Hand Picked News - October 17

A Note from Matthias Mahr, Revenue & Marketing Director

Welcome to the October edition of Hand Picked News. As Revenue & Marketing Director, my role is to
create and promote the right products at the right price to the right customers. To be really impactful, this
needs to be based on a deep understanding of customer needs and to this end last year we undertook an
extensive survey of 3,500 customers. This identified 7 distinct customer segments, characterised by their
reason for coming to stay with us, as illustrated below:

Now some of these aren’t new but we did identify two large leisure segments, which I’m sure you recognise
in your day to day work: “Exploration”, older couples out to explore the local area, and “Just The Two of Us”,
romantic 40-something couples who want to get away together from their busy lives. For this latter
segment, in August we launched a new permanent package called “Romantic Getaway”, which includes
everything they need for that perfect night away: a welcome glass of champagne & canapes, dinner, a few
chocolates (as a surprise), breakfast in bed and a “lazy” check-out at noon. This has started really well with
many bookings in the first week! The Romantic Getaway will sit alongside the more established 2-night
Country House Break, aimed more at Explorers. We have sold 410 room nights on the Romantic Getaway so
far (6 weeks).

Of course, creating and selling these packages is only half of the equation, the other – arguably more difficult
– half is delivering the promised experience to customers. This includes making sure all the package
elements are being reliably delivered every time, and of course most crucially the way they’re delivered –
the service you all provide. It is ultimately you that make a Romantic Getaway or Country House Break
memorable, and I want to thank you for all the hard work that goes into delivering them every day.

Results of the Online Learning Platform Competition

In August we launched a competition for you to come up with a new name, for our fantastic new Online
Learning Platform (Flow Hospitality) which is being launched in January 2018.

We had a great response and received lots of entries, so thank you all for taking part.

We are delighted to announce that Alexandra Iceton (Senior Events & Sales Co-ordinator) from Nutfield
Priory Hotel & Spa came up with the winning name, and our new Online Learning Platform is to be named

OWL - Online Work Learning.

Congratulations Alex for winning the prize of Dinner, Bed and Breakfast for 2 with a bottle of wine.

CONGRATULATIONS to Douglas Waddell (Operations Director), Stewart Fairs (Finance Director), Russell
Jarvis (Management Accountant) and Keith Turnbull (GM, Bailbrook House) who took part in the Team Velo
Challenge (London to Paris cycle … three days … 224 miles!) from 21 – 23 September 2017 to raise funds for
The Springboard Charity.

The team:
 Raised the highest amount of money £7,780
 Came in overall 2nd place out of 19 teams
 Rode their bikes for a massive 15 hours and 43 minutes!

Well done guys!

Audleys Wood Hotel

SHARPEN UP
Each week we choose a topic from Sharpen up.
This is communicated at the morning meeting on a Wednesday and shared with all team
members and also an A3 size poster in our canteen.
We actively encourage everyone to take ownership and work together as the Audleys
Wood Hotel team.

JOB FAIR
Audleys Wood was represented at the local job fair held in Basingstoke’s Job Centre.
There were around 25 people that visited our stand and applications forms were given
out along with lots of information around the benefit of joining the Hand Picked team!
Looking forward to receiving some completed application forms very soon, in particular
building up the F&B team in time for a busy time at Christmas

MENTOR/MENTEE PROGRAMME
We are delighted that Bryony Merritt, Reception Manager and Stephanie
Weeks, Restaurant & Bar Manager have been nominated for the Mentoring
project. A great opportunity for both Bryony and Stephanie to further
develop their careers within handpicked.
Paul Morgan, General Manager has been selected to be a Mentor and is
delighted to be part of this pilot programme and to see the mentees grow and continue their personal
development to further their careers within the company.

INTERNATIONAL HOUSKEEPING WEEK
We celebrated International Housekeeping week by presenting each
member of our Housekeeping Team with a Goodie bag!
Items included some lovely radox to help them relax at the end of the
day, hand cream to soften their hands as well as some treats and energy
boosting drinks.

