Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2013-01-11 07:52:41 - Graham Ellis
On Monday through Thursday this week, the "Four in a Bed" TV show on Channel 4 has visited Knock Castle in Crieff, Perthshire, Barton House in Blackpool, Well House Manor in Melksham, Wiltshire and Applewood Glamping in the Worcestershire Countryside.
We're the third of those - Well House Manor - and we will be shown on Wednesday night, with the other three sets of owners visiting us. Tonight - Friday, 11th January - is the "reveal" show (5 p.m.), where all the owners come together, read their reviews with a chance to ask questions about what their visitors said, and find out how much they've been paid (it's up to the visitors). A plaque is awarded to the establishment that's paid the highest percentage of its asking price. Until the show is over (17:30 tonight), I can't tell you who won, and how the maths and strategy worked out.
One of the great beauties of the show for us - as accommodation providers - has been the opportunity we've had to visit three other places, selected by Channel 4 and Studio Lambert, that have made us take a deep look at our product and to take a careful look at three other products in the same industry that we would not normally have selected. Personally, in my work as a trainer I stay away in about a dozen different hotels each year so I get a really good chance to compare our place to others, and to learn from them in both a positive and negative way ([example]). However, I don't think I would have selected any of the places that we were teamed up with as a business stop even if I'd been in their area.
Knock Castle ... would simply have been out of my price bracket. When I'm training away from home, I charge travel and accommodation expenses to my customers, and I won't pass on luxury hotel prices.
Barton House ... would have lost me at the top of their web site - "where we cater exclusively for adult couples". Looks lovely, but I'm a lone businessman and they wouldn't have accepted a booking
Applewood Glamping ... would be the sort of thing I would have selected for a few days as a holiday; I would have been concerned for an "overnight" as to whether I could arrive after dark, and whether I could be washed, dressed and cleared out in time for an 08:30 arrival on customer site to give a course.
So it was absolutely fascinating to see places that are somewhat different, and to get strong and robust feedback from the other end of the business. Although it's supposed to be a competition, there really isn't competition between the four sets of us (or at least there shouldn't be). We're all to some extent in niche and different markets, and the chance of my guests at Well House Manor this morning wanting to have stayed instead in a mock Spa in Scotland, an orchard in Worcestershire, or with their partner in Blackpool is zero. And on the other hand, anyone who stayed with Jo in Blackpool last night is hardly likely to have made a choice between her and Well House Manor ...
On Monday through Thursday this week, the "Four in a Bed" TV show on Channel 4 has visited Knock Castle in Crieff, Perthshire, Barton House in Blackpool, Well House Manor in Melksham, Wiltshire and Applewood Glamping in the Worcestershire Countryside.