Getting Ready for the Busy Tourist Season

In this episode of Small Business Big World, we sit down with Mark Osborn, owner of the Topside Inn located in Boothbay Harbor, ME, to dive deep into how hospitality businesses gear up for the bustling tourist season.

Mark shares insights from his experience managing two distinct hotels and a vacation rental business, shedding light on the meticulous preparations required for a successful season. From timing renovations to estimating business volume and navigating staffing challenges, Mark provides practical advice and strategies for maximizing success during the busy season.

Transcript

Chris Cluff: 0:00

This is Small Business Big World, our weekly podcast prepared by the team at Paper Trails. Owning and running a small business is hard. Each week we'll dive into the challenges, headaches, trends, fun and excitement of running a small business. After all, small businesses are the heartbeat of America and our team is here to keep them beating. Welcome to Small Business Big World, our weekly podcast, where we talk about everything small business. Today we are at the Hospitality Main Expo here in Portland Great venue. We're recording here. I've got Mark Osborne of the Topside Inn Welcome, thank you so much. Excellent, so Mark's a board member. You're a board member of Hospitality Main right, so talk to me about what you guys do with Topside Inn, what your business looks like, all that fun stuff.

Mark Osborn: 0:40

Sure, it's a big, big topic, but I'll try and make it so. Topside Inn is a 21 room bed and breakfast in the heart of downtown Boothbury, Harbor, Maine, which is amazing. We have great views of the harbor and right in the center of town. We've owned the property for about 10 years and have undertaken many, many renovations. Hopefully, this is the last year of major renovations, but really turned it into kind of a almost like a boutique hotel not to overuse that term. Um, but had a lot of fun with it. Uh, really liked her. Um, you know, show off our town and show off the state of Maine and really give people an authentic experience, which is awesome.

Chris Cluff: 1:15

Yeah, that's great. So you know we, we're getting ready for the busy season, right? So summer is is the season in Maine, and certainly you know what kind of things. You know how do you do, how do you get yourself ready, how do you psych yourself up, how do you plan, how do you staff All that stuff?

Mark Osborn: 1:30

So we actually start planning at the end of the previous season. Sure, your little post-mortem To all the post-mortem. We take a look at what worked, what we can improve on you know what feedback we start Again. We've done lots of renovations through the winter, so right now if you saw a topside you'd be a little scared for us but it always comes together and you know a lot of it's staff.

Mark Osborn: 1:50

Staff is a huge thing, you know, getting a great team pulled together because we're seasonal. We do have some staff that are with us year-round, but most of them are seasonal. We're happy to have a lot come back from seasons before, which make everything much easier, but really, once you've got a great team, that's the biggest challenge. And then it's just, you know, getting out there, getting the word out, welcoming back your guests from previous years and then welcoming new guests who maybe haven't been to Maine yet. Now do you have the luxury, do you?

Chris Cluff: 2:15

close for a period in the winter we do. That's good, so you can have a little extra time to do things. Yes, we are Maybe take a vacation.

Mark Osborn: 2:21

Yeah we are open to recharge the battery From May 1st to the end of October, so it's a very busy six months and then, you're right, we get a little bit of downtime. But People say, what do you do when you're six months of your clothes and we're like we're always answering the phones Sure, always doing marketing. There's always something to be done, but it is nice to be able to catch your breath and recharge, which is great. So what have you done this winter? For renovations, no-transcript. And now we're kind of finishing the main house. So we've got three of our last guest rooms and just total renovation bathroom, everything In 2020, when we were closed for a few months from that thing called COVID, we took the opportunity to actually put a really cool little luxury bar in our first floor, which really is really beautiful and our guests love it. And then we kind of redid dining rooms and lobbies and, like I said, we're just rounding that up.

Chris Cluff: 3:30

That's awesome. And you have the luxury, like I said, of closing for a few months so you can actually do some of those big projects right?

