Part Exchange: A Win-Win Option

Posted on March 24, 2014

Peace of mind from the certainty gained was the main benefit of part exchange for Yvonne and Bill King, who are now happily enjoying their new lifestyle.

Part Exchange: A Win-Win Option

If you want to increase your park home sales, but are finding it difficult to secure buyers, part exchange could be the answer.
Quick Move Properties is the UK’s largest property part exchange company, allowing new home and park home providers to offer risk-free, hassle-free and guaranteed part exchange on their customers’ existing homes as an incentive for them to purchase onward.
“Usually, customers use our service if they need to sell a second home, an investment property or an inherited property in order to release capital to purchase their holiday home,” explains a spokesperson for Quick Move Properties. “Or, others are downsizing and use the equity released from their existing property to purchase a smaller property and a holiday home.
“We work with leisure parks, leisure home manufacturers and individual vendors. To date, over 5,000 properties have been purchased through Quick Move, with a total value of £725 million.”

MARKET VAGARIES
Bill and Yvonne King were interested in using part exchange to avoid the vagaries of the housing market when selling their existing property, but didn’t think it could be as straightforward as it appeared. Bill comments: “I looked into part exchange and liked everything about it, particularly the speed at which a sale could be completed, even though at this stage I had no idea how high the service level would be.”
He adds: “I did my research, asked lots of questions and asked for an offer, I was aware that it would be below market value but I was pleasantly surprised. I worked out that although I may have achieved a bit more on the open market, when you then take out the £6,000 estate agency fees and the £1,000 solicitor fees that you don’t have to pay with Quick Move Properties’ part exchange, it suddenly became a relatively small price to pay for all the time, stress and risk we saved.”
Peace of mind from the certainty gained was the main benefit of part exchange for the Kings. They knew exactly how much money they were going to get and on exactly which date, with no worrying about the sale falling through.

Quick Move Properties
Email. px@quickmoveproperties.co.uk
Parks team: +44 (0)1793 840907
Vendors team: +44 (0) 1793 840931
www.quickmoveproperties.co.uk

Nationwide Technical Upgrades

Posted on March 20, 2014

Having completed an ambitious programme of technical upgrades across its 51 UK venues, Illuminate Design now provide Bourne Leisure

Nationwide Technical Upgrades

Illuminate Design recently completed an ambitious programme of technical upgrades across Bourne Leisure’s 51 UK venues.
Illuminate Design worked very closely with Bourne Leisure’s technical manager to undertake all aspects of this two-year project.
Throughout the project, Illuminate Design responded positively adapting systems to maximise the experience for both Bourne Leisure’s entertainments team and Bourne Leisure guests.
Each step of the process has been handled to a very high standard, so holiday parks can be confident about using Illuminate Design’s services.
One of the first tasks was to audit all the existing equipment, from which they created an asset register listing the equipment’s condition, location and date of installation – a set of data that is continuously updated.
This ‘intelligent tracking’ proved vital to Bourne who often transfer equipment between venues.
In addition to full technical and safety checks, all the systems were optimised and new equipment was installed, including audio and lighting control systems.
Illuminate Design now provide the Group with ongoing technical support, in the form of regular system checks, backed by a technical helpline and a call-out service supported by a national network of technicians.

Illuminate Design
Tel. +44 (0)1206 709694
Email. info@illuminatedesign.co.uk

www.illuminatedesign.co.uk

Work Hard, Play Hard

Posted on March 20, 2014

Work Hard, Play Hard

Butlins are continuously investing to make sure that their resorts are up to the standards that modern British families expect.

Celebrating its 78th birthday this year, Butlins has successfully stood the test of time and remains a firm favourite among families and holidaymakers looking for a break a little closer to home.

Owned by Bourne Leisure, Butlins welcome more than 1.6million guests to their three resorts each year, spread acrossthe season from February half term through to New Year’s Eve. Around half of the guests that visit each year are repeat visitors, illustrating a strongsense of brand loyalty. The company attributes its success to being a family inclusive resort, offering a huge variety of shows, entertainment, activities and dining and accommodation choices at affordable prices. Dermot King, managing director at Butlins reveals: “We know that the key to success is continuous investment into the resorts to make sure that we keep the standard that modern British holidaymakers expect.

Our aim is to provide holiday resorts where families can happily enjoy a holiday in a safe, secure and appealing environment. Families work hard to come away and we aim to give them a break from the daily routine of normal life and let them spend quality time together, whilst we take care of the hard work.”

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Plans Approved For Major New Holiday Park

Posted on March 19, 2014

The new Silverlake park will include up to 1,000 state-of-the-art holiday chalets, plus a country club & spa.

Plans Approved For Major New Holiday Park

Plans for a major new holiday park development have been given the go ahead by West Dorset District Council.

