Some problems are nice to have while others, well, are just problems.
We seem to having enough of both kinds now.
The nice stuff first….
We are running full from the 4th of March to the 12th — 9 straight days. So why is that a problem ? Well, When you walk into a hotel, have you ever wondered what all happens behind all those clean sheets and spic and span rooms? Do you really believe that you were the first ever person to occupy those rooms? Well ?
Here is what happens at Bethel,
We have an inventory of over 10 times the number of beds for bed covers and almost a similar ratio for pillow covers and towels, the moment one guest leaves, we clean all the rooms, ground up, starting from the bathrooms, everything is disinfected, all complimentary stocks, i.e. Soap, shampoos, toothpaste etc. are disposed off. New stock is put in place, hand wash bottles are replenished and most importantly everything is made dry. Next we move to the bedrooms, remove all covers – bed sheets, pillow covers, towels, hand towels, blankets..et all.., dust the furniture, move it out, disinfect the floors, move the furniture back in place, put all new covers in — it is an elaborate ritual, that is meticulously followed when any guest leaves. The bed sheets, covers etc are hand washed, dried and put back in the storeroom.
We are a small homestay, all of this takes time and effort, and our staff is limited. Most folks double up doing different duties. Almost everybody does everything….and that everybody includes Rakesh, Arun and I. Normally, we are full on weekends and have few guests during week days and while the world goes back to work, we, take a break.
Nine-Ten continuous days of a full house takes a big toll on our systems, at the end of it, our staff is plain crabby, our inventories severely depleted and everybody is just longing for a break!!
We work, stretch to our maximum and make sure all our guests are happy — this is a nice problem to have, this is what we are here for, in spite of everything, we would rather have this problem than not.
Other things are, well, Just problems…
Our website http://www.bethelestate.com has been down for 3 days now!! Now, this is a problem I can do without!!. Going to the site, it says that the domain name has expired on 4th March!!! It was really embarrassing, Moinak, who is our guest this weekend, pointed it out to Rakesh. Apparantly in the case of Manashosting, the folks who are hosting our site, what one hand does the other doesn’t know!!. The site has been renewed for three years and the amount paid..but that information has not flowed down the technical department or whoever is supposed to ensure that the site keeps running!!! I have had two SOS chats with Manashosting, and tomorrow the site should be up permanently.. (I hope).I really don’t know how all this is going to effect our ranking in search engines and how many customers I have lost because of this 
