Surprisingly, many bed and breakfast and guest house operators work very hard to make very little profit.  If this is true of Orkney, a visit to Kirkwall next week from Denise Drummond should change all that. 

Denise operates a tourism business on Tiree, a remote island of the Inner Hebrides, and has lived and breathed tourism and hospitality for the past 30 years. 

Denise will be in Orkney on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of November to share her experience and to deliver two training courses to bed and breakfast and guest house operators - one on how to run a profitable establishment, and the other on how to market it.

Denise said: "Constantly increasing the number of visitors through the business and looking at ways of adding value, and therefore adding revenue, is the only reason for being in business." 

In 29 weeks Denise took her current business from zero standards to VisitScotland two star standard, and within a year she doubled the turnover.  She also intends to introduce and maintain ever higher standards.  "It is an on-going process, without which no business will maximise revenue.

"Of course, it's not good putting all that work into creating the best if nobody knows about it, so good marketing is also very important" she added.

There are still a few places left on the courses, which are run and part-funded by Orkney Enterprise.  'How to run a good B&B/Guest House' is a two day course, on the 3rd and 4th of November and costs £30 +VAT and 'Getting your marketing right' runs on the 5th of November and costs £20 +VAT. 

"If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well and if it's worth doing, it's worth doing profitably!" Denise concluded.

Both courses take place at Orkney College.  To book a place, call Lynn Cordock at Orkney College on 01856 569203.