Bailbrook House Hotel

We decided on a new theme for our GM’s Quarterly – Speed-Dating!
Each team member was given a sheet containing the 6 Hand Picked focus areas.

Bailbrook House Hotel

There was 1 focus area per table and team members had to visit each table in turn until a horn was sounded
after 5 minutes.

The tables hosted quizzes, games, communication and sought ideas from the teams.

Once all 6 tables had been attended each person chose a lucky dip from a selection of sweet and savoury
treats.

All ideas collated are to be added to the Hotel’s CCA.

A feedback form was then generated to measure the success of the event. Feedback was extremely positive
and similar events will be held regularly.

Bailbrook Business Huddle (Speed Dating for Teamwork)

Please tell us what you thought of our new communication forum

Did you attend the BBH speed dating lunch? Yes/No
Would you like to attend a forum like this again? Yes/No
Would you recommend attending this forum to your colleagues? Yes/No

What did you find the most interesting?.........................................................
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Is there anything you would like to change about the forum? ……………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…

Please tell us anything else here …………………………………………………………………..
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Bailbrook House Hotel

We had a super summer party with fun and games for all the family including sumo wrestling, sack racing,
egg and spoon race and a BBQ

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great that day!

A day in the herb garden

Chef and the Team planted apple, pear and cherry trees and gave the now established garden a mini
makeover

Brandshatch Place Hotel & Spa

The Spa is awarded 4 bubbles….
Following on from our spa spy review we are pleased to say we have now been awarded back our 4 bubbles
for Good Spa Guide (5 is the maximum). Our review included some lovely feedback along with some amazing

recommendations for the food and beverage options in the Atrium.
Well done to everyone who made this guest experience wonderful, it is very clear that the friendliness of the

team along with the personal touch - clearly made all the difference, so thank you for your continued
efforts!

Fund raising for Macmillan
Well done to Alan Dale, Assistant Maintenance Manager who raised £140 for Macmillan by shaving his head!

The team will soon be raising more money with our coffee morning and team Bake off

Hana Froggatt, Gym Supervisor is getting our team and our members to sign up for the Tough Mudder event
in April 2018 and to all start training together. We look forward to letting you now everyone gets on but in

the meantime if you are interested, why not join in and run as part of our team? To sign up visit
https://toughmudder.co.uk/events/2018-london-west-weekend-1 and then let Hana know if you want to

meet up and tackle it with our team!

Buxted Park Hotel

‘Welcome to Hand Picked’ video

This month the team had great fun together to produce our Buxted welcome, a big thank you to Alice (Front
Office) and Jose (Bar) for filming and editing the footage. We’re all proud of the results and helps show what
a great ‘family’ Buxted and Hand Picked are!

Summer Party
This year’s summer party went ahead despite the disappointing weather.

Maria (Housekeeping) and Rob (Maintenance) challenged …… And the children raced on
space hoppers
Andrea (Front Office) were his son to a bungee run.

competitive on the Bungee run

Kitchen Team Building
The Kitchen team have been carrying out a spot of teambuilding by fishing in the lake here at Buxted – ‘look
at those whoppers!’… Tomasz and Rob show off their Carp and Tench catch 4kg & 6kg fish!

Buxted Park Hotel

International Housekeeping Week

Andrew treated our Housekeeping team to
Afternoon Tea to celebrate ‘International
Housekeeping Week’ a well-deserved respite

for our hardworking team!

Monthly ‘Celebrating Success’ Luncheon

Our monthly Celebrating Success Luncheon continues, our last lunch was on 22nd August.

The following team members have carried out BE ME
this month:

Becky from Revenue team worked on Reception
Paul from Maintenance worked in the Kitchen,
Lisa from Housekeeping worked in Reception
Laura from HR worked in C&B
Jose from the bar worked in the Kitchen
Maria from Housekeeping worked in C&B

The following people got to spin the wheel to choose their BE our Guest activity:

Tony from Kitchen won afternoon Gordon from Maintenance Kirsty (Revenue) won a ‘swap your

tea for 2 won B&B at Buxted staff meal for a bar meal’

Deen (Housekeeping) cashed in his Be our Guest award and 2
shared it with his colleague Jo. He won Champagne & Canapes for
served by the GM!

