The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: sandy on December 01, 2009, 09:49:18 pm
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Not a smallholder issue but can I ask, I am very leanient and if guests are staying a while an odd day in the room is OK, especialy if they are elderly or ill but when people do not let you know if they are intending to stay in or at least ask, I get stuck in as well.
I also set out breakfast and the lady I am concerned about went creeping out past without letting me know she did not want breakfast, if she had told me I would have been happy, instead of hanging around, not being able to feed the chickens or clean up after the dogs, I found she was out when I went to her room.
Anyway, when I asked if she could let me know she was very awkward and said, other B&B'slet you come and go as you please, I agreed that I do as well but if they say they want breakfast I expect them to let me know if they change thier plans, I also need to do basic house keeping and need to know if people are in as I sometimes have to go out myself and do not leave guests in the house. Remember the guest have a key so they can let themselves in BUT, if I want to go somewhere I need to lock another door so knowone will get in. I was/am a bit mad with her as I had a ragging toothache and just needed to go to have treatment but she kept avoiding me so I rang my partner, he came home from work so I could go....anyway...ADVICE PLEASE!!!! she's off tomorrow after a 9 day stay, at least our other guests play the game!!!
All I needed was 1 to tell me if she required breakfast or not 2 Let me know or in fact ask me if she wanted to stay in durring the day and thats it!!!!!! Answers in plain simple terms so I can show her it is not unusual to vacate B&B's durring the day!!!
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Whot...No advice??
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Well Ok then, what about advice on a new internet provider???? Turns out BT ar not that bad afterall!!! What dose everyone else think?
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Well you know what I said. I have NEVER been in a B & B where I could coem and go to please my self. Last tiem John and I went to Skye we were in a super farmhouse B & B just up from teh Slig. They were lovely people, very friendly but there was a typed card in the room with their "Rules of the House" These included the times - we had to vacate the room by 10.30 am and were note allowed back in the room till 4.30pm. No smoking in the bedrooms, not pets in the bedrooms, nor food. Everyone needs rules to live by and you need your free time. You have a life to lead as well as your guests. She must be told and you should put cards in all your rooms with your own "Rules of the House" I should think that's all you'll get tonight - everyone else is probably in bed ;D
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Well Ok then, what about advice on a new internet provider???? Turns out BT ar not that bad afterall!!! What dose everyone else think?
Well I though BT was very expensive. As I Said I pay £4.90 a month but that's family discount - 50% I think. Which providers have you compared with BT and how much is BT charging?
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Hi Sandy, a few years before I retired I had to work away from home and stayed in a BB. I was working constant 12 hour night shifts from 1900 - 0700 for two weeks. I would just have breakfast then slept most of the day.
JD
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We love your type of guests, we get loads of them and they are no problem, we often leave them asleep, only a problem if you have window cleaners or painters making a nosie...This place gets full of contractors and you know where you are with them and I will leave them in bed to go out for a walk or shopping, sometimes one has a sicky so I understand that but if people are in the house 24/7 I cannot get out until evening or weekends...
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BT may give me a better deal, I pay £19 odd for option 2 braodband unlimited download and £12 odd for line rental and of course VAT on top, so around £32 per month, funnily enough, apart from offers for trials they end up being not much less. I spoke to someone from BT and they may see what I can have cheaper but I am open to ideas...Oh, we looked at )2 and it would be £20 per month as we are not in thier "cheaper" area and we h ave no other services from them, if we did we would have a reduced fee, seems that is how it goes and they all charge line rental!!!
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Throw a chicken at her. Alternatively put your foot down, politely but firmly, pointing out that you are not other B&Bs and have made a very reasonable request to know if she will be around or not and that it is because your guests are so considerate that you allow them more freedom then you are required to.
As for broadband... BT... no, just no, I absolutely hate having to deal with them for clients. Unfortunately the company I would have pointed you at claim they're not available in your area yet, so I'm not really proving much use here!
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Thanks...I usualy see guests and they will say when they are off out in the morning but this one seems to nip out when I am not looking..One problem is this house's front door is a far way off our living quaters, if we had a normal house you could easily keep check of people in and out!!!!
