The “voice”
of
independent accommodation providers

Sam had been retired from the army for two whole weeks and was now living with Joy in Sunfair.  Eve had suggested to Joy that she might close when Sam came home.  There would be adjustments on both sides, and it might be better if they had some time on their own first. Joy felt that Eve was right and she was glad that she had followed Eve’s advice.

Joy and Sam went on holiday for a week, a few days after Sam had arrived, and they spent the second week working out who would be responsible for which jobs and catching up on maintenance.  They had agreed that Sam and cooking were two words that did not fit in the same sentence, but Joy was sure that Sam, being naturally talkative would make an excellent waiter.  Sam had also made it clear that he was keen to decorate and do all the odd jobs and he had suggested that handling the accounts system and shopping could be his role as he had an eye for a bargain.  Joy was not sure about Sam’s eye for a bargain but she was quite happy to relinquish the role as she was not very good at book-keeping and it meant that she could concentrate on the cooking, cleaning, laundry and taking the bookings.  Joy wondered if this was the type of arrangement that most partners had.

Officially Sunfair re-opened yesterday, but Joy and Sam had no bookings, so this afternoon was the first time since Sam retired that he would be confronted by guests at his front door.  Joy hoped that Sam would open the door to the new guests so that she could see how well Sam would cope.  She had been listening for the door bell for the past half an hour, so that she could immediately busy herself elsewhere to ensure that it was Sam who let the guests in.  Her plan worked and she listened behind the door as Sam asked the guests if they would like a cup of tea in the lounge first.  She noted that he did not ask if they would like to use the toilet first.  She would have to mention this to him.  Apart from that she thought he did well.  She joined him in time to see him asking the guests to fill in the registration form.  She watched as he produced a tea tray, took payment, showed the guests where the public areas were, told them the time of breakfast, and a hundred other things that they were bound to forget.  Joy realised that she too bombarded guests with a list of details, that they were highly unlikely to remember.  She decided she would ask Sam to help her create an information pack that she could leave in the rooms.

As Sam led the new guests to their room, Joy felt pleased, Sam’s first working day had got off to a good start, the new guests Maisie and Tom Crump seemed very nice. They said they were grandparents visiting their daughter, who lived nearby.  Joy hugged herself and smiled. Persuading Sam to agree to running a B&B on his retirement from the army was going to prove to be a great idea and a huge success, then Joy thought about tomorrow and her expression changed.

Tomorrow the Fire Officer was coming.  Sam had already told her that he thought they would have a few problems to sort out.  Before Joy bought Sunfair a brand new fire alarm system had been fitted and Joy had assumed that there was nothing to worry about, but Sam had said that he thought all the fire doors would have to be replaced because they were not thick enough and did not have the strip seal round them.  Joy didn’t really know what Sam was talking about.  Sam also said that he didn’t think much of her Risk Assessment, which the previous owners left here for her.  When he first saw the Risk Assessment he said that it was not good enough, and that he would do a new one, but he hadn’t started it and yesterday the Fire Officer had rung to arrange a visit for Wednesday.

Sam had taken the phone call and confirmed that they would be there.  Joy wondered why he hadn’t put the Fire Officer off for a week or two, so that they could at least have produced a new Fire Risk Assessment. Surely Sam could have thought of some excuse, but that was not Sam’s style, he would let the Fire Officer come and then take it from there.

“It’s a useful visit” Sam insisted, so why did Joy feel anxious, was it because she had heard lots of horror stories about Fire Inspections?

Joy was also a bit worried because Sam had said that he was surprised at the low number of bookings they had in the diary, he said he would have expected more enquiries too. Joy thought they were doing ok, but Sam had been asking for bills and reading meters all day.

Tomorrow promised to be difficult.

Just then Joy heard a crash, it sounded as if it had come from upstairs, she ran to the staircase.