Incompetent Couple Try To Renovate Bedsit Into A Chique Hotel | Hotel Rescue | Abode

britain is a hotel nation with over half a million hotel rooms but there's a problem far too many british hotels aren't up to scratch eminent hotelier ruth watson has been in the business for over 25 years and she's helping six new hoteliers get it right before the rod sets in if i can offer advice to first-time hoteliers right from the outset then i think i can stop them making catastrophic mistakes she's taking them from initial concepts to building and design work and sending them behind the scenes of britain's top hotels this time it's louise oldfield and liam nav in margate have you got the mindset that this is going to run as a business it's submission it doesn't fill me with huge have your potential the whole time on being completely impractical and up your own asses about it when ruth sends in her undercover inspector they find out whether they'll make it into one of the most influential hotel guides in the world i'm sure you want to know what james from mr missy smith had to say [Music] margate once a thriving seaside resort that provided inspiration for the artist turner today it has britain's worst rate of shop closures and with one in five of the population on welfare it has earned the unfortunate nickname of benefits on sea [Music] margate is on the east kent coast at the mouth of the thames estuary and 16 miles from canterbury with only two star-rated bnbs and most hotels in the 30 to 55 pound bracket accommodation is geared towards the budget family market now liam nab and louise oldfield plan to open margate's first design-led boutique hotel at 31 hawley square a once beautiful georgian guest house for weekending londoners in more recent times eight squalid bed sets all the things that we're going to do to it will be to the highest standard that we could imagine so we want to have like beautiful showers very contemporary beautiful baths roll top baths that you can relax in and make it quite a special space louise and liam are tying up their fortunes with margate they think that the town's ambitious plans for an artistic regeneration including the building of the turner contemporary art gallery on the waterfront will create a future market for their bnb in five years i'd imagine that margaery would be quite a thriving art space that attracts visitors from far as creative entrepreneurs who met in italy 15 years ago louise and liam have previously tried their hands at many jobs including record producing event organizing djing graphic designing and marketing we really see this as helping us carry on with a very flexible lifestyle because we don't do nine-to-five jobs we're very keen that it doesn't overrun our life they bought the house for 330 000 pounds at the top of the market and even though it is now worth a lot less than they paid for it they still plan to gamble the last of their savings on a 100 000 pound renovation the type of hotel that we're trying to do requires quite an investment and in the current market anyone going into starting a business is going is going to be making a gamble to make this huge investment pay off louise and liam need to charge in excess of 100 pounds per room per night but with the recession having hit margate hard the affluent arty crowd they wish to attract seem a long way from its shores making this a highly risky venture we have to see we managed to run this business and make it pay for itself if we don't succeed we lose everything everything that we built up in the last 10 years no we don't have a business plan yet [Music] it's february and hoping to be open for business in four months time louise and liam have called in ruth watson for advice and this is one of the original rooms in its original states so this is a bedsit it kind of defines the word dos house doesn't it it does odor is fragrant yeah i don't think and you've got um a wealth of formica and um manky old fridges and oh my god look at this stove to transform the building into a boutique bnb in which they will also live louise and liam have a bold design concept the approach is to leave things a bit rough a bit raw and show the trace of history that has kind of happened to the building how far i mean do you want to go on taking things actually all the way back and then either fully restoring or leaving partly restored it's a fine line it's more revealing layers of what was there before right so but we're really ecological yeah yeah so it doesn't look all like pristine and new like a christmas cake or something no i understand that it is a very fine line somehow you've got to reassure people that you know what you're doing and it's not taking it to the point where they're thinking oh my god i've just turned up in a building site [Music] currently the property is divided into eight bed seats louise and liam plan to create just three guest bedrooms one on the third floor that will have its own bathroom one on the second floor that will share a bathroom with a small bedroom on the first floor the couple intend to have their own private lounge on the first floor their bedroom on the ground floor and a kitchen diner in the basement spreading their lives through three floors of the house and this is the front larger room my word if there were no other reason for buying this house than these glorious floor-to-ceiling windows now what are your plans for this room we have thought about it as our private lounge right you having it as a private lounge is just greedy to have your own lives threading through three floors is just not on yeah it really isn't i mean the guests they don't want to be trampling