The owner of the Number one hotel in south shore Blackpool about running the hotel and what the venue offers to guests.
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00:00What's your name and what's your position at the number one hotel in Blackpool?
00:03So I'm Claire Smith and I'm owner of number one St Luke's and number one South Beach in Blackpool
00:08here. So we decided the gap was five star so you have to put extras in the rooms so all the rooms
00:16have king-size beds, they all have large TVs, they all have tea and coffee making facilities,
00:22bathrobe slippers, hair dryers, all those bits and pieces. The bathrooms all have whirlpool baths as
00:28well as a separate power shower and they all have TVs at the end of the bath. So my job is to think
00:35right what have people got at home and and what can I put in that that's that's that little bit
00:42extra that little bit more special because people have such lovely lovely houses these days why
00:48would they pay to stay somewhere that has got less than their own home so that's that's my job. So
00:54when people ring up or email or you know ask questions when they've booked online
01:01if they're asking for something that we haven't got I take a note of it and then the second time
01:09it's asked for it gets the second tick and when it gets the third tick we have to put in whatever it
01:16is it they're asking for. So I'm going back years now that the first thing was on suites all those
01:23years ago so that's now nobody even asks for an en suite now that's assumed to be standard isn't it.
01:29No smoking was one well of course we're all no smoking now so that's not not talked about anymore.
01:37Four poster beds were the thing a while ago now it's moved on to large beds so king size super
01:45king size beds. Whirlpool baths that's the the current and the one that I've got one tick for
01:53is coffee machines so we're all getting more discerning about our coffee so that is the next
01:59thing that I see we will we will have to be somehow incorporating into the room so you've
02:06got to constantly be listening to what it what it is that your guests are asking for and always stay
02:14you know ahead of the game yeah it's um and and it's you know what else do do our guests need so
02:19we had a feasibility study done by Lancaster University when we um when we were opening our
02:25first five-star property car parking absolutely essential and it's not that people are precious
02:31about their cars it's the inconvenience if they've got to park it miles and miles away
02:38or if anything happens to it miles and miles away the inconvenience of how they get home
02:42so car parking on site is uh is absolutely essential as well um and more choice with the
02:48breakfast um so we do breakfast specials that are included uh so it might be haddock poached
02:55egg and tomato it might be something like um a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon
03:01so all the usual bits but that little bit extra and that's what I've always got to be thinking of
03:07how can I go a little bit further provide that little bit extra which is always a challenge
03:14because you know we are becoming more and more demanding yeah so what kind of um clientele
03:19that kind of guests do you regularly get at the hotel so we have all all different types really
03:25we get a lot of professional people um who we have to look after during the winter and the summer and
03:32and again it's a adapting to to keep those we've had various groups of of uh working people over
03:40the years I remember we had a a group of six men in that stayed with us for eight months Monday to
03:46Friday so you think it's winter it's miserable out there what what can we do to help make the
03:52experience a bit more you know a bit better for them so we we have um at the time it was you know
03:59the wheeze that you put on your telly and they could play this that and the other we have a golf
04:04simulator in the back so they could play various golf courses on that the um the table in the
04:10window there the conference table flips over to be a pool table so just things to make their evenings
04:17a bit more interesting so they're not constantly sat on the laptop so businessmen that uh and
04:23business ladies of course you know we need to make them feel safe that's a big thing with ladies um
04:29and then you get uh young couples how much is a night like a standard night at the so it depends
04:36on the time of year and depends on how many nights you stay and whether it's midweek or weekend yeah
04:42but a kind of rough average is between 130 and 160 for two people double occupancy in a king
04:49size bedded room to include bed breakfast parking and wi-fi right okay yeah