Has the inventory check been done?

It seems that sat watching the littlemisses swimming class is also a perfect time to blog. I was at a workshop a couple of days ago and many of the reasons people don't tweet or write blogs is a lack of time. I've thought about that alot and it made me realise just how much of my time is wasted. It was suggested that I download a dictation app for my phone but I'd feel a little silly sat by the pool talking to myself.

Busy day on site again - the annual Cajun Festival takes place this weekend and we have many of the band members and their partners staying with us on site. We have guests from Holland, Germany and France. The English are certainly in the minority at the moment. Great buzz around the park though. The organisers do such a fantastic job putting the weekend together, it's lovely to play a small part of it.

P.S. the inventory check has been done - just need a frying pan - added to tomorrow's list.

Dear Diary....

And still I haven't completed the inventory.

I have, though, found the perfect time to blog. The fifteen minutes I get to myself whilst waiting for littlemiss7 to fall to sleep is all I need to collect my thoughts on the day.

The snow has forced a paperwork day. Bills paid, filing complete and some SEO work on the website. All those things that the guests don't see but all vitally important to the smooth running of the park.

Damian is defrosting by the fire having done a late check of all the caravans ensuring all the water is off. With 10 caravans being let from tomorrow I can only hope and pray that all the pipes survive the night.

Maybe tomorrow the inventory will be completed....

A new season....

It's hard to believe that we've only been open for 12 days - it's gone passed in a flash and we have already done so much. We replaced nine of our carqvans over the winter season and they are now ready with aerials, steps and fridges - all ready to sell or to hire out to guests. All electric and gas checks are complete and we can look forward to the eight months ahead.

Sadly, the temperatures have turned against us over the last couple of days and frozen pipes have caused a couple of niggly problems. I think everyone has had enough of the cold and the snow now - it's time to look forward to Spring.

What does the season have in store?

Who knows! The great thing about our job is that we wake up not knowing what is going to happen. We can plan our day out at 9am and by 9.30am something could have happened which will change the course of the day. Take today for example, an unexpected gas delivery has meant that the caravan itinerary that we were supposed to complete hasn't been done yet. There is always tomorrow....

Procrastination isn't always a waste of time.

During a period of procrastination last week I found myself browsing statistics on Visit England’s website and came across a list of activities on overnight trips in England for 2011. I mulled over the list for a while and realised just how perfect our location is to complete any of the activites mentioned:

1.       Just Relaxing – Robin Hood Caravan Park is set in a perfect, quiet and tranquil location. Grab yourself a book and escape from the real world for a while.

2.       Sightseeing on Foot – Castle Howard is only 2.5miles away from Robin Hood Caravan Park. Its a hilly walk but I’ve known people that have done it. If you're visiting in the Spring don't forget to have a wander through Bluebell Woods - a carpet of blue.

3.       Short Walk/stroll – up to 2 miles/1 hour – that’ll get you to 2 local pubs. Check out our village website for walking routes in our area

4.       Sightseeing by car – Howardian Hills, North YorkMoors National Park, York – all on our doorstep

5.       Long Walk/Hike or ramble – walks are available from reception – or borrow our O.S. Maps and take yourself off exploring

6.       Visiting a beach – we are only 35 mins from the coast – Scarborough, Filey, Cayton Bay, Hunmanby Gap – loads to choose from

7.       Centre based walking (around city/town) – check out Treasure Trails – a great way of seeing our local towns

8.        A special event of a personal nature e.g wedding/christening – We’ve had guests attend weddings in Slingsby, Hovingham and at Castle Howard so I’m ticking that one

9.       Visiting a country park – oooooh – what defines a country park?

10.   Visiting a museum – Eden Camp, York CastleMuseum, National Railway Museum, Beck Isle Museum – the list goes on.....

11.   Swimming (indoors or outdoors) – York’s WaterWorld, St Alban Centre at Ampleforth College, Derwent Pool in Malton

12.   Had a picnic of BBQ – Dalby Forest, Hutton-le-Hole – keep an eye on our website as I build a list of picnic places

13.   Visiting a theme park/amusement park – Flamingoland, Light Water Valley

14.   Visiting a historic house, stately home, palace – Castle Howard and Nunnington Hall within 3 miles of Robin Hood Caravan Park

15.   Visiting a cathedral, church, abbey – York Minster, Rievaulx Abbey

There are a further 47 suggestions within the survey but I’ll leave them for another day

New Year, New Website, New Blog

Already 2013 looks to be an exciting year for us here at Robin Hood Caravan Park. We are currently working on the website for our parent site Crows Nest Caravan Park and then it will be our turn for a website overhaul.