Up to 750 jobs are expected to be created, alongside hundreds of millions of pounds of construction investment, with the building of Silverlake on the site of the existing Warmwell Quarry near Crossways in Dorset.

Habitat First Group, which also owns award-winning and highquality sustainable holiday accommodation in the Cotswolds, is planning to build up to 1,000 holiday chalets and lodges, a country club and spa, while protecting hundreds of species of wildlife on the 560 acre site, as well as reinvigorating the local economy.

Will Vicary, managing director of Habitat First Group, commented: “We are pleased that the councillors have approved our request for outline planning permission. We are planning to create a truly unique concept for Dorset which boosts the economy, protects and manages the environment and benefits the local community with a long-term strategic plan for the quarry.”

A key component of the project is to protect and encourage wildlife at the site, with species surveys having been carried out to identify the key areas of ecological importance for breeding birds, reptiles, otters, water voles and bats for example.

As well as the development of the site itself, which is well concealed from its immediate surroundings, the plans include a focus on supporting the local tourist economy with the use of buses linking Silverlake with Moreton station, Dorchester, Weymouth, Poundbury and the coast, as well as the creation of cycling and foot paths so as to discourage car use. Will Vicary added: “We have been highly consistent in our vision and our approach of working closely with the local community.

Silverlake delivers nature conservation and landscape management at the highest level and firmly ties in with the key objectives in the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework and West Dorset District Council’s local planning strategy.” Silverlake is expected be a key economic driver for the future of the West Dorset economy, encouraging inward investment, local spending and further employment. The construction stage alone is predicted to generate £470 million over a 20 to 30 year period, of which over half would be spent with local businesses.

Raising The Risk Management Bar

Posted on March 7, 2014

Dolphins River Park has been recognised for steps they have taken to reduce the risk of flood damage, including raised bases.

Raising The Risk Management Bar

Dorset-based Dolphins River Park has been awarded the 2014 Leisuredays Risk Management Award for its work in reducing flood risk.

The annual award commends leisure parks that demonstrate superb risk management and help to minimise potential claims. Situated in Bridport close to the River Char, Dolphins River Park was severely flooded in July 2012. The park has since undergone a topographic land survey and installed raised bases on many of its units.

Leisuredays Business Development Manager, Alan Dixon, who presented the award to Park Manager Terry Gilbert, said: “Dolphins River Park’s risk reduction success is undeniable. The park was devastated by the summer floods in 2012, which damaged multiple units. Now in 2014, thanks to its commitment to reducing risk and its ongoing investment, Dolphins River Park is the perfect example of how risk management can help protect parks from the threat of flood and adverse weather.”

Leisuredays flood consultant has worked closely with Dolphins Park to survey the land and monitor flood risk on the park. This, coupled with the success of raised bases, ensured that no units were damaged by flood in 2013 and early 2014. Commenting on the award, park manager Terry Gilbert said: “Knowing that other parks in the country have flooded - some worse than ours - it is an honour to receive the award in recognition of all our hard work. Risk management is important for the safety and wellbeing of caravan owners, and it helps to keep insurance premiums down."

Cotswolds Holiday Park Expands Leisure Facilities

Posted on February 11, 2014

Cotswolds Holiday Park Expands Leisure Facilities

The new social complex at Leedons Holiday Park offers visitors and residents additional recreational facilities.

Caravan park operator Allens Caravans has recently invested in a new state-of-the-art indoor swimming pool and social complex at Leedons Holiday Park in the Cotswolds.
Disused buildings on the holiday park site were demolished to make way for the new facility, which includes a 15m x 6m indoor swimming pool and changing rooms, a large social hall area and a hair studio.
The project was carried out by Derbyshire based pool and commercial building specialists Pinelog, who proposed a contemporary yet practical design of a timber frame building that folds into the landscape. The almost symmetrical, low profile structure, has two main wings housing the swimming pool and hall with separate mono-pitched roofs over the wings and central part of the building.
Pinelog also applied a number of sustainable design and energy efficient features to the leisure centre. In addition to the timber frame and larch cladding being constructed from sustainably produced materials, the building also includes solar roof panels, natural ventilation, extensive use of natural light, heat recovery from the extract ventilation, low energy lighting and recycling the swimming pool water.

HOLIDAY HOT TUBS

Posted on December 19, 2013

HOLIDAY HOT TUBS

Hot tubs can add value to holiday lets but operators need to look before they leap.

Hot tubs now regularly feature on the wish list of holiday makers looking to book a range of holiday accommodation from cabins, lodges and chalets to some of the more luxurious ‘glamping’ packages at holiday sites throughout the UK and Eire.

