A weekend of nothingness

[JBloggs]

We have zero bookings for this weekend, it is the oddest thing ever. The weather has been and will be iffy again tomorrow, but the weekend looks fine.
Do you ever block off part of your rooms when you don't have any or few bookings? I figured I would block off the least expensive rooms that way if we do get a booking or two I won't have to pay this ruddy power bill to heat the whole house properly for those rooms.
Coldest winter on record here and we can't make enough revenue to even pay to heat this place. Every year we go through the motions of changing out the whole HVAC system as we cry over the electric bill. But in the summer with rooms occupied, ac buzzing away all day and night the bills is affordable. (Yes this is your permission, although you never need it, to sidetrack...please do, go right ahead, that's what we're here for!)

 

[Arks]

Yes. What you said. Sometimes if the whole place is checking out at 11:00 and I don't have anybody booked for that night, and I don't have time, or desire, to flip both my apartments before 4 p.m. checkin time, I'll mark off my cheaper one and concentrate on getting the more expensive one ready first. It only makes sense to push them to book the more expensive one first.
Sidetrack huh. We have 8" sleet and snow, with 19 F predicted today and tonight. Good time to talk about heat. I'm LOVING the low cost of natural gas right now, and so glad I have gas furnaces.
They talked me into electric heat pumps from my 3 new suites we're building, though. Hope I don't regret that down the line.
But my building is downtown and abutting other buildings on both sides, so we all benefit from each other's heating and cooling, and the building is all brick and concrete so once you get it warm or cool, you can almost heat it with a candle or cool it with an ice cube.
At least, that's what I tell myself.

 

[user 26]

jb, i used to block off rooms. if i wanted to take some 'me' time, i'd block them all. (expense be damned, i needed some down time) if i didn't want to have random guests booking all over the house, like one on the third floor and one in a corner of the second, i'd leave just one or two rooms available - the easiest rooms for me whatever that meant. then if those booked, i might open a third etc.
one thing that was hard was having guests ask if they could get a better rate because they could see all rooms available it was only them and surely i'd want their business? actually, it was harder to just have one room booked sometimes ... you all know what i mean. blocking off some rooms avoided that mess for me.
one exception was over thanksgiving some folks needed a place to say and we were usually closed by then .. because nothing in the area was open like restaurants ... there wasn't enough business for them to meet overhead. these guests were coming to visit family and we had a lovely time with them. they weren't last minute, they got in touch a few weeks ahead of time. they stayed Wednesday night through Sunday ... and decided to take two rooms. i pampered them and let them gather their things late in the day instead of by 11. a nice little bit of income late in our off season.

 

[EmptyNest]

Yes. What you said. Sometimes if the whole place is checking out at 11:00 and I don't have anybody booked for that night, and I don't have time, or desire, to flip both my apartments before 4 p.m. checkin time, I'll mark off my cheaper one and concentrate on getting the more expensive one ready first. It only makes sense to push them to book the more expensive one first.
Sidetrack huh. We have 8" sleet and snow, with 19 F predicted today and tonight. Good time to talk about heat. I'm LOVING the low cost of natural gas right now, and so glad I have gas furnaces.
They talked me into electric heat pumps from my 3 new suites we're building, though. Hope I don't regret that down the line.
But my building is downtown and abutting other buildings on both sides, so we all benefit from each other's heating and cooling, and the building is all brick and concrete so once you get it warm or cool, you can almost heat it with a candle or cool it with an ice cube.
At least, that's what I tell myself..

We have to keep our heat pump running when it snows so the snow doesn't clog up the condensor. lately we have gone back to our fuel oil baseboard heating so we could feel warm on those below zero days. Heat pump just can't keep us warm then. :-( So glad we kept our old furnace as a back up. We can run it off the generator.