over your lives i would be as a guest saying can i have part of my money back louise and liam need to maximize the profitability of this property to cover the mortgage payments otherwise they risk being forced to sell in a falling market such a nice room ruth suggests that if they turn this large front room into a guest bedroom and turn the smaller room next to it into an ensuite bathroom they can earn a much greater income to be quite honest with the investment that you're proposing to not have this given over to paying guests would be insanity at the moment dare i say it's all sounding very cuddly and a bit soft focus and a bit furry around the edges and rather lovely but not terribly business-like [Music] probably true yes although their cvs are peppered with job titles neither louise nor liam have any previous experience running a hospitality business what makes you think you could be hoteliers um i was a dj for 12 years right in italy and it was all about creating a great experience for people what this is all saying to me is that you're very creative people the trouble with b b is the product you're giving people somehow gives them permission to almost take over your life now are you going to be the breakfast cook we thought if there's going to be something that's going to get us really really down it's going to be doing sausage and bacon every day there is a demand for full english breakfast because a lot of people see it as such a treat because they don't have it at home anymore have you got the mindset that this is going to run as a business it's submission now listen to me is something spiritual that doesn't fill me with you no i think we have i think we have i'm convinced that the motivation for liam and louise buying this place was all to do with architecture i think the b and b element was very much secondary to this but the problem is that in the future the bnb is going to be what actually makes it work but when ruth sends them off to bnb boot camp and this couple go from stripping wallpaper to stripping beds the tasks that i was doing are quite menial it's not interesting this project could so easily turn out as nothing more than a monument to louise and liam's artistic vanity [Music] louise oldfield and liam nab are taking the biggest gamble of their lives they paid 330 000 pounds for a building in margate divided into eight tatty bedsits and are now spending a further 100 000 turning it into a boutique bed and breakfast [Music] ruth watson is on hand to give them guidance with this perilous project there's always risk attached to setting up any business but liam and luis are looking at setting up a business not just in a recession but in a town which is undergoing regeneration and you've only got to look at the buildings on this seafront to know that actually a lot of this has not taken place we've got lots of boarded up properties and i just think that they're taking on something which isn't just about their business it's about this whole town and how can it support them dodgy despite the risky nature of their venture louise and liam are hoping that their bnb business will help them maintain their flexible lifestyles we've never really had 95 jobs we've always worked for ourselves i think we've always had a lot of freedom and the choices that we've made with businesses that we've run it's all about preserving the freedom that we've got but running a bed and breakfast is all about hard work commitment and putting the needs of the customer first liam and louise might know how to design a hotel but they know nothing about hospitality or how to run a b b so i'm sending them off for a 24-hour stint in a seaside guest house where i think their eyes are going to be well and truly opened the amble cliff is a classic british seaside bmb in brighton it's clean welcoming and characterful and charges from 65 to 120 pounds a double good afternoon can i help you it's owned and operated by elaine kelman a lifetime brightonian who has run a successful business for 20 years with 13 rooms elaine needs to employ staff at the amble cliff but she's agreed to show louise and liam the ropes as they will be running their own show everything is about pre-empting what's going to come so it's like proper preparation having systems in place to make things run smoothly the guests will think it happens by magic a typical day begins at seven with breakfast after breakfast guests must be checked out and payments taken that's your copy of your let's see by 10 am it's back in the kitchen to clear breakfast and prepare the food order for the following day then it's on to cleaning rooms and bathrooms for the showers that gets right into the corners of the shower so you can make sure it comes nice and clean followed by laundering the sheets and towels finishing in time for mid-afternoon when the next guests arrive and the whole process begins again um the tasks are just tasks that i would expect to do on an everyday basis on the other hand i think because we don't have any staff to come in and help us uh it will be a lot more work having shown them the regime elaine takes a step back so that louise and liam can set about the tasks but for louise the preparation of the cooked breakfast has only confirmed in her mind that she won't be doing it in her own bnb it's too much it's too much to be quite you know unbearable this is our living space as well [Music] with great diligence louise and liam work their way through elaine's checklist of chores czech bedspread is not stoned leave but uh well bathroom is clean so we'll just strip everything off but unused to doing nine to five jobs liam is less than