New Member Saying Hello

[Iris]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Wow, your cottages are beautiful.
I read your description of how you run your business and it is exactly how we run ours. Ours is a true 50's 'Motor Court' that's been around since 1921, lol.
I could not do business any other way. It's service and personal attention all the way. It is good for my soul to look at our visitors not as Dollar signs but to consider them guests.
Welcome to the forum. I hope you enjoy the interaction here.

 

[Morticia]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Question - Am I missing something. How do you tell how old a reply to a post is there doesn't seem a date time stamp against replies. Am I missing something?
.

I love the dog's blog!

 

[swaapc]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Wow, your cottages are beautiful.
I read your description of how you run your business and it is exactly how we run ours. Ours is a true 50's 'Motor Court' that's been around since 1921, lol.
I could not do business any other way. It's service and personal attention all the way. It is good for my soul to look at our visitors not as Dollar signs but to consider them guests.
Welcome to the forum. I hope you enjoy the interaction here.
.

I could not do business any other way. It's service and personal attention all the way. It is good for my soul to look at our visitors not as Dollar signs but to consider them guests.

Whole heartedly agree with you but unfortunately in our case I don't think it makes that much business sense

. We are in a highly competitive area of the UK and although visitor numbers are high (we are in the Peak District National Park which apparently is the second most visited national park in the world) there is possibly a 20% over supply of Self Catering accommodation and increasing every year. The competition ranges from second home owners earning a bit on the side, speculative purchases, inherited cottages (its hard to find anyone in the area who doesn't rent out at least one 'cottage') and of course old farm conversions like ourselves being run as a primary business. Luckily we run it as a Lifestyle business so aren't desperate of profit (it only gets taxed anyhow). Every time the accountant points out that we are working for less than the minimum wage I point out that it has to be better than sitting in a London traffic jam and earning decent money.

 

[swaapc]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Question - Am I missing something. How do you tell how old a reply to a post is there doesn't seem a date time stamp against replies. Am I missing something?
.

I love the dog's blog!
.

I love the dog's blog!

It is amazing popular with our guests. Whether it actually benefits the business these days is anyone's guess (it use to be spectacularly useful for SEO but that is long gone). Which reminds me I need to get the nuttier of our dogs to do another blog.

 

[Morticia]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Question - Am I missing something. How do you tell how old a reply to a post is there doesn't seem a date time stamp against replies. Am I missing something?
.

I love the dog's blog!
.

I love the dog's blog!

It is amazing popular with our guests. Whether it actually benefits the business these days is anyone's guess (it use to be spectacularly useful for SEO but that is long gone). Which reminds me I need to get the nuttier of our dogs to do another blog.
.

The 'idiot brother'?
You know I actually read the Dowager Duchess's obit after reading that the dogs couldn't go to her funeral. I figured if the dogs wanted to go, she must have been special.

 

[swaapc]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Question - Am I missing something. How do you tell how old a reply to a post is there doesn't seem a date time stamp against replies. Am I missing something?
.

I love the dog's blog!
.

I love the dog's blog!

It is amazing popular with our guests. Whether it actually benefits the business these days is anyone's guess (it use to be spectacularly useful for SEO but that is long gone). Which reminds me I need to get the nuttier of our dogs to do another blog.
.

The 'idiot brother'?
You know I actually read the Dowager Duchess's obit after reading that the dogs couldn't go to her funeral. I figured if the dogs wanted to go, she must have been special.
.

Yes she was very special. A well loved local personality which is a bit odd as we Brits tend to dislike our aristocracy. She, however (as well as her late husband) managed to overcome these prejudices and really related to the locals. She did amazing things for the area and Chatsworth House http://www.chatsworth.org/ , as we see it today is very much her and her husbands vision which is the 'jewel in the crown' in the area and a major asset for us accommodation providers.

 

[Morticia]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Question - Am I missing something. How do you tell how old a reply to a post is there doesn't seem a date time stamp against replies. Am I missing something?
.

I love the dog's blog!
.

I love the dog's blog!

It is amazing popular with our guests. Whether it actually benefits the business these days is anyone's guess (it use to be spectacularly useful for SEO but that is long gone). Which reminds me I need to get the nuttier of our dogs to do another blog.
.

The 'idiot brother'?
You know I actually read the Dowager Duchess's obit after reading that the dogs couldn't go to her funeral. I figured if the dogs wanted to go, she must have been special.
.

