Manor House - How to make a business from it???

[nickl]

Hello Guys

My fiance owns a hotel in Scotland which has been vacant for several years. We plan to start hiring out some of the bedrooms in the courtyard area to local contractors to start with and also want to make use of the restaurant as well as function room facilities. Basically, there are 27 bedrooms total all with separate bathrooms, no cooking facilities exists outside the main kitchen which is to an industrial standard with all the mod cons. The courtyard is closed off the the main house (hotel) so letting these would give us space from any guess at the start before we get stuck into things more.... There are 9 rooms in the courtyard and a further 18 bedrooms in the house, a large restaurant area, a reception room with bar (My partner already has an alcohol serving license, but we might need one for the hotel if we go down this road?) and a function room with space for over 100 people with all the necessary furniture and crockery. There is also a bar in this area that has a large serving hatch which can be locked. There isn't much in the way of grounds available but a small garden area (0.5 acre) to the front and a lovely bandstand at the side of the function room. Parking can be made available.

Hosting weddings seems like it could be a real minefield with lots of high expectations and demands for you as a venue in general what with catering and hiring lots of people. At first, but we may evolve the plan after a few months or year after gaining some insight, is to rent out the function room and or restaurant to local groups requiring a venue in order to host their event. This could be anything at all even a book club meeting etc. So if small events are hosted at our place we would provide refreshments ideally in the way of tea/sandwiches etc that can be achieved without needing to hire people and can be done ourselves, maybe music but that would need licensing, food I guess needs licensing, do you pay annually, who should I start to contact etc etc? What insurance do we need for renting rooms on a semi-permanent basis (for approx 3 months) and is insurance also required for general guests entering the hotel?

These seem like small steps I'd be comfortable with before perhaps looking into running the hotel properly or hosting big events with catering.

Love to know what you guys think and if there are any ideas you have or can run by me that would be great. I quit my job last month and am willing to give this opportunity my full attention. FYI, I owned in the past an eBay + Amazon business turning over £200,000/year and can handle accounts responsibilities for the hotel, it's just dealing with licensing and the people plus developing ideas I find a bit daunting. The building is completely owned so there's no mortgage to pay if that helps build a better picture but running fees are already looking pretty steep and we need to start making things work in the near future.

Thank you very much in advance for your help
Regards
Nick

[Freelancier]

I'd say go talk to a few event planners in the area, invite them out to the home, figure out what their expectations would be from them for your facility. See if those expectations are too much for what you want to do. I'd also see if there's any demand in your location for a B&B and what you'd have to do to renovate the rooms to accommodate that market.

Basically, you're in the exploratory phase, so don't rule anything out until the market tells you to rule it out.

[nickl]

I'm not yet living there but want to start making calls at this time before heading up in 2 weeks to get a jump start on things.

So, talk to event planners you say, that's not a bad idea. I will have to google local ones for the area but it would be nice to work further afield also and reach out to bigger markets. Anything and any amount of work would be considered, i'm not afraid to hit the ground running and take on a big task if it could prove lucrative. B&B idea is promising also, but I wonder how complicated the licensing would be. Is there a place I can read up on what is legally needed to work in all aspects of the hospitality business and the associated boxes i'll need to tick off for each idea.

Thanks
Nick

[Freelancier]

If there are other B&Bs nearby, go into the local city hall and see what they can tell you. Often they know the rules or who to talk to at the different levels of government for licensing. Most of us aren't going to be in Scotland, so you'll need to find someone there who can guide you. My experience with that kind of stuff here is to go to the local city/county, ask a lot of questions of their dept of revenue and dept of professional licensing and get them to not only give you the info of what they need, but also what's needed at the state/country level of government to make it happen. Also, talk to a local accountant or attorney who has dealt with your situation before and get their insights.

You do have a bit of footwork to do.

[nickl]

Have you got any experience working in such ventures and are there any pointers/advice you can give me regarding operation and or marketing strategy?

By the way, I very much enjoy having a project to work on. Look forward to making this new adventure a fun and profitable one

[Freelancier]

Other than as a consumer, nope. I think you need to first narrow down what type of business you're going to be and what customers you are going to serve before worrying too hard about the other things.

[tallen]

Insurance -- you will want building insurance to pay for repairs in case there is a fire or other damage, but more importantly you will want liability insurance in case someone gets hurt while on the property.

Licensing and Codes -- this is almost always local, so we can't answer what the specific requirements are; you should start with your local city hall or town council. Any permissions that they give you, make sure to get them in writing.....

Engaging the services of an attorney or solicitor, and an accountant, familiar with the applicable laws & regulations, and tax codes, is an excellent suggestion.

As far as your weddings and events, yes you have the kitchen on site, but that doesn't necessarily mean that YOU have to be the one providing the catering, etc... You could still rent the function room out, but then allow outside caterers in to cover the food and drink (although if you or your facility has it's own alcohol license, then you may not be able to let others in to do that service).

One of my businesses serves as a wedding venue, but we are only licensed for lodging, not for food and drink, so we rent the space to the wedding couple and they make arrangements with outside caterers and bar-tenders, or DIY (in which case we require them to obtain an event insurance policy naming us as an additional insured). But just renting the space and not providing other services, the expectations that go with weddings fall on others, not you!

ETA -- you want to look into noise ordinances or other regs that might impose a curfew on events at your place; also the fire marshall may have something to say about how many people your hall can accommodate (not based on the size of the room, but on the ability of people to get out in case of an emergency).