Central Support – Sevenoaks

From the Asset Team

The Asset team are busy working on a number of refurbishment projects throughout the group, as well as
day-to-day capital expenditure and on-going maintenance issues.
We have:

 Installed air-conditioning to 12 bedrooms at Audleys Wood and the lounge and bar area have had
new carpets and some new FF&E.

 Grand Jersey over the past two years the hotel has undergone a 123 bedroom refurbishment which
is now complete and, more recently, the spa reception has had its own make-over!

 L’Horizon has also undergone a 106 bedroom refurbishment over the last two years.
 Nutfield Priory with refurbishments of 21 bedrooms, the Relax Room, the Worth Suite, the Manicure

& Pedicure area. There has also been replacement furniture in the Grand Hall, the accounts office
has been relocated and the pool hall has been retiled.

Pool Hall at Nutfield Priory
 The Lounge Bar at Rhinefield has been upgraded.
 Woodlands Park there have been refurbishments to a number of bedrooms and Bensons restaurant
along with the creation of a multi-use games area for five-aside football, basketball and tennis courts
and a new paved terrace area outside.
 At Bailbrook House the upper car park has new tarmac and works to form the new lower car park
starts in October.
 New steam room is underway at New Hall and Rookery also has a new tarmac.
 Stanbrook Abbey has new kitchen equipment installed including the first Frima oven in the group.

Frima Oven at Stanbrook Abbey

Central Support – Sevenoaks

From Human Resources

Central Support – Sevenoaks

SEVENOAKS EVENTS …

Matt Ashton, Group Executive Head Chef, ran a training session on 21 July for Sevenoaks
Support Office team members, on how to create a waiter style napkin with a rose made from
a tomato skin!

The next session is taking place on Friday 20 October and will cover creating vegetable flowers!

The next Hand Pick ‘n’ Mix Competition will be running throughout
November 2017 … more information coming soon!

Central Support – Sevenoaks

From Matt Ashton - Group Executive Head Chef

It has been a busy quarter within the F&B teams; here is an overview of what we’ve been doing

Head Chef Workshop

26TH -27TH June was the annual Head Chef conference hosted by Gareth Davies and the team at Stanbrook.
It was a full schedule that included

 Training with Corrie Barnard (Procure Wizard Operations Manager) on recipe building, dish and menu
costings on the system

 Presentation by HIT Training
 Acoura food safety update
 HPH financial performance
 Menu updates

Throughout the 2 days we had suppliers showcase some of the new produce that’s on the market so the
chefs could have a look, taste and discuss ideas.

Sous Chef Workshop

On 18th July the Sous Chefs met Linda Saunders and me in Luton at the Rational Head office for a masterclass
on the use of the rational ovens with David Bennett (Senior Development Chef). These advanced ovens have
so many uses, buttons and lights that they look complicated. However David did a great job on explaining
the uses and benefits on these ovens.

Central Support – Sevenoaks

Procure Wizard
The first stage of Procure Wizard is now complete with all food suppliers on board giving 100% allergen
information. The Head Chefs completed one day’s training with Corrie Barnard on building recipes, dishes
and menus; this also included all costings and allergens.
ResDiary
All hotels have now built their F&B service areas into ResDiary which will assist with effectively managing
bookings diaries. ResDiary has also been added to our webpages to allow guests to book tables either in our
restaurants or lounges and in turn increase the amount of covers. We have taken a snap shot below for the
group and you can see that 9% of our guests have booked online this week; 9% more guests than we had
before.

Level 2 & 3 Chef Modern Apprenticeships
We have been working with HIT Training to map the new apprenticeship standards to our current training
offering
New Head Chef Appointments
Please join me in welcoming Scott Garner (Rhinefield House) and Ross Pilcher (Chilston Park) to Hand Picked.
Scott Garner - in July Scott took over at Rhinefield House. Scott brings with him 20 years’ experience as a
Head Chef in large and quality establishments. Throughout his career Scott has worked in both Rosette and
Michelin Kitchens.
Ross Pilcher - at the end of July Ross joined the team at Chilston Park Hotel following the Wimbledon Tennis
Championships where he was Executive Head Chef in the private members dining room. Ross has been a
Head Chef for 14 years and brings with him a vast amount of knowledge.

