Terracing

[Varindar Asyt]

The night after one Beltran Rarr checked into the Crown Nebula, she was facing yet another guest. Yes, in this business, guests often came and went, at a restaurant or for rooms, just that there weren't nearly as many cancellations as there were under the Ta'jars. After being knee-deep in checking the local ordinances related to commercial properties, for what she needed to do to be able to build a terrace next to the restaurant's emergency exit, what the constraints were, she came to a conclusion: she could devote about 150 square meters for terracing. She could now start budgeting for the terracing next to the restaurant, both in terms of revenue and expenses, most of which are capital expenses. Also, she came across a guest that looked like [member="Kei Raxis"] when the next guest asked for checking in. She would probably need to look at his ID before making sure that it was indeed him; however, she would need to be vigilant, while treating the guest in front of her with respect. And then she could go back to budgeting for the terracing outside of the restaurant.

"Welcome to the Crown Nebula Hotel, what can I do for you today?"

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

[member="Varindar Asyt"]​

Trandosia​

852 ABY​

​

He had plenty of homes.

So why did he need a hotel?

He was on Trandosia for business. He wanted to find out what the crystals were, those that he had collected on Korriban. They were full of the darkside, full of Sith Alchemy. He didn't know what they were though, he didn't have a clue what they did. He wanted to know, they could of held power or held knowledge. He didn't know, he wanted to know but he didn't know. They had been growing though, changing since they had been rescused from the suit.

Kei had been told through a friend that someone on Trandoshia could help him learn what the crystals did. They had been rescused from a suit of armour and it was possible that they were growing and changing to form another suit of armour. Kei would have to see, but if this contact could speed this up then he wasn't going to question it. He just wanted to see what the crystals could offer him, could offer him in the way of knowledge.

The woman at the desk spoke.

"I ugh, prebooked a room"

 

[Varindar Asyt]

"Let's see: one signature room for one night"

Since [member="Kei Raxis"] booked one signature room, Varindar checked against the available signature rooms while, in fact, there was one signature room left and all the executive suites were rented out. She could then flicker a switch that, to the onlookers outside, would switch the vacancy indicator, just outside the main entrance, from saying vacancy to saying no vacancy. And so it was one of those nights where the whole place was checked out. She reached for the remaining room key after Kei checked in for the night, while remaining mindful that she had a meeting with the executive chef about expanding the restaurant. Now, the last key would have the name of the room on it: the Denethor. With the valet on standby, and Kei's baggage on the cart, the Vratix valet only needed to know which room it was before he could get Kei to that specific room. Fortunately the Denethor was on the ground floor so it was not as problematic as if his room was on the second floor. She then handed him the keys, while the room tracking system was being updated on the status of the Denethor room.

"Your room is going to be the Denethor. The valet will guide you to the room"

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

[member="Varindar Asyt"]​

Transdosia​

852 ABY​

​

He took the room key.

The Denethor, lower ground room. He was looking forward to a good nights sleep, a good night to decide what his next move was going to be. He needed to go to Vjun, he knew that. He needed to speak to Ra'a'mah and learn more about self control. That was his overall goal, he wanted to learn how to control what was going on inside of him. He wanted to find out what was going on inside of himself and learn to control it.

He offered thanks towards the receptionist, running his hand through his hair as he set off towards his room. It had been a while since he had long hair but he was still getting used to the shorter hair that he now had. He would get used to it in time, he knew that. He just wasn't sure when that would be. He watched the valet take his baggage, nothing but the backpack on his shoulders.

And they were off.

 

[Varindar Asyt]

Now that [member="Kei Raxis"] was safely positioned at the Denethor, he would realize that the welcome package would contain enough stationery, caf, popcorn and body care products for four guests. He can always return the stationery if he wants to, but he could now relax with his luggage and the rest in the room. Now, however, it was time for Varindar to attend a meeting with the executive chef regarding the future of the restaurant. And no, she had no intention of booking a table, nor of booking room service. She readily saw the difference in the food, to the point where they were due for that meeting. At this point, all that she cared about was whether Bumba had any forecast for future demand and whether it can be met with 52 seats, on top fo any demand from the room service. That, knowing the room service demand depended on the bookings, and her estimate was that about a quarter of the room guests would use it. Varindar arrived at the restaurant's back office, ready to discuss the matter of what the restaurant achieved by giving the executive chef freedom to run the menu, ingredient procurement and staffing.

"Welcome, Bumba. Now that I gave you essentially free reign to run the menu and the ingredient procurement any way you wish, in fact, I did so on day one, I may be wondering what the future holds in store for the restaurant. However, capital expenditures that may affect, for instance, the hotel's tax bills, or its debts, must be discussed with me"

"Boss, what could be requiring capital expenditures that may affect the restaurant?" Bumba asked.

"Expanding the restaurant. Do you think that the demand trends justify an expansion?"

