Telephones

[Keith]

We’re looking to install a new telephone system at our B&B and were wondering if any of you have already been down this route and if so, what your experiences and findings were.

We are looking for a telephone system which will allow direct calls to come in to each guest room, without the need to go through the reception. We also want guests to be able to make direct external calls. The system must be able to handle separate billing for each room/number and we need to be able to setup our own internal numbers for various services (ie. “0” for reception, “4” for maintenance, “5” for room service, “6” for chamber maid, etc).

I know we could just go to France Telecom and they would provide such a system with no problems but, we were hoping someone had some better ideas or suggestions, as France Telecom would be a last resort.

[Quillan]

Good grief, chamber maids, maintenance, reception, are you sure, you forgot the Gobblin Teasmaid [;-)] . I guess you must be in the £100+ per night bracket. If you really want to do this then you might look at one of these packs of cordless phones, Argos in the UK do 5 for £89 (for good ones) and you can add more . Personally we use Teleconnect for our calls and let people use the phone free of charge. I have just checked and last August/Septembers bill was only 18 Euros so I can't say anyone has abused the facility.

[Rob Roy]

I'm sorry but I think this is ridiculous. You are not really running a Chambres d'hotes but a small hotel, albeit you are no doubt keeping to the 5 room maximum required under French law, but IMO it is all getting out of hand and you are far removed from the original French concept of chambres d'hotes. 

[Quillan]

I'm glad you said that. I don't know if the OP knows but the installation of such a system will do nothing for any rating/grading of his Chambres d'hôtes. Bit like tea and coffee or a TV set in the room, it's just ignored, its also so unlike a normal CdH. Still it's the guys money and his CdH so I guess he can do what he likes. Personally, as I said, I wouldn't bother. The only 'toy' we have is Wifi but that's because it's installed for us but we don't mind if people arrive with a laptop and want to connect to the Internet. I must also confess to having tea and coffee in the rooms [:$] but thats it.

[Keith]

Yes, I can sense the hostilities. [:(] I can also take a hint. [:)]

I was hoping that there may be an ex-BT engineer or similar out there who could give a sensible answer to my question, but I now realise the type of site this is.

Sorry to have bothered you all, I try elsewhere. [:P]

[Quillan]

It's not so much hostile its just that you don't do it in a CdH and I am sure you have other things to spend your money on. I have no idea how much research you have done and how aware you are about the rules that govern what a CdH is and how it should operate. One idea I would suggest is why not approach somebody like Gites de France who will be more than happy to send you all the information you require to set up your CdH and what you need, what you could add, what sort of grading you could get etc. It is completely different to the hotel industry where you are graded on the facilities you offer. You can put loads of stuff, phone, DVD player, Sat TV, radio but if the room is 0.5 M2 too small you may only get a 1 'Star' grading so you need to be aware of room sizes for grading from the beginning. If you look through this forum you will also find links to all sorts links to interesting sites that you will find helpful. I don't think we (well I) meant any of our comments in a nasty way, perhaps the word ridiculus could be a bit strong but then you have to understand where the person who said it was coming from.

To be honest you would be the only CdH I know of that has installed such a telephone system. As somebody said you would become more of a 5 bedroom hotel (because that's the maximum number of bedrooms you can have under French law and stay a CdH). If people think that you have become a hotel then you enter a whole different area and you will not be able to benefit from the special tax advantages we get. You will have totally different hygiene (separate kitchen and food storage) health and safety rules to comply with and of course you will have to fit fire doors with auto closures (£60 a pop) and a central fire alarm system, fire extinguishers and emergency lighting (say about £5k). You will also be have to be around 24/7 in order to facilitate the services you would then be offering. Put that on top of the cleaning, ironing, booking in and out, cooking, food prep, shopping etc you will become a gibbering idiot after 4 months because you won't get any sleep. You then have to balance this out against your income which is not going to be great and certainly won't be enough to live on and will have to be supplemented by another income either a pension or another job. That assumes you don't have a loan on the property because as one person quite rightly said, never buy a CdH with a loan in France because it just won't work, you will probably be skint in 6 months.

Well anyway good luck for the future and I hope it works out for you.

 

[jon]

The problem with some of you is that  you do not concider that we all do things differently.

Perhaps Keith wants telephones in each room...surely he has his reasons for concidering this.Surely that it is his choice.

[cooperlola]

Yeah, Keith's OK - he's a lemanster!  Give a newbie a break.

[darnsarf]

To a relative newbie, the responses were a bit harsh I think.. The faux 'shock horror at the thought' was a bit like ordering a Pernod in a gentlemans' club! Frankly, if I had a B&B and wanted to put a hammam or a live snake in every room, I'd do it, regardless of how many stars this would or wouldn't qualify me for or whether it would upset the applecart in terms of what sort of establishment it would become.So what?

