BERNADETTE FREYNEof Ardfield House BB, Ballinhassig, Cork
I’M UP AT 6.30am ready for breakfast at 7am. We do everything from a fry to fruit compotes. I do the service and my husband Eddie does the grill. He’s terrific at it.
Then he goes off to work the farm. We breed sport horses and have sold them to the likes of Zara Phillips. Eddie does everything himself, even shoeing them.
Meanwhile, I’ll be clearing up the breakfast things. One of the best things I ever invested in was a commercial dishwasher, which cleans everything in three minutes. I polish the glasses and cutlery and then lay the tables again for tomorrow. You have to be organised in this job.
Then it’s up to strip the beds and load the laundry into the two washing machines. From there they go into my rotary iron, the second best investment I ever made. You feed them in and they come out crisped and pressed – they’re lovely.
Then it’s back up to make the beds and clean the rooms. We can sleep 10 people at a go and, I have to say, having been in the BB business here since 1995, and before that helping in my mother’s B&B since 1969, I’ve never had a bad experience with a guest.
You become an expert at reading people, which helps in terms of providing each with the service they want.
I head out to do the shopping and come back and, every second day, start the baking. I do all my own breads, cakes and scones. By then it’ll be early afternoon and guests will start arriving.
I’ll make tea and scones for them and let them get settled in before finding out if they need any guidance with maps or directions or places to go. I used to do evening meals but these days guests prefer to go out to eat before coming back to play cards, board games or read by the fire in the sitting room.
Foreigners love just to be in an Irish home and to be able to experience a working farm and the sense of space that comes with it.
We’re 15 minutes from Kinsale in a very picturesque spot so they just enjoy the countryside. They might wander up to the GAA pitch and see a training session. It’s all the things we take for granted but visitors love to see, like road bowling.
My UK guests tend to be middle-aged or near retirement age but my Continental guests are much younger and they really seem to enjoy what we have to offer too.
This year is hard though, my bookings were down 60 per cent on last year even before the ash cloud started. Still, we have brought out prices back to 2004 levels and we’ll get through it.
- corkairportbandb.com
- In conversation with Sandra O'Connell