When I first started the B&B, I received advice from several B&B owners, some of which I heeded, but some of which I ignored, such as requiring guests to stay for two nights. I would be different, I thought. I would not discriminate against those who only needed to stay one night. Surely it wasn’t fair to force people into paying more than necessary and disrupting their preferred travel schedules. The inevitable consequence was that bookings for one-night stays flooded in, and I quickly became overwhelmed by mountains of laundry to process and rooms to clean.
The huge amount of extra work was one thing, but I hadn’t bargained on (or properly worked out) the economics. Every set of guests, however short their stay, requires their room and bathroom to be cleaned to professional standards after their departure. I could do the cleaning myself (and sometimes I do), but I already do the breakfasts and prepare the rooms. It’s hard enough work for someone half my age, and am supposed to be retired! A house of this size must be cleaned once a week, and it takes four hours for a contract cleaner to clean the guest quarters thoroughly and some of the private quarters minimally, leaving me to do the rest. A weekly cleaning session costs £80 and a one-night stay brings in £99. In winter I might only have one set of guests per week. That leaves £19 to cover the following:
- Heating the room and heating water for showers
- Preparing the room and bathroom and making the beds
- Washing and ironing the bedlinen, towels, dressing gowns etc
- Purchasing and preparing the breakfast ingredients
- Preparing the breakfast room
- Cooking and serving breakfast
- Stripping the bed, disposing of rubbish and making the room ready for the cleaning team
I can’t have the cleaners come over more than once a week as I don’t have the turnover to commit them to a twice-weekly regular slot when they have other regular customers to look after. Therefore, if I have more than one set of guests between cleaning sessions I have to do the cleaning myself. I very quickly stopped offering one-night stays for obvious reasons. But I do still let patients at Benenden Hospital stay for a single night, in spite of all the extra work this gives me. But they don’t get breakfast (which is available at the hospital) because the financial reward from these one-night stays is, as the saying goes, not worth getting out of bed for. So on those days, I’m very glad to stay in it for a while longer and not have to spend the morning in the kitchen.