have to be chucked away each time a guest leaves,” he says. Paper waste is offset by the fact there is probably less food waste arising during breakfast. “I serve the buffet and I serve the amount I think is an average serving of things. There is always someone who has three glasses of orange juice and they pile the fruit as high as they can on the plate, so potentially we are having less waste. “Conversely, in the past if there was milk left in the jug when we cleared breakfast we would save it and use it ourselves for tea and coffee or cereal, and we are disposing of everything now. The same goes for the butter when it comes back off the table. If there was still better left, we would use it in cooking, but again just to be safe we are chucking it. There are areas of more wastage and areas of less. It probably all averages itself out." ROOM SERVICE Luxury B&B The Reading Rooms in Margate offers guests virtually whatever they wish for at breakfast, which they have always delivered to guests’ rooms {see page 16). Guests do not abuse this generosity, says coowner Louise, but she adds: “Some of our guests have come from different cultures and not known what the items are on the menu. Once we had a period when there were a number of guests who circled everything on the menu. And we delivered it! Literally I took up salmon scrambled egg full
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Louise explains the economics: “You may be paying staff £10 per hour PAYE, but factor that into the £90 a night room rate and you still find you can add better services, notably from not having to manage a buffet with a very high level of food wastage. A five-star breakfast buffet for example must still look full when the last guests of the morning to come down to eat,” she says.
ROOM SERVICE BREAKFAST @ THE READING ROOMS MARGATE
"The room-service requires two people to prepare and take up to guests, which explains why many small B&Bs don’t deliver breakfast room service."
LOUISE, THE READING ROOMS
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“You have to find a balance to be able to give people a feeling that they can have whatever they want and that you have thought about it. People want to feel special. And you can cleverly write a menu which sounds like you are giving them the earth.” Louise says the key is to treat breakfast like a brunch menu. “It should come with good flavour and high quality. It is your opportunity to shine and not to skimp and to give it that extra.” For example, The Reading Rooms breakfast offers a salad of fruit rather than a fruit salad. “If you were having lunch in a really smart restaurant and you ordered a berry salad of fruit it would entail carefully sliced strawberries laid out on a plate in the way you group food items together, and not mixed up in a bowel with orange juice poured on it, and not boosted with cheaper items. We make sure it is presented beautifully,” she says. DINNER St Moritz Hotel in Cornwall is a boutique hotel, spa and self-catering resort. Its new dining concept is called The Anti-Social Club, the UK’s first purpose-designed and built socially distanced summer restaurant, applying a new ‘bubble’ ethos as an exclusive dining opportunity. Independent assessors comment that the standards and policies that have been put in place are exemplary – especially the marquee, the safety of staff and meeting guests’ expectations. Quality in Tourism Director Deborah Heather says: “St Moritz is following a growing trend to putting shielding and pods but is doing so very stylishly creating an exclusive atmosphere. The purpose is to avoid customer contact at pinch points such as the bar and are using apps to enable to guests to order from their table. “The buffets have all been removed and they have sectioned pods and given each a name - Coral, Mint, Candy Blue. Within www.luxurybbmag.co.uk
each pod is a table and chairs and these are booked as dining spaces giving a feel of an exclusive private dining area, with dividers rather than a door.” OUTDOOR DINING The Kings Arms Inn near Yeovil benefits from a large outdoor space, which helps reduce the pressure on indoor dining space. “We are fortunate our space is large, and we have very big beer gardens with roofs over the tables and seats,” says magage Sarah. The dining room at the inn has had to lose just three dining tables out of 21 prelockdown. “The most noticeable change is that we are not allowed to have table cloths and the tables can’t be laid at all, so our elegant restaurant used to look dramatically different to the tables up in the bar area and now it all looks pretty much the same. “All the areas are nice, and it’s still special to dine in the restaurant which is in a separate part from the bar but for us it all seems quite similar. There’s no salt or pepper on the table and everything’s in sachets.” As an inn with a public bar open to nonguests, the Kings Arms Inn faces its own challenges. Its lounge offers bar meals, but the inn itself is renowned for its fine dining restaurant. Unsurprisingly its chef is careful to source food locally wherever he can. “Our butcher and dairy products like cheese for the most part are local and fresh. Our head chef deals with that side of things, and there is seldom any issue except occasionally we night have to rethink what fish they might be serving if they haven’t caught enough.” she says. The inn has found imposing turnaround times has not been a necessary step to take. “Our beer garden is so large, and so many people have chosen to sit outside, it means everybody can still have their tables for as long as they need.” She reflects, “It has been nice. They have still been getting the same treatment they were before without feeling rushed.” This has obviously been helped by the good weather, but she still thinks that even when it turns, she won’t face a problem. If someone were to book a table for 7pm and we gave them two hours that
would take them to 9pm, by when we stop serving food anyway. It may make it difficult from a drinking point of view, but we’re more focused on dining than drinking,” she says.