 

[Morticia]

Yes, I block off rooms when we are completely empty hoping someone takes the hint. If no one takes the hint then I close up and do something else. Always block the cheap rooms first. I think Sanctuary does the same thing on the boat.
How cold was it? Food airlifted into a scientist frozen in on an island. She was ok, just missing fresh fruit and meat. It's almost 50 right now. Ice is breaking up around the island but not enough for the mail to get thru.
We switched to nat gas so you know the price of nat gas doubled this year. We locked at the higher rate so you know the price dropped slightly and we're paying thru the nose. I have a woolen scarf on so my neck stays warm.
Yes, our house is built for this, doesn't make it any easier to pay that bill. $700+ for Jan. Haven't seen Feb yet. Average temp in Feb was 13 degrees. WAAAAAAAAY too many below zero nights in there.
So, how was that? Answered question, sidetracked, thru in a 'fun' fact.

 

[2cat_lady]

Yes, I block off rooms when we are completely empty hoping someone takes the hint. If no one takes the hint then I close up and do something else. Always block the cheap rooms first. I think Sanctuary does the same thing on the boat.
How cold was it? Food airlifted into a scientist frozen in on an island. She was ok, just missing fresh fruit and meat. It's almost 50 right now. Ice is breaking up around the island but not enough for the mail to get thru.
We switched to nat gas so you know the price of nat gas doubled this year. We locked at the higher rate so you know the price dropped slightly and we're paying thru the nose. I have a woolen scarf on so my neck stays warm.
Yes, our house is built for this, doesn't make it any easier to pay that bill. $700+ for Jan. Haven't seen Feb yet. Average temp in Feb was 13 degrees. WAAAAAAAAY too many below zero nights in there.
So, how was that? Answered question, sidetracked, thru in a 'fun' fact..

Thank goodness for a wood stove. Most of the island was without power this morning so we had the stove filled and the generator going to keep essentials on. Wood makes a difference. And now that the power is back on, we're not playing catch up. My reservation for tonight also booked the smallest, and cheapest room, and it's already nice and toasty up there. Thankfully, we've been able to at least keep pace with the electrical bills this year. I can't imagine how you do it.

 

[Copperhead]

Agree, block some off.
Way too cold even down here in the deep south. Well not today, temps reaching 80 today, but then another cold dip to under freezing for the next 2 nights.
I can already here your violins playing background to my sob story

Lots of spring flowers started to bloom so I hope the next 2 nights don't shock them. That's the reason I worry, as we have a wedding the following weekend and hope to have a lovely spring garden for it.
Anyway, getting back to the sidetrack - heat.

We changed out our central system to individual split system units for each guest room. They have worked wonders for our electric bill as they are only in use when we have guests.

 

[LogCabinResort]

Yes. What you said. Sometimes if the whole place is checking out at 11:00 and I don't have anybody booked for that night, and I don't have time, or desire, to flip both my apartments before 4 p.m. checkin time, I'll mark off my cheaper one and concentrate on getting the more expensive one ready first. It only makes sense to push them to book the more expensive one first.
Sidetrack huh. We have 8" sleet and snow, with 19 F predicted today and tonight. Good time to talk about heat. I'm LOVING the low cost of natural gas right now, and so glad I have gas furnaces.
They talked me into electric heat pumps from my 3 new suites we're building, though. Hope I don't regret that down the line.
But my building is downtown and abutting other buildings on both sides, so we all benefit from each other's heating and cooling, and the building is all brick and concrete so once you get it warm or cool, you can almost heat it with a candle or cool it with an ice cube.
At least, that's what I tell myself..

They talked me into electric heat pumps from my 3 new suites we're building, though. Hope I don't regret that down the line.

My heating bill is double my cooling bill, and I have all heat pumps. I wish Natural gas was available!

 

[gillumhouse]

I pray the prognosticators are wrong for here. We are supposed to get up to 13.4 inches of snow tonight. It has been raining all day which has too quickly melted the snow we already had. We now have flooded roads, bridges that cross rivers and creeks to homes on the other side (not towns, just houses) washed out, and just general flooding all over the state. So we will have a nice sheet of ice under the snow.Thursday night we are suppoded to go as low as -6. I hope they are wrong.

 

[Morticia]

We are taking advantage of no guests and heading out for a conference, picture taking and some yummy food.