Keith, I'm not a BT Engineer so I'm afraid I can't help. But I do know is that phone systems are miles and miles cheaper than they used to be and quite sophisticated systems can now be had for comparatively little money. You could also consider using a PC/IP based system which should handle the call-cost bit.. Another route would be to check out ebay where supposedly obselete systems are now being offered for sale for peanuts. I bought a replacement office system (on ebay uk) as a (parts) back up to our current one. The cost for the system. which originally cost us £25K and £340 per phone (50 of them) was £250 and £10 per phone!.  Hope this helps (a bit) but try ebay or an internet search for more info

 

[Quillan]

[quote user="cooperlola"]Yeah, Keith's OK - he's a lemanster!  Give a newbie a break.[/quote]

Do you mean he is a car (Pontiac)? How strange, I thought he was a person.

 

[Keith]

Thank you jon, cooperlola and darnsarf, a little decorum at last.

Amazing isn’t it. I asked what was seemingly a straight forward and innocent question, to firstly be told how ridiculous I was, and then to be told how to run a B&B. True, I am new to this forum and have lived here in France for only four years, but with the years of business management and hospitality experience I have, telling me to do my homework makes me feel like a child again. Also, as our B&B grossed just shy of €120k last year maybe I could give (some of you) some business lessons.

darnsarf, thanks for all your advice. I would have no reservations of buying such a system as you mentioned, but I haven’t got the knowledge to install a second hand system myself or know whether a UK system would work here in France. I do know that ordinary telephones from the UK don’t work properly here. You can use them but they won’t ring.

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Quillan"]

[quote user="cooperlola"]Yeah, Keith's OK - he's a lemanster!  Give a newbie a break.[/quote]

Do you mean he is a car (Pontiac)? How strange, I thought he was a person.

 

[/quote][:D]  A generic term for one who finds him/herself in the middle of the Sarthe in the middle of June, Quillan!

Keith : Re the phones - I know nothing either but my electrician is happy to install whatever telecoms stuff I want (barring the handsets) - you might just ask a local chappie.

[Kitty]

[quote user="Keith"]

Also, as our B&B grossed just shy of €120k last year maybe I could give you some business lessons.

[/quote]

That is some income, Keith.  Respect!  How big is your place? 

I wish that I could help on the technical stuff.  I have posted  note elsewhere about Teleconnect that Quillan mentioned but that would be just for your personal use.  It would be a nice gesture to give folk free UK calls (if that's where your market is) and a good marketing tool.

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/search/SearchResults.aspx?q=Teleconnect&f=&u=

I wonder if it is worth calling them?  Their telephone number is 0805 024000 but they are not open weekends and, for a business, you would need back up.

 

 

 

 

[Keith]

Thanks cooperlola, but for electrics, standard telecoms and IT, I am the local chappie - hence my original post. I can see this is going to be harder than I thought - as usual!

Cathy - we have 4 suites. There is space for another but we haven't developed that area yet.

[Cerise]

I'll take the business lessons please!!!   I think probably Keith you're not running a B & B as most people know it!  With 5 rooms at the going rate in this area you couldn't make that sort of money if every room was full for every night of the year.   If you are doing it, brilliant for you and perhaps you could advise me of an area of the country where I can do likewise.  Unfortunately if this means buying a stately home or chateau I'm out of the running.  Perhaps the reason for everyone's surprise at your question is that that kind of turnover is not even achieved by many hotels in France.  B & B's are generally much smaller affairs.

 

 

[darnsarf]

Because of different technical standards etc, I certainly wouldn't try to install a UK phone system in france (even if you knew how to!). But you may be able to get a used french one. Alternatively IP telephony uses international (PC) standards so woudn't have the same problems. Another advantage of this approach is that you can search in English etc for possible suppliers if your french isn't A1.

But for background info on what available, here a factsheet of a UK (BT) system designed for small hotels.

http://www.convergentsolutions.bt.com/assets/dshospitalitysolution.pdf

or here (again UK spec only)

http://www.westlakecommunications.co.uk/Panasonic_Phone_System_KXT308.pdf

But I would be inclined to look for a PC-based software solution. Good luck

 

 

[Quillan]

[quote user="Keith"]

Also, as our B&B grossed just shy of €120k last year maybe I could give (some of you) some business lessons.[/quote]

I'm in for some lessons as well. I don't mind eating humble pie and grovelling to earn that sort of money running a B&B. Come on Keith tell us how it's done.

[jon]

Thank goodness some of you are begining to learn!
I have said ...possably too loudly that there are so many of the very average B and B  AT 50 Euros per night[lets say] breakfast of pour and serve coffee, caron  or bottle juice, cerial in a jar or box...yoghurt in a carton, floral curtain and floral bed spreads ....everything very clean...and sorry to say a little boring.

