New Forest boutique hotel, England
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
Wildlife:
The grounds of the hotel are full of beautiful birds, insects, butterflies and forest wildlife such as hedgehogs,moles, rabbits, hares and the occasional free roaming pig or deer. In the summertime the birdsong is beautiful and guests remark on how much wildlife we have in the garden, which is lawned, hedged with very mature shrubs and we have a small wooded area with many aged and handsome trees that we maintain to ensure their optimum condition. We are located in a conservation area and we are very concious to ensure that we preserve, maintain and uphold the forest's environment, which is why we have left the gardens as untouched and unlandscaped as possible as we like to encourage the animals to visit us.
Waste:
We try to re-cycle as much as possible and with this aim our bottles, cardboard and paper are all sorted into seperate waste bins. We wash, steriles and return jars and ottles to as many of our local suppliers as possible in order that they can re-use them. We re-use paper within the front of house of the hotel and we encourage all of the team to be aware of the importance of recycling.
Buildings:
We have renovated a Victorian property with the help of local craftspeople, locally sourced materials where possible, and/or sustainably sourced materials. We have worked hard to integrate two very ugly 1970's extensions into the building and make it look more attractive and more in keeping with the natural surroundings of the property and so there is a follow through of the forest into both the exterior and interiors of the hotel with lots of natural materials having been chosen for the hotel's design.
Suppliers:
We try to use as many locally placed suppliers as possible, many of whom are accredited to the New Forest Marque. We use locally produced honey from a neighbour in Woodlands Road, locally foraged fruits for the locally made jams, our water supplier is based close by just outside of Romsey, our hotel toiletries use locally grown, organic lavender from Winchester and mint from Basingstoke. Our eggs are supplied by a farmer in Romsey, the cheeses offered at the hotel are all local and ALL from Hampshire. We use locally reared pork and local butchers for most of our meat supplies. Our vegetables are organic and locally sourced from Sunnyfields Organic farm just down the road from the hotel at Marchwood.
We are very fortunate to have the services of a New ForestTour Bus, which operates during the summer months throughout the forest and one of the routes, the Red Route stops very close to the hotel. It is an ideal way to view the forest and all it has to offer, (especially if the weather is kind and you can enjoy an open top ride). There are numerous stops along the route and it operates a hop on and off policy so it easy to stop off at local attractions, have a wander and then hop back on a later bus to continue the journey.
Community
Friends and Neigbours:
We strongly support the local community. We have used as many local craftspeople as possible when renovating the hotel, including architect, builder, furniture maker, curtain maker and fabric supplier, the craftsman who made our feature staircase is based in Beaulieu and we encourage them to be ambassadors of the forest and the hotel.
We recommend local restaurants to our guests, including the Royal Oak at Fritham and the Oak at Bank, as both are close to the hotel- we also work with other hotels to share business when we are full or unable to accommodate a booking/wedding or other event. We promote many of the local attractions to our guests both via the NFTA website, brochures, literature and our own personal recommendations and we work very closely with many attractions, some of whom we have a specially devised offer to encourage guests to visit them and stay at the hotel. We encourage guests to visit the New Forest Wildlife Park and Longdown Dairy farm, which are very close to the hotel and we offer guided forest walks with a knowledgable local for guests to appreciate the forest.
We also have a monthly lunch time event where we invite local craftspeople or those with a local interest/expertise to have lunch with a group of guests and explain their craft/expertise, including local artists, craft designers, falconers, cooks using local foraged produce and the like.
We have joined the recently launched New Forest Trust Visitor Gift Scheme and actively promote and encourage our guests to take part and understand the importance of it. Likewise every guest is given the small booklet which includes tips on safe driving and respecting the forest and animals whilst staying in the forest - these are in every bedroom and displayed at reception for guests to take away with them.
A Fair deal: We employ a large number of local staff, some of whom are full time and others are part time and/or students. Those that live locally we encourage to use buses, cycle or car share and we have had particular success in car sharing amongst the team.
We are keen on training and developing the team and run in house training regularly, sometimes in conjunction with TSE, on subjects such as customer care, health and safety, first aid, marketing, social, media etc. We send staff on courses at the local college (Brockenhurst), mostly chefs and first aiders and we use local business seminars to lean more about employment law, human resources and to generally network locally. We are members of the local Chamber of Commerce and also various networking groups and we are very proud to be members of the NFTA and to help promote the forest and how special it is.
Volunteering and Charity:
Since we opened Hotel TerraVina we have been closely associated with a small, local charity, based in Southampton, The Rose Road Association. This is a charity that helps children, young adults and their families with life changing disabilities, caused either at birth, through illness or accident. We give freely of our time and expertise and help to run wine tasting events, fund raising dinners (both at TerraVina and locally). We promote the charity on our website, where we have a dedicated page and we tell all of our guests about the charity via information and literature in every bedroom and at reception. We donate as much as we can to the charity and we hope that despite a difficult economy this year we will be able to donate a generous sum again in 2011. We are very proud to be associated with Rose Road and do all we can to help them as do our team who are equally passionate about the charity and the tremendous work they do for local people.
Landscape
The National Park is a true gem of a place and as such we are very proud of it's heritage, history and it's uniqueness. It is a vast park, where every part of the forest is different in it's landscape; some is a carpet of heather, other parts a canopy of trees, the wildlife is bountiful and the forest is about so much more than merely the free roaming ponies, who in themselves are a wonderful attraction, but not the only unique feature of this very special place. Many people say forests are enchanted, well we think our New Forest is enchanting and we love the fact that we work and live here as it is very special. We are keen for all of our guests to explore, enjoy and discover it's delights and we aim for all of our staff to impart their enthusiasm and knowledge to the guests who visit us.
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