Mark Osborn: 3:39

Yeah, without disturbing guests, which is important. Yeah, some people are in the position where they can buy a property like ours and close it for a year and do it all at once. We did not have that luxury, but it's also been a film. We've learned as we've gone through and kind of improved each renovation basis we've gone through it.

Chris Cluff: 3:50

But that's business especially in Maine. We money doesn't flow like it does some other places.

Mark Osborn: 3:57

It takes time, it does, and investing in your property does have benefits, absolutely.

Chris Cluff: 4:01

Long-term, absolutely so when you finish, you close the doors in October. You take a nap. I'm sure what's the first thing you start thinking about once you have your little rest? You're starting to think about next year. What's that first thing you're worried about for next year?

Mark Osborn: 4:16

You know again, staffing is a big thing, Getting the property ready is the other thing. And then also just looking at what's going on in the world. I mean, before COVID, we used to think about things like gas prices and weather and the economy, and is there anything going on internationally that may affect your national travel? Then we had COVID and now post-COVID. Everyone keeps going back to pre-COVID, back to 2019. It's actually gotten much more complicated than that.

Mark Osborn: 4:42

We thought just opening the doors was going to all we needed to do and then the world would be great again. Absolutely, but between everything from the upcoming election to inflation, to the world issues, to you know again, with people trying to, COVID really doesn't seem in the leisure business to be too much of a factor anymore, but there are just so many elements that have come into play that make it much more complicated. So it's you know, it's always on your mind, it's not just when we close.

Chris Cluff: 5:11

I would say you know, I was talking to a fellow business owner client. You know, yesterday, no-transcript. You know, we used to drive around the state and see everybody. Well, now everyone orders online. We text their orders and we do this. We may not see our vendors, you know, I don't see our clients, you know, but maybe once a year, and I think that has changed as well.

Mark Osborn: 5:59

So well, one month out Corporate travel, event travel, that's still pretty long term. People plan weddings a year in advance. People plan corporate travel is back again as far as group travel goes, which is great. But people have gotten so used to booking last minute and as a property owner that is, a hotel owner that's so difficult to manage because in the urban settings people will book a day. They'll book Friday morning for a weekend stay in downtown Portland and if 20% of your business or 30% of your business is coming in the morning of it really makes you know uh, you know, staffing a challenge, planning a challenge, everything a challenge. So that is one thing that's definitely changed is that people's comfort level with booking last minute. Now at Topside we're super lucky that we have such a return guest following who will book the next year, so we have a nice base going in which kind of kind of lets us sleep a little bit better. But that bringing the, attracting the new guests, used to be a nine-month thing, then a six-month thing, now it's a two-month thing.

Chris Cluff: 7:02

Yeah, it's really interesting. I know my family owns a restaurant and my father calls around, talks to all the hotels and ends up saying what do bookings look like for this summer? Right, what should I plan for my staffing based on your bookings? And he's even said well, that doesn't work as much anymore. No, particularly because, like you said, people are booking at last minute and it's really, you know, it's had an impact on the business as well.

Mark Osborn: 7:27

Well, two things that I think are really I'm happy to hear Just before our conversation this morning. I've talked to a few colleagues in the chamber and think, and one thing they brought to my attention, which actually I've been seeing, is we're getting people in Booth Bay Harbor now, which usually we are a seasonal business where we open up beginning in May. Memorial Day really kicks the season off, but it's March and April and we're people coming to town now. That's an amazing the season has extended, for sure. The season has extended and then also giving people a unique experience. I mean, we're so fortunate to be in Maine and we're so fortunate to be in Boothby Harbor. We have things like the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, which is the number three tourist destination in the state of Maine and that brings people, and our season now extended through January, beginning of January, which is really great. Oh yeah, gardens aglow and everything is great and yeah so certainly, you know, I I love with bay harbor.

