Independent hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses
More guest enquiries answered. Less time behind the desk.
AI websites, guest assistants and smart automations for independent hotels, B&Bs and holiday accommodation across the UK.
A demonstration. Questions are sent to an AI service to be answered and are not stored. Please don't type personal details.
- About
- A 14-room boutique hotel in a converted Victorian harbourmaster's house on Quay Street, Porthaven. Ten minutes' walk from Porthaven station.
- Rooms
- 6 Harbour View Doubles, 4 Courtyard Doubles, 2 Family Rooms (sleep up to 4: a double and two singles), 1 Accessible Room on the ground floor, and the Captain's Suite on the top floor with a separate lounge. All rooms have en-suite bathrooms, a TV, tea and coffee, and a hairdryer.
- Check-in
- Check-in is from 3pm to 9pm. Early check-in from 12pm is sometimes possible but cannot be promised; bags can be left at reception from 9am. Arriving after 9pm must be arranged with reception before the day of arrival.
- Check-out
- Check-out is by 11am. Late check-out until 1pm costs £20 and depends on the room not being needed; only reception can confirm it on the morning.
- Breakfast
- Breakfast is served in the Garden Room from 7.30am to 10am on weekdays and 8am to 10.30am at weekends. It is included in most rates. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options are available every day. Allergies must be discussed with a member of staff, who will check with the kitchen.
- Parking
- There are 8 free parking spaces at the back of the hotel, first come first served, which cannot be reserved. If they are full, Quay Street pay and display car park is a 3-minute walk. There is one 7kW electric car charger; ask reception to use it.
- Pets
- Dogs are welcome in the 4 Courtyard Doubles only: up to 2 dogs per room at £15 per dog per night, booked in advance. Dogs are not allowed in the Garden Room at breakfast. Assistance dogs are welcome everywhere, free of charge.
- Accessibility
- The Accessible Room is on the ground floor with a roll-in shower, grab rails and a raised toilet seat. There is step-free access through the side entrance on Mill Lane. The building has no lift, so the other rooms are reached by stairs. There is a hearing loop at reception. Anyone with specific access needs should speak to reception before booking so the team can confirm what will work.
- Wi-Fi
- Free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel. The network name and password are on the card in each room.
- Reception
- Reception is staffed from 7am to 11pm. Overnight, a duty manager is on call for urgent problems: use the phone by the front door or call the hotel number.
- Food and drink
- The bar is open from 5pm to 11pm every day. A small evening menu is served from 6pm to 9pm, Thursday to Saturday. Room service is not available.
- Children
- Children are welcome. Cots and high chairs are free; ask for them when booking. The Family Rooms are best for families of four.
- Smoking
- The hotel is non-smoking indoors, including e-cigarettes. Smoking is allowed in the courtyard.
- Cancellation
- On the Flexible rate, cancellation is free until 48 hours before arrival. The Advance rate is non-refundable. Any refund or change to an existing booking is handled by reception, not the assistant.
- Booking
- Rooms can be booked on the hotel website or by phoning reception. The assistant cannot see live availability, take payment, or confirm a booking. It can pass a booking enquiry to reception, who reply by email.
- Contact
- Phone 01632 960 123 (reception, 7am to 11pm). Email stay@harbourhouse.example.
Five problems most independent hotels share.
- The phone rings during check-in.Whoever is on the desk is checking a guest in, and the caller asking about parking rings off and tries the next hotel.
- The same questions, every evening.Check-in times, dogs, parking, breakfast. They arrive by email, chat and phone, and someone answers each one by hand.
- Enquiries arrive after the desk closes.A guest planning a weekend asks at 11pm. By the morning they have booked somewhere that replied.
- Commission on every OTA booking.Booking.com says its commission is usually between 10% and 25%. A direct booking avoids that, but only if your own website makes booking easy.
- The jobs that never get done in season.Review replies, the newsletter, the offer for the quiet months. All worth doing, all pushed back to next week.
I set up the repetitive work to run itself, and your team keeps every decision.
The assistant answers from a fact sheet that you and I write together, so it says what your team would say. Booking requests, complaints and anything unusual go straight to a person.
I build the website and the assistant together, so they share the same information and the same booking button. Most providers sell one or the other. I also handle the parts hotels usually get left with: writing and checking the fact sheet, connecting your booking engine where it allows it, and the privacy paperwork.
I'm one person, based in Southport, with no commission from any software company. If a tool you already pay for can do the job, I'll tell you and set it up properly.
Four services. Start with one, add the rest when it makes sense.
Hotel websites built for direct bookings
Fast, mobile-first websites that make booking direct the easy option: clear rooms and rates, your booking engine where guests expect it, and pages written to be found on Google and in AI search.
How it works →AI guest assistant
An assistant on your website that answers the questions guests ask every day from information you approve, takes booking enquiries, and hands anything sensitive or complicated to your team.
