'cause there's no-one here to say we can't have cake for breakfast'

How old is this building? It is our most frequently asked question. Quickly followed by: What was this building originally? Quick history lesson. Gleeson's Empire , corner Shakespeare and Brewster st..circa 1893 Note the back part of the building in brick, which still stands today - the front was lost in a fire.  By 1901 The New Empire Hotel was built and is the home of Toad Hall today. (We're the tall building just beyond that crazy power pole). In the 1931 earthquake , the building was damaged.  This was classed a 'fix' not a 'rebuild'. We have no idea if the following story is true or not...but who am I to let the truth get in the way of a good story! The earthquake struck at 10.47am on 3rd February 1931 (that bit's true). We don't know how many people were in the building at that time, however, legend has it that The New Empire Hotel was the first pub to be serving beer after the quake. We like to think the Barman picked himself up, dusted himself of...

For the first time in history,  Napier hosted a One New Zealand Warriors rugby league game against Brisbane Broncos . I hope this doesn't happen again. https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/warriors/132168068/mclean-park-pitch-invaders-may-stop-warriors-coming-back-to-napier Not a fan of Warriors fans. Being in the accommodation industry, I am usually in full support of events being hosted in Hawkes Bay, particularly in Napier, that attract visitors to our city. We sold every bed.  We've hosted for big events in the past. We actively try to have everyone in the house for the same reason as this generally means they have a common rhythm and are tolerant and respectful of each other.  We had over 40 people in the house with tickets to that game...some of them would not even have made it in the gate. If, and it is an if. the Warriors play in Napier again, I will be reluctant to host their fans. The damage inflicted on our property, the disrespect for other guests and staff ju...

Catering is coming to Toadies In another life I worked in the Business Improvement team for New Zealand Post Group. I was an administrator and training coordinator in those days, supporting Project Managers in data gathering and process mapping. Our job was to find inefficiencies and make improvement recommendations. Later I worked in the Change Management team. This involved supporting Change Project Managers as they implemented change into a process. These two area's of work have helped me in my own business. I do constantly look for ways to improve our processes. The key factor is, one problem should not be 'fixed' which creates a greater problem down the line. Which is why the whole end to end process must be mapped. One of the processes we have been looking to improve for our guests is catering. Cooking can be a challenge for our larger groups. They are busy - often not getting back to the house until evening. Helpful parent support is not what it used to be. Time and ...

  Confession time.. I thought writing the blog post after my birthday would be easy. A whole bunch of fabulous photos of my beautiful friends. A few words about how much fun it was and Bobs' ya Uncle! Well..I failed!.  The business brain in me had a justified plan. Shut down the building, have only our friends staying to play, loud and long, without the risk of disturbing paying guests.  In my head, I would gain pics of my beautiful friends - they are all beautiful - showcasing the spaces while they had a great time. These could be used to promote Toad Hall for private functions. A whole stay and play campaign.  Complete fail! I have a civilized group photo of the earlier arriving guests...never got a pic of everyone. Had planned to have pre dinner drinks on the roof terrace but never made it past the courtyard. Took a few pics in the front room...terrible ones that can't be used for advertising. - No-one wants to see me pretending to drain a tequila bottle while my ...

 Did you miss me?  Last Tuesday was Anzac Day. We do dawn service.  In fact 28 folk from Toadies went up to Marine Parade for dawn service. Kings College were here. The wine makers - all being internationals - came up to see what happens. We had a busy breakfast service when we all got back. We hosted King's College U17 boys football team for two nights. They were a flurry of activity in a very quiet fortnight.  The pool table got used a lot.  Jacob called it - 'They won't eat much, they're footballers.'  How is that a thing?  But he was right. 100 Anzac cookies was enough. I have had discussions with two suppliers about rate increases.  Seriously, where is the customer service when they gave me a bit of paper to  sign stating they wouldn't put the rates up and then I have to prove that!! Twice! 100 years ago when I was super green in business - I'm more olive coloured now - we requested some work to be done. (I'm going to stay vague about th...

 This week has been a mix of ground hog day,  thought provoking conversations  and a really odd comment... Ok, let's start with the odd comment...those following on facebook will already know about the couple that inspected the Toadie Room and deemed it to be  "This is not flash enough to bring the Very wealthy people we are meeting." For context, this was not a 'one off' statement. He seemed a little fixated on telling me the people they were meeting were VERY wealthy. So after the fourth time telling me this, I physically bit my lip. Over wine we have gone through all the imaginary scenario's as to WHY would someone book a shared house and consider the bedroom to be where they entertained VERY Wealthy people. After the 3rd glass you can imagine where our imagination went. This has got to be a Tinder hook up! We actually have no idea what this couple were planning or why they were meeting VERY wealthy people. Or why it had to happen where they were staying in...

