Profile: Regina Ferreira – Petite Paris B&Bs (Part 2/2)

In Part 1 Regina told us how she came to setting up her business Petite Paris. Here we find out a little more about how she is managing the business from Sydney, Australia.

So how are you promoting your B&Bs in Australia?
I have a marketing and PR background so I look for creative ways to promote the site through media outlets. When I’m not giving guests my full attention, ensuring they are being 100% serviced, I’m being very pro-active: writing press releases, networking, engaging in promotions with other French companies. I also go to the Alliance Française festival in Brisbane once a year. It’s a lot of fun and I enjoy informing people about the B&B service.

I contact local French schools who often organise excursions, as we do group bookings. B&Bs are a good way of having personal contact and enriching the students’ studies.

I want my guests to be happy and offer a very personalised service. I am delighted when they ask to meet me for coffee when I’m in Paris and I have made so many new friends. When not in Paris I live in Sydney, working my 9-to-5 job, as Petite Paris is mostly a labour of love. We just take a small commission on each booking. The real reward is the personal fulfilment of offering such a unique service and having enthusiastic and satisfied guests.

I know when I travel, I alternate B&Bs, self-catering apartments and hotels because sometimes I want a break from eating out all the time and want to be able to do my washing. If a B&B is a member of the Gîtes de France system, for example, they can’t offer this.
Ah, that’s very interesting. More and more people are asking about washing facilities. Most of our hosts either do washing for a small fee or let guests use their washing machine free. Otherwise they direct them to the local laundromat. There are a few that have simple cooking facilities for guests.

How do you see the business evolving ?
We’d like to expand and include other cultural and resourceful services. We have already begun to add walking tours and we will be creating a general guide book and a mini guidebook for each B&B, with things to do and see locally.  Perhaps going further afield to other parts of France such as Provence.

We considered Australian-owned apartments for rent in Paris too but it is not really what we are aiming at. Our niche is lodging with real Parisian locals and learning about the city from them and we’re sticking to that.

I’m always hunting for resources and information that will help our guests so when I see blogs like yours offering that insider information, I promote them in our newsletters.

Although I’m often swamped with the workload, it’s all worthwhile when I receive such wonderful feedback. Giving 100% personalised service is one thing but when guests return saying how wonderful their hosts and B&Bs were, it is reassuring and a guarantee that the service is foolproof and we provide what we promise.

It’s all a lot of fun and I love it!

To find out more about Regina and Petite Paris, rendezvous on her website Petite Paris.