Hi
New to this business so asking for lots of help, hope you guys dont mind. Starting a b and b in France this year and will add a gite next year. Can I ask for some of your experience.
Can you tell me how many people that enquire want 1, 2 or 3 rooms. Are most of them couples, or families or is it fairly even. Need to know if my two bedrooms are likely to get booked together or separately.
Thanks
Amanda
Help please from those of you who have or have ever had b+b
As we have a pool and offer use of BBQ etc for guests during the summer we find that July and August our family suite which is 2 bedrooms plus one bathroom does normally get booked. This year we even have 4 adults that have booked the suite. Oustside of these months we tend to let the double and lock off the twin. Last year the family room was booked for 7 weeks during july and August
Nessie
We get almost exclusively couples with the odd family grouping in school holidays.
You shouldn't tie yourself to one specific target market. If you only go after families you will get less or no trade out of school holiday time and if you go for the couples or singles market you may miss the family trade. Be flexible.
We are lucky enough to have two adjoining rooms with a connecting door that is ideal for families with kids. Some parents wouldn't consider booking somewhere where their kids are more separate from them than that, I suppose it depends on the ages of the kids.
You shouldn't tie yourself to one specific target market. If you only go after families you will get less or no trade out of school holiday time and if you go for the couples or singles market you may miss the family trade. Be flexible.
We are lucky enough to have two adjoining rooms with a connecting door that is ideal for families with kids. Some parents wouldn't consider booking somewhere where their kids are more separate from them than that, I suppose it depends on the ages of the kids.
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chrismooney
- Posts: 103
- Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:08 pm
- Location: indre,loire,dept 36
- Contact:
last year 2006 we were exclusively b and b......bear in mind that you wont get many week long bookings as most will be 1,2 or 3 nights.....we were lucky as we had visitors who wanted b and b with evening meal and were there for a week.also remember that with 1,2 0r 3 nighters you'll be doing a lot of room changeovers...we had an instance when 3 families left at 10am, 12 beds to change, with 3 families arriving that afternoon so we had to get ourselves in gear to be ready. you've mentioned that you'll have a gite next year.....we will have one this year and it has proved a masterstroke as we now have a lot of weeks booked in 2 of the rooms, and we've still got a spare room that we can offer for b and b., plus the fact they can all come to us for evening meal which is another source of revenue....just remember...make hay while the sun shines!!!
chef who will try anything!!
We have been running a B&B for 4 years now. We have 6 rooms, 5 double and one triple. I guess things change very much with your target and your location, but we have gone from renting to everyone anytime to make some choices.
We only rent for minimum two nights in low season and min. 3 nights in high season. We mostly get couples or families with one child. We did not want to add too many beds in one room and make it really small. People with two children will seldomly rent two rooms as it is expensive, but this does happen when the kids are older. Our average lenght of stay is a little more than 3 days, but we have a very good central location in the area. I hope this helps.
We only rent for minimum two nights in low season and min. 3 nights in high season. We mostly get couples or families with one child. We did not want to add too many beds in one room and make it really small. People with two children will seldomly rent two rooms as it is expensive, but this does happen when the kids are older. Our average lenght of stay is a little more than 3 days, but we have a very good central location in the area. I hope this helps.
We have 2 guest rooms - 1 Double and 1 Twin/Family Room; both are en suite.
Used to accept 2 adults + 2 children in Family Room but now limit it to 3 people.
The Twin Room has joinable single beds and does tend to get used as a Double far more often than as a Twin. However, I wouldn´t be tempted to swap to just a Double as - despite having to have 2 sets of linen - some guests really appreciate having Twin Beds especially in the height of Summer when even couples find it cooler to sleep apart.
We do allow single night stays, but charge a 10 Euro supplement for these to allow for linen wash after just 1 night.
We have 3 bookings up to now this year that have taken both rooms - nice that both are occupied but difficult on changeover day if both are refilling that day. Moral of this story - have a good supply of bedding so ýou can quickly change it over and it isnt the end of the world if you don´t wash for a couple of days or its a poor drying day; we have 5 sets for each room and enough towels for these (4 per couple) to be changed daily.
We too find that offering snacks and meals is a good supplement to our income.
Good luck with your business.
Used to accept 2 adults + 2 children in Family Room but now limit it to 3 people.
The Twin Room has joinable single beds and does tend to get used as a Double far more often than as a Twin. However, I wouldn´t be tempted to swap to just a Double as - despite having to have 2 sets of linen - some guests really appreciate having Twin Beds especially in the height of Summer when even couples find it cooler to sleep apart.
We do allow single night stays, but charge a 10 Euro supplement for these to allow for linen wash after just 1 night.
We have 3 bookings up to now this year that have taken both rooms - nice that both are occupied but difficult on changeover day if both are refilling that day. Moral of this story - have a good supply of bedding so ýou can quickly change it over and it isnt the end of the world if you don´t wash for a couple of days or its a poor drying day; we have 5 sets for each room and enough towels for these (4 per couple) to be changed daily.
We too find that offering snacks and meals is a good supplement to our income.
Good luck with your business.
with regard to snacks and meals we decided against it.
When people arrive we give them a little snack over coffee to get to know them a bit but as we are just a couple of minutes away from the centre of the village by foot we reckoned that we would get so little demand that it wouldn't be worth the effort.
When people arrive we give them a little snack over coffee to get to know them a bit but as we are just a couple of minutes away from the centre of the village by foot we reckoned that we would get so little demand that it wouldn't be worth the effort.
You don't have to write something on every thread, do you?