New rooms, new ideas

Along with many others in the hospitality trade we are looking to open our doors, albeit in the garden for an opening in April. Here at The Rayleigh Arms although we are super excited, there is caution. It seems one has to implement at least two business plans in the current Covid landscape. One for everything going according to the road map and one for the complete opposite. Forever optimists, we are sticking with the road map and the current buzz word is staycation.

Offering bed and breakfast has not been a new concept for us. However, as we only opened for trade in June 2019 and in fact only been able to serve customers in normal circumstances for 7 months throughout that time, we didn’t have the run up we expected to offer an overnight service. On the bright side, everything we seem to do has a freshness about it, she says dipping more paint on to the roller. Our oldest is currently working abroad so we have put action in place to use the extra facilities in our establishment to welcome visitors. I can honestly say this has given us a new lease of life and perspective on the business. Not only are we busy decorating and updating bathrooms, we are also discovering local suppliers to offer our guests a taste of what can be bought in our wonderful county of Essex. With focus on our community, we are also scheduling creative courses here inside the pub to help local artists sell their produce, whilst our customers can learn something new.

Just when I think our brain storming sessions have been exasperated, a new idea comes along to present itself and relight a passion for our business. Having also joined the history group in the village, I am now also looking at the history of the pub. I am reminded of how this is a great attraction for others. Even if a pub isn’t particularly old, tracing back the history of the area is of great interest for customers. As a knock on affect a social media library can be built to suit your pub, posts can always be available whilst building a presence in the current day and age. As newbies to our beautiful village of Terling this has also given us a on insight to the area in order to pass on. In the meantime, the youngest has just informed me that his brother has asked if he still has a bedroom?