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

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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.

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 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.

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.

How has the first week back been?

It’s gone quite well actually! We have both restarted work again after a nice 8 week break in November and December. Had some fun times together as a family – saw Lion King in London, the real Father Christmas in Lapland and JLS in Manchester (guess which was Mummy’s fave) but now the girls are back in school after the Xmas hols it’s time to start focusing on 2011.

Beki recently completed a Welcome Host Gold course and got some great ideas for little extras we can put into the caravans to help our guests get the most out of their time with us – so she has spent time sourcing new products as well as bringing all the databases up to date, printing all the envelopes ready for a brochure drop and keeping our facebook/twitter pages up to date.

And Damian – well he has been stuffing those envelopes with the new prices – the tent/touring prices are exactly the same as they were in 2010 despite the rise in VAT – with a little help from the girls.

New Years “work” resolution is to keep this blog a little more up-to-date. Let’s see how long it lasts!