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Articles
A small hospitality business: what to digitalise first
First digitalise the process that repeats most often and creates the most manual work. For a restaurant this is often the menu; for a guest house, the information about the stay; for a hotel, the standard questions to reception.
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Between reservation and arrival: what the guest needs to know, and when
Guests’ questions come in waves: a week before arrival about the route and the conditions, the day before about the time and parking, on site about the small things, and on the day of departure about vacating the room. Most important is to have ready in advance the answers that do not depend on the mood of the day: time, address, rules.
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Fifteen minutes with your phone: a website review through the guest’s eyes
You most often look at your website on a computer, while most guests open it on a phone, often on mobile data and with one hand. Fifteen minutes with a phone, a timer and a notepad show what the guest actually sees: the first screen, the price, the phone number, the photos and the enquiry form.
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Good service starts before the guest asks
Many questions to reception are not a sign that the guest wants more human service, but that the information is not easy enough to find. Good communication with guests makes the standard information accessible before there is any need to call.
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How a small property can prepare its information for an assistant: one afternoon
An assistant is only as accurate as the information it answers from. For a small property, one afternoon is enough: collect the guests’ questions, write short answers, look for contradictions between the website, the listings and the phone, and note what you do not know. A gap is better than a guessed answer.
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How much time and money the lunch menu takes every day — and where they are lost
The lunch menu is rarely measured, so it costs more than it seems. In the example scenario, a typical day takes about an hour and five minutes, spread across seven steps. Most of the time goes on formatting and on republishing in several places. Measure your own week before you change anything.
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Menu for foreign guests: what they need besides translation
Translating the words is not enough for a foreign guest to order with confidence. What helps is a short description of what the dish is like, the main ingredients, the portion and the taste: light, spicy, sour. It is best to start with about ten dishes that guests ask about most often, not with the whole menu.
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Preparation calendar: from autumn to the winter holidays and the slower months
Preparation goes more easily when it is broken down by week and starts at least six weeks before the season. First you check what the website already says, then photos, offers and answers to questions, and finally the holidays. This example calendar is for a small guest house and shows what to do and when.
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Room, photos, terms and offer on one page: an example for a guest house with five rooms
A guest looking at a room is searching for four things in one place: what it looks like, what it includes, what the terms are and what you are offering now. When these are scattered around the website, the guest goes back or goes elsewhere. Arrange them in one order on the page of each room.
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Seasonal block in the menu: how to decide what is seasonal and keep the main menu from growing
A dish is seasonal only if it has an end date and depends on an ingredient that is available for part of the year. Keep such offerings in a small separate block with its own heading and end date, with a limit that you set yourself. That way the main menu stays stable, and at the end of the season you remove one block and leave the rest untouched.
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The enquiry at 22:00: an example day in a guest house
An evening enquiry often goes unanswered because the owner is with the guests or asleep. This example scenario follows one evening in a guest house through to the morning: what the person searching receives, what the team sees and which decisions are left to a person, such as confirming the room and the price.
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The first week with a digital menu: day by day
The first week decides whether guests and the team will get used to the menu. On day one you check the link from someone else’s phone and explain to the staff what to say in reply. On day three you fix the small mistakes, and on day seven you sum up the comments and decide what to change. The printed menu stays nearby.
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Where enquiries come from: a simple note without software
To know where your enquiries come from, you need a notebook, three columns and one question for every new guest: how did you find us? You write down the date, the way they got in touch and the source. At the end of the month you count. After two or three months you see what works, without buying software.
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Why a PDF menu often becomes an operational problem
A PDF menu is convenient as a ready file, but becomes inconvenient when prices, products and lunch offers change often. Every new file creates a risk that old versions stay active and increases manual work.
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Why public reviews are not enough for managing quality
Public reviews matter for reputation, but they do not always show why a customer is satisfied or dissatisfied. Structured feedback makes it possible to track separate categories such as cleanliness, food, service and comfort.
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