Small hotelier cashes in on the Internet
A London hotel with just 18 rooms is attracting more than 100 enquiries a month, from countries as diverse as Estonia and Zaire, after advertising on the Internet.
The Barry House Hotel in Sussex Place has been so successful that it was highlighted this week by Ian Lang, President of the Board of Trade, when he launched a new drive to promote awareness of IT among small- and medium-sized businesses.
The Internet project was the brainchild of Bhupinder Bhasin, who runs the ETB one-crown approved hotel with his parents.
"I started with classified advertising on CompuServe in 1994. Since then I have written our own page with a picture and a description," said Mr Bhasin.
He began with a trial offer from a US company for $10 and a free Microsoft software package, Internet Assistant.
Later, he was offered free pages to advertise on a US site in return for providing information about London attractions.
Writing his own advertisements has kept the cost down to about £20 a month, or 50p per room let. About a quarter of enquiries, which are mostly from the USA and come from people simply surfing the Internet, become firm bookings.