enthusiastic about the day the tasks that i was doing are quite menial tasks polishing a step cutting a tomato so i haven't really enjoyed it it's not interesting after a full day's work louise and liam have experienced for the first time what they'll need to do when their own bnb opens what's the part that you're actually most looking forward to when you're on your own is it meeting all the people all the time different people daily yeah i want people to love the house it's so special the place i want to see i really like that when we take people around you've got this moment with like say one particular room you open it and everyone goes for me the most important thing about doing the b b is the customer to actually want to see just what people think of your decor isn't quite how i why i would be doing b b back in margate building work is underway and the bed sits have all gone and louise and liam have taken on board ruth's advice about turning the large front room into a guest bedroom [Music] although this couple aspire to create the sort of bmb that would make it into exclusive boutique hotel guides they've only allocated 20 000 of their 100 000 pound renovation budget for furnishings so they're scouring the local antique shops for bargains nice color gray what could you do with it i don't know [Music] but attracted to that we're trying to do something that is in some way selling a dream or selling a um what would you call it selling in it yeah maybe it's just a box there are many hotels in the area that are perfectly functional that you can sleep in you can shower in they're going to come and live out of a suitcase they're not going to come and live it's not like a holiday home where they're going to do a self-catering let for a month or something how much of a room do they need to use that's what we'll think but designing a room with functionality in mind is vital for a successful bmb ruth is on hand to talk to louise and liam about their vision for the rooms we really like iconic pieces from different eras sure so you could have industrial design classics 20s 30s modernist but then also things from even the 70s and 60s is this typical of the kind of artwork that you're planning on putting on the walls in some of the rooms yes we've made friends with a few local um artists sorry local artist sounds right i know it sounds really bad contemporary local artists and um we thought it would be a nice idea to have art summer's actually even for sale we may organise little exhibitions as well this yeah another fine line you see you seem to major on fine lines you guys actually this is quite interesting you are constantly challenging the the norm as it were you border the whole time on being completely impractical and just sort of being if i totally read up your own asses about it i think they want people to regard them as dwyane's of design and even with the iconic and architectural features they want to bring in they still have got to work it can't just be all artifarty tell me about how you're thinking of planning this bathroom in terms of where bath shower and things are going to go rolltop bath in front of the chimney breast um just to respect the shape original configuration of the room have you thought about again the practicality of the bathtub we're at the beginning of thinking about the practicality of the bathtub i want to know where's my book going to go without getting wet where's my glass of champagne going to stand where's my soap yeah yeah it does does really need thinking out you could screw up the entire project by actually putting in place wonderful looking facilities but if the functionality doesn't work then you know it's it's worthless [Music] for a fully functional bathroom louise and liam must ensure that the roll top bath is positioned with sufficient space for someone to get in and out and the wet room shower is not too near the toilet and wash basin or they'll end up with water on the surfaces they'll also need a space for the luxury toiletries which are a vital part of the boutique hotel bathroom and a well-positioned mirror for their guests to admire themselves in six months time ruth sending in a secret inspector who will decide whether the bnb will get into one of the world's most influential boutique hotel guides but do louise and liam have the ability to create rooms that are both stylishly designed and functional i think fine line was mentioned a few times and so we're treading on a nice edge and we have to get that positioning really right so yeah it's going to be quite a delicate process to get all these things right ruth wants liam and louise to realize that while they can have an ambitious design plan it mustn't be at the expense of other more practical considerations while louise and liam want to keep all the character of their georgian house in market they don't want it to look tatty and functionality is also important in a hotel so i'm sending them off to rough luxe in london's kings cross a hotel which pioneered this particular very modern look just as louise and liam hope to do with airbnb the rough luxe hotel is a converted georgian house in a rundown area which has become a destination hotel for a fashionable arty crowd its nine rooms rent for up to two hundred and eighty pounds a night hi hello hi i'm liam nice to meet you thank you nice to meet you louise created by internationally acclaimed designer robbie haaj the rough luxe hotel skillfully mixes new and old with expensive modern artworks on distressed walls and opulent contemporary wallpaper alongside chipped paint i came up with this uh concept of rough luxury if you want or rough looks working