We have been awarded the Green Tourism Business Scheme Gold Award. We buy green electricity which is produced by wind farms. The hotel has an active green team which looks at the best ways of controlling energy consumption, recycling waste and controlling use of stationery. We have a monthly report within our profit and loss summary showing energy consumption against budget and last year in order to control consumption.
We use Ecolab cleaning products throughout. We target our suppliers not to use unnecessary levels of packaging and return plastics to them. Lost property, after six months is giving to Two Saints hostel in Southampton. They also benefited last year from receiving 200 hundred blankets when we changed to using duvets instead of sheets and blankets.
All our therapy products are chemical and synthetic free, and organic and wild crafted where possible. We do not use pesticides or chemicals in the gardens and we compost most garden waste. We currently have a member of staff producing 10 bird boxes and 3 bat boxes for the grounds. Mark has also drawn up a list of wildlife he has seen in the grounds which will be reported to both staff and guests. We have recycling bins on site for glass, paper, aluminium and cardboard. Logs for the 2 fires are bought directly from the forest from sustainable wood sources.
We have been big supporters of the car free scheme in the New Forest Area. Our guests receive a 10% discount on accommodation of spa days when they arrive by public transport. We have also tied up with some of the local attractions to extend discounts to our car free guests. We have just bought a diesel engine VW tour van so that we can offer a complimentary shuttle service from Brockenhurst station and back for our car free customers.
We have taken the decision this year to choose two local charities. Oakhaven hospice and Naomi house (a hospice for children) We also continue to support charities based in the Brockenhurst and Lymington area.
We have just signed up to the New Forest trust. Leisure guests are asked to donate £1 in order to benefit local forest based projects. We try where possible to buy New Forest Marque produce and have to date served around 50,000 new forest breakfasts. The hotel has had a free range meat policy for 13 years and does not buy anything that has been intensively farmed. It is our policy also to not serve veal or foie gras.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