I detest dealng with BT too, now I am changing the phone provider I did want to change the internet but they all seem to work out similar price..I shall take another look.
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Hi Sandy,
I can probably give you more advise on B+B's than smallholding as I grew up in one in Stirling and my Mum still runs it so here goes -
She has 2 front doors of which the guests have keys for both but the external one only gets locked when she is out. When she is out all internal doors are locked and there is nothing of any value that can go missing left in the hall. The guests effectively an then come and go as they please but have no other access except to their own room.
Breakfast is served from 0830 till 0915. If you are not down then tough! it all gets put away and you are warned of this the night before. She also takes rough orders the night before - just to make sure she has enough in if people want a continental rather than a full cooked and what time then will be down. If people have not been down before 0900 and they said they were coming for breakfast they get a knock on the door saying they have 15 minutes then they are too late. If workers want a slightly early breakfast that is fine from 0700 if ordered the night before and any earlier she makes people a packed lunch to take with them as she wont cook before 0700.
All sounds quite harsh reading this back but she has been doing this for over 30 years so she has had to find ways that work for her otherwise she would have given up long ago or ended up in the loony bin. Any other questions please ask or if you want to come and have a coffee with her in Stirling I am sure she would love to pass on all her wisdom.
x Gillian
PS Loved seeing your B+B at the last meeting- What a place!
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I can't really comment on B&B (other than the ones I've stayed in - out at 10.30, not back til after 4) - but what a rude lady >:( It's common courtosy to tell someone if you're not needing a meal, when you know they're going to spend time making it ! Just as well she's off soon ;)
Internet providers - Have you got talk talk in your area ?
I have phone & broadband with them. Line rental's the same as BT, around £12 and I have a call package for £5.49 per month that gives free evening and weekend calls to landlines, 25% off calls to mobiles and FREE BROADBAND ! BT phoned me a couple of weeks ago to try and poach me back, but when they heard the deal I had they just gave up LOL!
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If she was a family member, you'd expect to be told if she wasn't going to be in for a meal or if she was going out. It's just courtesy - I think you are being perfectly reasonable.
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Hi Sandy. I think part of the problem here is you are too soft with people (and I am not being rude here). As much as this is your business it is also your HOME and you would not let friends that were visiting your home walk all over you. I do not have House Rules in our rooms, but I think, in your case they may be a great idea. I tend to hope that our guests have the common sense and manners to know how things work while staying at a hotel or B & B. I worked for Macdonald Hotels for many, many years and Donald Mcdonald, the Chairman, told me many years ago that if a customer was in the wrong they should be told and I think that is a brilliant tip. The days of the customer is always right are way gone.
If guests are not down by the time your breakfasts stop then you pack up and get on with your work. If they are not out of the room by say 12 noon I would chap their door and ask if they want the room serviced today you need access now. If they don't let you on at that point offer them fresh towels and go on with your day. Of course you do it all with a smile on your face but remember do not take any crap from them. You say you have a very successful business so, therefore, if that person leaves in the huff there will be some one else to take their place. I hope you didn't get too angry/upset yesterday and remember too at some point in the future you will get some one much worse than this!! :) :)
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All sorted, she had a good stay so she said, the main problem, as I told her, I have been ill and had really bad toothache, but was unable to catch her to tell her I had an appointment so cancelled and got my OH home from work and made a later appointment as I do not like leaving guests here alone for long periods of time, mainly due to health and safety, they could have an accident while I am out, set fire to the place, overfil the bath or they may become ill and blame me for not being around to call the GP,THis lady was diabetic and had Asthma, some guests could also let others in willingly or unwillingly...