COVID-19 specific Guidelines The Quality in Tourism Safe, Clean & Legal accreditation has been updated to include COVID-19 specific guidelines The scheme consists of a set of cleaning protocols, specific best practice guidelines • Operators are supported by our assessors who will guide people through the process • Quality in Tourism will visit every property to validate their risk assessment and guide them on any additional actions that they can take. • Quality in Tourism has a Primary Authority Partnership with Cornwall Council, which has been ratified by the Secretary of State. This means that all the guidance has been verified by a Government official. Any changes to legislation / guidance comes to us via our partnership. Key considerations: • Clear communication of what you offer • Check your commercial kitchen can run effectively with social distancing guidelines in place • Adaptations to your menu to reflect a reduced workforce or other changes • Minimise the contact between front of house and back of house teams e.g. at the hot plate take a step back when either side is delivering or collecting meals • Include screens where needed • Adhering to social distancing and clearly telling the story to the customer through signage, communication prior to and on arrival. Solutions to the guidelines include: • Ordering through an app. • Serving tables so that food is brought to a table by diners, staff step back and diners take the food from the table • Central chalk board or sign for menussign for menus • Staggering arrival times August / September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 25
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QUALITY AND CHOICE “Whatever type of milk the guest requests with their breakfast within reason they can have,” Louise says. “On the day they arrive I will go out and buy whatever they want, be it gluten-free food, almond milk or soya milk.
MARKETING || THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO HOTEL VIDEO MARKETING
VIDEO
Each Issue, we will be serialising a section of the Complete Guide to Hotel Marketing, an eBook by our partners, SiteMinder.com
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Marketing EVEN without taking a deep dive into the statistics, one could safely assume video is becoming an increasingly popular medium with hotel guests. It’s engaging, easy to digest, and easy to share with others.
Travellers love to find inspiration through video, with around 65% of them watching video when thinking about taking a trip and choosing a destination, with a further 54% using video when choosing accommodation.
For hotel marketers, it should be looked at as a top priority when creating strategies to attract bookings. A quick look at YouTube and the one billion people watching more than six billion hours of video each month will tell you how popular videos are.
However, you need to do more than create a pretty collage of images with a backing track if you truly want your content to be amplified. Use the storytelling strengths of video to send a real message. Emotions play a massive part so this is where your efforts should be focused. Try to instil awe in viewers with your videos to reach new guests, drive site traffic, and share your hotel’s story.
Humans are notoriously emotional animals and the best way to engage them on this level is through video. Consider that people remember 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, but 70% of what they hear and see. So here’s the case for video marketing: • The likelihood of your site appearing on the first page of Google search results increases by 53 times by adding a video to your website • People are 10 times more likely to engage with and share video content • 20% of users read text while 80% will watch a video with the same content • 74% of all internet traffic in 2017 will be video. In two years, the number will rise to 80% • At your property, bookings are 67% more likely to happen when a video tour is available • The click-through rate for introductory emails that include a video increases by 96% • 76% of social media users would share a video if it was entertaining
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"TRAVELLERS LOVE TO FIND INSPIRATION THROUGH VIDEO, WITH AROUND 65% OF THEM WATCHING VIDEO WHEN THINKING ABOUT TAKING A TRIP AND CHOOSING A DESTINATION, WITH A FURTHER 54% USING VIDEO WHEN CHOOSING ACCOMMODATION."
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MARKETING || THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO HOTEL VIDEO MARKETING
CASE STUDY: LINDSEY SUZANNE BERRY, LAKESIDE HOUSE KESWICK Lindsey has been using Social Media (mainly Facebook) for many years. The aim is to provide potential guests a better and detailed idea of what Lakeside is like. It's also a great way to keep connected with previous guests. "It brings House alive and created better connection with the place." She finds photos of the house (and detail) are more popular than pictures of the scenery and Keswick. For example, one of the most popular / shared photos is one of a photo of a toilet roll. During Lockdown, Lindsey started posting videos of the cleaning process. She feels this sets a standard / benchmark for the staff to follow and plus puts the visitors minds at rest, Guests feel reassured that is it as safe an experience as possible. And it works - Awards winning Lakeside has 60% repeat bookings and plenty of kind words said about them online.
