Again at the risk of stating the obvious , if you want an early start on your “ holiday ” day , it means blocking off the previous day too , or you may be tied to a breakfast , checkout and even a changeover on the first day of your “ holiday ” – not very useful if it is day one of a two day break .
Again , thinking through all this will bring home to you – if you haven ’ t realised already – just how much of a time commitment you will be taking on when you start your B & B . If you are starting to get second thoughts , thank us – the price of this book is nothing compared to what you would have spent starting a business and then closing it down later . And if you are not having second thoughts , good – you are well prepared , and planning ahead clearly holds no worries for you . Running a B & B should not do , either .
Dealing with Difficult Customers and how to handle complaints …
If you haven ’ t sold services to the public before , you are in for some interesting experiences , and a masterclass in human nature . You will realise that , however much care you take to make everything as near perfect as possible , there will be times when you get complaints . It is a fact of life in any service business .
The good news is that the vast majority of people ( at least in our experience ) are polite , understanding , well-behaved and appreciative ; in short , “ nice ”. The bad news is that the very small minority who are not will give you your fair share of headaches .
To put this in context , and to reassure you , in our first 400 paying customers from a standing start as B & B virgins , we had three problems and three unpleasant experiences . We learnt useful lessons from some , though others simply have to be put down to “ experience ”, part of the wear and tear of life . It may help you to hear about them , because they must be fairly typical of what you may encounter :
The Absconder
This was our worst incident so far . A call came through one afternoon from the town ’ s most expensive hotel , saying a Mr Baker * had arrived to stay the night but they were full ; did we have a room free ? We did . Mr Baker duly arrived by taxi five minutes later , saying that his car had broken down on his way back from Cornwall . He was fairly presentable , and polite and grateful to have found a room .
The next morning while we were serving breakfast to other guests we heard a noise which we later realised was our front door closing . Mr Baker had undone two bolts and slipped out by the exit he saw was unobserved . A quick check outside could yielded no trace of Mr Baker , who was clearly nimbler than he looked . His room held various debris , including a bag of assorted hotel soaps and shampoos , and the smell of cigarettes . The fact that he had been smoking in his room , oddly enough , angered us