"COULD YOU BE A PARK PIONEER?" ASKS SKELWITH
People who dream of running their own holiday park are being given the chance to wake up to reality - and to discover if they really would enjoy making leisure their business.
Cumbria's top-rated Skelwith Fold Caravan Park is planning to let would-be entrepreneurs into its success secrets next year during a series of one-day briefings. Sessions will be free, and open to owners of holiday homes at the park, and touring guests staying for three days or more.
"It's amazing how often we are taken aside by visitors, and told that their ambition is to buy a small park to run," said Skelwith's owner Henry Wild. "Sometimes it's a couple with a retirement dream, or a successful younger person who wants to achieve a better work-life balance.
"So we've decided to lift the curtain on what makes a profitable park, and the many issues and challenges which people might not have realised are waiting for them," he said.
It's possible to enjoy a moderate income even from a small park with just touring guests, said Henry. But, he warned, any size of park is essentially a people-centred business - and if you don't relish the prospect of dealing with customers day after day, stay well away.
"You might make in clear in your brochure that the park closes at ten in the evening, but that doesn't mean you won't get a knock on your door at midnight from a late arrival," said Henry. "Dealing tactfully with guests in a variety of situations, some very trying, is an essential job requirement."
And if you enjoy team-working and being inspired by others, that's another reason to re-consider your choice, he said. You'll need to entirely self-motivated, and often need to make decisions alone.
You will also need a strong nerve when it comes to financial planning, he said. Parks need to make a large percentage of their annual income during a small number of holiday weeks in the year - and sometimes those coincide with a bad summer or a disaster such as the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
In such situations, cautioned Henry, you will have to be prepared to tear up your business projections and think quickly about replacing the lost income.
Other unforeseen events can play havoc with your plans, he warned. During the storms of winter 2005, Skelwith Fold lost over 800 trees in the ferocious winds - some of them over a century old.
It threatened disaster for a park which prides itself on protecting the environment, and which has scooped many accolades for its forward-looking environmental work.
But, said Henry, the incident did illustrate how taking a pragmatic approach to management can pay dividends. His park decided to recycle the timber, and began a two-year initiative which saw every last splinter used for projects ranging from park furniture to bird tables and playground chippings.
Delegates attending the business briefing seminars will be taken behind the scenes to look at other areas of conservation work. As park owners, said Henry, they will need to be mindful of their responsibility to protecting the natural world, and the costs which this will incur.
However, he said, the flow of cash is not always one-way. Skelwith Fold's reed bed, for example, replaces a costly and polluting sewerage plant for processing waste water - and the park's abundant wildlife, including deer, red squirrels and badgers, is a natural attraction for holidaymakers.
Guests at the seminar will also be challenged to say how they would cope with a number of different business scenarios, after which the sometimes surprising impact of their decisions will be explained.
For example, said Henry, would you choose to buy, for the same price, a run-down park full of old holiday homes - or a top-graded one where the owners all had the latest models? The first, he explained, could be much more profitable because of the far greater potential for new sales.
And having made that decision, would you sell caravan holiday homes, or timber lodges which have a greater profit margin? In fact, he says, lodges may not represent the best long-term return as owners change them less frequently.
Would-be park pioneers will also be told of the minefield of health, safety and anti-discrimination legislation they will have to negotiate in order to stay the right side of the law.
For example, an unfenced pond could leave you open to legal action if a child took an unintended dip - and trying to keep noisy groups of teenagers at bay by stating "no single sex parties" could be seen as discriminating against gay couples.
"But we will certainly not be trying to put anyone off who seriously wants to enter the park business," said Henry. "It's one of the fastest growing areas of the tourism industry in Britain, and parks in this country are without doubt the finest in Europe.
"It's also possible to find banks willing to lend up to one hundred percent of the sales price for a park as they are considered an excellent investment," he commented.
However, he added, after learning some of the theory at one of Skelwith Fold's seminars, he would still encourage a person or couple to gain hands-on experience before taking the plunge - perhaps by working for a season at an established park.
Skelwith Fold was overall winner in the holiday park section of the 2007 Enjoy England Awards for Excellence. Holidaymakers at 130-acre park can bring their own touring caravan or motorhome, and the park also has 280 privately-owned luxury holiday homes set in woodland with breathtaking views.
The park will be publishing details of the seminars next year on its website at www.skelwith.com
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More press information from Henry Wild on 01539 432277
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PR consultant Jon Boston on 01768 895225