Many people find the potential of running a restaurant to be absolutely romantic, but rarely consider the natural extension of that – running a hotel or motel. These businesses are extremely reliable and excellent ventures, because there will always be someone in need of an overnight room as they travel, or as they transition between regular homes. It might seem as if these trades are extremely seasonal, but that is not always the case. After all, usually travellers and nomads will use your services in the winter months, and then the tourists will come and fill up your vacant rooms during the vacation season.
After finding hotels or motels for sale, you might realize that this entire endeavor is much bigger than you might have expected. Hospitality is no small feat, especially hospitality done well. Luckily, this guide is here to either motivate you to take this business leap, or to maintain a leap already taken. With the following tips to sustain a healthy reputation and ensure the beauty of your hotel remains for decades, consider the following:
Catering Options
Will your business offer a form of catering? Are you obligated to provide it? For example, your hotel might not need to provide lunch and dinner service, but breakfast is somewhat expected, and is relatively easy to provide. In motels, this requirement is not expected, but you might come to a form of deal with a nearby food business for those who can prove their stay at your business. This might be a handy manner of cross-promoting, while also feeding your guests and allowing them to feel satiated.
Remember that people enjoy being fed, so if you have the ability to, catered service can be very helpful. However, just remember that you will need to go fully forward with this, running a restaurant as well as the hotel, not simply a small room service offering you whip up in an unregistered kitchen. It’s perfectly fine to eschew this responsibility, but you need to keep that front and centre and be sure guests understand before they book. The booking prices should also reflect the service you might be willing to enact or to compensate for those that you don’t.
Policies
It’s important to set out a list of behavioral policies for your customers to take part in. This might mean placing them in your terms and service, or it might mean having your residents sign a mini contract, or simply a document saying ‘I understand these terms’ if that seems a little less aggressive. Some policies you might want to implement are how to behave when leaving the room, what forms of damages they could be billed for, what insurance policies they are covered under, what are the regular times that the business operates in certain capacities (such as bar closing, the front desk being unmanned’ among other things. People want to know what to expect when entering your hotel/motel. This means you should also make use of brevity when listing these terms. Overblown or overlong requirements will not be read, so keep this punctual, light and effective.
In terms of formatting, you might hand each resident a pamphlet of these policies, condensed in readable form. You might leave them on a desk in the room of the motel. These terms should certainly be listed front and centre with your online presence.
Room Discounts & Rates
For certain clientele, you might consider room discounts. This might be for multiple bookings in case of an event, in case of a prolonged business stay, or many other happenstances like this. This can be a great way of drumming up business and retaining loyal clients, as can fostering loyalty points with them. Even great and famous hotels such as the Hilton offer loyalty points stays, similar to frequent flyer miles.
This can help your hotel or motel become the number one choice for someone entering an area. These types of business are fiercely competitive, as an empty room is a failing to meet a potential cash flow. With the right promotions, discounts and rates, you can potentially organize a solid and reliable income stream, and benefit clients as well as your business in the same token.
Hygiene
No matter if you run the best hotel in Dubai, the most humble motel in Scotland, or the smallest room under the cupboard of your stairs as the resident waits for their Hogwarts letter of acceptance, you absolutely need to ensure that the place is hygienic. There is absolutely no way around this in any way, shape or form. You need to hire competent cleaning staff to press the linens, clean under the hidden areas, ensure bathroom hygiene and continually check for irregularities after each guests leaves.
Your guests will find out very quickly if your hotel or motel is dirty. It takes little time to find out. Coming into a room with fresh eyes will quickly reveal the issues there. You can be certain to lose a customer returning at all if they notice even one thing out of place, such as dead bugs on the windowsill, or a clogged drain. This is why competent and effective, well paid cleaning staff are worth their weight in gold.
Security
Your hotel needs to stay secure. Just like cleaning staff, you need to pay for competent security guards at night, a solid CCTV system, locked keys with only those trusted to take care of them. You also need to take care of the financial information of all of your clients, as neglecting to do this could lead to some real scandals and ruin your reputation overnight.
This means you need to vet everyone on your staff, you need to ensure you use the best secure platforms for handling money, that your digital infrastructure is contained with a VPN, and that you continually refine your security habits to keep on top of any intrusion, physical or otherwise.
