Farnham luxury boutique hotel in Surrey, England
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
Our underlying focus is 'quality with a conscience', in that we want our guests to experience all the key luxuries of a great hotel, but with our awareness of the environmental impact too.
So we've reduced our landfill by around 85% from taking over in 2010 (ie first by separating what could be recycled, and then subsequently more than halving even our recyclables by changing many of our suppliers to reduce waste packaging in the first place). ie any paper and cardboards, metals, glass, plastics (numbered 1-5), and drinks containers are separated and recycled. Coffee pods are also separated and recycled (some even raise money for charity).
Non-repairable items are recycled through a specialist depot (ie old electrical items, wood, garden waste, etc.). Usable items (that are no longer needed, or slightly damaged) are donated through schemes like Freegle and Freecycle.
We have an amazing 12 stage gravity fed water filter within the hotel, to supply top quality mineral water to our guests (which makes a massive difference to the impact of imported water, and all the associated waste packaging).
We offer vegetarian & vegan options to many of our meal choices (for both evening meals, and breakfasts).
Our toiletries are not tested on animals. Our milk, mushrooms, and various other foods are organic. Our eggs are always free range.
Other food items that can't be produced very locally, we try to source regionally, then from the UK, and then Northern Europe (as applicable).
We also minimise our own travel impact, with planned multi-stage journeys and efficient routes, or using suppliers within walking distance, etc.
Even though we have 8 guest bedrooms, because of excellent insulation and very efficient boilers, our gas consumption is around half that of an average family home (for both our central heating and hot water).
Our electricity is supplied on a 100% green tariff (meaning that 100% of our usage has to come from renewable energy sources). And of course we use a range of energy saving bulbs throughout the building. It does cost a little more financially, but we believe in the longer term 'return on our investment'.
There’s always a balance to be made when choosing suppliers, for a wide variety of environmental reasons. These are all taken into consideration, and reviewed regularly.
Community
We use a range of local suppliers for top quality products that are locally produced.
For example our bread is freshly made by a local bakers, eggs are delivered from a local free range farm, sausages are made especially for us by a very local butchers (who also supplies our bacon), our apple juice is pressed and bottled in Surrey, flowers are from a local florist, our cooking oil is locally made, etc. but we're still striving for more.
Although we have our own restaurant and bar within the hotel, we provide a long list of recommended restaurants and pubs in the area, all of who serve quality food/drinks with great service.
We encourage our guests to take the 5-10 minute walk to reach them (supplying local maps of the area with key features highlighted).
We also encourage our guests to visit the local range of independent shops (thankfully Farnham has been fortunate to largely escape the generic wash of so many town centres, and still remains true to many of its roots).
Our staff all live locally, and although they generally have a large amount of responsibility at work, we employ them because of who they are as people. They then receive extensive training (both initially, and on an ongoing basis) to be able to complete their work to a high standard. They seem to like it here, as so far, all of them have stayed with us since Jason took over in 2010 (despite the ‘industry standard’ apparently being a high staff turnover).
Landscape
Although there are no mountains in the area, Jason is a trained Mountain Leader (through 8 years running a DofE group, and training the young people in and around the Surrey Hills). Therefore, we keep Ordnance Survey maps available to review, and help plan your walking/cycling/running trip (and Jason is very confident in reading them!).
If you're looking for a local historical walk, a gentle walk in the woods, a more challenging longer route for the whole day, a route you can access by car or bus, or of course a variety of cycle routes (both on and off road), Jason should be able to help guide you.
Jason has spent a lot of enjoyable time exploring the region around the hotel, on foot, by bike, and running (occasionally initially by car too). So if you'd like us to help you explore, just let us know more about how you like to travel, and we should be able to help put together some routes for you.
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