The Spey B&B doubled their forecast revenue using eviivo suite

The Spey is a 5 bedroom B&B in Grantown-on-Spey, in Scotland’s stunning Cairngorms National Park. It offers guests a warm Highland welcome, with stylish interiors in a contemporary Scottish style and rooms named after Scottish clans.

“What if no one comes to stay?” was the main question concerning Anne and Neil MacDonald when they decided on a new business venture in the Scottish Highlands. They recognised that opening a B&B in a town already well-served with accommodation options would be a challenge, but knew that with careful planning and realistic expectations it was one that they could face. So after they found their ideal property – a 9 bedroom family home that had once been a guest house 20 years ago – they began to address the problem of how to get guests through the door.

When researching a place to buy, Anne and Neil had eviivo recommended to them by another property owner. They were convinced that compared to other aspects of running a B&B (the cooking, the cleaning, the maintenance and looking after guests) managing their bookings online should be easy.

They chose eviivo and found to their relief that it was. eviivo’s channel manager connected them to all the leading travel websites so that people from all over the world could find their newly-opened B&B, and guests soon started to arrive. With eviivo making all aspects of the booking straightforward, from check-in and registration to taking card payments and billing, Anne and Neil could then concentrate on their visitors and on growing the online reputation of their new business with positive reviews from satisfied customers.

Hoping to take 300 room night bookings in their first season, Anne and Neil were delighted to receive just over double that in their first April to October of opening – all thanks to their brand new B&B booking system. Double the bookings means double the revenue, plus a huge boost to their confidence that running a B&B was something they could do well. Since then, they’ve worked hard to attract and satisfy guests, offering 1 night stays, discounts for direct bookings through their B&B website, promotions and non-refundable rates, which they found very easy to set up and control with eviivo. Working with the best online tools combined with the highest levels of customer care has seen the B&B thrive – with great reviews and guest communications, they’ve seen a growing number of repeat visitors.