Blog
Can your staff run your hotel without you there?
Sometimes, I remember to not be stupid on purpose. Here's lesson #1752 on why we document "how-to's" and SOPs for every process at the lodge: We had a power outage yesterday. No big storm. It just ...
Airbnbs and big hotels are laughing at your housekeeping papers
Imagine a day without the drag of administrative tasks (like printing out housekeeping sheets), a day where your focus shifts from mundane paperwork to providing such an incredible guest experience...
Your hotel is too small for software tools. Or is it?
In a landscape where giants roam, we as small hoteliers often find ourselves at a crossroads: cling to the familiar or embrace the new digital dawn. The march of technology waits for no one, and fo...
Paper is the enemy at your hotel. You just don't know it yet.
Imagine your hotel, a finely tuned orchestra where every note matters, but you’re stuck conducting with a blunt instrument: paper It’s the silent saboteur in your operation, quietly devouring t...
Employee handbooks don't have to suck
An employee handbook. The first thing that went through your head is some big manual from some big company right? That's not what I'm talking about, though. Sure, that's what their employee handboo...
How we eliminated "paperwork" at our hotel
When Trae and I purchased Berry Springs Lodge in Tennessee, it was a paper-heavy business. Most things involving operations were printed out or written down: Check-out folios (every single one) Gro...
Replying to negative reviews is hard
As fellow hotel owners, we don't always agree with guest reviews. When Trae and I purchased Berry Springs Lodge, some long-time patrons were harsh in their reviews merely because the previous owner...
How our hotel collects website visitor emails
At Berry Springs Lodge, we spend a lot of time and money on sending NEW traffic to our website. We do this through organic channels (non-paid, like Instagram and TikTok) and paid channels (e.g. ads...
Make rezStream bookings easier by prefilling the promo code and arrival date
This is easy; nothing fancy! This trick will pre-fill the “Promo Code” and “Arrival Date” sections on your rezStream booking engine so people don't have to enter it themselves. And if you don't alr...
Shift Notes changed how our hotel staff communicates
At Berry Springs Lodge, we (as management) were lacking a way for our staff to easily communicate and summarize what happened on every shift. And because of that, important information like guest p...
How Comfortly changed our housekeeping
When Justin and I bought Berry Springs Lodge 2 years ago (https://comfort.ly/#about-us), we had no idea what we were doing. We hopped in on a hope and a dream. So far, it's worked out...mostly. One...