When finished our new website will have a blog/news page attached to it and it will be alot easier for me to update, publish and promote it to all our readers. Until then the blogs will stay here and I'll transfer any written this month onto the new site when the time comes.

Gold, Silver, Bronze or Rosedale, Glaisdale, Farndale?

Caravan Parks around the country categorise their caravans in many ways whether by name - Bronze, Silver, Gold or numbers - 2012, 2011, 2010. It shows our guests that there are differences in the type of caravans we have available to hire.

When we moved to the park in 1999, the established names were Farndale, Rosedale and Dovedale and it would have been foolish for us to change them as we felt that we had to make gradual changes in order to retain the number of repeat guests to the park.

As the years have gone by it has been necessary to add to that range of names as the range of caravans available to hire has grown. It was important to us that we use the names of “dales” within Yorkshire and so the discussions began.

Glaisdale was the first category added. An extra category was needed to bridge the gap between our economy caravans and the new ones. Beki liked the name Glaisdale – no other reason it was chosen.

Kingsdale is the latest category to be added. It’s the new name for our 3 bedroom caravans - the ones that sleep more than others – the kings of the hire fleet but it nearly wasn’t called that...........

#Yorkshire Hour

On Wednesday evenings, from 8pm – 9pm, Tweeters from all over Yorkshire come together for #Yorkshirehour and Beki asked our followers what they thought the new name should be:

Denise Howard - Thornton le Dale, Coverdale, Madeupdale (where Mrs Victor lives)
Yorkshire Farmer - Bransdale, Dale Winton (?)
Rebecca Horner - Coverdale
Paul Raines - Emmerdale
Mrs Victor - Bransdale, Baysdale, Commondale, Danbydale, Fryupdale,  Ugglebarnby-cum-Eskdale (shame it would take over the price list!)
North York Moors - Kirkdale, Fryup Dale, Whispers Dale, Troutsdale
Susie Brindley - Emmerdale, Bilsdale
Walking Books.com - Ryedale, Troutsdale, Westerdale, Wheeldale
Debra Tyson - Sunnydale, Airedale
Craig Nattress - Ryedale, Bilsdale

There are some really great names in there - you can tell the Emmerdale 40th Birthday Live Special was on at the time! And we loved the thought of Ryedale with it being the area we belong to. However, we wanted it to be a specific name of a place that our guests can visit if they wish hence Nick coming up with Kingsdale.

And you can book stays in the Kingsdale caravan for 2013 by visiting our website.

Another season almost finished..

Not long until the park closes for the season. I look back at Sophie's posts and smile - she did have a very busy summer and they had some great days out - so many that she didn't have time to finish off the blog.

We are still very busy - four caravans have moved from the park this week and a further four/five are due to move from the park in the coming weeks. Its exciting times and we are really looking forward to the new ones arriving at the beginning of next year. For our guests it means that all caravans that are booked directly though the park are centrally heated - just what is required at this time of the year.

I'm still here!!

Today we spent the day rock pooling with Daddy in Filey.

We had out buckets, spades and nets. I found 4 crabs. We had lots of fun paddling in the sea but I cut myself on a rock (ouch).

We had some yummy ice cream and donuts (don't tell Mummy) then played mini golf - I came 2nd.

After that we went to visit my Grandpa at Crows Nest Caravan Park before coming home.

See you laters

X

A Day in York

Hi Sophie here,

Yesterday we went to Yorvik Viking centre in the centre of York. I am going to rate it 4 star because although I enjoyed it my little sister cried all the way round. It was very dark for her. It smelt very funny but was realistic to how things would have been a long time ago.

After that we met up with my Grandma and she took us for lunch at Red Chilli - a Chinese restaurant. It was really yummy - I shared with my sister.

In the afternoon my sister went home as she had a break-dancing class but I stayed in York with my Auntie.

We went to York Castle Museum. I loved it and it gets my 5 stars but the policeman was a little creepy.

That's me over and out.

See you laters

X

A Wet Day!!!

It's been a fab today - we've had the paddling pool out for most of the day as have many of our guests. It's the only way we could think to cool off.

Like many of our guests we also had a BBQ for tea - yummy!

We've also spent the evening playing with other children on the site. I love living on a caravan park as we are always meeting new people.

Heading to York with Mummy tomorrow so will have plenty to report back on.

See you laters

X

New Writer!

Hello, my name is Sophie and I am 9 years old. Mummy is letting me write the blog for the school holidays so I can tell you exactly what there is to do around here.

Today I've mostly been at my dance classes. I have been looking forward to coming home to see all my friends. I get to meet different friends everyday on the caravan park which is super duper fun.

