Romantic cottages for two in the Peak District
Romantic cottages for two in the Peak District
Way back last January the local Peak District Premier Cottages owners (there are eighteen of us, all with Five and top-level Four Star Holiday cottages) arranged an email campaign to about 6,000 of our joint contacts reminding everyone of the joys of visiting our cottages in the spring. A prize of chocolates and champagne was offered to the first people to book a holiday in any one of our cottages (over 50 between us all).
And we are delighted to say that the first people to book were Michael and Julie, who booked a weekend here in Douglas’s Barn; rather than opting for a spring break, they decided to come here in the late autumn and are staying here now! We didn’t tell them of their prize – so having purchased a box of Belgian chocolates and laid some very nice champagne on ice in Douglas’s Barn we awaited their arrival with some excitement.
Of course they were fairly amazed, and very delighted. They admitted that they, like probably most of us, usually mistrusted tempting promises of prizes such as this, so they were delighted to discover that when Premier promises things they do happen!
Through the post the other day came this most impressive certificate from TripAdvisor, accompanied by a letter congratulating us on achieving “one of the most powerful recommendations – the endorsement of other guests“.
John has photocopied the certificate (we were only sent one) and we have proudly put one in each of our two holiday cottages. We are really delighted to have received such nice reviews and are very grateful to those guests who have submitted them. Mostly we have no idea who you are, so please accept our genuinely humble thanks.
However delighted we are, we are well aware that one can never sit back on any laurels that might come one’s way. We do genuinely want to provide the ‘best holiday ever’ to quote a certain recent video and are always trying to think of what next we can do to make your holiday even more satisfying/relaxing/memorable etc. On the whole, unless we are responding to a specific suggestion our philosophy is rather self-indulgent – we are always trying to think of what we ourselves would love to find in the holiday cottage of our dreams (haven’t found it yet…).
Fortunately so far we all seem to be on more or less the same sort of wave-length. Please tell us if/when we start to lose it.
Hardly a day passes without our realising afresh how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful spot; but we are fortunate too in many less obvious ways. There is a lot of support available locally for SMEs – small to medium businesses – and the tourism industry too, in the form of training and business advice, and even sometimes, funding.
John and I put in a funding application recently, having successfully undertaken three day-long eBusiness IT workshops, to upgrade our computer systems and improve our web activities. To our delight we heard today that we have been successful, and thanks to the East Midlands Development Agency and the EU we will receive 50% of the cost of revamping ourselves IT-wise. What excitement!
This means we can ask Jeremy Brough, our web man, to upgrade our website so that it will be much easier for us to manage ourselves and to that end we are each ditching our ancient PCs (I use a laptop at present) in favour of an Apple iMac each! John for his photographic work and me for all the office work and managing the Tom’s Barn and Douglas’s Barn website, and – all being well – eventually editing short videos we hope to make with our new camcorder also on the shopping list.
We are also arranging some Social Marketing training so that we can smarten up our at present very minimal use of social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube. Whatever one thinks of them it certainly seems to be the way forward these days – so watch this space as they say…!
We heard some time ago that we had been granted Five Stars and a Gold Award for both Tom’s and Douglas’s Barns, which of course was a great relief and delight. Just when I was beginning to wonder whether I had dreamed the whole thing we have now actually received the 2010 Inspection Reports. We will happily produce detailed facts and figures for anyone who would like to see them.
Just to explain for those who are lucky enough not to have to deal with these things: to achieve Five Stars in self-catering accommodation there are various straight forward conditions which must be fulfilled – such as, for instance, the property must have a dishwasher.
The Gold Award is for ‘exceptional quality of accommodation and customer service’.
Also, much less simple, one must also satisfy the inspector that in each of all the following sections the accommodation meets the minimum level for (in our case) Five Star: the Exterior and Setting, ‘Management Efficiency’, Cleanliness, Public Areas, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Kitchens.
We’re delighted to have met these fairly stringent guidelines and just as delighted to report that once again we have achieved 100% for cleanliness throughout both barns – well done Janet and Carol!
There were one or two anomalies – possibly even in our favour – which we find really puzzling and for which we thought we would seek an explanation – possibly more about that later. However, the final average overall score for Douglas’s Barn is 92%, and 91% for Tom’s Barn and we’re not complaining about anything.
Another busy few days for us here since our inspection, including a flying visit to Dorset to help some very good friends celebrate a special birthday. Colouring everything has been all the drama of the election and subsequent speculation and tension surrounding the political future as it unfolded.
It has been like living in a soap without an author; nobody, not even those taking part knowing what the outcome would be. John and I found ourselves compelled almost without a break to watch or listen to the news! However, unlike in most soaps – one couldn’t help feeling impressed by the dignity and restraint of the main players and the moving sight of Gordon Brown and his little family leaving Downing Street. Now one just hopes that Cameron and Clegg and their team will be allowed to get on with their hugely unpleasant job without the media beginning immediately to undermine them.