 

[JimBoone]

Don't block off rooms as our guest rooms (and family bedrooms) have individual heat/air units, of course they are just resistance heat so not economical and you have to keep half or more running to keep pipes from freezing, heat pump and gas logs in living area, Jan/Feb power bills will top a thousand most years, but on the positive side snow and cold brings the skiers that are our winter customers, for us a warm winter would be worse.

 

[Arks]

Don't block off rooms as our guest rooms (and family bedrooms) have individual heat/air units, of course they are just resistance heat so not economical and you have to keep half or more running to keep pipes from freezing, heat pump and gas logs in living area, Jan/Feb power bills will top a thousand most years, but on the positive side snow and cold brings the skiers that are our winter customers, for us a warm winter would be worse..

Don't block off rooms as our guest rooms (and family bedrooms) have individual heat/air units...

By "block" I think we're mostly talking about marking them "unavailable" in our online reservation software.

 

[gillumhouse]

I had 1 paid room night plus a 2-night GC paid for 3 years ago (cash long gone) in Feb (the elopement was a scaled down and would not even pay my phone bill after expenses) and 2 paying nights for March. Dripping faucets and heat on everywhere. And Feb was the month of Conferences - with hotel bill and registration fees.
Sad to say, this is pretty much the norm - except for the many, many nights of extreme temps.

 

[JimBoone]

Don't block off rooms as our guest rooms (and family bedrooms) have individual heat/air units, of course they are just resistance heat so not economical and you have to keep half or more running to keep pipes from freezing, heat pump and gas logs in living area, Jan/Feb power bills will top a thousand most years, but on the positive side snow and cold brings the skiers that are our winter customers, for us a warm winter would be worse..

Don't block off rooms as our guest rooms (and family bedrooms) have individual heat/air units...

By "block" I think we're mostly talking about marking them "unavailable" in our online reservation software.
.

Hi Arks,
I did gather as well that blocking referred to not showing as available online and I don't do online reservations, however Joey did speak of doing this at least in part so as not to heat a portion of the house and save that power expense, as our rooms have individual units we only need to heat those that are rented or those that are necessary to keep the plumbing from freezing.
We are a bit different from many here in that as a mom and pop motel our rooms are all much the same style and the rate tends to vary by the number of beds or sleeping space available in the room rather than the view or character of the specific room. While our prices may be a bit lower we are fortunate in that we have a winter season from mid-December to mid-March if the weather cooperates. Our slower times fall between mid-March and May and again in the fall from November to mid-December.

 

[Silverspoon]

Well, as you all know, we have closed the two suites in the house until April. Because of the huge amount of snow we have received in the last 2 months, the cottage, open beginning March 1, is not accessible without a fair amount of work on our part.
But as a professional curtesy for a couple of innkeepers down from Morticia's state on their way to PA, we opened the large suite in the main house for a 1 night reservation last night. Soooo, it meant heating that end of the house, lighting the fireplace for ambiance, baking cookies and mulling cider for arrival and getting back into the swing of making breakfast....for a greatly reduced rate. Will be putting in another order for fuel oil today. sigh More snow too.
Soon I will begin blocking out rooms during the shoulder season to avoid the "one-room-booked" mid-week syndrome in this location during the early spring. It just does not make sense to get the inn keeping machine revved up for one couple.

 

[JBloggs]

Well, as you all know, we have closed the two suites in the house until April. Because of the huge amount of snow we have received in the last 2 months, the cottage, open beginning March 1, is not accessible without a fair amount of work on our part.
But as a professional curtesy for a couple of innkeepers down from Morticia's state on their way to PA, we opened the large suite in the main house for a 1 night reservation last night. Soooo, it meant heating that end of the house, lighting the fireplace for ambiance, baking cookies and mulling cider for arrival and getting back into the swing of making breakfast....for a greatly reduced rate. Will be putting in another order for fuel oil today. sigh More snow too.
Soon I will begin blocking out rooms during the shoulder season to avoid the "one-room-booked" mid-week syndrome in this location during the early spring. It just does not make sense to get the inn keeping machine revved up for one couple..

