Planning for Christmas starts early - tickets for the 2012 have already gone on sale and we had our first booking for next November a couple of days ago.
Today we've had a board meeting and have taken the time to think about our first season as a B&B and to look ahead at what we need to do for 2012. Most of our bookings have come from the Glaven Valley website - I'm sure hardly anyone has heard of the Glaven Valley - the Glaven is a tiny river nearby nestled in amongst what count for hills in Norfolk. But it is right up at the top of the google searches for 'North Norfolk B&B' and that's what counts. The vast majority of our bookings over the last two months have come from the Thursford site - so that's been a really worthwhile investment.
In total we've had guests for 55 nights in the last 5 months with December and then August and November being our busiest months. That makes well over 100 breakfasts served - the most popular being the 'Full Norfolk' - the traditional cooked breakfast with locally sourced sausages, bacon and eggs. Next most popular is Mike's invention 'The Great Snoring Breakfast' made with quail eggs from the farm in Great Snoring just a few miles from here. Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and pancakes with fruit compote have also been chosen quite a few times but no-one has chosen the Sausage Platter so that will now leave the menu. Only a few takers for Kippers and Crab cakes so time for a re-think on these items too.
Selling our (or should I say Claire's) home-made Mincemeat and jams proved profitable in December so this year we'll plan what we make and what jam pots it goes into through the summer. We had to take Plum jam off sale as we're in danger of running out (and at one time we had over 30 jars of it!).
So after our first (albeit shortened) season what have we learnt?
- That we clearly appeal to a certain demographic, all of whom have been lovely people to share our home with.
- That Alison sees the big picture (strategy and forward planning) and Mike does detail. (I've been trained on how to lay the breakfast table - what angle the teaspoons have to be placed at in the saucers, how to fold the napkins and where they should be placed on the side plates etc).
- That it may have taken a few months more than anticipated before we opened but the attention to detail meant that we had great reviews from the outset.
- The best way to peel quail eggs is under running water.
- That Claire makes really great cakes and has been fantastic help since we started.
- It takes two people about an hour to prepare, make and be ready to serve breakfast. With only one person doing breakfast you can't be as chatty to the guests as the breakfast will burn.
- One of the perks in making lovely breakfasts is that you get to eat the surplus; fruit salad is a great option, croissants are as tasty but not quite so good for you on a regular basis. We love the guests who have pancakes as there is always spare pancake mix which just has to be used up.
- That we have the friendliest butchers around who make the tastiest sausages we've ever eaten and our guests have loved both the sausages and the butchers too.
- That we need to buy better biscuits.
- That the speciality teas (peppermint, camomile, green and lemon) have hardly been touched.
- That our best bargain of the year were the two armchairs from the Auction and the two pots of blue dye to transform the loose covers - total cost £17.
- That nobody sat in the summer house - not sure why, maybe with a better summer this will be more used.
- That attention to detail is really important but that having 'Mr Hospitality' as the host is what makes the difference.
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