UKAPAS

If you are an accommodation provider then you need to join UKAPAS.

The UK Accommodation Providers Alert Scheme keeps you up to date with everything you would really not want to know - runners, missing persons and so on by email alerts.

It's free to join, you just need a valid email address and obviously, have to run a bed and breakfast, guest house or similar.

Just click the heading above to visit their website.

Bed & Breakfast Directories

There seems to be a lot of directories springing up offering listings of places to stay.

Some are quite good, others quite honestly should just shut.

We are delighted to announce that we have been working closely with the Borders Accommodation Guide which, suprise suprise, covers accommodation providers in the Scottish Borders.

It's up to date, free to have your property listed and all pages are properly optimised for search engine classifications.

If you are in the Borders and not listed, visit the site and have your property added now.

Out of Date Contact Information

As we market our B & B services it's quite amazing how many establishments fail to keep their email address up to date.

We may come accross a B & B on a directory and decide to drop them a message about how we can help and guess what - email bounces back. We see a variety of answers:

1. Account Over Quota - (haven't bothered to check email for a while!)
2. No Mail Account - (haven't bothered to update changes to email address)
3. Account Spam Return - (have set up automated spam system on main business email account to stop mail enquiries coming in)

Perhaps the most amazing is the number of providers who have a web site, and therefore their own domain name, but still insist on using the mail account provided by their ISP. Very unprofessional especially when it's so easy to set up a "proper" email account.

Legislation - trying to keep up !

Trying to keep up with the rules can be a problem in a lot of businesses.

With may b&b's being run by a couple of people keeping on top of it all can be a nightmare.

In England you have the "Pink Book" published by Visit Britain which should keep you up to date with what you need to do. However, don't assume that it knows everything. It was update at the end of 2007 but prior to that had remained unchanged since 2004. Legislation changed quite a bit so it quickly became out of date. See the right hand column to buy a copy from Amazon - cheapest we could find it on sale.

In Scotland we have the "Tartan Book" but as far as we can tell this is only available through Visit Scotland if you are a member. (Let us know if you know differently). In the last year we have seen changes to Fire Safety Regulations, Health and Safety and in 2008 will have new laws on selling alcohol.

Now, these changes are all for the better but when it becomes a full time job keeping up with it all you start to question the reasons you are doing what you are doing!

Welcome to Bed and Breakfast News

Welcome to Bed and Breakfast News.

We are delighted to present the latest news for the Bed and Breakfast Industry in the United Kingdom.

Whether you run a small b&b or a large guest house we hope to bring something relevant for you to read.

Bookmark this page and check back soon