Financial year end

Much less money than we had last year at this time.
Salary paid to us during the past year £0.00
Hours worked average 18 per day 7 per week.

However…

1064 guests.
0.66% dissatisfied
99.34% satisfied

Occupancy 21.122% (aim 20)
Room usage 34.638% (aim - none)

More voices from the past

We had Mary Walker and her husband staying with us last night. Mary grew up here, leaving aged 14 in 1949. She too remembers being hauled up and down in the old dumbwaiter. It seems to be a common memory - Dianne remembers that someone would haul her halfway up and then go away leaving her dangling. With friends like these…

The demolished building at the end, near the friars was a piggery and was already disused in 1949. There were apparently allotments up the hill where Mike McGovern’s place (Willow Court B&B) is.

The room that we use as an office was apparently where the boots were polished. Imagine - a whole room dedicated to polishing boots! The cocktail bar was installed by Mary’s parents. Plastics had just become available and red and black was the theme. The bar’s still red and black 55 years later!

The dining room was a lounge. It will probably become one again, though with doors through to the function room. The tv room was Mary’s parents sitting room. Mary remembers her brother slamming (accidentally) the window there on her fingers while she was watching handball - her screams being heard by American servicemen who were stationed in the town and who rushed to her aid.

You know it’s been a long day when…

you sit down with a pint and realise that the sitting down is more welcome than the pint.

There were two things happening yesterday. We had a halloween party in the public bar, partly to celebrate our first year here, and there was a leaving party upstairs in the lounge bar. I did that while Lorna and Emma did the public bar.

The halloween party was not a sucess really. There weren’t many people there, though they did stay longer than usual. Whether it was all worth the effort that Lorna put into it is doubtful.

The leaving party went well though. So overall it was a fairly good day if rather long.

So, that’s the end of our first year

…and what a great year it’s been…

Time to take stock

Time to think ahead

Time to wonder

10 things we know now that we didn’t know then. (in no particular order)

1) Most guests stay for one night.

2) Glenlivet is a very poor seller

3) Dylon stain pens are amazing

4) Drunk people are not very interesting

5) The function room wall is about to fall down

6) Black pudding and sliced haggis can be cooked from frozen

7) We need another microwave

I’m not very good at planning

9) Tennents lager outsells all other draught products

10) VAT is a nuisance

What have we achieved?

One year ago the Spread Eagle Hotel was, to all intents, closed. There was a public bar run more as a private club than a bar. The hotel didn’t accept guests, the kitchen was unused. The roof leaked, there was dry rot rampaging in the dining room.

In our first year, the hotel has achieved around 20% occupancy which was our aim.

A new heating system has replaced the ancient and ludicrously expensive 1920s system.

We’ve engagaed a project manager to overseen the restoration.

We’ve built a new beer garden which has been much admired (and much used in the warm weather)

The dry rot has been treated

Most of the roof now doesn’t leak:-/

The planning application was submitted in August and met with favourable comment from the community council at least. There have been no objections.

In the next 12 months we intend to…

Refurbish both kitchens
Begin serving food in the rooms which are currently the lounge bar and tv room
Create two new bedrooms in the rooms at the top of the main stair
Create a suite half way up the main stair (to be used by us in the medium term)
Replace the main stair railings
Turn the current room 9 into an office
Improve the toilets on the first floor
Stabilise the derelict outbuildings
Improve the decor
Increase our customer base

Best thing we’ve done in the last 12 months: Appointed JDI of Nottingham as our project managers.
Worst thing we’ve done in the last 12 months: Employed Roofing Direct of Edinburgh.

Twelve months ago neither of us had any experience of running a hotel, bar, or indeed any kind of business. The learning curve has threatened to become an overhang in places, but by and large we’ve survived. Bills have been paid, most forms have been submitted on time and we have kept stock levels to a minimum yet haven’t run out of anything major.

What if?
Some other places we might have bought:

The Colquhonnie Hotel in Aberdeenshire. I have a feeling that this wouldn’t have been a great succes. It was a nice place and the only hotel in the village, but there wasn’t a lot of passing trade and it was very isolated.

The Urr Valley Hotel would have been a bad idea for the opposite reason. It was very busy and we would have been thrown in at the deep end. The building was huge and rambling and needed a lot of upgrading.

The Ecclefechan hotel would have been an unmitigated disaster. It needed a huge amount of work and there was little in the way of tourist trade. The town was bypassed and had the feel of a ghost town. Location, location location. This place didn’t have it.

So does Jedburgh have it? Well, it’s been a truly horrible day; dank and wet, but we’ve got 6 folk staying and the bar takings have been excellent for a Monday. There’s a lot of passing traffic and above all it’s a nice town on the tourist trail with plenty of good restaurants. Yes, I think it does.

It’s four minutes to midnight. Almost exactly one year ago we became the owners of the Spread Eagle Hotel. It’s been an interesting first year and promises to be an even more interesting second.

It’s been fun…

… in places

And so to bed.

Working again

Busy today. Well, Lorna was anyway. I was in Edinburgh and she had 11 for breakfast which she and Rob managed just fine. Then we had to set up for the function (a christening) which went off well and now she’s in the bar.

Nearly full tonight - just one room left. It’s our first anniversary on Tuesday and the end of our financial year the following Monday. Time to take stock of what we’ve achieved in our first year at the Spread.

Skiving!

I’ve got a day off tomorrow! I’m heading up to Edinburgh to meet an old mate who’s back from the US for a flying visit. Too flying to come down here, so I’m going up there. Not the best day to be jumping ship since we have a christening in the function room, but most of the setting up’s done.

We’re full again. Several nationalities and most of them seem to be in the bar:-)

An ill wind (or water)

We’ve got folk staying with us who are dealing with the aftermath of the floods in Hawick. And we had a couple of businessmen (father and son) staying with us yesterday. They had all left before 7am and didn’t need any breakfast. So we had five guests AND could stay in bed until 9. Yay!

All in all it’s just another brick in the wall

The wall in question being the one between the function room and old dining room. It’s built of brick, weighs around 3 tons and supports the bedroom floors above. It is held up by a wooden floor of great antiquity whose supporting joists are “stressed to the limit” to quote the structural engineer. (That’s the printable part of his report). So as soon as we get quotes in, there will be some steel girders installed beneath it which will stop it moving any further. Levelling the floor will come later.

Well, at least we’re not in Hawick!

see why here

However, the rain has been heavy and continuous since yesterday evening. It’s forecast to be dry tomorrow, though that’ll be small comfort to the people in flooded out homes in Hawick.

Also in the news

was this fire
which I’ve included only because it’s next to where Lorna used to work in Glasgow.

Roof repairs - the saga continues

Finlaysons are back and have erected scaffolding to repair the gutters above the vennel at the back door. The entire back roof drains into a single gutter which then drains onto the lower roof. All this water comes whooshing down into the gutter and the effect is a bit like where you turn on the kitchen tap forgetting about the upturned spoon in the sink.