Park Holidays UK - Our Winter Newsletter

PARK HOLIDAYS UK WINTER NEWSLETTER

A Regular Update About How We Are Doing

It seems like a long time since I wrote the autumn newsletter just a few months ago! Who would have thought with all the talk of global warming that we would be in the midst of one of our coldest winters since records began, and so much snow that even Santa nearly didn't get through!

Fortunately as a seasonal business reliant on the spring, summer and autumn the weather has perhaps impacted us less than others - but it has certainly stretched us.

With our head office set down a country land in the rolling East Sussex Downs just outside of Hastings - getting to work has been a challenge to many of staff but our thanks go to them for battling through the snow.

It hasn't delayed our programme of winter improvements too much - we are eagerly awaiting hundreds of new caravans for the new season, and there are lots of improvements going on to our clubs and park facilities. We have received planning for a new swimming pool at Seaview in Kent with work starting in the next few weeks - subject to the weather of course!

We had a record number of advance bookings for 2010 before the end of 2009 - which was a great position to be in. Although we had a couple of disappointing weeks during the bad weather we remain on course for another record year.

We are delighted that our holiday home owners have mostly been signing up to stay with us another year. At many parks we have held pitch fee prices for a second year - together with cuts in insurance costs, electricity costs and finance interest rates we are doing everything we can to make ownership as affordable as possible.

But perhaps the most surprising thing has been the demand for holiday home ownership from new buyers. Since the thaw we have seen record levels of sales for the time of year - and that follows the record year we had last year! We were caught out by the level of demand last year and struggled for much of the year getting enough holiday homes to sell. We are much better prepared this year and have been busy securing adequate stocks of new and used models.

So although its early days we are cautiously optimistic for the year ahead.

And you will also have noticed that we have a brand new website - with lots of new features. We have got a lot more planned - so keep us in your favourites so you can return to see for yourself.

We look forward to welcoming customers old and new once the season starts in March. If you haven't experienced one of our parks yet it would be great to welcome you this year!

Thanks for reading

Tony Clish

Park Holidays UK Commercial Director