Well, as you all know, we have closed the two suites in the house until April. Because of the huge amount of snow we have received in the last 2 months, the cottage, open beginning March 1, is not accessible without a fair amount of work on our part.
But as a professional curtesy for a couple of innkeepers down from Morticia's state on their way to PA, we opened the large suite in the main house for a 1 night reservation last night. Soooo, it meant heating that end of the house, lighting the fireplace for ambiance, baking cookies and mulling cider for arrival and getting back into the swing of making breakfast....for a greatly reduced rate. Will be putting in another order for fuel oil today. sigh More snow too.
Soon I will begin blocking out rooms during the shoulder season to avoid the "one-room-booked" mid-week syndrome in this location during the early spring. It just does not make sense to get the inn keeping machine revved up for one couple.

Thank you Silvers. and I was thinking about you and all this weather, stay safe and warm. We have a rainbow of colors on our radar at the moment - some fluke of 60-70 degree weather yesterday is bringing tornadoes and more, ice storms, and the whole enchilada. Not worth it, I agree. I did block off our cottage for sure for this weekend and as of right now I may just shut er all down, it's Thursday.
Be safe!

 

[gillumhouse]

Well, as you all know, we have closed the two suites in the house until April. Because of the huge amount of snow we have received in the last 2 months, the cottage, open beginning March 1, is not accessible without a fair amount of work on our part.
But as a professional curtesy for a couple of innkeepers down from Morticia's state on their way to PA, we opened the large suite in the main house for a 1 night reservation last night. Soooo, it meant heating that end of the house, lighting the fireplace for ambiance, baking cookies and mulling cider for arrival and getting back into the swing of making breakfast....for a greatly reduced rate. Will be putting in another order for fuel oil today. sigh More snow too.
Soon I will begin blocking out rooms during the shoulder season to avoid the "one-room-booked" mid-week syndrome in this location during the early spring. It just does not make sense to get the inn keeping machine revved up for one couple..

Well, as you all know, we have closed the two suites in the house until April. Because of the huge amount of snow we have received in the last 2 months, the cottage, open beginning March 1, is not accessible without a fair amount of work on our part.
But as a professional curtesy for a couple of innkeepers down from Morticia's state on their way to PA, we opened the large suite in the main house for a 1 night reservation last night. Soooo, it meant heating that end of the house, lighting the fireplace for ambiance, baking cookies and mulling cider for arrival and getting back into the swing of making breakfast....for a greatly reduced rate. Will be putting in another order for fuel oil today. sigh More snow too.
Soon I will begin blocking out rooms during the shoulder season to avoid the "one-room-booked" mid-week syndrome in this location during the early spring. It just does not make sense to get the inn keeping machine revved up for one couple.

Thank you Silvers. and I was thinking about you and all this weather, stay safe and warm. We have a rainbow of colors on our radar at the moment - some fluke of 60-70 degree weather yesterday is bringing tornadoes and more, ice storms, and the whole enchilada. Not worth it, I agree. I did block off our cottage for sure for this weekend and as of right now I may just shut er all down, it's Thursday.
Be safe!
.

My Saturday rez is from Mass - I am wondering how it is going to turn out. If it was for today I think I would have called them offering to cancel with no penalty. Money is not worth it. I shoveled a path for the mail lady and by the time the mail came you could hardly see the path. Paid a couple kids $5 each to clear path to my car - DH says they did a crap job - they did what I asked for what I was paying them which I ONLY did to encourage them to keep looking for WORK. It is still snowing and blowing. I told the guy who I really pay to dig me out to wait until Saturday morning. Waste of his time and my money otherwise.

 

[2cat_lady]

Well, as you all know, we have closed the two suites in the house until April. Because of the huge amount of snow we have received in the last 2 months, the cottage, open beginning March 1, is not accessible without a fair amount of work on our part.
But as a professional curtesy for a couple of innkeepers down from Morticia's state on their way to PA, we opened the large suite in the main house for a 1 night reservation last night. Soooo, it meant heating that end of the house, lighting the fireplace for ambiance, baking cookies and mulling cider for arrival and getting back into the swing of making breakfast....for a greatly reduced rate. Will be putting in another order for fuel oil today. sigh More snow too.
Soon I will begin blocking out rooms during the shoulder season to avoid the "one-room-booked" mid-week syndrome in this location during the early spring. It just does not make sense to get the inn keeping machine revved up for one couple..