on the contrast of rough and luxury working on the contrast of the old building but with the new luxurious material ruth wants louise and liam to see that although the rooms might look quirky they are all designed with the needs of the guest in mind from the bathrack on which to put your book or champagne glass to the essentials like tv sets which are artfully incorporated into the room the interior design project is not only about the packaging it's about the people basically who live in the space it's about the place being really functional this is the primary element of it as louise and liam look around they try to find inspiration for their own place yeah look they've had the the league the previous league yeah but it's really nice that that's left there well it works really well it's quite honest isn't it the way it's done it's interesting to see a place that's done aesthetically in a similar vein to what we're trying to do it kind of in a way has inspired me to go full-on and do what i believe in and what i feel comfortable with [Music] back in margate and for now the design of the house is forced to take a back seat as a much more pressing concern rears its head there have been some quite major structural problems with the roof that had been modified in the past some renovation phase had cut all the joists out of the roof the unexpected problems with the roof have cost louise and liam dearly and they've had to spend almost a third of their already tight one hundred 000 pound budget on putting it right we've had to do a lot more work than we'd foreseen and obviously that has some quite major budget implications [Music] it's may and ruth returns to find out how the renovation project is going louise and liam had hoped to be open for business at the end of this month but are now a long way off this ambition aha now this is the beautiful room that was going to be your living room so what's the plan here i mean it's it's glorious the main main feature is going to be the bed we've got some quite grand beds that will sit nicely in these rooms sort of exact copy of a 18th century carved bed what about money because this all sounds quite expensive okay so for three beds it's 13 yeah what was the original budget roughly it was what we'd allowed was a hundred a hundred thousand and how are you doing and spending it we're doing very well it's very going through very fast in spite of the roof eating into their renovation budget louise and liam are still determined to fit out their bnb to the highest standards in line with their design scheme there's some very fabulous radiators there those are going into the bathroom right and in here because we couldn't figure out or didn't want to put radiators in this room um we put underfloor heating a lot of work but i mean a lot of work because normally under floor heating you're doing new builds not in conversions so that's extraordinary and that was because purely visually you didn't want to sully the room with radiators yeah we were struggling as well with the whole tv concept we want to have tv yeah but we like when you come to choosing where it's going to go we found that quite difficult because it's design wise it's going to be alien to everything you're doing it's all very not quite well we'll have to navigate around that one yeah i think it was really telling that louise was so aghast at the notion of a television selling her beautiful design scheme but you know this is what people want when they go to stay somewhere and it's actually vital that it works because that's the part that's going to produce an income that's the part that's going to pay back the mortgage this project could so easily turn out as nothing more than a monument to louise and liam's artistic vanity [Music] as their design aspirations soar this couple are on the verge of going under you've run out of money i hadn't realized it had got to quite such critical level with the help of ruth watson louise oldfield and liam nab are planning to open a high concept design b and b in margate but the recession has hit this town hard and with one hotel company going bust every other day in the uk they're hoping their business can buck the trend the financial aspect is definitely a gamble because it's a massive restoration project and it's a new business for us but with an unexpected problem with the roof decimating their 100 000 pound budget they're behind with the renovation schedule and are beginning to feel the pressure maybe we've been a bit naive with the budget because i think we suddenly sort of sat there and looked at each other we've just it's gone forward like a train and we've just gone said yes to everything like oh do that do that now the drastic implications of the money situation have begun to dawn on louise suddenly you've got half ripped apart house well more than halfway apart house that you literally would be selling as derelict and if you haven't got enough money to finish the renovation then you're not going to manage to actually open as a hotel louise and liam are banking on a cultural regeneration of margate seaside regeneration is big business with the government spending 46 million pounds on arts projects alone the hotels restaurants and shops that set up first in these places are taking a big risk because there may not yet be a market to support their product but if regeneration does kickstart the local economy the first inn can set the rates and be well established when the new affluent crowd arrives three hotels that were at the vanguard of seaside regeneration which louise and liam could learn from include the bull in bridport a once chintzy backwater pub now