Yes she was very special. A well loved local personality which is a bit odd as we Brits tend to dislike our aristocracy. She, however (as well as her late husband) managed to overcome these prejudices and really related to the locals. She did amazing things for the area and Chatsworth House http://www.chatsworth.org/ , as we see it today is very much her and her husbands vision which is the 'jewel in the crown' in the area and a major asset for us accommodation providers.
.

Amazing stuff! It all looks gorgeous.

 

[gillumhouse]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Welcome to the forum!
Your photo is worth 10,000 words. Glad to see a UK'r with a wordpress styled template, google analytics and more.
We look forward to your feedback, stories and conversation.
.

Welcome to the forum!
Your photo is worth 10,000 words. Glad to see a UK'r with a wordpress styled template, google analytics and more.
We look forward to your feedback, stories and conversation.

Hi,
I tried to get on with Wordpress for our main site (we use it for all our blogs) but gave up when I realised I would have to learn how to write plugins to get it to do what I wanted and our hosting service didn't offer a wordpress performance optimisation option. Although Google Analytics is on the site I rarely if ever use it as an analysis tool. I use http://www.web-stat.com/ which I find far easier to use on a day to day basis and provides far easier to understand stats (it does however cost but is money well spent).
.

I use http://www.web-stat.com/ which I find far easier to use on a day to day basis and provides far easier to understand stats (it does however cost but is money well spent).
I use it also for the same reasons. After using the cheaper version for years, last year I upped the ante and other than it hiding what Goo users search on, find it helps. I actually understand what it is telling me.

 

[Iris]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Wow, your cottages are beautiful.
I read your description of how you run your business and it is exactly how we run ours. Ours is a true 50's 'Motor Court' that's been around since 1921, lol.
I could not do business any other way. It's service and personal attention all the way. It is good for my soul to look at our visitors not as Dollar signs but to consider them guests.
Welcome to the forum. I hope you enjoy the interaction here.
.

I could not do business any other way. It's service and personal attention all the way. It is good for my soul to look at our visitors not as Dollar signs but to consider them guests.

Whole heartedly agree with you but unfortunately in our case I don't think it makes that much business sense

. We are in a highly competitive area of the UK and although visitor numbers are high (we are in the Peak District National Park which apparently is the second most visited national park in the world) there is possibly a 20% over supply of Self Catering accommodation and increasing every year. The competition ranges from second home owners earning a bit on the side, speculative purchases, inherited cottages (its hard to find anyone in the area who doesn't rent out at least one 'cottage') and of course old farm conversions like ourselves being run as a primary business. Luckily we run it as a Lifestyle business so aren't desperate of profit (it only gets taxed anyhow). Every time the accountant points out that we are working for less than the minimum wage I point out that it has to be better than sitting in a London traffic jam and earning decent money.

.

I could not do business any other way. It's service and personal attention all the way. It is good for my soul to look at our visitors not as Dollar signs but to consider them guests.

Whole heartedly agree with you but unfortunately in our case I don't think it makes that much business sense

. We are in a highly competitive area of the UK and although visitor numbers are high (we are in the Peak District National Park which apparently is the second most visited national park in the world) there is possibly a 20% over supply of Self Catering accommodation and increasing every year. The competition ranges from second home owners earning a bit on the side, speculative purchases, inherited cottages (its hard to find anyone in the area who doesn't rent out at least one 'cottage') and of course old farm conversions like ourselves being run as a primary business. Luckily we run it as a Lifestyle business so aren't desperate of profit (it only gets taxed anyhow). Every time the accountant points out that we are working for less than the minimum wage I point out that it has to be better than sitting in a London traffic jam and earning decent money.

You and I seem to be in the same boat. Our area is highly visited, was named "most beautiful area in the country" by Good Morning America viewers and we are located in Conservancy land. It is highly competitive although, we have always prided ourselves in having a 75 to 80% return year after year. So, it took us a couple of years to cull the right clientele but it is our lifestyle. We traded highly lucrative careers in California for a more relaxed and easy way of living and raising our 2 boys.
Anyway, didn't mean to hijack this thread. I feel a certain kinship with you, LOL. Again, welcome to the forum

 

[Breakfast Diva]

Welcome Swaapc! It's great to have another Brit on the forum. We're all so different, yet so similar. Great pictures and your cottages are exactly the type of place we search out on our travels. With so many Brits on the forum we just might have to take a vacation for an inn to inn trip!

 

[anniesguesthouse]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Question - Am I missing something. How do you tell how old a reply to a post is there doesn't seem a date time stamp against replies. Am I missing something?
.

