Things to consider when setting up a Bed and Breakfast in South Africa.


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Things To Consider When Setting Up A Room - By Heather Hunter

Accommodation establishment owners fall over backwards to provide a good service to their guests. They worry about giving a warm welcome, a wholesome hearty breakfast, offer suggestions for where to go and what to do, make customer service a priority, in fact wear the 27 hats a day with a smile and still manage to remain sane.

The one thing that many of us fail to address is to experience our own establishments as a guest. We are so busy with all the other issues that we often overlook the importance of feeling what the guest feels.

Here are a few suggestions for an exercise we can do to make sure that our guests are as comfortable as possible. Try it with all your rooms.

Pack a suitcase with some clothes for a couple of days and toiletries

Carry the luggage from your car to the room both during the day and at night. Is it difficult? Are there obstructions that you hadn’t thought of? Is the route well lit?

Enter the room, what are your first impressions – remember you may have driven a long way or had an arduous flight with anxiety and stress over a car hire problem or traffic. Does the room make you feel relaxed or are you struggling to find somewhere to put the suitcase, is it a tight squeeze from the door, round the bed to the wardrobe?

If you go out again for supper, can you access the property easily on your return?

Unpack the suitcase, are there sufficient hangers and space to put the contents?

Try to charge your cellphone. Is there a two pin plug readily available, or have you to search for it on the floor?

Make a cup of tea or coffee. Do you need to be Sherlock Holmes to find the kettle, how far do you need to go for the water? Does the room have sufficient amenities to make 2 cups of either tea or coffee?

Watch TV. Is the remote easily accessible, or must you search again?

If you have any problems from the above, can you easily contact the owner?

Now you may want a shower or bath to ease the frustrations of the day or to calm you down if you have found this room has problems. Take your toiletries bag and see if you can put it down in a place where it is easy to open it and take out the contents, or are you putting it on the floor and fishing around to find what you need?

Take a shower or bath, is there provision to put your towel in close proximity, who wants to get out of either and walk to find the towel?

Are the taps clearly marked ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ or do you need to get out of the shower, find your reading glasses, take the glasses back, and remember which is which. Not all guests are 20-something with perfect vision and photographic memories.

Now it is time to snuggle down for the night. Are there bedside lamps right next to you, or do you have to get out of bed, turn off the light and feel your way back to the bed trying not to fall over a piece of furniture that you hadn’t noticed? Remember this is an unfamiliar room to a new guest.

Is the bed comfortable, are you warm enough – if not do you know where the extra blanket lives, is there a heater, do you have to get out of bed again and fumble in the dark?

Are you too hot, is there aircon, if there is, do you have to get out of bed?

Is the lighting too bright or too dark?

If there is a light immediately outside your room can you switch it off?

In the morning, is there tea and coffee or did the supply run out last night?

Maybe you have an early appointment to keep, you want to look your best, you decide to wash your hair. Do you know where the hairdryer is? Can you plug it in close to a mirror or must you dry your hair blind and keep running across the room to a looking glass to see how you are doing?

Now to breakfast, do you know where it is, what time it is available?

Okay you pack your suitcase, you are ready for your meeting, you have had your breakfast and you just have another ten minutes to check out before getting back on the road. Is your invoice ready? Is it quick and easy to make payment and be on your way? Is the owner/manager readily available or must you stand and wait for some attention?

These are just a few of the general gripes that travelers have, there are probably other things that we can pick up by taking the trouble to be our own guests once in a while!