TIPS 1. Keep it short & simple 2. Decide where will you post your content: YouTube, Facebook, Google MyBusiness. and stick to it. Lindsey chose Facebook because she feels YouTube is all about the personality not the business. 3. Have a clear overall objective - e.g. more bookings, more communication? 4. Have a reason in mind for each video you post. For example, Lindsey posted a video of her mud sliding to show that you can still have fun in Keswick even when the weather isn’t perfect. 5. Define your voice and style. Do you want informal or something slicker looking 6. KEEP IT UP! You need to keep going to get results even when it looks like it's not working. 7. Keep a record of your stats and what works / doesn't work for you. Again with the objective in mind. 8. Think about which parts of your life and personality you are willing to expose. 9. You don't need expensive kit, your phone is fine. www.luxurybbmag.co.uk
August / September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 27
DESPITE COVID Kings Arms near Yeovil Nestling in the shadows of the village church and just a stone’s throw from the National Trust’s Montacute House, the family-run 17th century Kings Arms Inn is a food-led inn situated in an idyllic setting in rural Somerset
MANAGER SARAH AND HEAD CHEF NICK
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THE KINGS ARMS YEOVIL
JUST AS THE LOCKDOWN LIFTED in the first week of July, the new manager of the Kings Arms Inn, Sarah Vigo took up the role. The couple that had previously been running the business had decided to step back from operations to enjoy the finer things of life. Fortunately for Sarah in the restrictive circumstances of post-lockdown, she is not taking over an unfamiliar business. “I’ve worked here for four years in various capacities, helping out with a lot of things including front of house, although I had no official title,” she says. w READ ONLINE & SHARE >> luxurybbmag.co.uk/a20-cary
The Kings Arms Inn is a family run business, and although Sarah is not a member of the family herself, she is stepping in to the management role to enable the previous managers to get on and enjoy themselves a bit more. “They are here in the background – they still pop their heads round – but the actual day-to-day decisions are up to me,” she says. Daniel Patrick owns the pub, and his parentsin-law Katherine and Derek were the managers for the last eight years. Although Sarah has a
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IN PROFILE || THE KINGS ARMS
brief experience co-running a pub in Devon, her background is in costume-making and design rather than hospitality – she worked at Butlins for 14 years, 10 of these as wardrobe manager. She naturally brings some of her artistic design skills to the business, for instance drawing elaborate blackboards outside the inn, producing artwork for special occasions such as New Year’s Eve, and designing the Valentine’s menu, creating a design that is in keeping with the elegant old building itself.
“Business has actually picked up much more quickly than we expected. At the weekend in the evenings we have been full in the bar and restaurant,” she says.
BRINGING NEW IDEAS Sarah has some ideas of her own that she is considering implementing as the new manager. “I’m discussing with the head chef, Nick, the idea of introducing a high tea – probably preordered and compete with cake stands and the like. We are in a country village, and people do occasionally come in asking for things like cakes, and we don’t always have them available.”
Unsurprisingly this year the inn has had every one of its summer wedding guests cancel, but Sarah says all five of these wedding groups that did cancel due to lockdown have now rebooked for 2021.
She is also thinking of offering takeaway picnics. “Many of our overnight guests are of a certain age, and they like to visit the nearby National Trust attractions. The idea is we will be able to provide them with a lunch to take with them and break up the day. We have been asked for this in the past and have occasionally done it on the fly, and I thought it would be nice to do as a proper offering,” says Sarah. She adds: “We might pop in a bottle of prosecco to the lunch pack.” LOCKDOWN CHALLENGES Other plans to develop the business have taken a back seat owing to the strenuous demands of the post-COVID-19 regime, as the staff work hard to comply with the multitude of guidelines. The guest rooms for example are now blocked out in between guests to enable an even higher density deep clean than the usual deep clean the inn’s rooms would undergo pre-lockdown. None of the new measures has deterred visitors, Sarah says, and the inn has had guests staying every night since it reopened. “This has been lovely, and we’ve managed to move the rooms round so they are not back to back,” says Sarah. “We do have pre-booked rooms in August that we won’t be able to leave free.” Given the food-driven nature of the business she was concerned the new postlockdown one-way system for customers would put them off visiting. “That worried me the most, because everything is table service and it is a trek out to our garden, so everything is naturally slower. But we have found every one of our guests has been completely supportive and understanding, which has been really lovely.
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GUEST MIX As well as welcoming the older generation, in the summer months the inn traditionally takes a significant number of bookings for wedding groups in its rooms, since nearby there is a popular countryside wedding venue.
