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Holiday Park Hot Tubs
Fashion Statements
Fashion Statements
Holiday park owners who improve the quality and choice of their accommodation and facilities are most likely to reap the rewards from increasing demand, particularly for UK short breaks.
Staycation specialist Hoseasons, which this year celebrates its 75th anniversary, is predicting a positive outlook for the industry for the rest of 2019 following an 11% Year-on-Year surge in bookings across its lodges and parks portfolio.
Mark Warnes, Vice President of Property Services at Awaze UK, Hoseasons’ parent company, says keeping up with changing customer habits has always been at the heart of the company’s success over the years, and that those who invest in ‘wowing’ their guests now are the ones most likely to benefit in the longer term.
“Standards of UK accommodation and facilities have made such a huge leap over the last 10 years that holidaymakers are now actively seeking out luxury, hassle-free short breaks closer to home at a time when they may have concerns about going further afield,” Mark says.
“Customer expectations have rocketed at the same time, though, so it’s no surprise that the locations we see performing best are the ones where owners have been prepared to invest and improve their offer.” Locations sold through Hoseasons that have recently invested in their offer include Go Active Holidays location Hemsby Beach Holiday Park, in Norfolk, which has had a £10m overhaul of accommodation and facilities.
SUPER PARKS
The new look ‘super park’ features brand new luxury lodges with hot tubs, a Show Bar, Yacht Club Bar and a whole range of Go Active activities, including archery, zorbing, sea scooters, crazy golf and bowls.
Set just 350 yards from the golden sands and rolling dunes of Hemsby Breach, and close to the Norfolk Broads, the park also now boasts a Traverse Climbing Wall, an all-weather multi-sports court, soft play for the little ones, a Go Juniors activity programme for three to seven year olds and an amusement arcade.
Fellow Go Active location Cheddar Woods Resort and Spa, in Somerset, has also invested – unveiling 23 new properties earlier this year to cope with greater demand for quality short break staycations.
The mix of one, two, three and four-bedroom properties all offer spectacular views of the Cheddar countryside and have been purposely placed to maximise privacy and enhance guests’ sense of getting away from it all.
Each of the lodges comes with either a private garden, enclosed decking or an outdoor patio area, as well as non-reflective windows that allow the properties to blend into the Cheddar landscape.
Nine of the new units are one-bedroom lodges – a response to growing off-peak demand for couples’ romantic breaks.
Ninety minutes down the road Finlake Holiday Resort, in North Devon – another Go Active Holidays location - has a multimillionpound new facilities complex with waterpark and flume rides, spa and treatment rooms, and a state-of-the-art gym.
Finlake’s refurbished Retreat Bar and Restaurant offers lunch and à la carte evening meals and the nearby Cabin Café & Farm Shop offers a fantastic takeaway menu. Nature trails, outdoor tennis courts, two coarse fishing lakes and horse riding are also available, providing sporting opportunities for everyone.
All the parks have seen a rise in bookings since investing in their offer, with Warnes encouraging others to follow their lead.
“Capital investment is not something the owners we work with rush into,” he says, adding: “It’s a considered thought-though strategic approach, designed to make the most of a strong market and keep pace with what the public want when it comes to a short break.”
BALANCED APPROACH
Lead Designer, Sue Brodie has worked with Willerby for almost seven years having previous worked on executive homes located in the prestigious London boroughs of Knightsbridge, Kensington and Chelsea.
Sue says you need to strike a balance between the design aesthetics and the practicality of the home.
“There is a balance between the two – clever storage solutions can be aesthetically pleasing and enhance the interior,” Sue emphasises.
“It’s no good if the unit looks beautiful but fails to function as a living space, we always ensure there is enough seating, storage and the layout flows.
“We try to create furniture with a freestanding appearance so it appears more domestic but still includes that vital storage.” Sue stresses that owners are looking for comfort, a real home from home experience, although they are not looking to replicate their own homes.
“Their expectations are high along with their desire for better features and décor,” she says.
UNIQUE DESIGNS
Many of Willerby’s unique designs grow from an innovative layout, offsetting the linear roof line and introducing an appliance bank allowed us to create a nearside corridor and internal bathroom. These internal bathrooms were made possible by the introduction of the ‘sun tube’ which in effect is ecofriendly mini skylight.
Willerby were also the first to introduce a larder unit into the kitchen with sliding baskets drawers and open shelving the unit is now available in two sizes. Other features include the Sheraton fireplace and bed surround shelving which were influenced by the New England, American interior designs.