Central Support – Sevenoaks

From Lesley Bacon - Group Health Club & Spa Manager

The Health clubs and spas continue to be very busy and have seen high usage from our hotel guest
particularly over the summer months. We have just received the fabulous news that 3 health clubs are
finalists in the National Fitness awards for Best Hotel Facility the finalists are:

Norton House
Rookery Hall
Brandshatch Place

This is a very strongly fought category with last year’s winner being Pennyhill Park. To have 3 Hand Picked
health clubs into the finals is a true testament to the strength of the health club product within the group.
Brandshatch Place has also been confirmed as finalists for Health Club of the Year which is a really
exceptional achievement. The awards dinner is being held on the 1st of December with the winner being
announced on the evening. Good Luck to all 3 clubs.
There have been some exceptional performances from the spas this summer including some best ever
months resulting at the end of period 9 with Brandshatch Place, Fawsley Hall, L’Horizon, New Hall, Norton,
Rhinefield, Rookery Hall & St Pierre Park all being either on or ahead of budget revenue year to date.
Amy, our Roaming Spa Therapist, is continuing to generate very positive feedback from both guests and
colleagues which is wonderful to receive in a new role to the HPH spa team.
As the weather changes we see the health clubs getting very busy and our September/October membership
campaign is focused on Back to the Gym.

Central Support – Sevenoaks

From the Marketing Team at Sevenoaks

Meetings and Events

This summer has seen a focus on the meetings and events area with the
new brochure reaching hotels in time for the busy September meeting
booking period. The new brochure includes refreshed photography as
well as including Stanbrook Abbey for the first time!

The Win a House Party competition is running until the end of October
when one lucky company who has made an enquiry will win exclusive
use of a Hand Picked Hotel for 24 hours to host the ultimate house
party.

More Sleep Autumn Offer

As the nights start to draw in we have launched a
leisure offer focussing on getting a great night’s
sleep. We know that 86% of our guests in our
recent customer survey rated sleep satisfaction as
“very important” or “extremely important”. With
that in mind, the offer of dinner bed and breakfast
also includes a gift bag of miniature sleep related
products such as lavender spray, complimentary
check out until noon, and entry into our
competition to win a Hypnos bed.

Virtual Tours

The google virtual tours project is now completed. Guests
browsing our website can now “visit” each of our hotels for a
virtual tour on our website, viewing the grounds, reception,
bedrooms, dining areas, meeting rooms and Health Club and
Spa (where available). This is proving a very popular feature on
the website, and helps potential guests from wedding couples,
to leisure guests to meeting bookers visualise how the space
could work for them. If you haven’t seen the virtual tour of your
hotel, look on the hotel website homepage and click on “VIEW
360 VIRTUAL TOUR” button the main hotel image.

Central Support – Sevenoaks

An update from the Quality & Training team…..

Mentor Programme

We have now launched our new Hand Picked Mentor Programme which has started with a 6 month trial
involving 6 mentors (pictured below) and 6 mentees. The programme will be led by Vida Daval, HR Manager
at Woodlands Park.

The programme has been put to place to:
 support the transition of employees into and

throughout their career within Hand Picked
 aid retention
 help to promote a learning culture in the

company
 encourage the development of leadership skills
 assist in the identification and development of

potential candidates for key roles in the
business encourage and improve
communication and awareness
 support the Rise & Shine culture

Flow Hospitality 79% of work-places offer a Mentoring Scheme in the UK
In a survey on return on investment 81% said they were

satisfied or highly satisfied

2018 will see the launch of our online learning platform in
conjunction with Flow Hospitality.
There will be 11 modules available to team members at the
hotels and several of the modules will replace some of the
health & safety short burst training that is currently
delivered.
Each module has a variety of interaction, games and
activities and modules can be accessed via Internet browser
and an app on tablets and mobiles. Certificates of
achievement will be provided.