a luxury boutique bolt hole escape clandudno's first contemporary boutique bnb and swan house in hastings a five-star bnb in a restored 15th century cottage with the potential reward so great but the money situation so critical ruth's worried that louise and liam might jeopardize their success because they're too obsessed with the design of their house and aren't thinking like hoteliers up until now louise and liam have been adamant that they won't be offering guests a cooked breakfast but ruth thinks they've made this decision for the wrong reasons part of the experience for people staying away as i'm sure you know is having a good breakfast we discussed that it's not going to be cooked i think yeah we didn't want to get into the sausages and bacon it's quite an intense thing for a full english we'll go through the whole house and be much more difficult to air off and not have the house smell of that every day and just the impact on us this is this whole point about this isn't just for you i still don't see anything emanating from you guys that's to do with people and the hospitality factor how do you feel about having kettle and and cups and sauces and and and tea making that that will come within the cupboard that is kind of designed into the paneling and no really no i actually i think it's something that we have we'll have to get used to i think it's just more our personal thing that we're not used to kettles in rooms you don't wax lyrical about people so i've still got a big question mark in my brain about this event to welcome someone into a space that is my own then i'm kind of being hospitable and saying come in but the mere fact you're talking about somebody being welcomed into a space whether it's your space or somebody else's space it doesn't need to be any space at all to just be welcoming you absolutely have to make the house pay don't you you do have to contemplate and embrace the notion that human beings will be part of this it's july and two months since louise and liam last saw ruth the bnb is still not open for business and louise is feeling the strain it's that classic story of it making you quite ill when you start to not sleep very well you don't eat properly so you feel rough in the morning you're feeling very warm worn out and just emotionally quite wrung out costs have been spiraling and now with their 100 000 budget all gone louise and liam have had to lay off the builders the 20 grand roof becomes a 37 grand roof and that kind of eats into the contingencies into other budgets and so it's kind of been quite difficult dealing with the financial aspect of finishing the project with the house worth less than they paid for it they can't turn to the bank for help you can't fall back on borrowing against the building which is probably what we would have previously done is gone back and remortgaged or something and you can't do that now with no hope of selling the house without making a huge loss they must get the bnb open for business but any work they do now is getting them further into debt we've just had to turn to credit cards um and personal loans um and just basically adding everything up day to day hoping that we can make all those like payments i mean that's the stage it's at over 200 miles away in suffolk ruth knowing the precarious situation in margate takes time out from running her own hotel to speak to louise how are things going stressful we've run out of money you've run out of money i hadn't realized it had got to quite such critical level yeah it all got carried away with the pace and the size of that building the budget has just rocketed through the roof you really need to get the cash flow coming in don't you you need to get those doors open so don't wait for perfection because i think this is part of your problem you're both perfectionist you want it to be absolutely spot on i completely see that and admire it but it also can have terrible consequences financially it soon becomes clear that the worsening financial situation has made louise and liam rethink their attitude to the business and they've made a radical u-turn [Music] so you're going to dare to cook sausages yeah well well done because that's a very good commercial decision and i like that that shows you've come on a long way luis thank you i think we can safely say that louise has had a reality check and they're quite obviously gently panicking i really hope they get over this because actually what it's done is wake them up to reality what this is all about and the mere fact that louise is now prepared to cook sausages to me says everything [Music] with the need for an income now their first priority perfectionists louise and liam are in a mad rush to get the place finished so they can open for business as you put things in you sort of come to the realisation that you might do things differently if you could but you don't have time or money when we've kind of finished this final rush we'll work on the details of you know bring things in that are kind of more interesting but that's what the place is about essentially louise has decided to put her own tastes to one side in the interests of her guests yeah the kettles and tvs they're just a thing that sticks out but we really really understand that people like it so essentially we've we've decided to have them liam has found some ingenious ways of making sure the rooms are functional without altogether abandoning his quirky design ethos it's for sending morse code messages with sunlight or it's a shaving mirror for example [Music] as the refurbishment nears its completion louise hesitatingly accepts its time for a new door to open i don't