Our private rooms are locked but not guests rooms so that is also an issue with other guests privacy, we are getting locks on all the doors soon although we only had one book stolen in three years and we know who that was (and a few towels) I have no problem if someone wants to stay in thier room, as long as they understand they will not get thier room cleaned and they do not stay in for the whole of thier stay as I do need to check the rooms. This guest was very clean and I did change her bed etc while she was still in her room...anyway, your right...I AM TOO SOFT!!!!! but most guests understand!!!! THanks again
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Sandy I know of a B & B in St Andrews (and incidentally it charges 4 star hotel prices) where the owners do not live on site nor do they have a memebr of staff stay in. Infact their home is roughly 6 miles from the business, I have no idea how they get insurance, or guests for that matter?
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we done it at painting Daven same thing .they think iffy they pay thats it do Whit they like ENE way nae do Holiday lets 4 star house and yes it does get trashed glasses broken fire backits broken .we had some 1 tip the bed on its side and put a dog cage in then fed them bones all up the walls bits off meat .we no nae the more money they have the more hassle we will have .Christmas holidays is the worst open fires boot the Dorie shut with there ski boot etc all the best
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I still think you should set up House Rules and put them in each room. That would avoid you having to confront any of them as you don't like that. Yes, you are soft.
I think you have a good deal with the phone man but you have slightly miscalculated your Broadband. You will be paying line rental to UniSys not BT so what you use is the basic Broadband figure - that salesman worked it out for you but even if it is £19 (I'm sure he said it was £32 for broadband alone) you need to add 17.5% because it's going up again on 1st January - so that would be £22.32 - quite a lot more than others as far as I can see. Check this out - http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/bundleCalc.asp
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Another thing, Sandy - you don't need a huge amount of broadband width unless you are downloading films and programmes to store on your PC. So if there are two levels the lower one will usually suffice. Calum can probably advise on that better than me.
By the way, I have those baby bottles for the puppies
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Don't the Health and Safety regulations say that in case of a fire you have to know who is in and who is out. Otherwise, (God forbid) is there is a fire, the poor firemen will be looking for a person who is not there. Maybe this is the way you need to slant it. I stayed in many a hotel where you have to hand in your key if you go out for the day. If it is a nice family run B&B, it is only courteous to say, from the client, that you don't want breakfast. The card, with Rules of the House, seems like the best idea.
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I did have rules etc in the bedrooms but took them out to update brochers and phone numbers....I still have the original, I now just put in the NO Smoking sign, not had any smokers causing trouble for ages now. I did think of DO Not disturb signs for people but they leave them on or don't put them on, I try and keep it as much as possible like a family house and it works, when Doganjo popped over one night as she was thrown into the Only having phone line with that company, thier broad band is more expensive, the figures I gave were with BT.
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Don't the Health and Safety regulations say that in case of a fire you have to know who is in and who is out. Otherwise, (God forbid) is there is a fire, the poor firemen will be looking for a person who is not there.
I'm beginning to wonder about that one. I've stayed in very few hotels where they wanted me to let them know if I was in or out. In one case I tried to give them information about the person who was going to be sharing the room with me for their records and I received a rather blank "why do I care?" response.
But regardless, it's still a good line to use if reason alone doesn't seem to be working for you, Sandy!
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I did have rules etc in the bedrooms but took them out to update brochers and phone numbers....I still have the original, I now just put in the NO Smoking sign, not had any smokers causing trouble for ages now. I did think of DO Not disturb signs for people but they leave them on or don't put them on, I try and keep it as much as possible like a family house and it works, when Doganjo popped over one night as she was thrown into the Only having phone line with that company, thier broad band is more expensive, the figures I gave were with BT.
Have you missed a bit of that sentence out Sandy?
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Only having phone line with that company, thier broad band is more expensive, the figures I gave were with BT.
Yes, BT is £19 plus 17.5% for Broadband - £22.32, other Broadbands are at most £20.69 and that is the Green one which is always dearer.
Your line rental will be with the new company.
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Yes..I had to stop to go to the door!!! anyway, you popped around and our guests offered to share thier Gin and tonic with us, they want to visit after Isaly has had her pups, they are great people, love them, love most of our customers!!!
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Hiya defo for house rules and remove them for constractors.
Possible making a comment about staying in all day please info us for h & S rules.
and internet we uses talk talk as they are the best deal around a lot better than bt
Linz
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:Dwill do!!!