The proud manager of one of the best rated cheapest B&B’s in Blackpool says he loves his job but it can sometimes be tricky.
Richard Lawton, the manager of The B&B in Cocker Street in North Shore said he prides himself on offer good quality, affordable accomodation in the resort.
The cheapest single room at the B&B costs just £24 a night and a family room is just £60 a night.
Watch him her discuss the highs and lows of the job.
Richard Lawton, the manager of The B&B in Cocker Street in North Shore said he prides himself on offer good quality, affordable accomodation in the resort.
The cheapest single room at the B&B costs just £24 a night and a family room is just £60 a night.
Watch him her discuss the highs and lows of the job.
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TravelTranscript
00:00So if we could start off with just a little bit of information about yourself, so what's your name?
00:05It's Richard.
00:06What's your surname as well?
00:07Lawton.
00:08Richard Lawton, okay. How old are you?
00:11Forty-two.
00:12Forty-two. Do you live in Blackpool or are you local to Blackpool?
00:15I don't now, but at the moment I'm running this and another hotel and one in Skidness.
00:23Alright, okay. So obviously we're talking about this is one of the cheapest hotels in Blackpool,
00:31so how much is a night to stay here?
00:34Our cheapest room is £24 a night and our most expensive room, probably a family room,
00:42can be from around £65 a night.
00:45Right.
00:46And the way we've worked it out is obviously if we give good quality, clean, friendly, good breakfast,
00:53then obviously people are going to return and I'd rather make some profit than no profit at all.
00:59Yeah. How are you running it because obviously it's quite cheap, so how does it work from the financial side of it?
01:07Well, a lot of people book bed and breakfast, so an empty room makes you nothing.
01:11I'd rather make £10 a night per room than nothing per night per room.
01:15Yeah.
01:16So keeping your costs down, but obviously the council keep opening new hotels,
01:20which is making us, well, trying to put us out of business basically.
01:23We've got Holiday Inn that they've just opened, Premier Inn they've just opened,
01:27which is obviously affecting us. We've had to drop our prices to try and compete.
01:31Yeah.
01:32And we're only a two-star, so.
01:34Yeah. So that's a problem that you're facing because obviously Blackpool is such a tourist destination.
01:39Well, I mean, you think about it, the dancers, the dancers, right, we used to have them regular.
01:43We've lost them now to Premier Inn.
01:45Which dancers?
01:46You know, the dancers that used to come for Winter Gardens.
01:50Oh, right.
01:51We used to have them every year. We've had them for nearly 10 years.
01:53Oh, right.
01:54We've lost them to Holiday Inn because they undercut our prices.
01:57Right. And how much, how significant a financial impact is that?
02:01Well, obviously massive, isn't it? Because, fair enough, we're only selling rooms at £35, £36.
02:06They've obviously gone under that and we can't go any lower. I've only got eight rooms. I can't go any lower.
02:11But from my point of view is, council should be stepping in and helping us.
02:17I mean, at the end of the day, they won't let us change usage.
02:20They won't let us use the hotels, but they'll keep building more hotels, which is massively affecting us.
02:25Yeah. What other kind of problems have you faced with this hotel?
02:29I mean, obviously keeping it cheap, you do end up attracting some of the wrong crowd.
02:36What examples have you had of that?
02:39Well, I'll give you an example. Last Wednesday, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this or not on camera,
02:46but basically two smackheads turned up, local smackheads.
02:51I refused them entry, even though they paid online, because they were just off their faces and I don't want them trashing my rooms.
02:59Is that a regular problem?
03:01I wouldn't say regular. I'd say about every three to four months.
03:04Right.
03:05You'll probably get that kind of clientele, which is not the kind of clientele that I want.
03:10Yeah. What other more positive clientele will you get?
03:15Oh God, we'll get families. We'll get regular families and they haven't got much money.
03:21They're on a budget, so us being able to give them a room at 60 quid a night, 65 quid a night,
03:27God, it makes a kid's holiday, doesn't it? Because they want somewhere clean and tidy.
03:31I mean, I don't know if you've read any of our reviews, but the majority of them are eights and nines and tens.
03:36So we're obviously doing something right.
03:38Yeah, especially if you've had lots of returning customers.
03:41So what does this, how does this hotel differ from other hotels in the area?
03:46Because obviously there's a lot of competition. You talked about the prices.
03:49Well, I mean, all I can say, and it's in our slogan, it's a B&B Blackpool, where we put our customers first.
03:58And that's the only thing I can say. I put it in the slogan.
04:02I just literally, just two minutes ago, been and picked a customer up from the train station and brought her to the hotel.
04:08So that's an extra service we offer. And we're only charging £34 for a room, £33 a night for a room.
04:14And so she's got picked up and dropped off at our hotel as well on top.
04:17Yeah.
04:18Do you know what I mean? It's little extras that you can put on there for free that might make them want to book with you again.
04:23Yeah, yeah. So a big thing for this is just good service.
04:27Yeah, good service. And then hopefully they'll come back.
04:32I'm just going to...
04:39Do you have any... Oh, actually, one thing I wanted to ask, what's your position at the hotel?
04:45Is it like a manager or...
04:47Right. I used to own it and now work here.
04:53So I'm like a manager.
04:55You're a manager, okay.
04:57And I think probably the last question, do you have any future plans for the hotel?
05:01I mean, we've got a license bar. We do use the license bar. We do open on an evening.
05:08We only charge £2.50 a pint. We're not expensive.
05:12So it's getting that busier. That's my plan, getting the license bar busy.
05:16That'll give us another stream of income.
05:19Yeah, yeah.
05:20So that's my plan. We're in the gay quarter.
05:25So we've got loads of pubs now down Lord Street that are open to the public, hotels.
05:31Yeah.
05:32Straight across the road, I forgot the name of it. What's it called?
05:37Every Sense? Every Sense?
05:40Evanescence.
05:41Evanescence.
05:42Evanescence.
05:43They're obviously opening a license bar as well, which will work really, really well with us.
05:49Can I grab that phone?
05:50Yeah, yeah, sure.
05:52Hello. Well, this is room four, which is the angel.
05:57And double bed.
06:00Your side lamps, you've got tea and coffee.
06:02We always give you nice tea and coffee.
06:04We try and make the rooms modern, but nice.
06:09Nice big mirror for the ladies for their makeup.
06:12And some lovely pictures on the wall as well.
06:15Been quite modern.
06:18We always have air dryers in the rooms as well, I guess.
06:22And obviously TV.
06:25All our TVs have got YouTube for the kids as well, which is great.
06:32This room's got a bath.
06:34Nice lovely corner bath.
06:36You've got the shower as well.
06:39And obviously the normal stuff you would get in a bathroom.
06:45Unfortunately we don't have great views, but the main thing is you've got a lovely comfortable clean room.
06:50That's really what you need, isn't it, at the end of the day.