Half term week was very busy here at the Old Station our holiday cabin’s The Signal Box and The Sidings were fully booked and The Waiting Room Pool was extra busy with a lots of regulars and ‘first time’ hirers.
We decorated the Old Station for Halloween, we love this time of year, Halloween falls perfectly just after the clocks go back and the shadows fall so much earlier…
It was lovely to see children’s faces when they saw the decorations, kids love Halloween! It was great hearing their comments too; one lovely little girl asked Tim if the witch that had flown into the big tree on the driveway was real? Obviously the witch’s unfortunate end was confirmed by Tim as he showed the little girl the ‘dead’ witch’s luckier sister who was hiding just around the corner… She loved it!
Needless to say we have plans in place to decorate the station house and grounds, the pool building and the two holiday cabin’s for Christmas and we like to/need to start early! Old Luckett Station is such a special property it deserves to be dressed up for the season.
We run and manage the three separate business ourselves which keeps us busy and connected to everything which means we’re able to react and keep on top of tasks that need our attention, it’s really good for us to live on site and be in a position to take care of everything, we hope that our attention to detail provides a better experience for visitors.
This year we’ve noticed a change in holiday booking trends, people are booking at the last minute more than ever before and we’ve also experienced a long awaited return of bookings from visitors located in europe and the rest of the world, we have missed this side of the market and welcome the diversity back with open arms.
Based on more recent changes in booking trends, we’ve also reduced our minimum stay on selected nights over the autumn and winter season as we’re finding lots of guests just want to get away for a one night stay often celebrating a birthday, anniversary or special occasion, our bookings are often last minute these days and sometimes even booked on the same day just hours before a stay! We’ve found that our willingness to adapt and make change when needed keeps our holiday cabin’s occupied a very healthy 95% year round. Long may it last!
We plan to keep The Waiting Room Pool open all year round, although we need a year’s trading under our belt to fully consider the costs v’s income and how best, in the future, to serve the growing demand.
We are surprised to see that over the past few weeks, we have been much busier on the, usually quieter, weekdays. If this trend continues it would suggest that the autumn and winter months ahead may be busier and more popular than the spring and summer months… who knew?
As the evenings draw in, evening swims have become very popular too, our latest departure to date was at 23:30! We are happy to open all hours if there is a demand for it, maintaining an open mind and being flexible with our opening hours is our the only way for us to understand and serve demand.
For us, there’s something really lovely about seeing The Waiting Room building lit up at night, maybe it’s knowing that it’s once again serving a purpose? The building has been unknown and under-used for so long, it’s great that it’s full of life and useful again.
We still have a large proportion of first time visitors to the pool which is so encouraging for us and it’s also interesting and rewarding to see how surprisingly far and wide people travel to use the facilities.
We are planning to open across the festive season and we’re currently contemplating opening on Christmas Day – so if you’re interested in a Christmas Day swim, do let us know so we can put your details on the waiting list.
On the subject of Christmas, it’s worth thinking ahead to avoid disappointment. The school holidays start on 16th December and it’s a short break with potentially limited availability.
The Waiting Room Pool calendars for the Christmas school holidays period start to open five weeks before on 11th November (we open calendar dates 5 weeks in advance and dates become available daily rolling forward – so you can always predict when a specific date will be available to book) so if you wish to secure a particular day or time of day over the Christmas period you can easily do this if you plan ahead.