Well, as you all know, we have closed the two suites in the house until April. Because of the huge amount of snow we have received in the last 2 months, the cottage, open beginning March 1, is not accessible without a fair amount of work on our part.
But as a professional curtesy for a couple of innkeepers down from Morticia's state on their way to PA, we opened the large suite in the main house for a 1 night reservation last night. Soooo, it meant heating that end of the house, lighting the fireplace for ambiance, baking cookies and mulling cider for arrival and getting back into the swing of making breakfast....for a greatly reduced rate. Will be putting in another order for fuel oil today. sigh More snow too.
Soon I will begin blocking out rooms during the shoulder season to avoid the "one-room-booked" mid-week syndrome in this location during the early spring. It just does not make sense to get the inn keeping machine revved up for one couple.

Thank you Silvers. and I was thinking about you and all this weather, stay safe and warm. We have a rainbow of colors on our radar at the moment - some fluke of 60-70 degree weather yesterday is bringing tornadoes and more, ice storms, and the whole enchilada. Not worth it, I agree. I did block off our cottage for sure for this weekend and as of right now I may just shut er all down, it's Thursday.
Be safe!
.

My Saturday rez is from Mass - I am wondering how it is going to turn out. If it was for today I think I would have called them offering to cancel with no penalty. Money is not worth it. I shoveled a path for the mail lady and by the time the mail came you could hardly see the path. Paid a couple kids $5 each to clear path to my car - DH says they did a crap job - they did what I asked for what I was paying them which I ONLY did to encourage them to keep looking for WORK. It is still snowing and blowing. I told the guy who I really pay to dig me out to wait until Saturday morning. Waste of his time and my money otherwise.
.

Had a no show last night and their card was declined. Figured, this time of year. Have another one tonight and I honestly hope they don't show up either. I just wish they'd call and let me know.

 

[undersea]

Well, as you all know, we have closed the two suites in the house until April. Because of the huge amount of snow we have received in the last 2 months, the cottage, open beginning March 1, is not accessible without a fair amount of work on our part.
But as a professional curtesy for a couple of innkeepers down from Morticia's state on their way to PA, we opened the large suite in the main house for a 1 night reservation last night. Soooo, it meant heating that end of the house, lighting the fireplace for ambiance, baking cookies and mulling cider for arrival and getting back into the swing of making breakfast....for a greatly reduced rate. Will be putting in another order for fuel oil today. sigh More snow too.
Soon I will begin blocking out rooms during the shoulder season to avoid the "one-room-booked" mid-week syndrome in this location during the early spring. It just does not make sense to get the inn keeping machine revved up for one couple..

Hmm - I was wondering the possibility of a continental breakfast for midweek offseason...

 

[gillumhouse]

Well, as you all know, we have closed the two suites in the house until April. Because of the huge amount of snow we have received in the last 2 months, the cottage, open beginning March 1, is not accessible without a fair amount of work on our part.
But as a professional curtesy for a couple of innkeepers down from Morticia's state on their way to PA, we opened the large suite in the main house for a 1 night reservation last night. Soooo, it meant heating that end of the house, lighting the fireplace for ambiance, baking cookies and mulling cider for arrival and getting back into the swing of making breakfast....for a greatly reduced rate. Will be putting in another order for fuel oil today. sigh More snow too.
Soon I will begin blocking out rooms during the shoulder season to avoid the "one-room-booked" mid-week syndrome in this location during the early spring. It just does not make sense to get the inn keeping machine revved up for one couple..

Hmm - I was wondering the possibility of a continental breakfast for midweek offseason...
.

I started out with Continental Plus - guests were disappointed they were not getting a full breakfast and I found the full breakfast was easier to fix.
It is my one chance to knock their socks off and I will do it whenever. Saving time and money today could possibly cost me reservations later. I never know who is going to become a regular when they are here for the first time. Plus, someone on business during the week is always a possible returning guest on a weekend with spouse in tow.