Cant sell my hotel

dazco

slowdog wrote: »

is that a legitimate question, or are you looking for your next holiday destination

i jest. course theyre not

barnaby: no, yes and yes. the help here has been fantastic, and along with the new website (imminent i hope) we'll see what happens.

im less positive as it does feel like every avenue i explore in terms of selling the place is a dead end. without going on about it too much, there is a strong feeling that the supposed blockbuster season will be very short-lived and no-where near expectations. i strongly suspect that one way or another, this will be our last season

I asked you much earlier what you would do if you sold it.

The reason I am asking is because if you planned to buy a nice house maybe you could advertise it as a swap, maybe even swap because houses are easier to dispose of.

What are the rates on your hotel?

slowdog

sorry. i must have missed the earlier question.

if you mean by way of job, thats a good question. i know what i want to do, but its more likely a filler job will be taken till i can sort that out. i want to remain self employed however.

we would love to buy a nice house. however, a swap isnt really a feasible option. we would be seriously out of pocket as there is no way we would go for a house the size of which the mortgage would allow. it would be nice to think we could come out of this with some money in the bank. that will allow us to both get somewhere and be able to support ourselves while we sort ourselves out.

the rates, thanks to the council, are stupidly high. and we've just got them reduced.

we really do not want to cut our losses though, but the state of us at the moment makes us think (certainly not want) that the bank may own this by the end of the year

GDB2222

slowdog wrote: »

we really do not want to cut our losses though, but the state of us at the moment makes us think (certainly not want) that the bank may own this by the end of the year

Yet more advice - if you are in that bad a state, and you do sound worn out, maybe you just need a helper or two? You have to pay them (presumably NMW, so around £5-6k for the season?) but that may be far better than selling up at a very low price.

moneysaver

You could speak to an intensive driving school there is plenty in blackpool, they use hotels all year round to put pupils in for the duration of the course. You would not get a great deal on the rooms per night but you might get pupils all year round which might help.

I knew someone who was doing this in Blackpool a few years ago. There is one driving school to steer clear of but I don't want to mention it on here( I will pm you if you need it). The rest I cannot vouch for but it is worth a try.



Moneysaver

slowdog

thats an interesting option. i would certainly look into it. so yes, i would be interested to know who not to touch with a barge pole

gdb: dont get me wrong. we do have staff, one of whom is invaluable. they have done the odd shift here and there up to now, and they start back properly on monday.

monday is when it gets going again and we're nice and busy. it will be interesting to see how the season pans out. dont get me wrong, im still working on the assumption that we are going to be here for god knows how long and as such are going to do what we can to drum up more business. when i talk disparigingly about being here for much longer, its not that i think the business will do so badly this year that we will have to shut up shop. its us. my wife has been suffering for a while now, but now its starting to make me ill too. its easy to say "bring in more staff", and that would be lovely. however, i dont care what anyone says, blackpool is still going to be quiet this year. it is not going to be a bumper season.

why do i think this? well, ok, for some reason, a lot of schools are still open till thursday. very much later than normal, and its not helpful. but a lot of schools have finished. the scots and the irish have finished a while ago. where are they? certainly not in blackpool thats for sure.

on that basis, bringing in more staff when we are going to be doing the same level of trade as last year, maybe less, isnt the best idea financially.

moneysaver

What about murder mystery weekends?

You could also use it for for psychic nights & put on some sandwiches & tea.



Moneysaver

billyboy11

The hotel Inspector on Channel Five or Fiver about 9pm,,, i can't remember, it's on this week in a hotel called Sunnyside?

Maybe worth a look...

simpywimpy

on an old episode of hotel inspector, one hotel was catering to coach parties.the room rates weren't great but they made money on bar takings etc.

slowdog

the bar side has taken a massive hit. once it really gets going in the summer, we have always had cabaret , every night, right through to november. and some cracking acts if i do say so myself. the bar used to be packed, with the cabaret not starting till 11, it meant people could go out till last orders and rush back for a couple more hours drinking and some entertainment. then the licensing laws changed. the second people didnt have to rush back to get the extra drinking in is the second that the bar took a hit. so badly that we have had to heavily reduce how much cabaret we put on.

see now, we can have 60 people in the hotel, and we will be lucky to see even a third of them in the bar

i1189

Could you start the caberet earlier so there is no need for them to go out?