Says Sue: “We now have access to some wonderful materials and finishes which allow us to create authentic looking interiors and are no longer constrained by our manufacturing capabilities.
Because we manufacture our own furniture, elements are completely bespoke and produced to our specification in just the right style, size and colour to complement the unit. Adds Sue: “We can co-ordinate our finishes though out the unit so the finished product looks cohesive and resolve.”
Previously static caravans adopted styling used in touring caravans, with lots of wall to wall storage and clunky furniture. We are now looking to popular high street brands for our Styling cues.
Fabrics were supplied by manufacturers to the caravan industry, we are now using domestic fabrics you would find on the high street.
With the improvements in LED lighting, we have substituted decorative wall and ceiling lighting for integrated spotlights bringing a cleaner modern look to our units.
We have introduced improved MP3 players with integrated speakers and USB sockets for phone charging and ipads.
RECENT TRENDS
We are seeing recent trends shift and evolve as oppose to completely new trends emerging. The Country Heritage trend is still strong with the addition of new colours, pebble greys and truffles.
Black fittings are popular this year and we have introduced Graphite handles and light fittings in birdcage deconstructed styles.
The colour trends are teal, blue terracotta, warm grey and sage with gold accents while authentic woods, sit alongside luxury fabrics, windowpane checks and pinstripe fabrics.
Pathfinder Homes have over 25 standard homes customers can choose from, however, the company offers a fully bespoke service giving the opportunity to create homes as unique as they are.
The Pathfinder Homes team is fully trained and committed to providing customers with not just a memorable selection process but a home that suits every requirement and desire.
STANDARD PRACTICE
“All standard home start their life with me,” explains Creative Manager, Kelly Martyr. “I am constantly listening to feedback from customers and keeping up to date on fashion and trends.
“Creating a new standard home initially starts with seeing a gap in the market, inspiration from other industries or even a popular request. Initially, I will sit down with our Architectural Technologist and Technical Manager and discuss the sometime outlandish ideas that occur to me.
“I try to take all advice on board and then start to sketch out initial ideas and mood boards,” reveals Kelly. “Once I am confident with the design I will present to our directors, along with rationale, budget and where this sits in the market place.
“As soon as approved all the technical drawings are completed, we pass over to our production team and begin the build.” The whole process from inception to completion can be about six months, and offering a fully bespoke service is something Pathfinder Homes is particularly proud of.
“We understand everyone is different as is their customisation,” Kelly asserts. “For those who know
exactly what they want, our Selection Studio is like heaven.
From carpets to curtains, decking to door handles, the Selection Studio is the perfect place to be inspired and the Pathfinder team can help dreams come true. For those who want a little more guidance, then that’s exactly what they get.
Kelly explains: “I can meet the customer at the Selection Studio and walk them through the whole process and offer advice and assistance every step of the way. Customers can start from a blank canvas or from a preselected, standard design.”
One thing is for certain, there’s no shortage of inspiration, the studio overlooks the famous Haytor in Dartmoor’s National Park, is fully equipped with all the aesthetic examples you might need, from kitchen units to soft furnishings, all to make sure that the new home is exactly how they want it,” says Kelly.
“Pathfinders’ Selection Studio really gives presents a tangible design experience,” she continues. “Customers can touch and feel the fabrics, walk through the kitchen and enjoy a coffee on the couch.
Kelly says Pathfinders’ suppliers play a significant part in the company’s design success. She says: “Over the years we have built up a base of fabulous, supportive and loyal suppliers.
“The relationship we have built together is so important. There are a select few who I work with on almost a daily basis and consider them part of the team here at Pathfinder Homes.
“Our suppliers are constantly sending over innovative products, new samples and exciting developments within their industry – this allows us to continue to lead ours!”