“We also get families staying,” she adds. “We have a couple of family rooms, and we have a lot of businesspeople staying overnight.” Pets are meanwhile allowed in seven of the inn’s 15 guest rooms. The Kings Arms Inn is not a place to attract a younger crowd, she says. “It’s more a place for people to come to for fine dining with a relaxed edge, rather than for someone who wants to come in and have five shots of tequila.” NEW PROCEDURES All the staff are PPE-aware and have the transparent facial visors and, explaining the somewhat convoluted new one-way system through the pub, Sarah says: “Guests come in through the front door and exit via the back door. That in itself is a bit tricky because if you are in the beer garden it means you have to come all the way round the front go get back in the bar for instance.” The inn employs a hostess on the door to take contact details for the NHS Track & Trace system. “Even if they are just coming in for a pint of orange juice, we still ask customers for their details,” she says. “It’s not mandatory for them to comply, but so far everyone has done so.” The business had to decline the chance to use QR codes to record visitor details. “The main problem we have with this old building is that we can’t get effective Wi-Fi. But our older demographic is less likely to have a smartphone, which justifies us still doing it the old-fashioned way,” she explains.
EXTRA TOUCHES “Many of our overnight guests are of a certain age, and they like to visit the nearby National Trust attractions. The idea is we will be able to provide them with a lunch to take with them and break up the day."
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IN PROFILE || THE KINGS ARMS
"It has quite shocked us at how busy we have been" POSITIVE OUTLOOK Less than a month into her official post of manager at the inn, Sarah says she is confident the business will survive the changes in the long run. “Weekends have been almost back to pre-lockdown levels, and it has quite shocked us at how busy we have been. Even our lunchtime trade picked up in the first fortnight, and we are most surprised about our rooms which have been filling up quite nicely. We went from nothing to at least a few bedrooms occupied every day. “I’m very happy we’ve come from nothing to where we are in the first month,” she concludes.
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August / September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 31
AREAS || DOGS BED & BREAKFAST
A DOGS
Bed & Breakfast
There is ever-growing clamour for holiday accommodation to allow dogs to stay with their owners, but those that do are still few and far between. We look at the opportunities to raise extra revenue, and how to adapt to accommodate dogs and deliver a service that keeps everyone and their dog happy. Bailiffscourt Hotel & SPA, Crimping, West Sussex
FAMILIES would love to take their dogs with them on holiday, but most hotels and guest houses still do not allow dogs. The principle considerations for this are hygiene and noise. The reality is that most hospitality business owners that have overcome any such concerns and allow dogs to stay seldom appear to harbour any such concerns. Typically dog owners themselves, they are familiar with the kind of problematic issues that may arise - and how to deal with them.
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Please let-me-stay face
TAKEN FROM THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE JUNE / JULY ISSUE. ONLINE NOW. www.luxurybbmag.co.uk
For a happier all round experience 1. Dog welcome pack. Include bags for cleaning up during walks. 2. Essentials. Bowls, toys and treats and a dog blanket. 3. Dog drinks. Considering adding dog beer such as Pawsecco to the Welcome pack. 4. Dog menu. Consider a doggie menu with everything from sausages to T-bone steak 5. Access all areas. Designate an area where your visitors can dine with their dogs and not upset the rest of your guests. 6. Bathroom breaks. Ensure there is easy access to facilitate dog relief. Situating dog-friendly rooms on the ground floor is recommended. 7. Cleaning costs. Consider additional room-cleaning fees. 8. Pet playmates. Offer to take your guests’ dogs for a walk with your own - or vice versa. 9. Clarity of number. Decide what level of dogs you can have, for instance one dog per room, or small dogs only, and make any such limits clear to your guests beforehand. 10. Dog-friendly flooring. A hard floor is many times easier to clean ensuring no residual allergens are present. 11. Dogs-own lounge. If you have the space, offering a room dedicated to dogs will give your property an edge and will inspire owners to return. 12. Welcome letter. A letter for guests scheduled to arrive with their pets is highly recommended. The Merry harriers in Golalming, Surrey (SEE BOX)
AREAS || DOGS BED & BREAKFAST
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Dogs are not allowed to stay in non-converted rooms. They must not be aggressive They must be clean They must not have fleas They must be on leash when in public area They must not bark or make noise continuously or often. Dogs are not allowed to climb on any furniture or eat pillows. They are not allowed to run with or without the owner. They must stay out of the spa, restaurant and pool areas. Owners must clean pet waste immediately and dispose of it in designated receptacles.
August / September 2020 || Luxury BnB || 33
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