February is always an interesting month for us here at The Fairmile. It is the month that bridges winter with spring; a time for us to reflect on the work we have done over the winter and a time when we begin to wonder what the year ahead has in store for us. In this post I thought it would be interesting to summarise these thoughts so that everyone could see where we are at and where we think we are heading as we come to the end of our first five years in charge of The Fairmile.
Winter Development
Those of you who follow us on Facebook and Twitter will no doubt have seen the photographs we have posted of some of the upgrades that we have done over the past two months. Room 5 is no longer a Family Room – the bunk beds have been removed and a new carpet and new vanity unit with modern sink and tiling have helped create a nice sized double room. Creating a Standard Double Room on the first floor was important to us as we felt that it would be easier for guests who find stairs difficult to access this room. Room 3 is now our only Family Room and this room has had a full makeover with new leather beds, new carpet, new furniture and new vanity units. We have also installed a new shower in the en-suite. This room is still not quite finished we don’t feel and we will revisit it as the year progresses but it is certainly massively improved from where it was and we know that our guests will love it. Rooms 6 & 7 have been re-carpeted giving them a fresh feel. As well as doing work on cosmetic improvements we have also continued our investment into the energy efficiency of our building. We have already had a new roof, a new heating system and several new double glazed windows fitted in the past couple of years and this winter we have added a new front door and new double glazed windows in Rooms 2 & 3. Finally we have replaced the tired awnings at the front with some newly designed, very bright new ones which we hope make the front of the building a bit more appealable. Oh yes we have just finished expanding the Honesty Bar which now offers an even bigger range of drinks and snacks for guests to enjoy.
2014 Season
2014 promises to be an exciting year and whatever happens it is going to be an important year for us. For us personally June 19th will see us complete five years in charge – where the time has gone I do not know! For the first time since arriving our pricing policy will be changing and we hope that our guests will support us in this. For some time we have been trying to change the way that guests book with us and we have been trying to get away from using third party booking agencies such as Booking.Com and LateRooms. The commission fees that these agencies charge us are high and the amounts that we pay these companies we feel limits the developments we can make. Following a decision by LateRooms to increase their commission fees we decided that we would no longer offer rooms to LateRooms through the main season; a decision that we would hope other hotels, guest houses and bed and breakfasts would take also. From 1st March our new prices will be as follows-:
Single Room £30pn
Double/Twin Rooms £60pn
Superior Double Room £75pn
Family Room £80pn
In an attempt to encourage guests to book direct with ourselves, either by e.mail or by telephone, we will be offering a 10% discount for all stays of more than one night. If guests would prefer to still book online rather than by phone or e.mail then they can still do so via our own website and if they choose to book this way then they will be entitled to choose a free bottle of wine from our bar – (free wine offer does not include Single Room bookings). At the moment we cannot offer discounts to guests who book via our website due to the limitations of the booking system that we currently use but we will be exploring other options at the end of this year in an attempt to redress this situation.
As part of our Anniversary year we hope to link up with a local charity and amongst other things I hope to compete in a local triathlon to help raise money. I have already started training for this and I can confirm that it is painful ! I am hoping that our two sons, Josh & Sam, will be joining me on this challenge and of course our very own Facebook Bear, Freddy!
Outside of The Fairmile 2014 looks set to be an exciting year also. There are a lot of events happening locally and great shows taking place in Blackpool including the much talked about ” Mama Mia” which we hope will encourage more people than ever to visit this beautiful part of England. Guests can keep up with all of the events and shows via our website by clicking onto our “What’s On” page.
Apologies that this post has been a little longer than usual but I hope that you have found it interesting. I hope that everyone will continue to follow our progress either by visiting the blogs on our website or through Twitter and Facebook. We would like to thank all of our guests for their custom and their kind comments and we very much hope that we see you all back here at The Fairmile at some point this year.
Jason & Melanie