Chris Cluff: 8:19

Personally, I would say I've lived in kennymont my whole life and we've seen the same thing that you guys are seeing now, where the season gets longer and longer and longer. Right, and that has has been a good thing for business, for sure, but it's you've had to change your staffing model, right, uh, and I I think for you, probably at some point you may say maybe we might open April 1st instead of May 1st, right? Right, I?

Mark Osborn: 8:37

don't know about us, but as you saw it, to a topside it looks like right now we're not opening the door, we're not opening May 1st. But yeah, I think that to the smaller property especially is, you know, offering a unique experience is going to become more important. I mean, we're now, you know, there's the whole vacation home business. Has, you know, trended to that? We actually have a small vacation home business in Boothby Harbor, so we're kind of tapped into that, you know, bringing the flow of that market too. So, yeah, but offering something unique is going to be necessary.

Chris Cluff: 9:11

So that's interesting. So you know, I think across Maine, for generations, right, my family's on vacation rentals and rented them and you know, in the last decade or so everyone's been anti-Airbnb and you know, anti-vacation home. It's ruining the hotels, it's ruining the hotel business, Right, but you're in that short-term rental business.

Mark Osborn: 9:36

Yeah, which is an interesting thing, and I see both sides of it. I definitely see the hotel side, which is most of our business, and the issues there. But then on the flip side, in, for example, boothbury, harper, we've lost a lot of hotels to development, to a park, to different things that are not. Some are great I mean having these wonderful assets but the number of rooms has decreased. So you know the. So there is also a silver lining to the vacation rental business and that is it also gives people a place to sleep when they're staying in our town. So our restaurants and stores appreciate that. So it's definitely everyone's got to work together and it all, you know it all impacts, impacts the whole hospitality industry.

Chris Cluff: 10:08

So when you're thinking about, you know, getting ready for the season, you know it's certainly sounds harder to plan than ever, right? Right, you know what are you doing to attract a team, to attract staff to? You know, I'm sure you have some folks that have been with you forever, yeah, and then. But it's probably filling in those last handful of people, right?

Mark Osborn: 10:28

How are you finding those people and how are you training them and getting them up to speed? So the challenges are one what you need to pay people these days to approach them has gone up. So I know hotel rooms the cost of rooms have gone up, but our expenses have gone up tremendously and again, that's also a good thing. I mean, actually paying people more is a good thing. Housing is also another challenge. Where are these people going to stay, because the price of everything has gone up, including housing. So finding people, housing, those are kind of the two major things. And then it's attracting the best of the best and that's just offering them a really fun, rewarding work experience where they can express their creativity, where they can have exposures to the guests, having the culture, having the culture, having the culture.

Chris Cluff: 11:08

It's interesting. We work with numerous clients and some folks say I just can't find anybody, I can't find anybody. And then I have clients that are fully staffed for the season. Now we're in March and we're ready to open in a month and we don't have any worries at all. And you know, I think the thing that you see is like you talked about the culture is having that fun place to work. Not only are you paying them well, you're taking good care of them, but they enjoy coming to work, they can fulfill, they have fulfillment, which is important and it's like anything else.

Mark Osborn: 11:34

If you have a good core team and they enjoy what they do, they bring friends. It's a word of mouth and that's I'll tell you. This year we have some wonderful people coming back from last year and they're bringing relatives, friends, you know, and that's amazing because you know they're good.

Chris Cluff: 11:52

They're not going to bring someone who's not Right because they don't want to bring someone that's going to drag them down. They want someone that's going to help Right Cause it's hard work running at a hotel.

Mark Osborn: 11:58

Yeah, they're actually your number one recruiters, or your own staff, so you really need to appreciate your staff. That's awesome.

Chris Cluff: 12:04

So you talked about. You know you're kind of open for six months, right, but how are you attracting folks in the very beginning of the season? The end of the season, certainly, the market has expanded. But what are you doing to fill those hard weekends, maybe the first couple of weeks of June, which are kind of quiet sometimes? What do you guys do to plan for that and get people in?

