Forever, Plus One - страница 18

“And what about the second floor?” Wayne Erik asked.

“I can’t decide,” Emily explained. More bedrooms as per Shane’s design? Or more restaurant space as per Wayne’s? “What if we were to replicate the third floor on the second?” she said. “A carbon copy?”

Daniel frowned. “But then there would only be six apartments in the whole house,” he interjected.

“I know,” Emily explained. “But think of it in terms of the revenue from the higher price of the apartments. Right now there’s only one place for families to stay, which is the carriage house. But Bryony said there was so much demand coming in from families who want to spend the summer in Sunset Harbor. If we convert this into the family-friendly part of the inn it would be a great selling point. Plus, if we do it this way then every room can be advertised as having an ocean view! That would be an amazing selling point too.”

“I can see what you’re saying,” Daniel said, not sounding even the slightest bit convinced. “But I can’t help feeling like that’s not the best use of the space.”

“We’d only need to have six families each summer to get fully booked,” Emily contested.

“We don’t want to get fully booked from six families,” Daniel countered. “If there’s so much demand, why not double the amount of apartments? Income from twelve families is going to be better than just from six!”

Emily rubbed her forehead. She didn’t just want to pack the inn to the brim. And more people traipsing in and out would mean hiring more staff to care for them. They would cause more damage and wear and tear that she’d need to account for. The costs would be eradicated through the amount of cleaning, reupholstering and towel washing alone!

“We can always go back to the drawing board,” Wayne said. “Find a compromise that’s somewhere between your two ideas.”

“Like what?” Emily asked, not sure that there could be a compromise to satisfy both her desire to keep the inn feeling personal while making it as luxurious as possible with Daniel’s wish for a more stable income.

“We could make six smaller apartments on the second floor,” he said. “Then you can get a range of prices as well.”

“But what about the ocean views?” Emily asked. She desperately wanted every room to look out over the gorgeous sea.

“We could try to design them so that as many as possible had a view. But it would be impossible for all of them to. Probably three. Four at the most.”

Emily knew that it would make things a little more complicated when it came to the booking forms on the website, but Bryony would probably relish the challenge so that shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Wayne spoke again. “Why don’t we create the new designs over the next few days and you can see what you think?”

Emily looked at Daniel for an opinion. He just gave a little shrug. She turned back to Wayne.

“We may as well try some new designs,” she said.

“Sure,” Wayne replied. “The rest of the work we can get started on right away, though.”

“When do you think we’ll be able to get all the work done by?” Daniel asked.

Wayne Erik looked down at the plans spread on the table and pondered. “Considering we’re going to redraw this floor,” he said, pointing at the second floor, “we’re probably looking at Labor Day for the whole thing to be complete.”

“That soon?” Emily asked, surprised. She’d been expecting years of work.