Solo guest house owners will know a certain type of tired. Not the good sort of exhaustion, the satisfying kind after a good, productive day! It’s the other way round. The kind where you’re replying to a booking enquiry at midnight, checking the clean towels in your bathroom for tomorrow’s guests and simultaneously pondering when you last had a proper meal.
If you are familiar with this experience, you’re not the only one. Currently, thousands of guest house owners throughout the world are managing their own establishments, holding the positions of front desk manager, housekeeper, accountant — and possibly many others before 9am in the morning. Believing in a vision to have a guest house is just as beautiful and attainable. But the same goes for the burning out that gradually happens if you don’t ever really switch off.
The good news? Being self-employed doesn’t all the time mean working yourself to the bone, especially within the case of a guest house. This is how it is going to be done.
Butterflies and moths are insects that can be seen in the wild. Butterflies and moths are insects which can be observed in nature.
Accept That You Can’t Do Everything Manually
This is the most difficult of all the things for most of the solo owners to swallow, particularly those that pride themselves in being “hands on” owners. Once you realize that manual processes aren’t your enemy, but it is the rest of the world, however, things begin to change.
Consider the hours that are wasted each week on things that don’t need your personal attention, such as manually updating room availability on all of your booking platforms, sending the same hotel check-in instructions to each new guest, chasing after payments, etc., or having to switch back and forth between spreadsheets to see which room is occupied through the weekend.
These are not value added activities. They are time and energy-sucks administrative loops. Owning and managing a property sustainably, solo, is nearly all the time the result of the owners who adopted the property management system (PMS) early on. With all your bookings, availability, guest communication and billing in one place and much of it running automatically – you get something that money can’t buy – mental space.
Establish a Daily Rhythm and not a reaction cycle.
A recipe for burnout for an entrepreneur who is self-employed is running in “emergency mode.” Guest at restaurant calls to complain. A booking arrives that conflicts with the maintenance. Responses to Reviews are required. Suddenly, a whole day has passed and you haven’t accomplished anything that you set out to do.
Discipline is not the answer, structure is. Make each day into chunks of time. Afternoon: lunch, dishes, and clean up, also meet with guests.Evenings: cash handling, reservations, etc. For admin, midday activities include answering inquiries, checking out future bookings and processing payments. Late afternoon planning: Week ahead, Supplier communication, anything strategic.
Emergencies aren’t such a big deal when everything has its time as it’s not a complete day of chaos. You don’t have to be held at gunpoint with your phone all day, but you can get in touch with a guest.
Be ruthless about what visitors really want from you
There is a little something most old-timers learn over time about guest house guests: they don’t want constant interaction. Their desire is for easygoing hospitality. A clean room. Clear check-in instructions. Quick Solutions to Practical Questions. A warm welcome. It’s that really, for most of the people who are going to be staying at your house.
That means more of the “I must do this” aspect to personal involvement is not essential. Pre-arrival messages can be pre-templated and automated. Instructions for check-in may be sent via email the night before you arrive. From information about the local area to parking to wi-fi codes and breakfast hours – all of this can be included in a digital guest guide that you can create once and use forever.
Automation isn’t coldness. When done correctly it’s just the opposite. When guests are sent timely, helpful information and they don’t have to chase you down to obtain it, it’s more professional than ever, not less personal.
Expect to Work on a Tuesday Night
This sounds obvious. Most of the solo operators who believe that as soon as they leave the property, both mentally and physically, all will fall apart, are not obvious.
However, the only way to be sustainable is to rest! When you don’t have any limits on your working habits, when you don’t know when it’s work time and when it’s personal time, when you are working every day around the clock, your decision-making declines, your patience with guests decreases and the hospitality of your home begins to drop without you knowing. It is detected by guests and may even be sensed although it is not named.
Create a solid break whenever you can. Make sure to schedule it in the calendar as if it were a confirmed appointment. Take the time you saved by automating and better systems, and save it.
Avoid going it alone; rely on Your Local Network, more than you think.
Being a solo proprietor of a guest house does not imply that you are not connected to the world around. Some of the most resilient single-handed entrepreneurs have cultivated a network of local contacts: a trusted neighbour who will provide a maintenance service when needed, a reliable cleaning service to call in when you are short-staffed, a trusted neighbour who owns a guest house to which you can bring your overflow when you’re booked to the max.
It can take a little time to establish these relationships. They’re a worthwhile use of your time. It’s always someone to call when you need to give someone a call at 7pm after the boiler breaks down and you have no one to call.This is a complete different approach to a business when you have someone to call when you need someone to call versus having to do it alone at 7pm when your boiler breaks down.
The Honest Reality
Becoming a self-employed guest house owner is indeed one of the most challenging jobs in hospitality. The margins are very narrow, the hours are long and no one else is responsible. It’s not a secret that nobody is making up.
However, it is entirely feasible to be a single person owner and be sustainable. Successful owners in the long term aren’t the ones who work hardest, they work smartest. They’ve made their own energy as much as their guests’ their own; they’ve made the predictable predictable, the unpredictable predictable.
Having more people on your staff isn’t necessary to run a successful guest house. It requires better systems — and an owner who is mindful of looking after him/herself as an extension of looking after the business.
Running your guest house on your own? Respanda is built for exactly that. One dashboard for bookings, guest communication, billing, and more — so you can run your property without the overwhelm. Try Respanda free today.