In the beginning....  It was a German teacher, Richard Schirrmann, that came up with the idea of hostel accommodation. He used a school that had closed for the holidays and took city kids into nature for some fresh air. Everyone pitched in to help with meals and cleaning. Cora Wilding It was Cora Wilding that bought the concept to New Zealand in 1932. Membership was mostly through established tramping clubs. By 1935 there were 27 established YHA hostels in New Zealand. (Youth Hostel Association) Over the 20 or so years I have been involved in accommodation - OMG has it been that long?- I've seen some changes. Our booking system used to be on paper. Yip, a huge grid of rooms, pencils and erasers were our tools. No on-line booking or recording system. Beds came with a bottom sheet and pillow.  That was it. You could pay extra for linen but hardly anyone did. We didn't carry phones, let alone smart phones back then - OMG I sound old! But this is all only in the past 20 years...

All reviews quoted in this article are real,  from guests that stayed at Toad Hall. They are all published and available to the public, though for the purpose of this article I have omitted names, or changed them.... Cause there are Karen's and Brian's in this world. Names marked with * are made up names. This week I had a discussion about how to calculate a review score. The discussion came about after Gareth, me and Jo shared an Uber to Reece and Dayna's housewarming gathering. Congratulations guys. Great house! Great night! Party bound Uber - Little lolly baskets and every type of charging cord ever invented for passenger use. Friendly guy. Safe driver. So...Gareth is offered via the app, to give a 'score'. In this case it's from 1 - 5 with 5 being super awesome and 1 being rubbish. Gareth didn't consult Jo and I, totally confident hitting the 5. Home bound Uber - Not so friendly. Got us home. G-force experience from the back seat, not so pleasant. What ...

I love what I do so in the words of Marc Anthony, I don't work.  I fail and create. I had a fail in the kitchen. Which really annoyed me. It was an oat, seed and nut loaf which should have been sliceable. It was far too crumbly. Some got eaten. I added more butter and honey in the hope to make a type of muesli bar - which kind of worked. A bit more got eaten. The original mix had made two 'loaves', so I still had more to use. Next came a topping for stewed apples. That got eaten.  I took half a cup and added it to a bread dough. I wasn't entirely happy with the result but I put it out for breakfast and called it ' Failed seed and nut bread '  Guests tell me 'It's not a fail!'. It all got eaten. The last of the mix has been made into Bliss Balls by adding dates and coating with coconut.   So, from a failed attempt, the breakfast table saw five dishes. I'm taking that as a win! On talk-back radio yesterday, the discussion was about the current Cost...

Choosing the right strength There are a lot of buzz words around when it comes to talking about agility in business. Various world and local events have reminded us that being able to pivot in business will keep us in business. This comes with the decision process of what to stay firm on and what to create some flexibility around. Understanding core value, playing to strengths and meeting market demand all become part of the conversation. Who are our customers? This question always brings us back to what we do best. Visitors to the area is the answer to that questions. Hosting visitors is what we do best. It's how the house works best.  Our new visitor to Hawkes Bay currently is a whole bunch of workmen from all sorts of trades coming to help with the clean-up and rebuild from Gabrielle flying through.  They are a different customer to the international tourists we host. They most certainly have different needs to the sports and school teams we host. They need breakfast earlie...

One man's disaster is another man's travel story We hosted 30 people during the week of Cyclone Gabrielle - the bitch!!  Most of them were international travelers that now have a wonderful travel story to tell their family and friends back home. It will be an experience that sticks with them.  After all, it's not every adventure that has you stuck in a 3 story hostel with 30 others, no power and no way out of the area. We all just had to chip in and wait it out. Walking along the beach and being amazed at the debris, of which we now know was a considerable amount of forestry slash.  Gazing in shop windows waiting for them to re-open, the city like a ghost town for a few days.  Getting just a little bit day-drunk...oops, that was me - not so much the guests. Anyhooo...we did have some fun. Card games were played A LOT. Board games too. Two English travelers had what seemed like a whole backpack of travel games. Cards and dice based mostly. I think every time I sat nex...