Repairs and Upgrades

When one owns an accommodation property, be it a holiday home or B&B, there are always repairs to be done. It's worse if said property is a 100+ year old building that has been renovated in stages. Needless to stay we are always doing something to our places. It may be as simple as touching up some paint or as extensive as redoing an entire room ( I'll leave out the parts were we move walls and add bathrooms cause I think that stage is finally done) Why are we always doing these things an acquaintance asked. Pondering the answer I came up with several possible responses, but boiled down to one reason in the end. We are forever upgrading things to better serve our clients.
November happens to be our most frequent up grade time (that and January) and this November is no different. At the moment we have just finished one, have another on the go and are contemplating a third(well its really a finishing of a project long ago started ). Two are bathrooms the third is a sauna. The bathroom seems to be really important to guests I mean disproportionately important after all you may spend an hour total in it on an overnight stay if you are lucky. Guest want them to be just so with more conveniences than home and if it is unusual all the better.
The first job on the list was an easy one; I wanted to replace the sink. The original was an antique wall mount that the finish was starting to wear on and it had the fault that all antique sinks have the taps are individuals rather than the modern mixers. Now that really doesn't bother me but to some ( my daughter apparently) it is a negative. I had been watching the home improvement flyers for a good deal and found this lovely pedestal style one on sale at our local Home Hardware for $189.00 so I got one. Next it was taps – nice set again at HH. Because the old sink had these really cute attached towel bars I also had to replace them and opted for a double one as well as a new mirror from Home depot. With all items in hand came the next step – convince Mark that this job needed to be done. It went much easier than expected and he had it finished in nothing flat. It's great to have a husband that was a contractor for many years. Here are the final results:

                                               

                           
The second job on the list is a little more in depth. The bathroom in the Garden Room was the only one that didn't have tile on the floor. I mean don't get me wrong what was there was fine but I prefer to have guests go "WoW" rather than "It's nice". The sink was again an antque with all the inhearant qualities. So as I had ordered two of the lovely pedisols ( they really where a good price) Mark said he would change it out to if I went and got tile for the floor. Now I have tile all over the place, in the kitchen, most of the bathrooms, the hot tube room , all the appropriate places and \i have never spent a great deal per square foot on any of them. You know they wern't the cheapest I could buy but they were far from the most expensive. This time I thought I would splurge a bit and maybe get some of those fancy border tiles. Well I found the perfect ones and in the process managed to spend $230 on tiles for a 5x8 room. Oh well you only live once. Heres the results thus far ( it should be done by next week):
                                            

                    

Tourism Showcase Event

Another of the South West Regional Alliance initiatives to help market our tourism operations took place a little while ago in Pincher Creek. Unfortunately I could not attend but Sue Moser (our best holiday home rep) managed to get there with her display. From all reports, including an article in the Pincher Creek Echo, the evening was a great success with approximately 30 operators attending.


This begs a question: do marketing consortia and co-op affairs work or are we just kidding ourselves thinking that collective efforts are a waste of time?

My thoughts on the matter go as follows:

1. There is no way I have time to attend all the workshops meetings and get togethers I should so I'm just glad that someone ( read Sue) has put in the effort to get there for us and I don't care if she promotes her own places first ( she should) I'm just pleased that I got included at all.

2. The referral set up we have going in our little consortium works out great for all, particularly the customers. Places are filled and customers are happy. Win -win scenario

3. The bigger consortia, like SW do a vast amount of work for us that no one small operator could accomplish not to mention the grants and buying power they create. Again it's win - win

4. To many consortia mean competition. Let’s face it if there are not a bunch of operators in a specific area there is no one to populate the consortium so there has to be some competitors in the mix. So is competition bad - No way. It tends to produce a better product for the customer , prevent price gouging , and I really believe that a traveler may not stop for one shop ( read - shop or restaurant or attraction etc.) but they are likely to stop for 10 shops. And travelers that stop are good for everyone. Just my thought (and I plan to go into it more in a later post)

Back to the Showcase Event. It sounds like it was a great night and I wish I could have gone. Thanks to Sue for going as well as for keeping us updated with your emails



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To get things rolling

There are a good number of accommodation operators here in the Pass. One section of these operators have chosen to ban together and work cooperatively to promote there facilities and the Pass in general. Of course I'm referring to Crowsnest Pass Holiday Homes. The group is headed up by the tireless Sue Moser and our website can be found at http://www.crowsnestpassholidayhomes.com/ We have 16(I think) members that promote their own as well as the groups accommodations by way of websites, referrals and joint marketing. We don't just promote our properties though, we include events, local attractions, other related operators, and just about anything a traveler could need to get here and have an enjoyable stay. We are always looking for new ways and means to promote. Check it out.