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Flexible, expert advice when you need it. Book hourly support across a range of topics—from planning to problem-solving. This focused consultation will help clarify your goals, map out next steps, and identify opportunities for growth.

Flexible, expert advice when you need it. Book hourly support across a range of topics—from planning to problem-solving. This focused consultation will help clarify your goals, map out next steps, and identify opportunities for growth.

The Best Rooms in the House

Take a boring little pub room, or a tired hoey moey motel room… souse it up, keep it simple but considered… then sit back and let it book out.

I love road trips. Unplanned, spontaneous… get in the car and take off, follow the road until something catches your eye, pull over… stay. The only problem with a day out like that is finding somewhere to stay last minute. The great places are always booked out. Motels next. And finally pubs are the last choice… and they really should be at the top of the list, because staying in a pub, up the stairs from where you just ate, has a whole lot of stories attached.

Stay in a pub, or stay in a motel in some back-road town… and here's what it could be. This is the vision.

Pub rooms are the forgotten spaces, and forgotten revenue earners. Publicans mainly come from an F&B background… accommodation, not so much. Bars and dining rooms dominate our thoughts on what a pub is, and what they're about… and that needs to change.

The numbers tell the story. 100 pubs across regional Victoria, averaging 10 rooms each… that's 1,000 beds a night. Sell them at $100 each and that's $10,000 a night when full, or $5,000 at 50%… around $1.8M annually. And the room rate could be $150+ if we get the rooms right. Housekeeping costs only around $30 a room ($15 linen change, $15 staff)… that's roughly $70 GOP per room. Of course you have to find the capex for the original setup, to make the rooms comfortable, clean, cosy and quality… but it doesn't take much. Paint, a deep clean, new beds and mattresses, tweaked lighting, reupholstered furnishings and a few thoughtful pieces and touches… say $10K a room. Earn back at least all of the setup costs in the first year… and that's a pretty good return on investment.

Get the bed right. Seriously, if you're tempted, you must get the bed right… if nothing else. Walk into a cosy, welcoming room and be surprised by the bed and the linen… that will blow most people's minds. The unexpected luxury of the bed will set their tongues talking when they leave. Add great towels and amenities… and hang them in the bathroom. Don't roll them up and leave them on the bed… why do pubs do this? Add some niceties, some considered things… and you've got yourself a winner.

Shared bathrooms can work too… just make them very nice. Tea and coffee making, either in the room or shared… just choose quality. It doesn't all have to be designer and matchy-matchy… but the sleep has to be the thing everyone talks about, so get the bed right. And make sure cleanliness, without the chemical smells, is the highest priority.

People will forgive the noise, the age of things, the basic wear and tear… if the bedding is Rolls-Royce, the care is considered, and the price is right. And let's face it, any price you can earn for your room, any extra revenue for the day, is better than none… empty rooms earn nothing, and they should be the jewel in the crown.

The market is wide open. For pubs there are two main booking portals: pubrooms.com.au, with 53 pubs across Australia, and pubbookings.com.au, with 69… that's 122 pubs across two platforms. Some pubs run their own booking systems, but how do we know who has rooms and who doesn't, when there are between 4,300 and 7,000 pubs across Australia? The industry is heavily populated by independent operators, though two large groups manage significant portfolios… one runs over 350 venues, the other more than 200 nationwide. There are a few small booking platforms, but none has dominated the market. Around 525 pubs are listed on booking.com, an international platform with some of the most expensive costs, fees and commissions… taken directly from the owner's purse. Their stats:

• Average rate: $153

• Lowest rate: $105

• Highest rate: $244

• Most sit between $140–$170 a night

So benchmarking against this sample of regional Victorian pubs and accommodation, I'd put the market ADR at around $150–$155 a night… and that's before we freshen up the rooms. Imagine if we freshened up the whole guest journey… their stay from woe to go.

That leaves a huge number of standalone pubs… that need a hand to refresh, refurb, and rethink the whole customer stay… the website, the entry, parking, check-in, public areas, pool, gardens, lounges, dining room… and the rooms. Imagine if the independent pubs got together and created The Great Bed Club, or something along those lines… recommending each other, cross-selling, working as one. Amazing results.

This is where we come in. H&M can make this happen… refresh or refurb… big budget or little budget… one piece at a time or the whole place. We know what needs to change to lift yield and occupancy. We know the tricks of the trade. We know how to simplify your operation, refocus on the customer first… and even build the simple website that drives business your way. You stay worrying about the F&B… we'll work on the rooms. We'll even do it for you.

Your people, your processes… and you. As a standalone business, you might not know where to start, or how to change the way you do things… what's new, what's needed and what isn't… because you're too deep in the doing, and don't have time to look. We understand that. Been there, done that. We add real value by looking for you… streamlining and improving processes, giving you back lost time… to do other things, even personal things. Imagine that.

And then there's staff. Hard to get good ones, hard to manage them, hard to change them. We do that too. Sometimes staff just need someone else to sell the idea, make the changes, alter the patterns… an outsider often has more connection than the boss. We bring experience, considered care and kindness to making their jobs better overall.

By working with your people, your processes… and even you… our fresh vision and ways will lift your business and your customer rating. It's what we do, and we love it.

We love pubs. We love motels. We love regional Australia. And we can help build your business through rooms… reset it, reassess it, and set it up to be the ROI you need it to be.

Flexible, expert advice when you need it. Book hourly support across a range of topics—from planning to problem-solving. This focused consultation will help clarify your goals, map out next steps, and identify opportunities for growth.