Got My Assessment Today

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Generic

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Messages
7,728
Reaction score
281
Well, we got the results of our government inspection today. We stayed the same (we knew that already). But they did break it down into categories.
Rooms... about 4 stars
Breakfast... about 4.125 stars
Bathrooms... about 2.25 stars
Exterior and the environment... about 3.25 stars
Interior and the services.... about 4.75 stars
Basically, the bathrooms (3) are divided by the number of rooms (5) and so it's like our bathrooms average out to 3.75 stars. Don't know why we scored so low on the exterior and the environment, but then again, she was here in October... when the garden isn't in bloom and well... we don't have a pool, a jacuzzi, etc.
Funny how they do some of the assessment... I get more points for the availability of street parking than for my garages, because they divide the garages by the number of rooms, but street parking is ample and therefore doesn't need to be divided (no matter how hard the reality of trying to get a spot.)
So the only way to improve is to build more bathrooms, which I can't do. Oh well....
 
Can you interact with her? Always nice to know why you got what you did.
 
though we don't do AA rating or VB rating now they at least sit with you for about half an hour to an hour telling you about the inspection (normally but thats another story) and then send you a more detailed written up report.
The other story is they are supposed to do this but keep dashing off in about 10 mins even when they have not done and overnight stay and there are complaints all over ie ive paid $1000 for this I want my half hour! and more and more people are pulling out.
 
Can you interact with her? Always nice to know why you got what you did..
We did, to some extent. But from her end it's quite clinical. She has to see what has changed, take measurements, etc.
We can pay for a service that will tell us how to improve. But basically from what she told us there is no way to get to 4 stars without adding bathrooms. No one in town can actually get 5 stars anyway... we would all need to adds amenities that you can't have in an urban setting, like a pool.
Still, it feels so empty that I can't really improve, there is no way to get a better rating. That there is nothing more to shoot for. Essentially, other than the bathroom situation, we are a 4* property. Damn... I wish there was at least a 3.5, but there isn't.
 
Can you interact with her? Always nice to know why you got what you did..
We did, to some extent. But from her end it's quite clinical. She has to see what has changed, take measurements, etc.
We can pay for a service that will tell us how to improve. But basically from what she told us there is no way to get to 4 stars without adding bathrooms. No one in town can actually get 5 stars anyway... we would all need to adds amenities that you can't have in an urban setting, like a pool.
Still, it feels so empty that I can't really improve, there is no way to get a better rating. That there is nothing more to shoot for. Essentially, other than the bathroom situation, we are a 4* property. Damn... I wish there was at least a 3.5, but there isn't.
.
Eric Arthur Blair said:
Damn... I wish there was at least a 3.5, but there isn't.
One of these should be worth at least a half star, especially if the inspector is a man. Put one in every room. No water supply needed. Just a small drain line that connects to your plumbing.
http://goo.gl/HcYeO
(just kidding, of course) ;-)
 
though we don't do AA rating or VB rating now they at least sit with you for about half an hour to an hour telling you about the inspection (normally but thats another story) and then send you a more detailed written up report.
The other story is they are supposed to do this but keep dashing off in about 10 mins even when they have not done and overnight stay and there are complaints all over ie ive paid $1000 for this I want my half hour! and more and more people are pulling out..
though we don't do AA rating or VB rating now they at least sit with you for about half an hour to an hour telling you about the inspection (normally but thats another story) and then send you a more detailed written up report.
The other story is they are supposed to do this but keep dashing off in about 10 mins even when they have not done and overnight stay and there are complaints all over ie ive paid $1000 for this I want my half hour! and more and more people are pulling out.
The last VS inspector we had here was very good and did chat and go through the major points in the inspection. The one before chatted briefly and then put a number of negative points in the report which they never mentioned.
 
though we don't do AA rating or VB rating now they at least sit with you for about half an hour to an hour telling you about the inspection (normally but thats another story) and then send you a more detailed written up report.
The other story is they are supposed to do this but keep dashing off in about 10 mins even when they have not done and overnight stay and there are complaints all over ie ive paid $1000 for this I want my half hour! and more and more people are pulling out..
though we don't do AA rating or VB rating now they at least sit with you for about half an hour to an hour telling you about the inspection (normally but thats another story) and then send you a more detailed written up report.
The other story is they are supposed to do this but keep dashing off in about 10 mins even when they have not done and overnight stay and there are complaints all over ie ive paid $1000 for this I want my half hour! and more and more people are pulling out.
The last VS inspector we had here was very good and did chat and go through the major points in the inspection. The one before chatted briefly and then put a number of negative points in the report which they never mentioned.
.
this is one of the problems we had with the AA the woman never said there was a problem with the car park and in the report said there was a problem with weeds. if she had we would have told her we were having it resurfaced in a week so wern't going overboard with the weeding when it would be moot
 
For the first time we got lower marks for the bathrooms on the last inspection. I guess 'bathroom in a closet' is no longer acceptable. Like you, nothing we can do about it. Everything works, it's clean, it's polished and shiny, it's the best we can do in the space we have.
We held onto our stars but she was making noises about lowering the number next time.
 
