How to Start & Run a B&B BandBED2eBook-1 | Page 79

Managing Bookings

Now you have a system for taking and recording bookings. That is the easy part. The more difficult skill, which you will develop with experience, is in managing your bookings. By this we mean converting your enquiries into the most profitable and least troublesome outcome in bookings terms.

This is simple to say, but the skills involved are at the core of the success of every hospitality business. Whole books, hotel management courses, and years of experience are devoted to the art of managing bookings.

If you are new to this, you may be wondering what can be so complex about simply answering the phone, then writing each booking in your book? As with most things in life, it is not that simple! And with some intelligence and commercial instinct, you can make a huge difference to the profitability you actually achieve, given the same enquiries, to what you would achieve with a robotic approach.

What are we talking about? As ever, examples help illustrate the message; this is a page from your bookings book:

( Jones requested a twin room specifically, as they are two sisters.) Now, suppose the phone rings and it is an enquiry from Mr White – he and his teenage son would like a twin room for four nights from Thursday. The obvious or“ robotic” answer would of course be no – I’ m afraid we cannot do it. This is one of the most frustrating situations in the business: being faced with turning down a higher value booking( in this case, four nights) because a low-value existing booking is blocking it.

Here is where your skills in booking management come in. You need to be sharp and quick thinking. The last thing you will want to do is turn away White’ s four nights because of Jones’ s one night.

A ruthless option would be to take the White booking, then“ bounce” the Jones booking – ie tell Jones you cannot now take her booking, giving a suitably plausible reason( and having, with luck, already booked her a twin room provisionally nearby). Many hoteliers would not think twice about doing this, and of course it is commercially justifiable on the face of it. However, that should always be an absolute last resort. Think harder – Room 1 is large enough to fit an extra folding bed, so why not put in the extra bed on Friday, move the Jones booking to Room 1 and accept the White booking in Room 2? You will have to give Ms Jones an explanation, of course – and perhaps even a discount or an added extra to make up – but that way you keep the Jones booking AND take the White booking.