I can't quite fathom it out either Chris but I think new replies go under the reply being replied to at the top. (Does that make any sense?!)

 

[JBloggs]

There are diff ways to view the forum, you can set it so all the newest is always at the top.

 

[Morticia]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Question - Am I missing something. How do you tell how old a reply to a post is there doesn't seem a date time stamp against replies. Am I missing something?
.

I can't quite fathom it out either Chris but I think new replies go under the reply being replied to at the top. (Does that make any sense?!)
.

I can't quite fathom it out either Chris but I think new replies go under the reply being replied to at the top. (Does that make any sense?!)

You set up how you want replies to appear... In a threaded format, newest first, oldest first.
Go to the bottom of the list of replies and you will see the set up link to click to choose your layout. Right under the last reply in the list.
Comment viewing options.

 

[anniesguesthouse]

There are diff ways to view the forum, you can set it so all the newest is always at the top..

Ooooh I'm totally going to try and do that now. I've never encountered a forum with this sort of layout before. Thanks!

 

[swaapc]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Welcome to the forum!
Your photo is worth 10,000 words. Glad to see a UK'r with a wordpress styled template, google analytics and more.
We look forward to your feedback, stories and conversation.
.

Welcome to the forum!
Your photo is worth 10,000 words. Glad to see a UK'r with a wordpress styled template, google analytics and more.
We look forward to your feedback, stories and conversation.

Hi,
I tried to get on with Wordpress for our main site (we use it for all our blogs) but gave up when I realised I would have to learn how to write plugins to get it to do what I wanted and our hosting service didn't offer a wordpress performance optimisation option. Although Google Analytics is on the site I rarely if ever use it as an analysis tool. I use http://www.web-stat.com/ which I find far easier to use on a day to day basis and provides far easier to understand stats (it does however cost but is money well spent).
.

I use http://www.web-stat.com/ which I find far easier to use on a day to day basis and provides far easier to understand stats (it does however cost but is money well spent).
I use it also for the same reasons. After using the cheaper version for years, last year I upped the ante and other than it hiding what Goo users search on, find it helps. I actually understand what it is telling me.
.

Yes I think it is possibly the best $9 we spend a month. Google Analytics lets you write far more complex reports and of course it knows about Adwords but for simple day to day use I find it useless. If I am doing detailed analysis I will use it but that is about once every few months. web-stat.com is every day sometimes two to three times especially if I am running an Adwords campaign.

 

[Joey Camb]

Hi,
Like Annie I was recommended to your forum by gillumhouse.
Although we no longer run a B&B we run eight self catering cottages (I think you call them Vacation Rentals) along the same lines as we ran our B&B. The cottages consist of a classic UK Derbyshire set of converted farm buildings around a courtyard with the farm house (where we did B&B). Our reception is open 12+ hours a day and the guest interaction, service levels etc are very similar to those we offered our B&B guests. The only difference is we don't service the cottages daily and we don't serve Breakfast (although we did in our first few years). We have been in the business over 11 years and ran the B&B in the farmhouse for 5 of those years (we closed the B&B due to the increase in regulations).

A summery:
Education: Partial
Hobbies: I only wish I had the time
Likes: Nice guests
Dislikes: Governments, corporate bodies
Marital Status: Married for over 20 years, no children but 2 mad dogs (border collies) and three businesses
Nationality: Yorkshireman (don't worry its a part of England)
Past life: Freelance IT Consultant (specialist in Comms).

Question - Am I missing something. How do you tell how old a reply to a post is there doesn't seem a date time stamp against replies. Am I missing something?
.

I love the dog's blog!
.

I love the dog's blog!

It is amazing popular with our guests. Whether it actually benefits the business these days is anyone's guess (it use to be spectacularly useful for SEO but that is long gone). Which reminds me I need to get the nuttier of our dogs to do another blog.
.

The 'idiot brother'?
You know I actually read the Dowager Duchess's obit after reading that the dogs couldn't go to her funeral. I figured if the dogs wanted to go, she must have been special.
.

Yes she was very special. A well loved local personality which is a bit odd as we Brits tend to dislike our aristocracy. She, however (as well as her late husband) managed to overcome these prejudices and really related to the locals. She did amazing things for the area and Chatsworth House http://www.chatsworth.org/ , as we see it today is very much her and her husbands vision which is the 'jewel in the crown' in the area and a major asset for us accommodation providers.
.

Never met her personally but followed the documentary they did on Chatsworth which was excellent - seemed like a lady with her head firmly screwed on.