Hotel and training centre, Melksham, Wiltshire
High quality accommodation for course delegates, business travellers and the leisure visitor too.

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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
Bed and Breakfast, or Hotel?

To stay at a good small hotel, or at a good bed and breakfast?



We're in the process of setting up our business hotel in a grand old house that was formerly run as a Bed and Breakfast, and the changes are substantial. Here's a comparision / sanity check that I put together to highlight where the two types of establishment overlap, and where they differ.

Bed and BreakfastHotel
Definition A Bed and Breakfast is primarily someone's home, where the owners let out a limited number of rooms for overnight and short term accommodation, and serve breakfasts to their guests. Definition A Hotel is a business, run with the primary purpose of providing board and lodgings for overnight and short term guests
At a good B&B, you'll feel very much a welcome guest in someone's home and you'll be encouraged to mix socially with the owner and the owner's family.At a good hotel, all the advertised services will be readilly available to you, but you shouldn't feel obliged to socialise with the owner / manager
Arriving at a B&B, you may need to co-ordinate your arrival time to suite the personal availabilty of the ownerYou should be able to arrive at a hotel at any time after earliest checkin time, including arriving late into the evening.
You may or may not be able to park on the private property that's attached to your B&B. Personally, when staying at a B&B, I'll park on the road outside the property and check before I drive onto their land, and I'm quite happy to park in the road or a nearby car park for the duraion of my stay.Except in a city centre, a hotel should offer parking on its own land for all guests, and guests should be able to drive into the car park by right as they arrive. In a city centre, parking is sometimes provided at a local car park, but you'll at least be able to drive up to reception to check in and unload.
A B&B will often require to you pay in cash or by cheque. Some take credit cardsA good hotel will accept payment by credit card and debit card, and may offer accounts for companies who book for their staff or customers regularly
At a B&B, you're unlikely to be provided with a great range of communications options - chances are that if you want to get in touch with anyone, you'll need to use your mobile phone, and that if anyone calls in for you, you'll have to take the call in the owner's room, perhaps with the owner within earshotAt a hotel, there should be good communications. These days, at business hotels that will include the availability of internet access.
The owner of a B&B is likely to be a great source of local knowledge and will usually be only too happy to tell you what there is out and about in the area, and what facilities he / she offers.Each room in a good hotel will have an "FAQ" folder that will tell you about the faciities on offer, and the locality and services and attractions around. The staff and proprietor will be able to help you too (and will be happy to do so), but that's very much in addition to the information that's at hand if you don't want to trouble anyone
In a B&B, you're likely to find that your room's quite small, as it's designed very much with the intention of being primarily somewhere for you to sleepIn a good business hotel, rooms are more spacious - you should have facilities such as a desk area where you can place your laptop, write, organise your papers, etc
Not all B&Bs offer all their rooms en-suite - some have shared bathrooms and toilets. Where a B&B does offer "en suite" facilities, it may have been added later and be utilitarian and squeezed into a corner of the bedroom. Being on a domestic supply system, hot water may be limited if everyone tries to take a shower at the same time.These days, most hotels offer en suite facilities in most or all rooms, and a good supply of hot water should be available at all times.
Reception room access may be limited or non-existant. You're buying a room to sleep in, and you'll have access to a breakfast room at breakfast time. Other access is welcome if provided, but should not be assumed.Hotels will have at least one customer lounge area, and perhaps more. If they're set in their own grounds, you can also expect to have access to at least some of the gardens although the delivery area is probably "off limits".
As you're staying in someone's home and are an honorary member of the family, you'll be offered a limited breakfast menu (typically a full English breakfast) that will be available over a relatively short period. At some B&Bs, failure to eat a full breakfast can offend the owner.Hotel breakfasts vary - most offer a wide range of continental and traditional full breakfast, served over a period of several hours, although some chains such as Holiday Inn Express are no longer offering the full breakfast option - a trend we see continuing in business hotels.
B&B room rates reflect the different level of services offered as compared to a hotel, and are usually good value for money.Hotel rates can vary widely - usually they'll be somewhat higher than B&B rates, but then you're buying a service that fits in with your requirements and schedule rather than fitting in your schedule to meet the owner's timetable.