think it is quite ready in my mind now you just have to accept that that's a as it is and what's in your mind about it being perfect is not the same as what someone else sees it's september and seven months since ruth's first visit with louise and liam only days away from welcoming their first paying guests ruth wants to see if they've managed to transform the former bedsides into margate's first luxury boutique bnb the room liam and louise were planning to keep as their own private lounge until ruth persuaded them otherwise is now a stylish spacious bedroom a far cry from the traditional margate guest house room and many of the beautiful original features of the room have been restored look at this now this is the room that was going to originally be your private sitting room and i persuaded you that this would make a fantastic bedroom yes true and it does it's absolutely marvelous and these are the beds yes yeah yes very beautiful very beautiful next door the bed said that louise and liam had planned to convert into a bedroom is now a huge sumptuous bathroom with twin sinks and luxury roll top bath oh my word you really really have done a good job this is beautiful and absolutely the opposite of rough couldn't be more chic and to ruth's satisfaction the needs of the guests have been well catered for i noticed you put a place for the champagne and the soap or whatever yeah and a little niche to put shampoos in very good very clever this is top-notch five-star hotel quality of bathroom so well it is i mean absolutely no question about it it is it has everything you need it's beautifully done it's spacious i mean it's a fabulous job thank you the rest of the hotel has been finished with the same attention to detail combining the rough with the luxury and the modern with the old and the three rooms will each be rented out for 110 pounds a night the top floor room where the roof ate into such a large chunk of the budget is now a chic characterful bedroom with stunning exposed rafters and a stripped-back original wall and the ensuite bathroom is large and luxurious what a difference what a difference i love this mirror really beautiful i see that we have got the rough wall over there i have to say that on the whole though you've retreated quite a lot from the rough and in favor of the very smooth and the chic is is that a crisis of confidence in this room for example there's so much structural work that's gone on so all these walls it's all new they're actually new yeah there's about that thick of structural stuff in there and that's what we had left i think it looks just super and i really like this i mean bedside tables like you can see also you're acknowledging people want teeth this this is the functioning room very very good and television that doesn't look quite what i would imagine bit black bit heavy yeah eventually i think we might like a white tv but it was out of our budget we need to be open yes so we look you've done exactly the right thing you need the money all of this is something you can revisit you've done completely the right thing over the course of the next two years if you want to move furniture around change things over either reduce the look accentuate the look then you know you have all the time in the world to do it the major thing is to get the money coming in now yeah so good decision [Music] four months after they were due to finish and with their finances stretched to the limit liam and louise are finally ready to open their doors to guests and have bookings lined up tonight they are officially launching the reading rooms as they've now named their bnb am i nervous about what people will think we are being a bit perfectionist it's only when you see other people's impression of it that sometimes you realize that it's not a disaster that you think it is this is exciting thanks for coming they've invited the great and good of margate to come and give their verdict on the project [Music] with many of them running local businesses in the town and others involved in cultural regeneration schemes their opinions really matter this particular place is marvelous because uh it's so different from the usual branded records you'd expect to find in margate they've done an amazing job it looks absolutely brilliant i would love to stay here personally it's really up market and attractive all the rooms are spacious and it's just it's all original lovely chandeliers lovely bathrooms it's wonderful with the reading rooms now open louise and liam feel reassured by the reactions of their first visitors i do feel positive i do think that seeing people if they like the rooms at this level then when they're really finished properly that it'll be a good thing someone came to deliver some furniture and they said oh wow you've stripped it back you're going to refurbish it it's like we're going to open tomorrow so it's it's kind of borderline but i think the the people that were kind of trying to attract i think i have had a positive reaction to it but louise and liam face a more critical judge when ruth sends in an undercover inspector will margate prevent their bnb getting into one of the most influential hotel guides do you think visitors are ready to come to this place in this town that's the bit i've actually been pondering the most i would say [Music] the reading rooms margate's first boutique bed and breakfast has been open for one week and louise and liam have already welcomed their first paying guests but unbeknownst to them another guest is about to arrive who could make a big difference to their future success [Music] ruth is sending in an undercover inspector who will be wearing