Feeling inspired by Four In a Bed or simply ready for your next big entrepreneurial challenge? If you’ve got some time on your hands, setting up a small hotel business could be an effective way to enjoy passive income. But how should you focus on getting started?
In the following guide, we’ll outline everything you need to do to help you kickstart a small hotel business. Read on to discover a detailed, step-by-step process.
First steps: make a plan
Any new business is destined to fail without a comprehensive plan, so you must ensure you’ve got one to follow. Consider every possible caveat, nuance, and pitfall to ensure you’re not being unrealistic or overly ambitious.
During the planning process, we recommend that you:
-
Find your niche
Your new hotel business should reflect your personality and values. A boutique chain could be for you if you’re into aesthetics and everything trendy. Or, if you like traditional gothic architecture, restoring former coaching inns could be more your thing.
-
Develop a marketing plan
Once your business gets off the ground, you’ll need to ensure people know about it. Whether you choose traditional marketing techniques like a Cincinnati channel letter sign, flyers and posters or you prefer to do it all online, a solid strategy is essential.
-
Get the admin covered
Don’t forget the paperwork: it’s imperative to ensure that you’ve arranged and correctly completed any procedures for hotel insurance, local permits, relevant licenses, and, where applicable, planning permission for your new hotel.
-
Recruit staff you can trust
Your team will be the backbone of your business, so recruiting the right people will be a crucial step in the process. Experience is always helpful, but you should hire perseverance, and positive and empathetic staff.
-
Invest in staff training
Your guests will feel much more comfortable if they know they’re in safe hands. Why not invite your local trade partners to the hotel for special staff training sessions, ensuring they’re experts on the products you sell?
Next steps: Driving your business to long-term success
Once you’ve launched your new hotel business, you’ll be a leader – not just an owner. To maintain trust and a good working relationship with your staff, it’s essential to prove:
- A desire to serve
- A need to delight guests
- Good leadership skills, including patience
- Kindness and understanding
- Ambition and a hardworking attitude
- A good level of physical fitness
- The ability to juggle jobs
Through the early years, you might not be able to afford everything you need. Be persistent, and know that your work will be rewarded!
