Ok so here it is.

My father in law owns a 54 bedroom hotel on the outer edge of Lakeland in a fairly undesirable location. The hotel has been run down over the last few years but has fairly decent potential to make some money with a bit of hard work, money and creativity. Anyway father in law wants to retire and **** off round the world for a few years. Been offered the opportunity to take over the hotel, permanently if things work out.

Anyone on here run a hotel? Pitfalls? Any anecdotal experience would be interesting to hear.

would you personally stay in a hotel in an undesirable location? you can change all you like about the outside, inside, staff, food, etc but you can’t move it somewhere nice. i’d think long and hard about it. could it be some sort of niche hotel?

could it be some sort of niche hotel?

Naturist retreat?

Swingers haven?

Well kind of. There’s a fairly regular trade in gas platformworkers and a few contractors at the vickers yard who are working on the nuclear sub but that’s about it.

If you were a mountain biker interested in riding the lakes would you be prepared to stay around 15 mikes away from the trails?

There’s a few other avenues to explore. Tea dances for the old folks on a Sunday (there’s an amazing and unused sprung dancehall on the first floor), letting out part of the ground floor to a nursery and building a childrens play area in part of the garden, letting out the kitchen to a community based cafe type of enterprise. My head is bursting with ideas, mainly around diversifying from just letting rooms and trying to make the grand old hotel part of the community again, not just somewhere you go for a cheap pint.

Many people regard the area as a shithole (I think it was designated the most working class area of England last year – for some reason it’s seen at a stigma) but most of the people up here are just decent folks.

It’s a big decision.

I like the lateral thinking there Yossarian.

Watch channel 4 tonight at 8pm

If you ran some sort of MTB shuttle from the hotel and provided a bike wash, secure lock-up, cheap packed lunches, big breakfast, hearty-cheap dinner in the evening i’d be interested.

My folks were hoteliers. My mother maintains that Fawlty Towers is a documentary – and not a very funny one…

I wouldn’t do it. The hours and commitment required are too much IMO.

I wouldn’t do it. The hours and commitment required are too much IMO.

There are good bits too, if you like meeting and dealing with the public it can be good fun and doesn’t feel like a real job. Very hard work but also rewarding.

If you were a mountain biker interested in riding the lakes would you be prepared to stay around 15 mikes away from the trails?

Not if there is a closer alternative at a sensible price.

As for your other (possibly quite good) ideas, will F-I-L actually let you implement them (sounds like he’ll still be the owner). It can be a bit tricky with family ventures for the new guy to impliment innovative ideas as it kind of says, “the old guy was crap”, and if there are any setbacks (almost innevitable with some experiments) then the old boy appears saying “I told you that wouldn’t work”. Of course it could be he’s dead keen on modernisation but just lost the energy in which case you might be a perfect fit.

Of course it could be he’s dead keen on modernisation but just lost the energy in which case you might be a perfect fit.

Yep this is it. He’s been through a messy divorce and just cannot be bothered anymore.

Pleased that my ideas don’t sound entirely crap, just was standing at the back steps down to where the bowling green used to be and seeing the rows and rows of terraced houses surrounding the hotel. In the past this place was the hub of the community, why not again? Somewhere you can bring your kids, the grandparents etc and get a range of services (no sniggering) at decent prices delivered by people who you know from the neighbourhood.

I reckon that of the 50 odd rooms only 30 or so are ever let at any one time. Why not knock some of them together to create office/business space and rent em out cheap? At the minute they are making no money at all, even a few quid a month would make a difference and would self promote the venue to other companies and clients.

Another im going to change career thread, without giving any idea of the strengths you will take to the new career path, obvious things like money, and commitment dont get mentioned along with any experience,relevant to the task.

Whayt you need is a USP, a unique seling point, to far frrom the trails for mountain bikers, so probably a swingers retreat or naturist hotel as someone else said, also 52 bedrooms are a lot to fill, and quite a few staff required to service them.

Best wishes though.

