Yvonne Halling didn’t set out to build a six-figure hospitality business or become an international coach. She set out to run a small bed and breakfast in the Champagne region of France, a lifestyle choice that began as little more than a passion project. For years, her four-room property generated modest income, sometimes barely reaching €10,000 annually. Then circumstances shifted, and what had been a hobby became her family’s sole source of income overnight.
What followed wasn’t a dramatic transformation but a methodical reckoning with how business actually works. Halling stopped relying on conventional wisdom, third-party platforms, and the exhausting cycle of discounting to fill rooms. Instead, she studied guest psychology, built direct relationships, and created communication systems so effective they earned her an international online marketing award. Within a few years, that same four-room property was consistently generating over €100,000 in annual revenue, without burnout and without compromise
Today, Halling runs a thriving coaching and mentoring practice, working with independent bed and breakfast owners, guest houses, and boutique hotels worldwide. Her clients aren’t beginners looking for shortcuts, they’re capable operators who understand hospitality but struggle with the business side. What distinguishes Halling’s approach is what she refuses to offer: easy answers, viral tactics, or the fantasy of effortless success. She teaches what she lived, grounded freedom built on systems, responsibility, and the kind of clarity that only comes from doing the hard work yourself.
Most hospitality owners dream of filling rooms without relying on third-party booking platforms, yet few manage it successfully. What’s the biggest misconception independent operators have about building direct relationships with guests, and what needs to change before that approach becomes viable?
The biggest misconception among independent operators is the idea of an online infrastructure to support their offline business. Many are brilliant at hospitality but have not learned about business and marketing, so they have resorted to using online travel agents, which take a 15% to 25% commission on every booking. This practice has become normalised over the years, even though it rarely happens outside of hospitality. A business that cannot attract its own customers is not really a business. The financial and psychological exploitation of online travel agents (OTAs) has badly affected the entire hospitality industry.
When you’re working with a capable hospitality owner who’s overwhelmed by the business side of things, what’s typically the first system or mindset shift that creates the most immediate relief, and why does that particular change make such a difference?
When I first work with clients, we typically create an offer for their past guests by extracting guests’ data from their online reservations system and uploading it into their new CRM system. From there, we can select which guests receive the offer and thereby increase their chances of gaining bookings. This is often a huge breakthrough for owners because a) it could have been years or even never, since they communicated with their past guests, and b) they create bookings on demand (and extra money) from an idea. This beats discounting or the usual 3 nights for the price of two type of offer I see too often online, and gives owners a huge confidence boost.
The hospitality industry often conflates being busy with being profitable. Where do you see independent operators spending energy that generates very little return, and what would they need to stop doing tomorrow to create space for work that actually moves the business forward?
Many owners are excellent at hospitality – they are naturally welcoming and friendly, and they love taking care of their guests. What they typically do is get bogged down with the cleaning and laundry and making sure every detail is perfect for their incoming guests. All of this can be done by a trained person, and can be delegated tomorrow, which frees up their time to concentrate on creating more value, making offers to past guests, creating entertaining and educational content for prospective guests and working ON the business to ensure its future viability. Often, hosts don’t realise that they need a solid online infrastructure to create a stable offline business.
You’ve built your reputation on teaching sustainable success rather than quick wins. For someone reading this who’s tired, doubting themselves, and wondering whether they’re cut out for business ownership, how do they distinguish between the necessary difficulty that’s building something real and the unnecessary struggle that’s a sign they’re on the wrong path?
To distinguish between the usual challenges of constantly testing out ideas and evaluating the successes between unnecessary struggle of running a hospitality business, owners need to recognise that worrying about where the next booking is coming from means they don’t have a reliable system in place to attract bookings whenever they need them. This struggle is unnecessary and can be fixed.
Looking at the independent hospitality businesses that thrive over the long term, what’s the one characteristic or decision pattern that separates those who build genuine freedom from those who end up trapped by their own businesses?
Those who build genuine freedom are no longer afraid to be visible online and can communicate confidently what they offer whenever they need to, to create bookings. The skill of being able to create bookings themselves rather than waiting for them to arrive via third-party platforms, and the anxiety of not knowing when that will happen, is one of the characteristics or decision patterns that separates those who build genuine freedom from those who end up trapped. Second is the understanding of timeless business principles and how they work in a hospitality business – who, specially do you want to welcome and what is the unique experience you will deliver, setting up your website for THOSE guests (not everyone and anyone) and then installing your bespoke guest communication system to take exceptional care of your guests before they arrive, during their stay and after they’ve left, so they will return. Those who fail are trying to appeal to anyone and everyone and end up competing on price, which is a very dangerous and soul-destroying place to be. Finally, understanding that you are running a business, not a charity, and that profit is noble, and ensures the ongoing viability of your business and lifestyle.