Food Safety Training

We ran a successful pilot of the new Chartered Institute of
Environmental Health Food Safety Foundation qualification
(formerly Level 2) and are now delivering this regionally.
The Food Safety Intermediate qualification (formerly Level 3)
will be launched in Q2 next year.

Health & Safety
Following our health and safety focus week we have now agreed a re-format of the risk assessments in the
Health & Safety Management System. The risks/hazards section will be more detailed and the control
measures will be presented in a more user friendly format to assist with training.

Central Support – Sevenoaks

Being Hand Picked
Following a review of the current notes we have merged the Rise and Shine messages and activities
throughout our new version of Being Hand Picked that will be launched at the beginning of 2018. Stanbrook
Abbey will be the first team members to experience the new version in October.
International Housekeeping Week – 10th – 15th September
Our GMs, DGMs and HR Managers all stepped up and took on the challenge to acknowledge and celebrate
our fantastic Housekeeping Teams. Across the collection there have been some fantastic treats and
activities from Choc and Pop Trolleys delivering treats along the corridors to relaxing spa treatments and
Housekeeping Olympics – even a GM was seen making beds!
Thank you to all those hotels who helped celebrate this week.

From Procurement

The Procure Wizard continues to march on:-
I am pleased to report that the Procure Wizard system is developing well.
We are currently working towards phase 2 with regional training taking place
on 26 & 27th September.
All remaining mainland non-food suppliers will be included in this phase which goes live on Monday 2
October.

From Finance

The Finance Team has been working on the new reporting abilities of Procure Wizard to enable our hotels to
track closely the spend in our kitchens. Some of the flash reports are going live to track food cost of sale and
shortly we will be bringing the advanced stock control module functionality. These combined initiatives will
enable our hotels to save a target of at least 2% from our food cost of sale percentage which equates to
£450k on an annualised basis across all the hotels. We have now started the budget setting process for 2018
and the finance team will be busy collating the figures in readiness for a review with the Board in October.

CRO & Crathorne Hall Hotel

International Housekeeping Week

Following an email from Rachel Udall James recently to
remind us about International Housekeeping Week,
Earle (Crathorne’s Operations Manager) came up with
some great ideas to show our appreciation to the team.
International Housekeeping week ran from 10-17
September and the idea behind it is to remind us about
the silent, almost hidden workforce that keeps our
hotels sparkling clean.

On this ‘secret squirrel’ mission, Earle spent the week
visiting the housekeeping team with a host of treats,
including scrummy chocolate cake, wonderfully
refreshing mocktails, delicious cream cakes and a
mouth-watering selection of brunch treats!

The team had no idea what was happening until Earle
and Leigh delivered certificates to the team on Friday
morning. The certificates not only offered our sincere
thanks but also included some fab facts...

Who knew that during over 20 years’ service, Sarah
Morgan has cleaned over 49,000 rooms, or that Roger
Munkley (Linen Porter), who has been with us over 11
years, has ran up and down stairs at least 40,480 time...!
Wow!

So a huge Well Done and Thank You to all of our
housekeeping team from your Crathorne colleagues.

Crathorne Hall Hotel

Family Fun Day at Crathorne Hall

The sun shone for the Crathorne staff family fun day on 13th August. It was lovely to see the team and their
families enjoying the afternoon sunshine, a glass wine or a cup of tea in hand, chatting and enjoying
spending their leisure time at the hotel. Congratulations to the members of the SCC team and to Peter for
organising the event.
The event included a BBQ, Face Painting, Giant Lawn Games, Inflatable Games, Bouncy Castle, a Popcorn
machine and chocolate fountain.... Beth Fisher of our Sales & Events Coordinators also arranged for her
dance academy to appear!
It’s safe to say a great day was had by all the team, and their very important family members.

Crathorne Hall Hotel

Chris has his own Bee Hive....