To quote from the Visit Britain website, “This award reflects a very high level of quality. Properties achieving the Gold Award have exceptional levels of quality, comfort and cleanliness in bedrooms and bathrooms, and outstanding levels of customer care.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have had some good news tonight: both barns easily retain their Five Star status, both now achieving a Gold Award.
We are really delighted. But don’t think for one moment that we will sit back and rest on those laurels. We are only too aware that standards increase and guests’ expectations change and we always try to keep one step ahead. This is one reason we so appreciate comments and suggestions from all our guests.
Well! What a day!
Changeover day with a Visit Britain inspection thrown in for good measure… we have never had that before. In the past, the inspection has taken place mid-week which is rather inconvenient for our guests but generally easier because, when all is said and done, our first priority on a Friday is to have everything ready, sparkling fresh and welcoming for our guests and not to have them arrive while we are showing the inspector around, as happened today. Fortunately, both lots had been before.
We had a very pleasant and extremely thorough inspector (thank goodness for our wonderful Janet and Carol!) who seemed pretty happy with things generally but less impressed with the state of the Tom’s Barn stairs which she felt showed unhappy evidence of the odd sharp-clawed dog scrabbling up them.
We have already arranged with David, our wonderful joiner, who is going to build a wooden gate at the foot of the stairs and do what he can to iron out the worst of the gouges. The other thing we have to do, which we had already planned anyway, is to replace the easy chair and footstool in Tom’s Barn, which although actually spotlessly clean, no longer looks so.
Douglas’s Barn appeared to pass muster without comment (hope I’m not deluded). What we were hoping for, after all our refurbishments in Tom’s Barn, was for Tom’s Barn to go up that one vital point (from 91% overall to 92% ) to join Douglas’s Barn in the exclusive Gold Star ‘club’. Last year we were told the only thing between us and a Gold Star was the cooker, and that has been replaced with one that is very definitely not old fashioned…
So all we can do now is sit and wait (and start looking for that new chair).
We have at last heard from the Green Tourism in Business Scheme (GTBS) that we have gained a Silver Award following our inspection last month, so our progress greenwards is real and recognised officially!
More about this tomorrow, but meanwhile, apparently we scored 73.7%. Silver Awards are for scores between 65 and 79%, so I think you could say we are respectably silver.
We were daily awaiting our ‘green’ inspection all summer; in fact the Green Business in Tourism inspectors were very keen to come the same day as the QiT inspector was scheduled to come. We thought that too much of a good thing, certainly for us and even more certainly for our poor guests who were already being disturbed more than we would have liked without having a double dose imposed on them.
Very fortuitously the inspection was put back to September, which gave us a welcome breathing space which (ssshhh!) has now extended to the end of November…
As well as the practical inspection we have to produce a very great deal of figures and supporting data. It is quite demanding, but certainly is helping us be very aware of all the green issues and what else we ought to be doing to support the environment and avoid unnecessary waste.
In fact, we have been on a ‘green’ spending spree, of which more later…
We had our annual QiT inspection in June this year. Both barns had guests in them which can’t make it easy for the inspector but we are assured they are thoroughly experienced and trained in being able to tell what is old and what is recently lived in as far as cleanliness is concerned.
Anyway, all is well, and I must say our guests did us proud. The last thing we want to do is put them under pressure. You come here to relax, not fret about inspections, but there wasn’t much evidence of any new ‘dirt’ at all (and, no, no old dirt either). There is no way up – one can only come down – from our 2008 100% score for cleanliness and I’m delighted to report another 100% for cleanliness all round!
We were really hoping, having done so much to Tom’s Barn recently, to get as high a score as is possible. Now that Douglas’ Barn has been awarded the new Gold Award on the basis of its last year overall score of 91%, we would love Tom’s Barn to move up that extra point this year, which is all it needs!
However, we may be disappointed. Our very nice and we felt thoroughly fair inspector explained that because of the strict way they have to score the fact that the cooker in Tom’s Barn is let down by the now higher standard of the fridge-freezer and washer means the kitchen can’t be credited with any more points, even though we have done such a lot already and a new cooker is top of our agenda for next year’s spending spree.
Visit Britain Quality in Tourism Five Stars really does mean something, as does belonging to Premier Cottages, see below.
The annual inspection is rigorous and includes the setting and internal and external appearance of the property, management efficiency, furniture and fittings and overall impression. Each ‘critical area’ of the property has to meet an equivalent high standard of at least 87%.
Our average for Tom’s Barn was 90%, and 91% for Douglas’s Barn.
Out of the blue, we heard the news from Enjoy England a few months ago. The award is for ‘exceptional quality of accommodation and customer service!’
Meanwhile, see our How to Book page if you would like to check this out for yourself.
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