a hidden camera during his visit james lawn is the managing director of the mr and mrs smith hotel collection the boutique and luxury hotel specialists he searches far and wide to find the most stylish hotels for his guides that deliver cutting-edge cool and on-the-pulse design and comfort inside things get off to a good start as louise shows james his room wow this looks fantastic how lovely quite unexpected as well in my gate yeah and turns on the hospitality would you like some fresh tea or coffee do you know what that would be lovely see a bit later bye-bye [Music] now left alone james can start to evaluate the bedroom in closer detail it's absolutely lovely really stylish in beautiful chandeliers a square loo let's see if it has the old fancy shutter yep there we go that means it's expensive this lovely walk-in shower i like that considered hole there so you're not bending around or scrabbling around on the floor so far so good but the surroundings are an important consideration for james when choosing hotels for his collection so he heads out to put margate on trial a few boarded up houses over there still got a little way to go i would say the following morning louise delivers a large breakfast to james that includes the sausages and scrambled eggs she was once so reluctant to cook thank you wow that looks great excellent thank you very much okay i'll see you later bye [Music] at the end of the inspector's stay ruth's on hand to unveil the truth to louise and liam now i've got a bit of news for you which is that the guest you had staying in this room last night was actually the managing director of mr and mrs smith hotel collection [Laughter] to be listed in that kind of directory is is what would kind of a you know aspire to to achieve if the md thinks that this is the kind of place he'd like to stay in then that says something i think you know very well if he says the reverse of course that's different matters hello lovely to meet you you were very very hostly very good and i think your hospitality was excellent so overall a good experience yeah a great experience and it's a wow room you know you do walk in and go this is beautiful what about the breakfast how did that go the breakfast was excellent i had a full english breakfast it's very good it really was one final question james these guys are really in the vanguard when it comes to margate and that's always been a little bit of an issue do you think the town's ready for them do you think they're ready for the town do you think visitors are ready to come to this place in this town that's the bit i've actually been pondering the most i would say that was my biggest concern more than your guest house it's a good endorsement from james for the reading rooms but will margate be the fly in the ointment that prevents the bnb getting into his coveted hotel collection [Music] ruth delivers the news along with her final thoughts i never really had any doubts that you would make this building look beautiful and the bathrooms would be lovely and the decor and things than you have how much has this cost let's have the final tally remind me how much you paid for the building 330. and what do you think are you going to do don't do it i think i think the renovation has probably cost about 140 000 right can i ask you having spent approximately half a million pounds in a town which is still in the process of regeneration do you have any regrets it's a very difficult question we are kind of in the vanguard here that we're kind of the only ones kind of doing this thing maybe is a great advantage and we can be there i think you can argue it absolutely both ways my question is i have to ask myself do i think that you're going to be good hoteliers and the answer is if you'd asked me this six months ago i would have said no you were so so channeled into tunnel visioned about the building i really felt that the guests were superfluous to what you were doing ask me today and i do feel very differently i think you've really really turned a corner i think there's a big sea change i'm sure you want to know what james from mr missy smith had to say yes [Music] i'm delighted to tell you that james would very much welcome having you in his collection mr mrs smith yeah i think you really are showing how hospitable you can be i think everything you've done in the building both of you is fabulous i would be more than happy to come and stay here more than happy and i think that you will do a very good job for the town thank you it was one of our target aims or a dream to have been included in that guide because it's essentially the kind of place that we want to be and to have him as the director come here and actually speak so positively about our place it's amazing i think ruth really focused us on the business and on getting finished having a person who's kind of got a lot of experience within this industry to advise you on different things has been really yeah invaluable i wouldn't be open certainly it's quite good that ruth was was there really [Music] i was never in any doubt that liam and luis would actually do a good job on the house and they have it's fabulous what i was concerned about was would they be hoteliers would they bring guests into the equation and actually i think they will i have every hope that this is going to be a success [Music] you

Channel: Abode

Views: 116,111

Keywords: home and garden, Abode, Abode channel, home renovation, renovation, home and garden channel, home and garden tv shows, home design ideas, garden design ideas

Id: xjNb3-6rDf0

Length: 47min 18sec (2838 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 04 2022