For holiday park operators, the addition of a hot tub is a tempting prospect. It makes a lodge stand apart from a comparable cabin at a competing location, while creating the option for a premium price level for ‘superior accommodation’ with hot tubs. It also adds to the kudos of the site generally as a ‘five star’ holiday venue.

A handful of the bigger holiday park operators have invested in ‘adapted’ portable tubs with remote commercial filtration and chemical dosing for their luxury lodges. These are generally much larger than the average portable spa with bigger and better filtration and sanitation systems along with other features that suit much heavier use in theme parks and health spas.

But, over the past ten years, a vast majority of smaller holiday park operators and holiday let owners, have just purchased and operate what are in fact domestic hot tubs only designed for home, and not intended for commercial use.

WELCOME BOOST

While holiday park operators rush to meet the demands of prospective customers and a welcome boost to sales – hot tub suppliers should make clear about the health and safety considerations that come with every holiday hot tub installation – advising customers appropriately and not succumbing to lower standards for the lure of quick or bulk sale.

“Any pool of water being used by a paying customer would bring it under the category of commercial use. It is the case for hot tubs installed into a holiday lodge. They are there for commercial use,” advises Jimmy Lamb, UK Bayrol product manager for the Pollet Pool Group, and a leading expert in hot tub care.

“It’s not as straight forward to simply plonk a hot tub into any log cabin, chalet or holiday lodge and expect the hirer to get on with it. If the water is not maintained properly things can quickly go wrong,” warns Lamb.

“One risk is the fast dissipation of the disinfection residual as the holiday maker, his family and all of their friends embark on the inevitable hot tub party.

“Once the disinfectant is allowed to diminish, bacteria are allowed to multiply exposing the risk of cross contamination between bathers. Rashes and skin complaints will result in an unhappy holiday maker seeking some form of compensation but, we all know that other waterborne diseases can develop in poorly treated pools that can become a lot more serious than just a rash.”

And he stresses: “A legally-required risk assessment should highlight the requirement for operating procedures of such an installation to include regular draining, disinfecting of the tub, pipework and filter after each letting.”

The HPA (Health Protection Agency) has produced a booklet called ‘Management of Spa Pools’. This booklet offers advice on the installation of what is generally a product designed for domestic use being installed into a commercial facility. It states that if there are a number of premises sharing the pool then a commercial spa is required. The British and Irish Spa and Hot Tub Association also offer member fact sheets about these installations and have further advice within their standards.

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SPATEX Offers Package Deal

Posted on November 29, 2013

SPATEX offers a one-stop shop for water leisure products and services such as one-piece tiled Signature swimming pools for holiday parks.

SPATEX Offers Package Deal

Bringing together many of the major players in the water leisure Industry, SPATEX 2014, in February, offers the full package for holiday park owners and operators.

Now in its 18th year, a line-up of over a hundred exhibitors will be displaying everything from wet and dry safety flooring, water play features, pool enclosures to saunas with swimming pool water treatment and energy saving ideas thrown in. In fact, all the equipment you need in a holiday park swimming pool and leisure complex.

Each day, the Institute of Swimming Pool Engineers will be running workshops with talks from leading industry experts, giving the show an important technical and educational edge. Tuesday February 4th is Leisure Operators’ Day when the Workshops will be aimed specifically at operators and managers of commercial facilities.

The Arena’s central location, just 500 yards off the M6 and within two hours commuting time of 75 per cent of the population, ensures easy access and the Ricoh has 2,000 free on-site car parking spaces.

The event takes place at the Ricoh Arena’s Jaguar Exhibition Hall from Sunday February 2nd to Tuesday 4th. Free visitor registration is now open via www.spatex.co.uk

Wales in Bloom Award

Posted on November 13, 2013

Wales in Bloom Award

Gardening team, Dave and Christine Ball are hanging up their hoes after 20 years of dedicated service to the Tree Tops Caravan Park in North Wales

Tree Tops Caravan Park in North Wales, which this summer scooped a top spot in the Wales in Bloom awards, is bidding a sad farewell to its two top gardening experts.

Dave and Christine Ball have been head gardeners at the park for over two decades, securing a Wales in Bloom accolade for the business every summer for 21 years.

Tree Tops’ number one prize in the holiday park category of the 2013 awards, announced 16 August, means that the green-fingered couple will be bowing out in style.

Throughout their time at the park, the couple is estimated to have put over halfa- million bedding plants into the soil on the 15-acre park near Holywell.

In addition to the annual highlypraised floral setting they create, Steve and Christine also help maintain the family-run park’s thousands of trees, shrubs and perennials.

Now they have decided to hang up their hoes for a restful retirement at their home at Weaverham in Cheshire - but will still be regular visitors to their holiday caravan at Tree Tops.