Name of your website?August Seven Inn Luxury Guesthouse
Your name?
Joseph Dirsa
Your Location (city, etc)
Daytona Beach
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Luxury Accommodations historic building with today's amenities, and urban flair. located just a four minute walk to the beach on the peninsula in Daytona, Our large wrap around porch is open to the public for Tapas menu two days a week. We are a sampling house and change our wines monthly. Our back patio can accommodate up to 120 for weddings, parties, or just a back yard barbeque.
What inspired you to get into the business?
Their are two of us that own the property. Peter comes from a restaurant background, and owned his own interior design business. I came from a hotel background and owned my own residential commercial cleaning business. Both our backgrounds were a perfect blend for the business.
What would a common question people ask about your inn ?
Private baths, many people think you have to share baths. This is not the case. Each room has a private bath with shower and all but one has a heated jet tub.
What surprises people the most about your Inn
Amenities, we have fully programmable massage chairs, business center, individual temperature controlled rooms, TV with DVD players in each room, high speed internet, 1000 thread count sheets, bath salts, and robes.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
We are a urban flair B&B, Inn, or boutique hotel. We don't conform to any one, we are more of a blend of all. We now have a full liquor license and have added space for events & parties of all kinds. Now we are adding Tapas on the Veranda, the public has told us they love the inn, and want to support us, so we are now open to the public for limited amounts of time and days for Tapas on the Veranda.
Do you have any other changes in mind?
We are thinking about opening up for Sunday brunch, or breakfast during the week. With it only being the two of us running the entire inn we are waiting to see how the tapas works out time wise with prep and cleanup. We also are looking into adding a wine club. We will be changing our wines every month for tapas, and trying wines the distributors are looking to try, so this would be great for the club to test wines that will be entering the market soon.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Well this is our first year, and its been a difficult one. We have had to make many unexpected changes, however if you were to ask me about the connections with people that we have made and the things that we have done and been able to do, priceless!
Would you consider purchasing another inn?
Yes, we have actually given great thought about another local inn, the gentleman that owns it has had difficult times. He had lost his wife a year into the business, and has had to run the inn himself. I know its to much work for two people it's insane for one. He had it sold and the deal fell through for him. It's one of those cases of this shouldn't have happend to anyone. Their has been allot of community support for keeping the building from developers, however the support is simply to keep the building not to help the current owner or to purchase the inn.
If your business got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
We are only capable of a certain amount of business, then it would require expanding to additional properties. That is not a concern at this point, hopefully some day it will be.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Well with any 100 plus year old home, their have been surprises. The previous owners had given us a couple of surprises as well, but we have to move on.
What has been your biggest challenge?
this is funny, but locally their is a one year rule. We have herd this over and over that people wait a year to see if a business will be around before they go. Apparently they close frequently so local people wait a year to try them. I know that this of course would cause many great businesses to fail, shame to think how many business their could have been had people supported them, however we are thankful that our year is almost up.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
local seo for rankings and Google as well as trip advisor, and bed and breakfast.com Travel ratings have helped us allot. people really enjoy our inn and us hopefully as well.
If you could change one thing in your area what would it be?
Shopping, this is a fantastic location with a great beach, I would love to see more exclusive shops some specialty shops and even a couple of outlet stores would be a great addition to a great place.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
We have had our site since December of 06, we have made many changes to our inn and have made many changes to our site to represent the changes.
What do you appreciate the most
The fun we get to have with our guests, some have become close friends, others we were able to enjoy a brief moment in their lives. Also the community we have made many friends in a short period of time. We also have been involved and helped the theatre and arts, and enjoyed many moments because of that involvement, its great to be able to help others, hopefully we will always be able to.
What is your website address?
August Seven Inn Luxury Guesthouse
No trackbacks.
Comments