For the first time we got lower marks for the bathrooms on the last inspection. I guess 'bathroom in a closet' is no longer acceptable. Like you, nothing we can do about it. Everything works, it's clean, it's polished and shiny, it's the best we can do in the space we have.
We held onto our stars but she was making noises about lowering the number next time..
It was one of the things we talked about. She mentioned that a number of local properties would be going from 4* to 3* and they (the government tourist board) were happy about it, because they think we don't have enough 3* properties.
It's funny because I don't think the number of * actually would change anything for me. But we do know a property where they do think it makes a difference (and they won't lower their price, even if they are empty.)
 
For the first time we got lower marks for the bathrooms on the last inspection. I guess 'bathroom in a closet' is no longer acceptable. Like you, nothing we can do about it. Everything works, it's clean, it's polished and shiny, it's the best we can do in the space we have.
We held onto our stars but she was making noises about lowering the number next time..
It was one of the things we talked about. She mentioned that a number of local properties would be going from 4* to 3* and they (the government tourist board) were happy about it, because they think we don't have enough 3* properties.
It's funny because I don't think the number of * actually would change anything for me. But we do know a property where they do think it makes a difference (and they won't lower their price, even if they are empty.)
.
In the UK its is a train wreck! there are a 1-5 star rating with a gold or silver add on if you are super amazing at 5 star for - hotels, small hotels, B&B's, Guest Accommodation, Guest House, Farm Stay, restaurant with accommodation or pub with accommodation. All is rated differently and I can barely understand it and I work in it so how are members of the public going on their holidays supposed to work it out? More and more people in this country are going unrated (out of accommodation harrogate 57 members another 6 pulled out this year) One of the problems with it is people think its free if you are of that standard and are horrified at how much we have to pay for it.
What is also making matters more confusing is that there are a number of local schemes popping up ie visit cornwall, welcome to yorkshire, visit winchester which simply look for minimum standards and you pass or fail and are a lot cheaper.
However my point being (now Ive got back to it) cutomers don't know what it means anyway so I certainly wouldn't worry about it.
 
For the first time we got lower marks for the bathrooms on the last inspection. I guess 'bathroom in a closet' is no longer acceptable. Like you, nothing we can do about it. Everything works, it's clean, it's polished and shiny, it's the best we can do in the space we have.
We held onto our stars but she was making noises about lowering the number next time..
It was one of the things we talked about. She mentioned that a number of local properties would be going from 4* to 3* and they (the government tourist board) were happy about it, because they think we don't have enough 3* properties.
It's funny because I don't think the number of * actually would change anything for me. But we do know a property where they do think it makes a difference (and they won't lower their price, even if they are empty.)
.
In the UK its is a train wreck! there are a 1-5 star rating with a gold or silver add on if you are super amazing at 5 star for - hotels, small hotels, B&B's, Guest Accommodation, Guest House, Farm Stay, restaurant with accommodation or pub with accommodation. All is rated differently and I can barely understand it and I work in it so how are members of the public going on their holidays supposed to work it out? More and more people in this country are going unrated (out of accommodation harrogate 57 members another 6 pulled out this year) One of the problems with it is people think its free if you are of that standard and are horrified at how much we have to pay for it.
What is also making matters more confusing is that there are a number of local schemes popping up ie visit cornwall, welcome to yorkshire, visit winchester which simply look for minimum standards and you pass or fail and are a lot cheaper.
However my point being (now Ive got back to it) cutomers don't know what it means anyway so I certainly wouldn't worry about it.
.
Ours was set up by the government and the inspections are done by a seperate company. I've checked and when we set up the B&B there were 125 B&Bs in the city. Last year we were down to 99 recently we are down to 89. Between the city hitting us up for more taxes and the illegal AirBnB and such places, less people are interested in running a B&B. The local B&B association, of which I am not a member, is actually helping them prosecute and search for unregistered B&Bs and apartment rentals (anything under 30 days needs a licence).
I currently see two new B&Bs that haven't yet been rated. No local B&Bs have 1*. Of the 89, 9 are 2*. There is 1 that has 5* but basically is a 5 room hotel that serves breakfast.). That leaves 25 that are 4* and the rest (54) of us are 3* properties.
I'm actually surprised that there are only 1311 B&B properties in the province, with all the small rural communities, I would have thought that there were so many more. There really is no room for hotels in many of these places, just too small.
 
Back
Top