The Lower Treave Caravan and Camping Park Blog

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Thursday 22 January 2009

DING! DING!

Remember last year when we had several visits from FTI Cornwall Information in their 'Info Bus'. They have a new blog for comment and photos here:
Perhaps you've got some interesting shots of Cornwall from your visits that you can share. The digital revolution has made us all think we can be David Bailey, but there are certain pictures which just capture a moment or say it all. FTI have some great pictures on their website, most of them are possible by just being in the right place at the right time.
This year is the right time to be in Cornwall. Get snapping!

Monday 12 January 2009

ARE WE MAKING THE GRADE?

As many of you know, there are numerous grading schemes out there which are supposed to give you a clue as to the 'quality' of the holiday accommodation you are planning to stay at. Thistles, Roses, Dragons, Ticks, Crowns and Stars...take your pick. It's a fairly old fashioned system whereby a matronly character with a clipboard who has never been camping in her life comes around the site and checks whether your curtains match your saucepans and that there are the correct number of teaspoons in the drawer. Bizarre. We were part of the Visit Britain scheme until last year and were rated at 'Four Stars' for what it's worth. What you probably don't realise is that we had to pay for those inspections, which ran to several hundreds of pounds and to be quite honest, hardly any of our customers took any notice of the rating at all, preferring to go on their own instinct and research they had done on the Internet to make their holiday choices. For us, it was just another industry 'tax' using money which could be better spent on site improvements so we pulled out. However, there has to be a system in which you can check what sort of outfit we are running and give us the feedback we need to make any improvements or changes to our service. Over the years, a number of feedback sites have become available on the Internet and we are quite happy for you to post on these and let other people know how you got on at Lower Treave. One of the best known is Trip Adviser, but there are also more camping and caravanning specific ones such as http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/ which can be helpful in making your decision. It is also helpful to us because every post you make improves our profile on the net and effectively is free advertising. Remember though, if you do have a problem with our service, either before, during or after your stay at Lower Treave, please bring it to our attention immediately and we will do all we can to sort it out.

WHY NOT TRY eBOOKING?

For a couple of years now we have offered an on-line booking service direct from our website. This is proving to be more and more popular, enabling guests to check availability and make bookings at a time of their convenience. The system recently went through an upgrade to make it even more secure so that all payments are now made in line with PCI DSS compliance. Don't ask me what all those letters mean. All I know is that there are now a lot of codes, scrambling and cyphers involved which makes Bletchley Park look like a Sun newspaper word search!
Thanks to those customers who have spotted the odd problem with the website. We have hopefully sorted out those few little glitches now and things should be clearer. For instance, the booking screens were still stating that the caravans were 2002/3 models but as many of you will know, all of the caravans will be new 2009 models this season.

BACK TO WORK? - TIME TO THINK ABOUT YOUR HOLIDAYS!

Just spent a busy day catching up on the bookings that have come in over the weekend. As the industry is predicting, this looks like being an interesting year for all of us...and certainly not one that can be judged by the usual standards. Our bookings are definitely up on this time last year...and there are a significant number of new names on the guest list which probably indicates that people are looking for something a little closer to home for their holidays this year. We will do our bit to try and ensure that you get the right holiday for you.
For those of you that haven't booked yet, particularly our regular high-season visitors, now is the time to get out your diaries and decide on those dates. Remember, we don't double-book or overcrowd so once we're full (and probably a little before that because we always keep a few pitches in hand to make the changeovers run a little easier) then the booking sheets will be closed. Why not try booking on-line? It's easy, secure and quick and guarantees you a place at Lower Treave this summer. We look forward to seeing you all.