Mark Osborn: 12:22

Well, as a community, we actually do things in town to bring people in, which that's a great approach, trying to give here something to come to do. But then also it's a time for people who are valued travelers to say look, you're going to get the same great experience. All the restaurants and shops are open. The weather might be a little bit cooler, you know, in the spring, the fall, I'll tell you, september, october is the best time. I mean, you know, the families are back with the kids in school, so it's a little bit quieter, but the weather is spectacular. So just getting the word out there that you know that that places are open and this is the time to come May and June, we definitely see people who want to spend a little bit less and get the same great product. Um, and then September, october, are the people who are just in on the secret. Um, you know, this is the time to be here.

Chris Cluff: 13:11

It's interesting and I think you know I look at those shoulder seasons as I travel is you probably are going to get a little better service because you're, you're, you're the only ones there, right, there's, you're. You're not at full capacity, and certainly we know what 4th of July weekend looks like. Everyone's running around like crazy because you're at full capacity, which is great, but you know it's okay to slow down a little bit and have some quiet time, right? Yeah, no, absolutely.

Mark Osborn: 13:31

Absolutely no. I was just going to laugh because it's so fun, but we'll have relatives and stuff saying like, oh, we won't come 4th of July because you'll be really busy. And when you're open seven days a week as a hotel and you only can be so full, sure, and you have 21 rooms and they're all sold, it doesn't matter if it's 4th of July or 5th of July, but the talent is obviously much more hopping and busy fireworks.

Chris Cluff: 13:54

Yeah, so what else operationally you're thinking about? You know you talk about. You know staffing is probably the big thing. Marketing yourself is big, but are there other operational concerns? Certainly renovations you're doing. What other operational type things are you thinking about to get yourself ready for that season? You can talk about your processes and you know vendors Are you looking at?

Mark Osborn: 14:12

that type of stuff too, oh God, so, yeah. So food is a really important thing to us at Topside. I mean, we have a. We came out with a cookbook. Can't buy it on Amazon, but we self-published but you can get it from us. No, god, no, no, it's not so at all. We just didn't want to, you know, go down that that path, um, but, but food is super important to us and we love working with the local vendors.

Mark Osborn: 14:33

Um, we just went last week and visited this lovely woman, heather, who has balfour farm up in, uh, in maine here, um, and you know we're going to get her cheeses nice and offer to our guests for like cheese boards in the evening and things like that. So that's the super fun part is going around to all the vendors. We've got incredible farmers markets that will open soon, um, and and really that's one of the ways that we give guests a really authentic main experience is by giving them main products, if um, so, so that is something that we're we're just getting into now. Um, we've got to do this and this horrible thing called the wine tasting where we work with you're gonna pick the to pick the wine tasting. Here we go.

Mark Osborn: 15:11

So Easterly Wines. We've been working with them. I've been working with them for I've got 20 years and you know we go up and do a wine tasting. So that is the super fun part of getting things ready for the season. Bitch, you know, research and development, research and development, it's something you've got to do, you've got, you got to take it on, that's awesome.

Chris Cluff: 15:29

That's really good, yeah. So how are you measuring success early in the season, you know, when you get open? How are you measuring your success, you know, and then the end of the season, what do you, what do you look for in success?

Mark Osborn: 15:38

So, number one for us is guest satisfaction. So, um, you know, not only the guest feedback, but also the reviews. You know we, our business, uh is greatly influenced by the reviews and, happy to say, in 2022, tripadvisor named us the number one small hotel in the US. Congratulations, which was amazing. And we've stayed in the top 10 for the past three years. That's awesome, which is great, and it's all because of guest feedback and guest reviews. So the number one way we measure success is our guests' satisfaction and everything comes from that, everything flows from that, uh, and then, of course, you know, then you look at the, the, the metrics, to see if you actually made some money and what your occupancy is and things like that. Um, but really it's. It starts and almost ends with guest satisfaction.

