Winterise your Outdoors
If you are planning to maximise your business into autumn, winter, and early spring here’s some top tips on optimising your outdoors for guests. Clean and well-maintained outdoor furniture. If your furniture is broken or covered in algae, customers will judge the standards of the park on this. Look for quality wooden furniture to withstand the wear and tear of heavy use. Or choose metal/plastic and laminate furniture that is easy to wipe down and dry off. Woodberry offers a range of picnic tables, outdoor dining tables and chairs and benches in wood, metal, plastic and synthetic rattan. Recycled Plastic Picnic Tables are very easy to keep looking neat and come with 25-year structural guarantees as well as green credentials. Maximise the usability of outdoor space Outdoor shelters, patio heaters, and lighting certainly helps to maximise the useability of outdoor spaces in wet and cold weather. It also makes it attractive to encourage customers to enjoy al fresco hospitality. Electric and Gas Patio Heaters can efficiently heat an area between 6 – 20 square metres, depending on the size of the heater. Woodberry is currently offering Winter Gazebo Packages which include Weatherproof Gazebos or Dining Cabins, Wall Mounted Electric Patio Heater, Outdoor Festoon Lights and canvas sides or blinds. Weatherproof flooring – Decking and Paving For winter, if your space allows, move outdoor furniture onto hard standing ground and give the grass a rest. This will be more attractive to customers and work harder for your hospitality. Woodberry offers Millboard Decking which is made from polyurethane. This is hand-molded from natural timber and has all the look of real wood but with none of the drawbacks. It is moisture, algae and rot resistant with high anti-slip ratings. Make a feature of your Outdoors Many hospitality venues are now making a feature of their outdoor areas with themed Dining Cabins and Gazebos. These provide a focal point for your outdoors or could even become pre-bookable private party areas. Dining Cabins can be painted in pastel or vibrant colours to look like beach huts or cabanas. These all prove great for marketing purposes as customers are keen to share their experiences on social media. Get in touch with the Woodberry team to talk through an ideas or for a free site survey. To find out more visit www.woodberry.co.uk/holidayparks Or call the team for a chat on 01926 889922 —————————
World-class on-park WiFi connectivity: the ‘new normal’?
For any luxury holiday park, high-performance WiFi is no longer a ‘nice to have’. Five-star customer experience demands five-star connectivity. This is precisely what WiFi 4 Leisure delivered for Park Leisure’s Plas Coch, a holiday park nestled in the beautiful, secluded countryside surroundings of the Isle of Anglesey, Wales. A new nation of streamers During the global pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, many of us grew closer to our technology than ever before. Indeed, we took out new on-demand subscriptions in record numbers. According to Ofcom, 12 million of us adopted a new video on demand streaming service in lockdown, with over 90% intending to remain signed up post-pandemic. With international travel off limits, many of us also fell back in love with the Great British staycation, creating a renewed interest in domestic tourism. The new reality is that guests expect to be able to stay connected when they’re on their travels in the UK. Those cosy nights with the family in your holiday lodge aren’t quite the same if your favourite on-demand series is endlessly buffering. From four devices per lodge to 12 — in only five years Previously, Plas Coch’s guests experienced blackspots between the park’s WiFi masts. Understandably, this generated attention from rather irritated guests. With over 330 holiday homes on site and occupancy levels at a record 98%, average device count per plot had grown from 4 in 2015 to 12 devices in 2020. The wireless and network infrastructure needed more capacity — both in throughput and internet bandwidth. This meant, at peak times, there could be almost 2,500 devices connected at Plas Coch. On a cold, wet Friday evening, what was once a DVD movie is now an on-demand service. Demand for connectivity is not just limited to the lodge living room TV, but also includes kids’ bedrooms, tablets and smartphones. From failed, dated masts to smart lodges of the future The solution? WiFi 4 Leisure implemented a complete infrastructure overhaul of the holiday park’s internet infrastructure. This challenging operation involved implementing infrastructure and connectivity to allow each holiday home to have its own private, secure network, much like you would experience at home. This re-engineering delivered increased internet capacity, WiFi speeds and reliability, as well as providing the park with a model of highly-connected ‘smart’ lodges — fit for future growth. The client was thrilled with the connectivity solution implemented. “Plas Coch is one of our more exclusive resorts and therefore it was imperative that we provided our customers with a fantastic WiFi and internet experience. WiFi 4 Leisure took over our existing system, re-engineered the whole thing and gave us back an amazing internet package. We can have over 2500 devices connected across that park on a given day with no loss of performance.” Heidi Beattie, Property Director, Park Leisure W: www.wifi4leisure.co.uk T: 0330 3800 100 E: contactus@wifi4leisure.co.uk