(written 2006-06-22, updated 2006-07-03)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
M400 - Well House Manor - The Hospitality Business
  [884] Drive time - (2006-10-02)
  [922] Staying at your own hotel - (2006-11-12)
  [988] You should think you're first in a hotel room - (2006-12-15)
  [1002] Meet the neighbours - (2006-12-20)
  [1046] Bounce, bounce, bounce - (2007-01-20)
  [1048] Getting rid of people - hotel techniques - (2007-01-21)
  [1084] Writing terms and conditions for conferences and other events - (2007-02-17)
  [1108] Express service - (2007-03-14)
  [1122] Hotel - online feedback forms compared - (2007-03-30)
  [1161] A contrast in room rates and facilities - (2007-04-25)
  [1180] Conjugation - (2007-05-08)
  [1248] How NOT to oversell a hotel - (2007-06-27)
  [1284] An update on the West Wilts show ... - (2007-07-30)
  [1421] Castle Lodge Hotel, Ely, Cambridgeshire - (2007-11-04)
  [1422] Wiltshire - speaker / after dinner talker offer - (2007-11-05)
  [1445] Looking after you Christmas Customer Crowds - (2007-11-26)
  [1548] Hotelympia - show report - the lighter side - (2008-02-21)
  [1622] An extra step - victory from defeat - (2008-04-25)
  [1792] All the pieces fall into place - hotel and courses - (2008-09-10)
  [1877] Guests doing a bunk? - (2008-11-09)
  [2007] Launch of Melksham Food and Drink Festival - (2009-01-24)
  [2283] Everyone is in the customer relations business - (2009-07-12)
  [2303] Turning potential customers away - (2009-07-24)
  [2593] Food and drink launch - (2010-01-21)
  [2724] Escapee Grandparents welcome - Henfield and Melksham - (2010-04-15)
  [2879] Night Porter and reception - 24 hours a day? - (2010-07-20)
  [2936] The service that customers should receive - (2010-08-27)
  [3147] Hotel star ratings - towards a better system of review - (2011-01-25)
  [3164] Brown - or Mrs Sally Brown, accountant from Whitstable? - (2011-02-10)
  [3309] Tipping Policy - Well House Manor - (2011-05-29)
  [3660] A Pivotal Incident - learning how to welcome your guests - (2012-03-18)
  [3743] Sunday - no longer a day of rest - (2012-05-28)
  [3832] A busy day at Well House Manor - so come in and make it even busier! - (2012-08-10)
  [3838] Guest review - Well House Manor, Melksham - (2012-08-14)
  [3909] Every Customer Counts - (2012-11-01)
  [3988] Three cheers for the staff at Well House Manor - (2013-01-24)
  [4033] Official Star ratings for hotels - still worth having? - (2013-03-07)
  [4051] On reading a new hotel review - (2013-03-24)
  [4202] Excellent Railfuture conference, but some setup lessons - (2013-11-03)
  [4232] Not wanted here - hotel guests who will not be happy - (2013-12-30)
  [4321] Are administration / review charges on hotel guests acceptable? - (2014-11-20)
  [4521] Should we get an AA or Visit Wiltshire hotel assessment? - (2015-10-09)
  [4543] Saturday morning at Well House Manor - (2015-10-17)
  [4603] Happy New Year. Our customers are our ambassadors - (2016-01-01)
  [4613] Our best hotel customers help us ... to help them ... be our best customers. - (2016-01-04)

G999 - Well House Consultants - Keynote
  [164] Well House Consultants - review of 2004 - (2004-12-31)
  [225] 10 years and counting - (2005-02-23)
  [295] Pricing strategy - simple and fair - (2005-04-29)
  [360] Spring turns to Summer - (2005-06-26)
  [419] Most popular courses - (2005-08-19)
  [428] Swindon - Chippenham - Melksham - Trowbridge - Westbury train service - (2005-08-29)
  [452] Is enough enough? - (2005-09-27)
  [464] Technical Loneliness - (2005-10-14)
  [549] 2005 - Come as a student, leave as a friend - (2005-12-31)
  [626] Not just a pretty face to answer the phone. - (2006-02-26)
  [695] In the hospitality business - (2006-04-23)
  [845] Course scheduling and Geekmas - are they traditions yet? - (2006-08-26)
  [890] Open - (2006-10-09)
  [898] Courses at Well House Manor - (2006-10-19)
  [929] Presenting Melksham - for a weekend away in Wiltshire - (2006-11-17)
  [1079] Wilts and Berks - two conference / training rooms in Melksham - (2007-02-14)
  [1245] Ensuring that our tutor answers YOUR questions - (2007-06-25)
  [1317] 2008 course schedule - Perl, Python, PHP, Linux, Java Deployment, Ruby and more - (2007-08-23)
  [1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
  [1414] What we teach - expained for the non-technical - (2007-10-28)
  [1481] The Christmas Letter - (2007-12-22)
  [1492] Well House Consultants Training and Hotel - 2008 news - (2008-01-01)
  [1555] Advanced Python, Perl, PHP and Tcl training courses / classes - (2008-02-25)
  [1615] PHP training courses every month - (2008-04-18)
  [1676] A warm welcome for visitors from the USA - (2008-06-14)
  [1748] Hotel room prices - Melksham, Wiltshire - (2008-08-11)
  [1773] The Longest Possible Day - (2008-08-26)
  [1857] November and December Public Course Schedule - (2008-10-27)
  [1859] Wiltshire at dawn - the tourist trail - (2008-10-29)
  [1929] 2009 - Hotel, Meeting, Training Course prices - (2008-12-07)
  [1955] How to avoid duplicating web page maintainance - (2008-12-20)
  [1975] Well House Manor Hotel - on plan for 2009 business guests - (2009-01-03)
  [2144] Looking for a career change - Physician to Web Site Designer - (2009-04-28)
  [2216] Past Delegate Offer - Summer Holiday / Weekend Break - (2009-06-03)
  [2228] Where do I start when writing a program? - (2009-06-11)
  [2326] Learn a new programming language this summer. - (2009-08-06)
  [2384] Looking ahead to the Autumn season of training and accommodation - (2009-08-28)
  [2483] Clustering on Tomcat - (2009-10-30)
  [2537] Faster network, but not faster browsing until ... - (2009-12-14)
  [4588] What teach you in a week stays with you for a decade - (2015-11-29)


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Weekend in Ireland
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Naming Rooms
Do not duplicate your code
Bed and Breakfast, or Hotel?
Breaking bread
Training in Liverpool
From cat breeder to Cobol to Perl
Splash!
King Edward VII - days of empire
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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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