Minutes of Self Catering Sector Meeting

Transcription

1 Minutes of Self Catering Sector Meeting 10 th October 2018 NT welcomed everyone to meeting and thanked them for coming. Introductions from all attending. Attendees Nina Toyne (NT) Chair, Anthony Climpson (AC) CEO, Debbie Sampson (DS), Marie & Alex Cunningham (MC & AlC), Phil Harrod (PH), Lisa & Simon Booth (LB & SB), Jean Baylis (JB), Colin & Tricia Preston (CP &TP), Ian Roxburgh (IB), Julie Birch (JB), David Danby (DD), Wanda Williams (WW). Apologies Louise Teague-Smith, Christine Bennett, Bob & Kerry Beardall, Trudie Russo, Kay Kindsell, Adele Holmes, Liz Burton, Jo Whapham, Helen Beale. Guest Speaker Marc Wheatley Full Power Utilities, Commercial Utility (Gas & Electricity) Brokers & Consultants, GNF Corporate Member Marc gave a presentation on how Full Power Utilities could help GNF members with securing a commercial contract for their Gas & Electricity. The company was originally started in 1997 and has grown over the years. They have 21 years of history and experience, they work with over 40 supplier and have over 4999 clients with a 92% client retention rate. Currently the utility charges are at an all time high. Beneficial to secure a long term contract Full Power Utilities work on behalf of their clients to secure the best price from Commercial suppliers that are not accessible to the public. Their services to Members are: No consultancy/ management fees Full market tendering and analysis

2 Common end date creation Meter read management Smart meter installations 25% of Full Power Utilities revenue is given to Go New Forest If anyone is interested they can contact Joey Kolirin, GNF account manager on or All you need is a copy of your recent bills and sign a letter of authority and they will assess if they will be able to secure a better price for you. Q&A s JB British Gas currently come and read my meters. Do I need a smart meter? MW No if you are happy with this service no need to change. WW How do you keep up with all the price changes and why are you better than U- Switch? MW They only deal with residential. They also get commission from suppliers so not always the best price. PH How can we get better rates and increase buying power? AC GNF mission is to get as many people on board so price will improve. MW It will take some years to increase buying power & get businesses on board. DS Do you help with selling back to the grid? MW No but we can point you in the right direction. JB What happens if I sell my business? MW That breaks the contract so no obligations DD Do you deal with water and waste MW Yes however it is still a very young market. WW Do we pay 20% Vat as a commercial contract? MW - No as long as you can prove mainly residential WW What about Green energy? MW Yes we deal with green energy suppliers. MW Winter is always an expensive time to renegotiate contracts due to demands on the grid. We can look at securing contracts 3 month ahead of renewal dates. MW was thanked for his time and presentation. Previous minutes: Minutes from previous meeting were agreed by attendees. Welcome to New Members Three new members attended the meeting. These were welcomed and introduced themselves to the group. Lisa Birch, Lake Farm. Lisa has Log Cabins in Fordingbridge as is hoping to get lots of footfall from the New Forest Website. Ian Roxburgh, 53 Sea Road. Ian explained he has a family commercial property company with 3 self catering properties, 1 in Cornwall, 1 in Spain and here in Milford on Sea. Mainly

3 choose areas where the family like to holiday. Ian is hoping to pick up tricks from other property owners. Lisa Booth, Riverside Park. Lisa and Simon have 8 properties in Christchurch. It is a family business that was established 22 years ago. They have joined GNF as they feel they fit more than the east Dorset area. Chair s GNF Updates from Little Acorns & Advisory Group Little Acorns NT - There is now a Special Offer icon that appears on your page banner that potential guests can click on and it will take them to the Special Offer. Carole is continuing to work with New mind to tidy up the Special Offers page. AC There will be a restriction of 200 words for any Special Offer. The team are hoping that this will greatly improve the page. The group agreed they had seen it and it was an improvement. NT Had members seen the Self-Catering Solus newsletter that went out on 20/09/2018. It was sent to subscribers and had an open rate of 14.7%. This is regarded as a very positive open rate for the industry. NT thanked everyone who added input to design and content of the newsletter especially JB. DD As a rule our busiest booking time is January therefore could we schedule another newsletter to go out in January NT I can ask the GNF team if we could do this. We would need to consider the content in advance and consider what we want to have as a theme this time. Any ideas for the January Self catering Newsletter please me on kingshydecottage@gmail.com before 1/12/2018. NT AC sent out a CEO Report Self-Catering Sector prior to the meeting. Had people seen it and were there any questions from it? People agreed they had seen it and no questions. AC This is something they had been doing with the other sectors and one will be going out with the agenda for each meeting. AC Highlighted the amount of press that the C4 TV Series had generated and handed round some of these articles for the group to see. NT A lot of work has gone into The New Forest website with the copywriter focusing on the SEO s (search engine optimization) especially on the Towns and Villages pages. This has led to a 20% increase in website traffic. AC The website comes top of the google search results for all the towns and villages except for one NT Would members be interested in having the copywriter review their business page with regard to SEO s on The New Forest Website. This in turn helps the website but also can make their page more appealing to potential guests. There would possibly be a small fee to members but considerably less than if done independently.

4 This generated discussion and it was agreed that members would be interested. NT to continue discussions with the GNF team and come back to members. NT Membership rates, it had been agreed at the GNF board that there will be a 2.3% increase to membership rates in line with the CPi. The new rate cards will be with members by the end of the year. Advisory Group NT While discussing the Book Direct campaign in the Advisory group, the question was raised as to whether members would be interested in GNF investigating ways to enable member businesses, who currently do not have facilities to take card payments, to be able to do this. Discussion around the table about who used which card payment companies and the general consensus is members would be interested. NT will feed this back to GNF. NT it had been agreed at the advisory group for GNF members to use the Forestry Commission s Caring for the Forest A4 handout. If members could have a copy in their properties and send it as pdf to guests prior to their arrival. It will also be going to other businesses such as Food & Drink and attractions to get the message to visitors about looking after and respecting the New Forest. Copies were given to the group and a pdf copy is attached to this . Book Direct NT - The GNF team have been working with New Minds and they are hoping to send out forms to members to join the scheme. Currently waiting for the Book Direct Logo as it is in the process of Copywrite. AC This has now come through. NT - For businesses to join the scheme they must offer guests 1) The best price online 2) A GNF card for guests to use while staying 3) A business specific incentive eg parking clock, local produce etc. Businesses also have to be able to take bookings direct not through an OTA e.g Booking.com or Holiday Lettings PH Is this not the same as Fairbooking that people previously signed up to? Will we have to sign up this scheme as well. AC Although this is similar this is an independent scheme with GNF so yes you will have to sign up to this one. Open Day NT The Open Day is on the 17 th October and have people signed up yet? AC Explained the format for the day and how people can sign up for the day.

5 AOB NT - Theresa from New Forest Holiday Lets has sent through a guest warning. A Kevin Pryke from Totton stayed in one of their cottages and the owners had to make a large insurance claim due to the damage he caused. PH He has noticed a considerable increase in his guestlink bookings recently. NT Are people happy with the frequency of the sector meetings? It was agreed that people wanted to keep them with 4 a year. DD Is there a Christmas social? NT I had not arranged one however if people did want one I would look at venues and possible dates and send an to members separate to the minutes. It was agreed that members would like a Christmas social event. Meeting closed at NT thanked everyone for attending. Next year s meeting dates & venue to be agreed. The first meeting will be late February. These minutes were taken while chairing the meeting therefore I will apologise if I was not able to capture everyone s comments.