Spring 2010
In April we will reach the first eighteen months of business for our holiday cottages, and our second year living in Herefordshire, so it seems like a good time to reflect on how things have gone.
We have had a really enjoyable time, with bookings exceeding expectations. To date weve welcomed around 100 different sets of guests, including 12 already returning for a second visit. We ran at over 90% occupancy from April to November 2009, and at 70% in the low season: figures that well exceed the national average for holiday lets. The fact that we welcome and promote short breaks (including both 2 and 3 night weekends and mid week stays) has undoubtedly helped. We see this very much as the future of the holiday business: people no longer necessarily want to book a full week away. We feel it is important to respond to this by being as flexible as we can.
We thought wed left behind the stress of 9 to 5 jobs, but the first eighteen months still provided their fair share of teething problems: a smoking woodburner, blocked pipes, escaped pigs, visiting sheep from the next door farm, wandering dogs, over-adventurous geese...all of which have thankfully been sorted out! But most importantly weve had fun. Many of our guests have been kind enough to take the time and trouble to let us know how much they have enjoyed being here, and were delighted that several have already returned for a second visit, and others are booked to do so.
Weve also been struck by the variety of guests who have booked with us: three sets of honeymoon couples, a joint 50th and 80th birthday celebration, several 30th and 40th birthdays, a hen party, a group of solicitors on a strategy weekend, couples on romantic breaks, groups of friends and families attending local weddings, as well as many couples, groups and families just looking to escape to the country. A number of groups and extended families have successfully taken both cottages together. We have also started offering mid week walking breaks. Throughout the summer we had lots of visitors with children who enjoyed collecting eggs and feeding the pigs, watching the geese, chasing our cocker spaniel Tess (or was it the other way round?), playing football and cricket, and generally reveling in the space and freedom.
Feedback from our visitors continues to be very positive, but we are always looking for ways to improve what we offer. Weve revised, updated and expanded our visitor pack in the cottages to include even more local information. There is a new larger kitchen table in the Granary to allow groups booking both cottages to eat together in the kitchen. We are now offering dinner in the farmhouse once a week using our own produce wherever possible. Play equipment, a new laundry room, a table tennis table, more garden furniture and a croquet set are all planned for the summer.
Meanwhile, we continue to develop our smallholding. The first two years have been a steep learning curve. We took in our first pigs as weaners in June 2008, and from a baseline of near total ignorance we have now become adept at looking after them, moving them into new pens, loading up for trips to the abattoir, and then making our own sausages, bacon, pork pies, rillettes, pate, brawn and salamis, which we offer for sale to guests wherever possible. The next challenge is to breed piglets: we hope that our two older Berkshire pigs will have litters in the early summer.
Weve also learnt to raise newly-hatched chicks and goslings to successful maturity, as well as how to kill, pluck and prepare chickens and geese for the table. Our vegetable patch did very well last summer, particularly on the broad bean and pea front, with lots of excess to sell to our visitors. Unfortunately rabbits have moved in over the winter, eaten everything remaining in sight, and we are now busy planning our revenge before this years seeds get planted.
We have many plans for the coming year on the smallholding including the aforementioned piglets, as well as sheep, puppies (we hope), rare breed chickens for eggs, a new venture into turkeys and quail, more chicken for the table, more geese and lots more vegetables ( rabbits permitting!).