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COMPANY CONTACTS
Hoseasons
Tel. 01502 500505
www.hoseasons.co.uk
Pathfinder Homes
Tel. 01626 833799
www.pathfinderhomes.co.uk
Willerby
Tel. 01482 707808
www.willerby.com
At Your Own Risk
At Your Own Risk
The marmite of the holiday industry, holiday letters either love hot tubs or they loathe them. A necessary evil, the plus side of hot tubs is that they will increase ‘letability’ offering the opportunity to put premium prices on accommodation offered with a spa. In fact, seven out of ten bookers are looking for a hot tub with their holiday let, while accommodation promoted as being supplied with a hot tub ,will generally sustain increased rates of around 25% -30%. On the down side, hot tubs are high maintenance on changeover days; a pain to heat up, with inevitable customer complaints. The in-coming visitors are chomping at the bit to take the plunge and social media the ‘in the tub’ photographs to show all their friends how they are living the dream. As hard as you try, damage and tampering by clients, especially on covers and controls, however well meaning, can be costly in terms of ongoing maintenance. There are also huge health and safety responsibilities on regular water changes, safe water balance and generally demonstrating your duty of care. A relatively new set of guidance, namely HSG282, has split opinion with many specialist suppliers hot-footing it to play the compliance card. “It is recognised that hot tubs and spa pools can be a source of diseases caused by infectious agents including the organism that causes Legionnaires’ disease, primarily Legionella pneumpohila,” advises industry expert and PPG national sales manager, Jimmy Lamb. “There have been a number of outbreaks linked to hot tubs and spa pools in leisure centres, hotels, holiday homes, on cruise ships and on display,” he warns. There was limited information applicable to hot tubs/spas located in holiday lets before the HSG282 was produced. HSG stands for Health and Safety Guidance. One of the opening paragraphs in HSG282 reads: This guidance is issued by the Health and Safety Executive. Following the guidance is not compulsory, unless specifically stated, and you are free to take other action. But, if you do follow the guidance you will normally be doing enough to comply with the law. In the event of an incident, Health and Safety inspectors seek to secure compliance with the law and may refer to this guidance. Jimmy again: “I have noticed a number of hot tub supplier and manufacturers marketing their hot tubs to the holiday park/let market as ‘HSG282 Compliant’. “The use of the word compliant in my opinion could suggest that HSG282 is law but it is not legislation – it is guidance.” Suppliers, like Darlly Europe, the inventors of the Slipstream in-linefiltration system, believe the guidance is helpful to the holiday let sector. “Though we can understand why some owners and operators would view it as being a sales tool, given that, before its introduction, there was no specific regulatory framework covering the use of domestic type hot tubs in holiday let environments,” says Darlly 's Gil Gingell. “So, to 
go from a situation where there was perceived to be no restrictions to where there has to be a level of compliance will be seen by some to be bureaucratic and imposing unnecessary costs by those of that mind-set. “In the absence of any specific guidance, it was only a matter of time before a serious public health incident occurred which could have potentially devastating repercussions on the industry and public perception of it, as well as, of course, the unfortunate people affected, Gil Gingell." “It therefore benefits owners and operators, who will have the peace of mind, that if they follow the guidance - and are seen to be following it - they won't have any issues which could potentially harm their customers. Leading hot tub supplier Rotospa agrees: “The new guidance allows holiday parks to make an informed decision when choosing the right spa for their park, in order to ensure the product is compliant and fi t for purpose, whilst also meeting their own needs,” says Rotospa’s Charlotte Hotchin. “The document also puts emphasis on the supplier of the product to ensure a compliant and fi t for purpose product is supplied, to ultimately ensure the safety of its users. “When the spas are in this particular context, there is also an obligation for the supplier of the spas to provide training and instructions to its customers to ensure the customer is knowledgeable on the correct use of spas,” says Charlotte who adds: “Both of our holiday park specific spas are fi t for purpose and fully HSG282 compliant.” One of the country’s leading hot tub retailers, Gareth Jones of UK Leisure Living believes HSG282 is a positive move. “It is good we have some standards to work to and something to ensure a reasonable quality tub with a reasonable spec is being fitted in the holiday sector,” says Gareth.
CONFUSING MESSAGES
“However I feel some of the requests are not feasible for owners and puts lots of parks and cottage owners off ownership. “Also, I think there are some situations that are in between the guidelines 
and again provides confusion for owners.” Gareth says he and his UK Leisure Living team try to help their holiday let clients navigate through the maze of options and ensure, as much as reasonable practicable, safe hot tub ownership. “We have a variety of spas that we sell into the holiday market. All spas will come with an ozone, inline chemical feeder as well as some form of way of locking the control panel off. “We tick as many as we can, some clients want more depending on their site regulations. We fully communicate with the client the specifi cation and ensure they are compliant in spec and in running the spa afterwards.”Gareth warns: “Extra bookings don’t always equal extra profi t, as the operator needs to consider the management of the tub and factor this into the pay back. “However we feel a £5-6k hot tub, should pay for its self within one to three years with a good quality booking agent. “Some people charge an extra £50-£100 a booking for having the hot tub and then factor in a 25% up lift in bookings, and that gives you a great payback,” he estimates. If you speak to any online booking agent they will usually place a hot-tub in the top three options search or ticked. But rushing into a purchase, to tick the hot tub box, could be a mistake if operators do not follow the latest advice. Dan Johnson of the American brand, Marquis Spas, markets a fully compliant range of hot tubs for the holiday let market. Dan reveals: “Many of the smaller holiday park operators, I have spoken to, left me feeling they had no idea of the HSG282 guidance but felt that filling out a risk assessment exempted them somehow? “I think the big operators are paying attention, as they understand the power of the HSE and thus the importance of following guidelines – it is built into their management infrastructure,” Dan continues. “While some dealers have been specifying or retro-fi tting continuous feeders to outdated models, the bather capacity and water turn-over rates, will still make many hot tubs fall foul of HSG282,” explains Dan who calls on personal experiences. “I recently booked an October break for my family online. I was offered an inflatable hot tub more than once – how does that get anywhere near being compliant – the operator didn’t know, nor care.”
