Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2009-01-24 12:00:47 - Graham Ellis
"We've risen from 3 employees to 44 in 2 years". I was attending the launch of the Melksham Food & Drink Festival on Thursday morning, held in the Dining Room at Beechfield House, a country house hotel on the road between Melksham and Lacock. We had actually looked at Beechfield, very briefly, as an alternative to Well House Manor, and concluded that it was too much for us to take on - that it would move our business into areas that we didn't want to go, that it would leave us competing with good friends at places like The Conigre Farm Hotel and The Spa B & B.
Listening to Chris Whyte talk, and seeing Beechfield on a sample morning, I can't help but feel happily confirmed in our decision to concentrate on providing rooms for delegates on our courses, and to provide accommodation for others that's tuned to the needs of business visitors to the town; not for us the wedding and alcohol licenses (with the noise and children that inevitably follow), nor the posh restaruarant and out-of-town location which leaves guest who want a drink (so cannot drive) a restricted choice of places to eat. And I certainly wouldn't want to be running a team of that size and with what seems a surprising staff to room ratio which implies that the food drink and event aspect of the business must now be paramount.
And so ... what an ideal and logical venue Beechfield House was for the event that launched Melksham's Food and Drink Festival. The event itself will run from Sunday, 3rd May, and what an excellent boost and even it will be for the town. The Town Council is headlining it, and there are a number of sponsors already signed up, or going to be doing so. Rather than me reproduce the details here, have a look at their web site.
Top Table at Breakfast
Everyone came by car
I do look and learn as I'm around - as you'll have seen elsewhere on this blog - at how other hoteliers ply their trade. Very clearly, we're not competing with hotels in St Brivaels or Manchester, Maidenhead or Cambridge, and I feel morally justified in picking up ideas from them, and also thinking "gosh - we must make sure we don't do THAT!". With Beechfield, I feel (or felt) in a bit of a moral dilemma until the Thursday - but in practise, it's not that they're in a different league, but playing a different sport! Chris - if you happen to read this, you carry on doing weddings and we'll carry on with training courses and quiet accommodation. And I'm not stealing any ideas either ... I came back having had a great breakfast, determined to help push the event for the good of the town, and with some things to tell our own staff team that we should avoid in our own customer care roles, even though they are practised at many other places.
"Why not push the boat out - do something really special for the food and drink week at your establishment and bring people in ..." I am quoting from the launch. And I though about that. But then decided that our best approach at Well House Manor is to continue to do what we do best. To provide excellent accommodation for business visitors to the town, good value, plenty of choice of local eaterys, come and go as you please. Late arrivals, early departures, bringing you own food (or phoning for deliveries) NOT a problem ... and we'll continue with that during the Festival week. We'll fully support the festival - but we're not in the business of doing special food that week, encouraging in new local traffic, just to disappoint them when we return to normal on 10th May. I prefer a consistent product for our regulars and don't want to turf them out to some annexe while we host a one off event.