Later in the week we will be going out but I have to wait for Mummy and Daddy to have some time off.

See you laters

X

An afternoon off.....

We are lucky to live so close to many attractions - theme parks, forests and stately homes. We are only 5 minutes away from Nunnington Hall and with the chance of a couple of hours to ourselves we headed there this afternoon.

We had no idea that is was actually their summer fete this afternoon which was a huge bonus. The girls enjoyed snail racing, sand art, Birds of Prey and the coconut shy.

This sand art stall has given me a great idea for future birthday parties. The girls have done this particular craft at home before but always end up making a mess all over the kitchen. Its great to know that someone would organise it for us and clear the mess away when the kids have all finished.

Snail racing! What a fantastic idea - we must use this at a future PTA event. 50p a go and if your snail comes first you win £1.

---------------

 We did have a quick look round the house - but by the time we got indoors it was almost time to come home. On piece of advice I would give is to go when the children's trails are on. Whilst the kids are busy looking round the rooms for clues the adults have time to wander around the rooms and have a good look at the exhibits.

We've had a giggle.....

Over the last few weeks we have chatted to other accommodation providers about the quirky guests we all have and some of the things they do and things we would rather they didn't do. We all decided that together we could probably write a book - possibly even a trilogy.

Lets start with the guest that unpicked every other curtain hook from every curtain in the caravan they were staying in? Why would you do that? How long must it have taken to do that? And how long did it take for us to put back!?! If you are that guest - I'd rather you just asked me to buy you a bag of curtain hooks - it would certainly have been cheaper ;)

Or are you the guest that accidently managed to pull the door off a static caravan last weekend? You must be very strong as it took two of us to hang it back on again.

Maybe you are the guest that thought washing your jeans in the toilet was a good idea - but they got stuck didn't they? They got stuck in the sewage pump that controls sewage from the whole site. Caused hours of problems for other guests and poor Damian had to sort it all out.

No two days are the same here - we can plan what we are going to do for the day and then something happens to throw us off course. We love our job - we love our quirky guests and can't wait to find out what they do next!

Food Glorious Food

The 4th Annual Malton Food Festival took place over the 19th and 20th May. 

It was a really good afternoon with lots of fun for all the family. 

First stop for us was The Pizza Farm - fresh stone-baked pizza made in front of your eyes. Littlemiss9 was mesmerised by the whole process - from the lady that took our order, to the guy that made the bases, another that sorted our toppings and finally the gentleman above that cooked our lunch. And it tasted extremely yummy - hope they are able to visit us here one day.

We had a list of products that we needed to re-stock and The Chilli Jam Man was first on this list. We have enjoyed many of the Chilli Jams and the Jammonaise is a family favourite. Click here to visit his website for online ordering or to find out where he will be next.

There was allsorts going on - the Welcome to Yorkshire Taste Trail went down really well with us all - chocolate and ice-cream for the kids, pigeon, beef and crab for the parents. It was also great to see Dee Marshall, Gary Verity, Sarah Barrowby and Janet Deacon from Welcome to Yorkshire and Craig Nattress looked fab in his pinny!

Are the awards worth it?

Why have you entered so many awards?

I’ll be completely truthful with you – marketing, PR, publicity – put it however you want, at the end of the day the publicity we have received as finalists in so many awards has been priceless. Whether we are a winner of not we are allowed to use a finalist logo on all our publicity material which can make us stand out from other parks in the area.

We also get so much more from them – the learning curve has increased sharply since we started entering. Each award has its own judging process – but for each of the caravan park/self-catering awards this process has included a mystery visit and a mystery phonecall. The feedback we get from these visits has been invaluable. We see the site everyday – the mystery visits make us see it through a completely different set of eyes.

 Judges have come up with new ideas that we have been able to put into practise, they have given us advice on where modifications could be made. Extra signage is on order for our tourist information area specifically due to a comment made in the feedback report in an award application last year. Both shower blocks shown on Look North in October last year have now been completely retiled as we could see they needed brightening up.

No-one has run a course on how to run a caravan park – 12 years later we are still learning –  we can’t build new ideas sat behind a desk – we have to find new ways of learning. The only cost involved in the awards is time (plus new dress, bag and shoes) but the rewards are incalculable.

How do the Outstanding Customer Service awards differ?

We were nominated for the customer service awards by guests and they mean so much to both of us. Last year a child fell over on the park – no fault of ours I hasten to add – his parents had been drinking outside their tent so had been unable to take him to hospital. Instead Damian took them all – he waited with them at Malton hospital and when a transfer to York hospital was needed Damian stepped in to help again. He waited at York hospital with them until all x-rays were completed and then brought them back to the site. Damian didn’t do that because it’s part of his job – he did it because he is a genuinely nice guy (although when I sprained my knee back in February it was 2 days before he would take me to hospital).

