Should Holiday Resort have 7 Days a Week Working Hours?

That is the question, it is not one I intend to answer accept to say that everyone will have their own opinion.

I am working here in Italy, in a beach resort where the season is strictly July and August only. I have an office and to help pay for it I installed a few extra computers and opened my doors to holiday makers wanting access to the Internet. I charged around 5 euros an hour. (Double the rate in Rome).

So what has gone wrong, briefly clients/customer have real demands. I have a short time to make money, but they simply do not realise this, to most customers my charges are exorbitant, odd that an all year round business in Rome can charge 2/3 euros an hour 12 months of the year while I can only charge 5 euros 2 months of the year.

Income wise I see a drop to around 20 Euros a month off season. So as I am in a holiday resort the clear emphasis is this that I have to work as much as possible to make the business viable.

In 2006 I opened 8:30am until 8.30pm 7 days a week, I was shattered, it was madness, unhealthy and a daft situation to be in, my earnings remained low and it was not worth employing a second person. Still customers regularly requested I stay open until 10pm or later. Also of note I had insignificant customers before 9:30am.

In 2007 I was committed to the idea that I should/would not work too hard and instead enjoy the company of the many people visiting us in the summer. So opening times were revised to 9:30am until 8pm 6 days a week with Sunday off…

Customers were shocked, put off and generally unaccepting of this arrangement – the question is what did I do wrong?