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Quality,
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The Cosmo Blog |
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February 27th, 2010 The half-term break has come and gone. Half-term always seems to mark the end of the winter in Paignton as visitor numbers increase and the days start getting longer. Next week we're having the frontage painted so that it will create a nice clean back-drop for the seagulls to demonstrate their artistic skills. Only joking! But we do hope that they'll leave our pristine white paintwork alone for a few months at least. Bookings are starting to come in at a pace for the coming months, so do call me as soon as you can if you'd like to reserve particular rooms. February 1st, 2010 So good news then, the recession is coming to an end and we can all start getting back to normal. Except we won't. Not until this recession is a dim and distant memory. Have you thought about how the recession has affected the hospitality industry? And how it directly affects you when you choose to stay in a hotel or B & B? When bookings fall off and the amount of money guests spend declines, the first thing any business is going to do is cut capital expenditure to protect cash flow. That can mean that rooms that were scheduled for refurbishment don't get refurbished. It can mean that the frontage doesn't get painted, it can also mean that essential maintenance gets put back. Fire alarm upgrades, equipment servicing are all postponed pending "available" cash flow. In other words the guest suffers from a decline in standards and comfort, and potentially an increase in health and safety risk. At The Paignton Cosmopolitan we were not immune from the recession. Our guest numbers also declined. However, we continued to spend on the property, upgrading Room 6, adding bath sheets and IPod docks to the deluxe and superior rooms, putting a quality 4-poster bed in Room 4 and increasing the size of the LCD TVs in most rooms and lots more small things, for example re-decorating 7 out of 8 rooms. And the regular servicing, from the 6-monthly checks on the fire alarm system, to the boiler being serviced etc. all got done as usual. And in March 2010 we'll be redecorating the frontage. In short, in 2009 we re-invested a whopping 20% of turnover in the property and improving the quality of our service. We did this to ensure that we achieve our vision of being the best little hotel/B & B in Paignton. You can see how we are doing by reading our "Guest Comments" pages. January 23rd, 2010 There are no hotels or B & Bs in Paignton that specifically market themselves as "Boutique". Even we don't. That's because we still have 4 standard rooms left. Our deluxe and superior rooms are lovely and would perhaps deserve the label "boutique" but until we've knocked rooms 7, 8, and 9 into two spacious rooms, furnished to the same standards as rooms 1, 2, 4 and 6 then we couldn't say "boutique" with 100% honesty. However, our deluxe and superior rooms are "boutique" 5* star standard, with Ipod docks, bath sheets, bath robes, digital radios, flatscreen tvs, sitting areas in Rooms 2 & 4, 4-poster in room 4, sauna in room 2, Japanese-style soaking tub in Room 1. We're inviting visitors to Paignton to drop in and view our rooms for themselves, even if they're not staying with us - maybe they will choose us next time they visit Paignton. Maybe you will. Come and have a look for yourself. January 10th, 2010 Now that the little snow we had is but a distant memory our thoughts have turned to the coming season and how to best market ourselves so that we capture your attention. We currently advertise on Booking.com and LateRooms.com and through another on-line agent called Eviivo that has marketing lines with a large number of on-line travel agents (lastminute.com, Expedia etc.) but increasingly we find that their commission charges, which you end up paying, are too much of a burden and have the result of inflating the price you pay by up to 25%. They also market on price. Cheapest is best as far as they are concerned because they feel that's what their users want. We don't market on price, we market on quality, at a reasonable price that allows us to re-invest in the product so that our standards are constantly improving. Of course we have to balance their charges with their marketing clout but increasingly we find that they are competing in the same online marketplaces as us and the question has to be " do we need them?". We'll answer that question soon. 1 For Blog entries prior to January 2010 please click here. |
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Operated
by Active Leisure Rentals Limited. Established in 1998. Registered
office as above. Registered in England No. 03676770. |