How it works →Hospitality SEO, GEO and marketing
Content and technical work so guests find you on Google and so AI search tools describe you accurately, plus review replies and seasonal campaigns that bring past guests back.
How it works →Guest communication and operations automation
Pre-arrival messages, check-in instructions, cleaning and maintenance notifications, and enquiry follow-up, connected to the systems you already use where they allow it.
How it works →It answers the routine questions and hands everything else to your team.
You saw it at the top of the page. In a real setup it runs on your website at any hour, and the hand-overs go to your inbox or your booking system.
Always passed to a person
- Emergencies and anything to do with safety
- Complaints that need a real apology and a decision
- Accessibility requirements that need checking against the room
- Refunds, cancellations and changes to an existing booking
- Anything involving payment details or personal information
- Booking requests: the assistant takes the details, a person confirms
It can't check live availability, confirm a booking or take payment unless your booking system allows it and we connect it. Until then it collects the details and your team confirms.
A website that makes booking direct the easy choice.
Guests often find you on a booking site and then look for your own website. What they find there decides whether they book direct or go back to the booking site.
What a direct-booking site needs
- Your booking engine one tap away on every page, on a phone
- Rooms shown with real photos, sizes and what is included
- Fast pages, because guests on hotel Wi-Fi or a train give up quickly
- Answers to the questions that stop people booking: parking, dogs, accessibility, cancellation
- Pages written for Google and for AI search tools, so they describe you accurately
What I can and can't promise
I can't promise a number of extra direct bookings, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What I can do is show you where your current site loses guests: a slow page, a buried booking button, a question with no answer.
A website review is a good first step. I'll look at your site on a phone as a guest would and send back what I'd change first.
From first call to live in a few weeks.
Free call
Twenty minutes on Teams. You tell me where the time goes, and I tell you whether AI would help, even if the answer is no.
Fact sheet and quote
We write down how your hotel works: rooms, policies, the answers your team gives. You get a fixed quote.
Build and test
I build it and we test it with the real questions your team gets, including the awkward ones, before guests see it.
Live and checked
It goes live. For the first month I review every question it couldn't answer and improve the fact sheet with you.
Stan Hunter, an independent AI developer in Southport.
I build websites, assistants and automations for small businesses. You can try my work before you talk to me.
- The assistant on this page and the full demo run on the same setup I'd build for you.
- StanChat, the assistant in the corner of this site, answers questions about StanWorks from approved information.
- The quote app turns a voice note into a priced quote a customer can accept.
- Websites for OLB Installations, Reflect Computers and Mobile Floor Company.
Hospitality is a new focus for me, and I don't have hotel case studies yet. The first few hotels get founding-client prices in return for honest feedback and a review.
Questions hotel owners ask
Can the assistant take bookings?
Not by default. It answers questions, collects booking enquiries and sends guests to your booking engine. It can only check live availability if your booking engine or property management system has an API that allows it. I will tell you on the first call whether yours does. It never takes payment.
Will it replace my reception team?
No. It handles the questions your team answers ten times a day and the enquiries that arrive after the desk closes. Complaints, refunds, accessibility needs, emergencies and anything it is unsure about go to a person.
What happens if it gets something wrong?
It answers only from a fact sheet you approve, and when the answer is not there it says so and offers to pass the question on. For the first month I review the questions it could not answer and add to the fact sheet with you. You can switch it off at any time.
Does it work with my booking system?
Often, but it depends on the system. Many modern booking engines and property management systems offer an API. If yours does not, the assistant links to your booking page and passes enquiries to your inbox, which still works well.
Can it answer the phone as well?
Website chat comes first because it is the quickest to set up and check. Phone answering is possible as a separate AI receptionist that takes messages and hands over to your team. See the AI receptionist service page for how that works.
What about GDPR?
Guests see a short privacy notice before they chat. The assistant asks only for what it needs, conversations are kept for a period you choose, and I use business accounts with AI providers that do not train on your data. I will help you with the data protection impact assessment the ICO expects for a new AI tool.
How much does it cost?
It depends on the size of the hotel and what needs connecting, so you get a fixed quote after the free call, before any work starts. There is no per-room pricing and no long contract.
Do you only work with hotels near Southport?
No. Everything can be done over Microsoft Teams anywhere in the UK. Hotels in the North West can meet me in person if they prefer.
Tell me about your hotel
Two minutes. I read every enquiry myself and reply within one working day.
- Reply
- Within one working day, from Stan, not a sales team.
- Cost
- The first conversation is free. After that, a fixed quote before any work starts.
- Prefer to talk?
- Book a free 20-minute call on Teams.
Twenty minutes to find out whether this is worth doing for your hotel.
You'll leave the call with at least one change worth making, whether or not you hire me.
Weekdays, 9am to 5pm · Teams anywhere in the UK