FIRST EXPERIENCE
Dan says: “Many clients report their first experience as coming from a weekend away with a hot tub – It really helps people overcome the lack of understanding of just how great you feel after bathing in hot tub and how it helps the modern ‘disconnected’ family reconnect,” Dan observes. “I am now encountering people who go away to a stunning location, only to find a woefully poor performing hot tub, compared to their own at home. “Trip Advisor, and the likes of, will, in my opinion, start to see a rise in moans about this,” he adds. “My point to holiday operators and letters, would be not to forget why you are buying a hot tub in the first place – for guests to enjoy!”
Hot News For Changeovers
As an industry standard, using conventional methods, a holiday hot tub, with a normal 3kw heater, will heat water on changeover at one degree an hour, that is up to 24 hours to get up to optimum temperatures. So take note of a ground-breaking new state-of-the-art product, called the Climacube that will heat a hot tub at seven to eight degrees per hour. The Climacube will heat hot tubs in around 4-5 hours from cold with a consumption of only 1KW per/hour with a COP of over 3.5 in minus temperatures. If I then told you the Climacube guarantees to cut energy costs by 70 to 80 percent and can be used to provide hot water and power to your holiday lodges themselves….yes, keep calm and form an orderly queue. RETRO-FITS Available as a stand-alone unit, the ClimaCube can be retro-fitted to all makes of hot tubs. It is also available as a pre-installed feature in a bespoke range of hot tubs by ClimaCube’s creator, Park Leisure Solutions. Launched at the start of the 2018 season; good news travels fast. Big names like Parkdean, Shorefield and Hoburne Holidays have been the first to snap up the new technology that already features on over 70 hot tubs at holiday parks in Poole, Norwich and Skegness.
Park Leisure Solutions
Tel. 01202 69 1166
www.parkleisuresolutions.co.uk
The Smart Cover Option
The spa cover you have always wanted and the last you will ever need, the Smartop, by Leisure Concepts, combines strength and good looks as the first choice for the holiday let sector. An array of colours and finishes to choose from, the Smartop will not develop mildew, mould or odour over time. Its durable and rugged materials handle outdoor elements with ease yet is feather-light to manoeuvre. Custom-designs are available on large orders – so you can have your hot tub cover, company
Park Leisure Solutions
Tel. 01202 69 1166
www.parkleisuresolutions.co.uk
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A Touch Of Hot Tub Luxury
A Touch Of Hot Tub Luxury
Superior Spas has become the preferred hot tub supplier to the UK’s leading and fastest-growing independent holiday home provider, Sykes Holiday Cottages.
Supplying hot tubs to Sykes’ vast portfolio of more than 10,000 properties, Superior Spas is a UK leader in the holiday hot tub sector and is committed to customer services, reliability, and delivering products that are of exceptional quality.
The partnership follows the introduction of new regulations1 for commercial properties and holiday lets which came into force last year. The regulations provide essential guidance on controlling potentially harmful bacteria in spa-pool systems.
Superior Spas created their signature Holiday Let Hot Tub to help accommodation providers ensure all regulations are met effortlessly – a fact that made it a natural choice for Sykes Holiday Cottages. The latest product from the brand means holiday cottage owners can operate with the highest standards and complete peace of mind, so many more beautiful properties could be tempted to add a hot tub to their destination.
Rob White, Marketing Manager of Superior Spas commented: “Hot tubs are the ideal way for property owners to catch the eye of holidaymakers looking for accommodation that offers something a bit special.
“They immediately add a touch of luxury and a relaxing feel to any stay.
Our newest product is designed to meet all the regulation demands for commercial properties and ensure that the highest standards are always met.”
Superior Spas
Telephone: 01246 559071
www.superiorspas.co.uk