Will you be entering more?

To be honest we haven’t made that decision yet. There is alot of time that goes into each entry and its knowing what to put into each entry. Obviously we have made huge improvements to the shower block this year so there is scope for an entry this year but a time will come where we can’t do that. We will just have to wait and see – if Nick enters we will have to J A younger guest has asked if he can enter the girls into an awards so we may have to hold our own.

It's raining............it's pouring........

I’m sure we aren’t the only ones that are getting fed up of the constant rain. So many things we want to get on with outside and they are almost impossible in this weather. We can do most things in the wind and cold but add a bit of rain and things come to a halt.

I’ve also noticed that the phone is really quiet on days when the weather is poor – no-one is in the right frame of mind to be thinking of their summer holidays. Once the sun starts to shine again camping will seem like a really fun thing to do once more.

So, what are we doing?

You may think that with so little to do on the park we are sat indoors with the heating on relaxing and taking the time to rest. Nope!!! Since I started this morning I’ve dealt with three repair men, four advertising salespeople, ordered some uniform, made sure adverts are running in all the right places, worked on the website, helped with a newsletter and made a cup of tea. Thankfully its now lunchtime – and time to make a list of all the things I’ll do this afternoon.

Yorkshire - When are you coming?

Can't decide where to go on holiday this year? Let me help you make up your mind!

Y12

Seems we've gone through all seasons since I was sat in the garden writing the last blog. Sun, sleet, wind and rain - we've had them all - but thankfully no snow.

Its been a busy few days since my last blog. On Wednesday I attended Welcome to Yorkshire's Y12 conference at the Barbican Centre with over 1100 others wondering what the year had in store for us.

The chat show style event was hosted by Rob Walker (may have to start watching the snooker now) with guests Gary Verity - Chief Exec for Welcome to Yorkshire, John Penrose MP - Minster for Tourism, Mike Finnigan and a couple of llamas.

The day is always very inspiring and this year was no different. Gary and his team have a lot planned for Yorkshire:

• Back le Bid - A bid for the 2016 Tour de France to start in Yorkshire. You can help by backing le bid at www.yorkshire.com/backthebid
• "On Ilkla Moor Bah't'at" Rap
• Product Placement in Emmerdale
• Bronte's Yorkshire Garden at Chelsea

The finale was emotional for everyone attending. The first champions of Yorkshire "The Yorkshire Regiment" were welcomed onto the stage to collect their Y badges with a standing ovation and a few tears from Row B.

 



A little treat....

Treating myself to a lunch break today - albeit whilst blogging. Sat in the garden with a sandwich and cup of tea listening to the birds singing and the distant humming of a lawn mower.

These peaceful times will pass us by if we aren't careful. It's these snatched hours that make us lucky to be doing the job we do. Damian is at Crow's Nest plumbing in countless new static caravans so he probably isn't feeling as content as I am. To be fair, half an hour ago when surrounded by accounts and the constant ringing of the phone I wasn't as calm as I am now.

But right here, right now, enjoying the Spring sunshine I'm very happy I do the job that I do.......

What should I blog about?

I've read alot of advice on blogs over the last 7 days - looking for that niche - looking for that something that I can talk about that no-one else can and to be honest haven't got very far. Then I thought about the title of our blog and realised that by just writing a diary and by letting people know what happened this week I can give my account of whether it really is a dream job.

Working for yourself/family and illness aren't two things that can go together so despite this steaming cold that I, and everyone I know has, I've battled through the week sorting through accounts, bookings and social media updates. Has it been a dream job this week? Yes and no - I've not taken any time off work, I've sat behind my desk in my pjs and no-one has known - we've still taken lots of bookings but on the other hand I've not had the time off that maybe I could have had if I was working for someone else.

Feeling a little more human this morning, I've spent the morning updating the facebook sites for Jasmine and Crows Nest. So often we don't take full advantage of having the three parks in our marketing efforts so I've made sure that photos of Jasmine and Robin Hood appear on Crows Nest's facebook page and vice versa. If a guest has enjoyed their stay at one of our parks they are (hopefully) more likely to look at staying at one of the others.

If you follow us on facebook - any of us - what do you want to see on there? Why do you read my blog? What tweets do you like reading? I really want to extend the communication between ourselves and our guests/potential guests - stats show that people are reading our blogs and browsing our website as a result - how can I build on that? Comment below, email or tweet with your opinions and help me make the best of our blog.