Whayt you need is a USP, a unique seling point, to far frrom the trails for mountain bikers

and

was standing at the back steps down to where the bowling green used to be

sounds like a pump track waiting in there to be unearthed…

look up – padre hotel . i know its in California but i stayed there recently – its just come back from being a complete run down dive to being a hip part of the community hotel with a good reputation for food etc – all sorts of passing trade i met in the bar , traveling sales men , doctors , cosmetic surgeons , oil workers (me) everyone raved about the place and many of them had gone out their way to return there …..

might give you some ideas , it had really unique decor keeping the old charms of the building ! – appealed to the young crowd at weekends (night club) had a nice bar and a cafe with good coffee – was there for 2 weeks and it was always busy.

Running an hotel is a lot of work with unsociable hours . forget your evenings and week ends .

52 rooms is not massive and you would not need a lot of staff to clean them, a chambermaid can clean 4 rooms an hour easy . a good chef is compulsory , deosnt have to be michelin star to be successful but nice and simple will always be a hit .

if you are going to attract contractors you need cheap beer in the evening and nice food otherwise they will be going to the pub next door .

conference and seminars are very good business as they use all aspects of the business .

as long as you are prepared to put the hours in , it can be rewarding . I have done it for 10 years and loved it , but no social life can be difficult .

dont mix relations and business it will come to a sticky end

Do you have any relevant experience? Running a bar? Hospitality? catering? If not you will need to hire the expertise until you learn

Running an hotel is a lot of work with unsociable hours . forget your evenings and week ends .

52 rooms is not massive and you would not need a lot of staff to clean them, a chambermaid can clean 4 rooms an hour easy . a good chef is compulsory , deosnt have to be michelin star to be successful but nice and simple will always be a hit .

Disagree with both parts there. Been brought up in the business all my life, have worked for a leading hospitality company for 16 years and currently run a 64 bedroom, 250 cover bar/restaurant with seating outside for about 110.

What you need to be first and foremost is a great leader. You need to create a vision for your place with simple objectives, strategies and tactics to achieving your goals. You then need to make sure you have a great team around you who will work for those goals. If they dont want to then there’s 100,000’s people unemployed who would.

location although vital is not the bee all and end all. Was it successful in the past? if so, how and what for?. Whats the reputation like? Reputation accounts for alot and is a great form of sales by yuor customers. Your hotel! Has it got a sales person promoting external sales? Are you signed up to outside agencies like bookings.com, laterooms etc. Although they will take a % per room sold, its worth it long run. Labour wise your hotel will run at alot less than your restaurant. For rooms, if your running say 55% occ, then look for about 20-25 mins per room cleaned with high standards in place and your head housekeeper aware of these ( and incentified on in house audits). Your reception team should also be doing sales, lapsed users, top 10 companies, new companies. See who is your competition and get phone numbers of vans/lorries in their car park and invite for a showround to try and steal business ( offer free B&B for booker etc). Restaurant wise, make sure A/ team are good, you have standards in place and are adhered to. B/ food and drink is top quality and consistent. If you have meeting rooms how could you use these. Try morning network meetings where businesses come to your place to network with each other. Great time to meet other businesses and sell yours. Host wedding fayres/celebration nights etc. INcentify local businesses to help you out ( i.e. Local card shops, when birthday cards/wedding cards etc are bought they hand over flyers about your place as an idea to host the event. Everytime someone books using this flyer you give the shop £25 – £50/free B&B etc).

This sounds like alot of work and it is, but i for instance never really work more than 3 nights a week, i have 95% time off that i want ( sundays for biking, all races etc), so as long as you have the correct team in place and your leading properly then it doesn’t need to rule your life.

Mainly though, you need to have a passion for the industry and want to work. 99% of customers are fantastic people who just want talked to, the odd few are knobs but you learn how to deal with them. Oh, and legislation nowadays is a pain in the butthole .I need files for files etc.

HTH

Get the Hotel Inspector from channel 5 in. It sounds right up her street.

Some great advice on here since I last posted, thanks all