What is special is soft white toweks in the bathroom...and a robe....essance of flowers in the form of soap in a nice dispenser in the bathroom..Interesting furnishings, pale and interesting colours with a little echo of wildness.....here and there...good taste...carefully chosen fabrics.

Fresh flowers and fuits in the bedroom...chilled mineral water in the room at night...some books to read.

Breakfast freshly pressed orange, apple or carrot juice...fresh fruit compots...jams....rose petal and plum....really nice bread....brioling machine for frre-range eggs...good natural youghurt and a small selection of honeys and fuits....muesli....a wild salmon kedgeree!

A selection of activities, pleasures and holistics to re-charge and inspire the body and spirit.

Yes...of course a lounge with comfort and space and the garden beaming with flowers and nice spots to sit in.

Yes I could go on ....the top end of the market can work.Depends where you are.Who you project to and it depends on the person who is operating the buisness.Keith has proved some of you a little wrong.

[Keith]

Okay, just some basics – perhaps this should be a new thread, and it’s not getting my question answered.

We have 4 suites with rates of €60 - €150 per night depending on the time of year. Doing the maths will tell you that income for 12 weeks in the summer gives us €40k. However, room rates (as you all know) only make a bread and butter income, the real money and profit is in the extras. I am not going to go into any detail here, but I will tell you that it has nothing to do with location or the size of your place.

Our aim is to earn a minimum of the room rate as extras. Did that make sense? What I mean is, if a room is €100 per night, we would expect to earn a minimum of €100 per day in extras for that room. Obviously, this is just an aim we set ourselves. Sometimes people come and have no extras, other times people can spend €500 per day in a €100 room (especially the Americans). This is where the services you offer are important. Not just the services the guests pay extra for, but also the things you offer for free, like the toiletries in the bathrooms and the bedroom slippers. The freebies get you the quality of guests who will pay for the extras, if your room rates are set correctly and the more choice you have for guest to spend their money on the more extra income your B&B will make. If we only earned the money which we get in room rates then we wouldn’t bother. The B&B business is tough enough without slaving for nothing. Last year we managed to average almost 1.5 x room rate in extras and were fully booked for 20 weeks, hence €120k.

We never add extras that won’t generate cash – even the freebies as mentioned earlier. Everything we offer has a reason which can be attributed to profit. Let me explain a bit clearer:

All our suites have mini-bars. I hate the things and we certainly didn’t put them in to win a star or an ear of corn. Here’s the reason:

                4 x mini-bar at €120 each = €480

                Last year profits from mini-bars = €965

Here end’th the lesson.

 

Just for Cerise:

Our property cost us less than €60k three years ago and we don’t have any land, it’s just a building in the middle of a village. The point is, identifying and targeting your required clients and offering what they want. None of our guests come to sit in our garden – just as well. Getting the right clients is all down to marketing – and that’s another lesson. PS. The business is now worth €400k.

[Cerise]

Must be your location then Keith as we simply don't have that many rich tourists in this area.  And you can only attract them if the surrounding area has enough services.  I'd be interested to know how you get round the licencing regs for the minibars - I know someone would be sure to grass me up to local bar owners if I tried that.  Chapeau to you if you are managing it.  I'm not being sarky I'm ful of envy.  The only place round here (not mine) who tried charging more than 60€ - in season - simply got no customers.

 

[Keith]

Cheers darnsarf for all the info. I think you're right, that an IP system is going to be the way to go. [:)]

[jon]

Keith really interested to know where you are located.

[Keith]

Cerise, Cerise, Cerise

I don’t know where you are or your B&B and yes, it is possible that you have just bought in the wrong place, but I am sure you would be able to earn more money if you were just more positive.

Firstly, I can count on one hand the number of guests that stay with us each year who have walked in off the street and I seriously hope that no-one reading this relies on passing trade to earn a living. Our guests come here because we bring them here, or should I say, entice them here.

Ask yourself these questions:

Why did you buy in your area? What do you love about it?

What kind of client are you aiming your B&B at?

How much do you want to earn?

Are you doing it make money or as a hobby?

I know the old adage that says when you are buying property it’s all about location, location, location and that’s true if you want to make profit from the resale of the building, but it’s not necessarily true when you’re building a business. If it was we would have gone bust in the first year.

Oh, our mini-bars don’t contain alcoholic drinks.

[jon]

Keith well said.Location...Location

Took me years to decide because it needed to be right...for me and my clients.

1Passing trade...I dooubt it!

You get as much profit on a little bottle of perrier as you do on a bottle of wine?

So you invest in fridges....People rellaxing in the eve when they are on holiday can easily afford  to spend money on drinks...they either spend it with you or outside somewhere in the village. 

 

 

 

 

 

[jon]

You could be in 33 or 24 ......somewhere in Provence...however your purchase price was too low for that trype of area?The Americans like it around here.....Provence..Var..Landing Beaches.....and?????????