Dear Trimstone Manor Friend
Happy New Year! I do hope that you had a great Christmas! I wanted to kick-off your happiness with a special offer or two from us all at Trimstone!
SPECIAL OFFER AT THE TIME YOU DON’T EXPECT!
Yes, this is the time when most think about their summer holidays and have to pay top prices for the availability they want. Well, for some time we have been wondering how we can reward those who have stayed with us before and those who agree to receive our occasional updates so here it goes.
Up until 31 January we are going to offer a 12% discount to all those who book as returning guests. It doesn’t matter how long you stayed before, we’ll gladly extend that discount to you for any stay up till 31 December 2019! All you have to do is book direct with us and that’s that! Come and see our latest improvements and additions! We’re always doing something and this year we really hope to develop the gardens some more as well.
Now, if you haven’t been to stay with us before, we’d like to tempt you with an offer too. Remember we are a Hotel with twelve bedrooms and we have six cottages ranging for accommodation for a couple up to eight and very often family and friend groups combine to take a number of cottages together (yes, we can accommodate upwards of fifty like that and they effectively have exclusivity of the whole Property and amenities then!). So for you, to tempt you to book, we are offering a special discount of 7% on all bookings reserved by the end of January 2019.
I hope that these will tempt you – and our prices are competitive already, especially for our accessible location so close to Woolacombe, Ilfracombe, Croyde, Saunton, Putsborough, Exmoor… all you have to do when you contact us is to refer to this message.
JOB OPENING
Well there is a job based at Trimstone about to become available! It is to work for me in the role as Personal Assistant to the Managing Director at Philip J Milton & Company Plc. More details can be available but you will have to be efficient, dynamic and capable and able to work on your own initiative for much of the time and with a vast array of different tasks which will be added over time. The opportunity for the right person is excellent. Some knowledge of the hospitality trade is likely to be helpful too! Please send a CV and salary expectation by email!
HELPING THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY
As regular readers will know, I am not slow in coming forwards in regard to campaigning against injustices, wherever they may manifest themselves. One applies to ‘our industry’ and that is the anomaly in relation to residential home owners with a second property avoiding paying any Council Tax or Business Rates whereas larger holiday letting businesses have no choice but to pay the bills levied to help support the local and national infrastructure and it is usually these who employ people too so therefore their bills have to be higher to guests. The sum of money across the Country could be as large as £135million and when local councils, especially, are so pressed for cash, then doing something about this is perhaps necessary rather simply than ‘welcome’. The Government has opened a consultation on this matter if you are interested and the response is needed by 16 January:-
Another seemingly anomalous thing is that at the present time, the ‘Rent a Room’ scheme rules are also not being changed so that those who decide to rent their home for just the peak summer weeks can do so without any tax (up to £7500pa) – the government has reneged on its promise to change the rules from April in relation to that and making sure the relief only applied to those who remain in occupancy in their home (so designed to help provide lodging to tenants, not subsidised holiday homes).
One other change which could be introduced is to ensure that all lettings advertised through agents (which will include Airbnb and other online portals) have to be registered in some way so that visitors know they can trust the property which they are booking. At the moment it is very much a free-for-all and there are no regulations to protect people who do not stay in a legitimate ‘business’ which has to satisfy the various rules from fire safety to insurance protection and so on. Such registration is long overdue and it will also mean that all these letters are on the radar for HMRC purposes – even if they do qualify under the above exemptions still, of course.
THE FASTEST WIFI IN THE WEST?
Don’t forget – we believe that Trimstone Manor Country House Hotel and Cottages now has the fastest wifi for those staying in any form of accommodation in the whole North Devon and Exmoor area! We were persuaded to upgrade the Hotel and Cottages’ connection to go fully fibre-optic. At considerable cost of many thousands and the same for three years afterwards too, we believe the investment will be justified in more trade and better business effectiveness, staff efficiency and responsiveness. No, this is not ‘just’ a wired connection to the nearest roadside box but a super, unique fibre optic link direct to the local Exchange. We also have the latest Ubiquity ‘Enterprise Grade’ equipment.
The Hotel and cottages have gone from having slower speeds than 66% of the whole Country to having faster speeds than 99% of the UK and for any form of usage! We have always believed in free wifi for guests – whether the person staying over or the casual guest for a cream tea or a coffee. In fact it is an anathema to me when we go away to find complicated access processes, extra charges or more money for anything but basic wifi.
These days, more often than not people on holiday need the internet and to know it is reliable and speedy. When I am on holiday, I have to keep in touch and work and many others have to do so too. Indeed, for entertainment – or for their children, it is becoming an imperative need and so there won’t be any access problems or restrictions on broadband width or anything for guests and their families either when they come here and as they will experience everywhere elsewhere!
We do expect more guests as a result of this significant investment, yes. Not only for holidaying guests but we expect more business guests when they are visiting customers in North Devon. The wifi and mobile signals in other nearby areas are pretty poor and not very reliable so the frustration some people must face when they try to do their work is something which they will not experience here. We are also open for conference facilities too so imagine what streaming presentations will be like and so on – no interruptions or slow speeds – and a reliable presentation and all of your delegates having great, free wifi.
Not only will the facility encourage more guests (even out of season those escaping for work projects can enjoy the surroundings too) but we expect more casual callers for morning coffees and afternoon teas as these guests will also be able to have direct access – and all without extra charge.
So why not come and test it? You’ll have to come and stay for a night and see what the super-dooper wifi speed is all about – and what it could do for your business if you had it installed.
Average Broadband download speeds as of May 2018 in the UK were 46.2mbps and upload speeds of 6.2mbps. Trimstone’s new internet download speed is 300Mbps download and 30mbps upload. Our new internet means a guest could download an Ultra HD film (70gb) in 31 minutes when compared to 3.24 hours on the average speed above.
CROYDE PANTOMIME
Pantomime is in full swing again – this year it is The Queen of Hearts at Croyde Village Hall the last two weekends in January – Friday and Saturday nights and Saturday matinee. It’s always a great time and the work all the cast puts-in will prove to be super entertainment for all ages I can assure you. Yes, Helen, Leonie and I are all involved… I am the one on stage doing the counting of the money funny enough…. Helen is miscast as the cook…! Just joking of course but you’d be welcome to come – drop me an email if you’d like to know how to buy tickets – very low prices as usual as it is all charitable.
Our very best wishes,
Philip & Helen Milton