After we explained in the last issue that Chris Clark, who is responsible for Crathorne’s grounds, was looking
at bee keeping, he sent an update:
“Since discussing the idea of training to become a beekeeper, I have enrolled on the course, built the apiary
and now have my first hive complete with bees and I am pleased to say they are doing well! The pictures
show the apiary and also me doing a Bee inspection! This is a very important part of bee management – I’m
looking for any signs of disease in order to medicate as needed. We’ve had great feedback from our guests
and I have seen many observing the bees flying in and out the hive with their collection of nectar and
pollen”.

Central Reservations

Charity Fund Raising at the Hub

CRO held a coffee morning in September in aid
of Cancer Research and to help raise funds for
Laura Cafferty, at the Grand Jersey.

The team held a raffle, baked and sold cakes in
order to raise a fantastic £142 to help in the
battle against this horrible disease.

The Hub always make a note of the events calendar
information we receive from the Training team and have
so far enjoyed celebrating Chocolate Cake day, Pancake
Day, Yorkshire Pudding Day and British Pie Week.

Often team members at The Hub make and bake their
own goodies and bring them in to share, however most
recently, on 5th September, a delivery was called for as it
was National Cheese Pizza Day!

Thanks Richard (CRO GM) for organising a delicious, and
very cheesy, pizza lunch – it was very much
appreciated.... now to check the events calendar for the
next foodie celebration day!

Ettington Park Hotel

Revenue Go Rafting……

The Revenue Team at EPH (Ettington Park Deer Devils) took part in the annual Stratford Charity Raft Race;
the chosen charity for this year was ‘Riding for the Disabled’. We trained for a number of weeks before
the big event; we even competed in a practice race on the Wye! There was some deliberating of who was
going to take part as there was an immense pressure to beat last years’ time! It took a lot of training and
the main concerns were steering the raft and keeping in time as it’s not the easiest to balance and paddle
in sync with each other.

Before we started we made sure our mascot Etti Shakesdeer was attached to the front of the raft! We
had a good start as the river was high and fast flowing; we were flying by this point. We got to the
dreaded weir and went straight over, much to all of our surprise! After the second weir we were aware
that there might have been some obstacles of low hanging trees in the way; however these trees might as
well have been planted in the middle of the river! We ducked and dived and held on for “deer” life to get
through the tricky trees. We were all glad we were on a professional Formula One raft as some of the
novelty rafts were so big that we just don’t know how they got through. We finally came to the finish line
feeling really confident about our time, last year we did the race in 2 hours and 53 minutes and this year
we made it in 2 hours and 13 minutes! Ettington Park’s record smashed! Roll on 2018!

Ettington Park Hotel

Loyal Service Awards

Becky Foster has achieved 10 years’ service with Ettington Park Hotel this year.
Congratulations Becky, and here’s to another 10!

Recognition matters…..
Let’s Celebrate International Housekeeper Week

After another hard day at work, our Housekeeping Team are relaxing and enjoying Afternoon Tea in honor
of International housekeeping week.

Fawsley Hall Hotel & Spa

FAWSLEY FAMILY FUN SUMMER BBQ
Fun was had by all at the Annual Family Summer BBQ – with fun, games food and drink for all. The rain held
off so the children (and some adults) could enjoy the bouncy castle and gladiator style games.

We had our annual staff picnic today to thank the Spa team for all their great work over the summer and
exceeding budget in P8 and P9! Nothing healthy I am afraid!! I also gave each of them their own Mr Men

which I thought describes their character best! We had team Prizes:
Best Retailer – Donna West

Most helpful in the Spa – Keighley Bates
Most improved Retailer – Gemma Fernandez/Bethany Martin

Best all round member of staff – Becky Baldry
We also did a prize draw which was won by Keighley

Fawsley Hall Hotel & Spa

Four lucky employees of Fawsley Hall took to the skies today when their names were pulled out of the hat
winning them a surprise ride in a top of the range helicopter to celebrate our exclusive partnership with Top
Flight Helicopters who now offer our guests the opportunity to enjoy a unique and luxurious helicopter tour
along the River Thames and through central London. Laurentiu, Hollie, Sam and Amy enjoyed a flight over
Silverstone race track before returning to terra firma back at Fawsley.

