User Power
Value/Post Ratio
23%
- Jul 26, 2007
- 2,215
- 515
- 46
I have learned A LOT in the past couple of months, and I am thinking about tweeking the direction that we are headed. Before anyone screams "focus!" let me tell you my lessons learned and why I am thinking about pursuing this route instead before I ask for help evaluating the numbers.
Cabin lessons learned:
1. Confusion and extra travel. When you have a handful of cabins that are not co-located it can be difficult to keep track of service calls and housekeeping.
2. Laundry. Currently we do not have a central place to do laundry. Housekeepers have to juggle either taking laundry home, doing a load there, both, or sacking it up and leaving it for next time- and let me tell you it stacks up like you wouldn't believe. ...There is a cabin operation down the street that has on-site laundry, but because they are all individual units the housekeeper has to load up a wheelbarrow and push it up hill to get the clean linens and stuff to the cabins! I can't even imagine doing that in the snow with the ice and all! Brr!
Benefit of an Inn: On-site laundry and you don't need to go outside to make beds!
3. Utilities. Having a bunch of cabins all over can get expensive. If there are built like a tri-plex or larger then the utilities go way down.
Benefit of an Inn: Cheaper utilities, and co-located service calls.
4. Housekeepers. Biggest pain in my a$$. We have 2 housekeepers- it is hit or miss if they can get to certain cabins- depending on weather. We can't have this happen!
Benefit of an Inn: Off the main drag, streets are always clear and housekeepers don't need to drive up steep hills. ...Also, we can pay them hourly, instead of $60 bucks to clean a full cabin each time- much cheaper!
5. Hedging the bet. Guests that stay at our cabin are out of luck if something happens to that particular cabin- as owners we are also out that income!
Benefit of an Inn: More rooms, can switch rooms if need be.
6. Cost. One cabin= $150k; a duplex= $125; six plex= $335; Inn with 14 rooms=$650k, or $46,430 a door. (Consider that the rent for a cabin is around $125/night and a room at the Inn is $75.)
I am trying to make a solid, responsible decision out of balanced logic and not emotion. So this decision won't be made without a lot of DD.
Ok- with all that being said, is someone up for double checking my numbers and seeing if I am evaluating this place correctly? I suppose for nothing else, it would be good practice.
Cabin lessons learned:
1. Confusion and extra travel. When you have a handful of cabins that are not co-located it can be difficult to keep track of service calls and housekeeping.
2. Laundry. Currently we do not have a central place to do laundry. Housekeepers have to juggle either taking laundry home, doing a load there, both, or sacking it up and leaving it for next time- and let me tell you it stacks up like you wouldn't believe. ...There is a cabin operation down the street that has on-site laundry, but because they are all individual units the housekeeper has to load up a wheelbarrow and push it up hill to get the clean linens and stuff to the cabins! I can't even imagine doing that in the snow with the ice and all! Brr!
Benefit of an Inn: On-site laundry and you don't need to go outside to make beds!
3. Utilities. Having a bunch of cabins all over can get expensive. If there are built like a tri-plex or larger then the utilities go way down.
Benefit of an Inn: Cheaper utilities, and co-located service calls.
4. Housekeepers. Biggest pain in my a$$. We have 2 housekeepers- it is hit or miss if they can get to certain cabins- depending on weather. We can't have this happen!
Benefit of an Inn: Off the main drag, streets are always clear and housekeepers don't need to drive up steep hills. ...Also, we can pay them hourly, instead of $60 bucks to clean a full cabin each time- much cheaper!
5. Hedging the bet. Guests that stay at our cabin are out of luck if something happens to that particular cabin- as owners we are also out that income!
Benefit of an Inn: More rooms, can switch rooms if need be.
6. Cost. One cabin= $150k; a duplex= $125; six plex= $335; Inn with 14 rooms=$650k, or $46,430 a door. (Consider that the rent for a cabin is around $125/night and a room at the Inn is $75.)
I am trying to make a solid, responsible decision out of balanced logic and not emotion. So this decision won't be made without a lot of DD.
Ok- with all that being said, is someone up for double checking my numbers and seeing if I am evaluating this place correctly? I suppose for nothing else, it would be good practice.
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum:
Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
uke:mini-hijack here: Russ, you'll appreciate this- I thought to myself, how can I enjoy the process of fixing the dishwasher? Answer: turn on some Paul Simon. So there I sat jammin to "Me and Julio Down by the School Yard" as I was sucking God knows what out of the dishwasher with a turkey baster) and she made a great comment- "Yeah, I would love to work there too- but I don't want to have to." That's the kicker! We would need 2 front desk people and a cleaning person (these roles might be able to be combined). We both agreed that we didn't want anymore 3am phone calls of shit fountains in the backyard like we got over Christmas. So how do we run an Inn and remove ourselves from being integral parts of the day-to-day operations? I think the answer is similiar to apartments in that if you have enough doors you can justify (and afford) the expense of a manager. ...Is there a magic number as far as a minimum number of doors we should look at? (This place has 14 as it stands, but could easily be 15 if we didn't have someone live there, and there is a large out building which could be converted into a minimum of 5 more rooms. 