Chris Cluff: 16:24

So I'm reading a book by Horst Schultz right now, who's the founder of Ritz Carlton. You know, excellence wins and that's that's the big thing. Right, it's, it's getting the feedback from your guests, understanding where your clients, or whoever you're working with, you know the fundamentals of hospitality work across the business world. Right, you don't have to be, you know, hosting guests at a hotel, but uh, you know, it's really making sure that your customers are satisfied and then they come back. Right, they keep coming back. And you said you have that repeat business, which I'm sure is a metric you're looking at.

Mark Osborn: 16:50

It's a huge metric and we're not perfect no one is perfect but being able to be well-connected to your guests so that if they do have some feedback or suggestions, we love that. Can I take a suggestion? Then you're able to address that and actually make your business better? Sure, so that's really been what we've learned over the past 20 years and 10 years at Topside. That's awesome.

Chris Cluff: 17:14

Well, that's an awesome win too. Congratulations on the TripAdvisor, yeah.

Mark Osborn: 17:17

You know that's.

Chris Cluff: 17:17

that's amazing it was, and I think that speaks to not only you and the hard work that you do, but you know the community and the and the industry that you know is supporting you too right.

Mark Osborn: 17:27

Part of it because our guests, only a portion of their stay is what they experience on our property. The rest of it is how our community treats them, whether they're going out on a schooner, whether they're going downtown to listen to music or go to a restaurant or go to a gallery. It's just, it's all a group effort and, uh, you know. So that definitely achievement was a shared achievement with the town of booth bay harbor.

Chris Cluff: 17:48

It's awesome well, good, any other closing thoughts? I know I'm probably anxious to get down on the trade for a four, but any other closing thoughts on thinking about you know, getting ready for the season and how you guys do it?

Mark Osborn: 17:58

No, I'll say just in closing I think we're in for a good season. I think it's going to be. There's going to be a. We'll have to go into attracting the guests and to give them a wonderful stay. But talking with my colleagues and other people out there, I think we're in for a good season. And how are bookings looking? Fine, they're fine, Good. No, they're good Again. You have a nice, solid base of return guests. But you know, we're trying to balance that shorter booking window with optimism and I think that everything we're seeing are good signs. It's just coming in a different pace and that's the challenge, that is the challenge Good, how do folks find you Online, instagram, social media?

Mark Osborn: 18:47

How do we? Super easy, topsideincom this is our website, our facebook, our instagram and uh, anyway, we are. We're open uh, seven days a week and and happy to to chat with people and uh, I think a couple years ago we were the number three um number three search on uh for booth bearer things to do in booth bay Bay Harbor. Not just hotel, but I think TripAdvisor was one or Chamber was number two and TopSideIncom was number three. Congratulations, great search engine optimization. We get calls what time do the boats leave to Monhegan Island? And we can answer those questions. So just call us for anything. That's awesome, well, good.

Chris Cluff: 19:27

Well, thank you for being here today. Certainly like subscribe, share, follow, review, rate, all those fun things. I've got to get that moniker now. We're at Small Business, big World Anywhere. You get your podcasts all over social as well, so certainly check us out. If you have any questions for us or for Mark, certainly email us podcast at papertrailscom and otherwise we'll see you next week. Thanks everybody. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of A Small Business, big World.

Chris Cluff: 19:49

This podcast is a production of Paper Trails. We are a payroll and HR company based in Kennebunk, maine, and we serve small and mid-sized businesses across New England and the country. If you found this podcast helpful, don't forget to follow us at at Paper Trails Payroll across all social media platforms and check us out at papertrailscom for more information. As a reminder, the views, opinions and thoughts expressed by the hosts and guests alone. The material presented in this podcast is for general information purposes only and should not be considered legal or financial advice. By inviting this guest to our podcast, paper Girls does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific individual, organization, product or service.