Kitchen : where it all happens. Very short chapter on what we find most useful here.

To sleep, perchance to dream or in plain English Bedrooms. What to put in the bedroom; likes and dislikes of guests in this area.

The epitome of boredom - Bookkeeping!  The effort taken out of bookkeeping with illustrations to help. VAT advice.

Repeat Trade - Knowing you got it right! Maintaining repeat trade. Memories of a few repeaters.

From Strength to Strength: Refurbishment, Development & Expansion! Some ideas of when (or whether) to refurbish and keeping the place ship shape. Our wonderful 100-year old plumbing. Rates, Local Council, Roads Dept. Expanding into other businesses.

Competitors or Allies? Are competitors really competition? Suss them out! Make friends with them.

Pernicious Allsorts: Insurance, Fire Precautions, Telephone, Health Certificate, Licence, Purchasing. As the title suggests, miscellaneous. There are miscellaneous bits bobbing about all over the show but this puts the more important ones into a category.

So, do I really want a small hotel? (A few good reasons to make you think again). This is a get it off your chest chapter, giving the readers the low down on the less joyous part of hotel ownership! (You know, men wandering aimlessly in their Y-fronts and drunks wanting a ‘wee dram more’!)

The ideal hotel. A tiny chapter on what we would like as a hotel. Presents a model for the ideal custom-built hotel, based on our experience of what guests want most.

Typical seven days! A sort of diary of how normal hotel life really is! A typical week in hotelworld! If this doesn’t put them off nothing will!

There is a useful address section at the back which is referred to at various stages in the book.

                                                                                                (Copyright © Joanne Muller 1998)

PREFACE:

            by  Joanne   Muller

We bought some shares in a diamond mine last year and the blurb in one of the financial magazines said ‘not for the faint-hearted.’  In so many ways that could apply to the hotel business!

Some people fall into the hotel business through redundancy, some the need to earn a little more towards life’s little luxuries (otherwise known as pin money). Some to retire! Some just think it would be fun. To others it’s a vocation.

We didn’t altogether ‘fall’ into it. We had considered it many years ago but then it got put onto the back burner. However, twelve years ago we returned from living in South Africa with most of our money whittled away by a dwindling exchange rate. We investigated many business ideas, taking into account our young family, our interests and qualifications. Charles had left a good position as Professor and Head of an English Department at a University in South Africa. I had been a housewife for such a long time that this was my only ‘qualification,’ apart from office skills long forgotten.

We looked at franchises and came very close to joining one or two (we actually gave one our deposit twice and bailed out at the last moment) but the fact that we had to share our hard-earned money with a franchisor sort of got to us. Some of the franchises we looked at have actually gone bust and so have one of the businesses we’d considered. When we look back we realise we made the right choice . The hotel has been a good little business, not intellectually challenging, but we’re still here and the place is in much better shape than when we bought it eight years ago. And in spite of the occasional frustrations, it has certainly rewarded us with a lifestyle that many salaried nine-to-five folk might envy!

I’ve tried in this book to give a truthful account of how it is for us.   One has to be realistic, of course. After all, even roses have thorns. No pain, no gain! Hopefully, after reading this you’ll have a clearer idea of what it’s really like and whether running a small hotel is for you.

                                                                                      (Copyright © Joanne Muller 2001)

         
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