 

[Varindar Asyt]

In the last meeting, she obtained two pieces of data that Varindar needed out of Bumba to ascertain whether or not she should get the process started with getting the restaurant expansion done, because the rejection rate, even adjusted down 10% to cover typical no-shows, would be an indication of the additional revenue that can be earned. Especially since 40-60 credits per cover were routinely spent by customers coming here, and even more so for seafood. Now that she reviewed the local ordinances and what they allowed for, she realized that there were limitations as to how much she could expand the restaurant by. She needed to run through Bumba, since he had more restaurant expertise than she herself did. And give an estimate as to how long it would need her to pay back the loan, and plan financing accordingly. Oh boy, this means that I may wish to make an appointment at the bank regarding consolidating the loans, if I was to take out a loan for the terracing and a second one for the third floor and the extras above the front office and restaurant, she thought, realizing that, unless she could have the assurance that she could pay back the terracing loan before taking out the loan for getting the extra 23 rooms built, consolidating the loans may be a thing. Or maybe not even need to take out the loans in the first place.

"Let's say that, after reviewing the local ordinances, we can use at most 150 additional square meters for terracing. Say what you will about the cost estimate of 100,000 credits to terrace it and even give it a retractable roof so that it would be usable at night or when it's rainy outside"

"That's about 80 extra seats or so. Each seat brings in 250 credits of revenue every night on average. Our expenses are about half that sum, overhead and variable expenses included. In about 4-6 weeks we should make that back, if you add in the cost of the dishes, the staff and whatnot"

 

[Varindar Asyt]

"That being said, even with a stable cash flow, we are still paying for those additions to the rooms, those refits. Even if you could pay back the restaurant expansion in 6-8 weeks, this is not something that can be paid for out of the hotel's cash reserves at this point"

"6-8 weeks? I'm not saying that it's unrealistic, just that I don't think the market can absorb much more than those 80 seats. You do realize the customers come from all over the planet, right?"

"Yes. Do you have objections to taking out the loan for the purpose of actually getting the 80 seats added to this restaurant?"

"No more than that"

"Thank you, and have a nice day"

By now the financing would be cleared up with the executive chef. She heard tales of hotels on Dathomir whose restaurant went downhill when executive chefs secured loans for expanding their restaurants or for otherwise critical restaurant-related purposes, in exchange of which they were having their operational freedoms curtailed, and even removed altogether, usually by the management, and sometimes by banks in the more extreme cases. But these days, it was far more common for it to be about management issues than the sort of emergency loans that usually come with loads of strings attached. And then she returned to the front desk, practicing telekinesis on the other items usually hidden from the guests' view. I shall prove Morse wrong: being an innkeeper and a honest, responsible one at that is not intefering me in the Force, she thought, while attempting to lift off the datapad from the countertop. She was able to do so, while being mindful of not lifting it too high or else the guests would see the receptionist's datapad and that would be a danger.

 

[Varindar Asyt]

Once the guests have done their check-ins that night, she was able to get started on the process to take out the loan necessary to get the restaurant expanded, with the stuff bought on credit, paying those items back within a 6-8-week timeframe; Bumba estimated the Ta'jars overbuilt the kitchen as part of a moneylaundering scheme, as were all other rooms for growth. The next day, she was on duty when the check-out period was happening, with a few guests that checked out before [member="Kei Raxis"] did. Did he enjoy his stay at the hotel? I would be a little disappointed if he did not; then again, the same would hold true of other guests, she thought, before facing a stream of guests that were checking out of the hotel with no real complaints from each of them. She could also tell that some of them ate breakfast, such as pancakes, blue milk, prior to checking out. Just that she didn't think it was proper to probe Kei about what he ate at this stage, when he showed up to the front desk to check out or to file a complaint. Plus she'd rather act with tact and not to be too rash with him.

"I trust you spent a good night of sleep here" she just said, in a soft tone, to Kei.

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

[member="Varindar Asyt"]​

Transdosia​

852 ABY​

​

His trip had given him nothing.

The contact he had been given was all but useless. He'd strolled around the planet for a few hours before finally crashing. He'd strolled around, looking for anyone who could help him figure out what he had taken on Korriban and why they seemed attached to him. He couldn't lose the crystals, they seem attached to him. No-one seemed able to tell him why, there didn't appear to be a reason for the crystals to be attached to him.

The hotel room had been good. He had slept well, that was all he used the room for. He had slept, a reasonable nights sleep all things considered. He had then had breakfast, some of the better hotel breakfast he had ever had. He wanted to be gone though, he had other things to be doing that didn't involve him being sat in a hotel room trying to find a random gentleman. That was what he wanted. He wanted to be doing things.

And so he was checking out.

"A very... comfortable sleep. Didn't achieve what I wanted to but at least I got a decent night of sleep from it"

 

[Varindar Asyt]

"Thank you for your honesty in this matter" Varindar told Kei while the latter handed in the keys to the Denethor.

As for Kei not achieving what he wanted, I guess, it was nothing I could do about, and probably not within my power since I think what he wanted to achieve does not involve the guest experience he was having. But from a guest experience standpoint, that was just fine, she thought, while storing the keys to the Denethor in their proper position. Luckily, since he had no complaints, he could go around his business and she can go around doing hers. That is, getting quotes and bids from general contractors for expanding the restaurant and, once she obtained satisfactory bids, she will make her choice to bring in for requesting financing - even though she was all for using local general contractors, and providing them with a statement of scope, it would be difficult to tell who's using whom to launder money. Because it was, in fact, easy for a general contractor to use materials or professional services as a venue for overbilling. But Trandoshan banking had a reputation of not being reliable, and even operate like loan sharks, so she'd rather go for the IGBC or IGR, whichever offered the best terms to her. Yet IGR would probably beat IGBC's interest rates only at the condition that she switches to them for insurance.