Julia The team at the Spa ran our skin lab event on Friday 8th September and
took the opportunity to launch our
Christmas retail boxes - achieving great
retail sales of £770.00 a really
successful event. – A big well done to

all involved

XX Thank you XX
Macaroons, Sweets and 25 min Spa Treatment for the hard working Housekeeping Team here at Fawsley
Hall Hotel & Spa.

Grand Jersey Hotel & Spa

Congratulations to all our Long Service employees celebrating their service at
Hand Picked at the monthly Afternoon Tea. We have celebrated 72 years in
service in July, August and September.

TRAINING TRAINING TRAINING
As usual training has been going on full swing and we have seen some really creative works at Being Hand
Picked training, even a play. We also had local students visiting the hotel from Highlands College for an
introduction of hotel operations, which was greatly appreciated by them.

IT’S A KNOCKOUT
We teamed up with L’Horizon hotel and took part in Jersey’s It’s a Knockout Day as a Hand Picked team. The
event was in aid of SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit) which is also our chosen charity for the year. The event
was a success and our team showed some really good results, continually winning each of the challenges.
We missed just a few points for the top 3 places, so next year will return with fancy dress costumes and get
some extra points for the pedestal.

Grand Jersey Hotel & Spa

The team at the Grand showed off some great teamwork to produce the welcome video for new starters. For
part ofMthaisnnweeqduiidntChheaMlleanngnee:quin challenge which proved to be so much fun and a great result. Keep an eye out
we are sure it will make an appearance soon.

INTERNATIONAL HOUSEKEEPING WEEK
Our hard working Housekeeping team was
pampered throughout the week receiving well
deserved mini massages, small beauty gifts and
early morning treats at their daily meeting.

AIR DISPLAY
As eveP ry year we had a very busy
Battle of Britain day with Grand Jersey
hotel being one of the central points
for viewing the show.

PING PONG & STAFF BBQ:
July treated us here in Jersey with some wonderful weather and we took
the chance to organise a beach BBQ for employees which was a great
break from the hotel in the busy summer season.

In August staff showed off their sporty skills at a Ping Pong event. Great fun was had by all; however James
proved to be the most competitive and won the tournament.

Hendon Hall Hotel

Staff Summer Picnic
On the 28th August Hendon held their staff summer picnic. Staff came with friends and family to enjoy the
delicious food prepared by our Head Chef and his team. The sun was shining and everyone had a fun relaxing
afternoon after the sports day had finished.

International Housekeeping Week
For International Housekeeping week, we had the opportunity to say a huge thank you to our wonderful
housekeeping team for all their hard work. As a token of our appreciation we presented each of them with a
small gift.

Our Kitchen Porter
Phillip celebrated 15
years at Hendon Hall
this month. WOW
Phillip – here’s to the
next 15 years!!!

RISE & SHINE
At the beginning of September Lesley and Linda came to Hendon and spent the day with the new guiding
team. They discussed the background to the Rise and Shine project, and we looked at the way forward for
Hendon. BHAG for 2018 on the way!!

Our Annual Staff Photo – July 2017

Be Me sessions took
place in May-July

We had a fun filled few months with
the Be Me challenge during May - July
months. We have reached our target
and trained 60% of our staff in
different departments. This challenge
will continue in September-November.

Preparation for the results of VUES
Teamwork & great fun in making our
new notice boards:

WORKING ON OUR BHAG SERVICE CHAMPION TEAM

and VUES outcome The 10 new Champions have completed their
training day in August and are ready and eager
This summer we are focussing on upselling. We to put their new skills into practise.
have amended it to reflect a clearer, stretching
goal - maximising sales across all trading This month we have participated in Jersey
periods. Our team are going to have great fun Charity Event on 10 September in the Knockout
adding “Each penny counts!” slogan into our Jersey!
everyday’ s work life…the results are being
presented on our HOD’s weekly meetings.

New Hall Hotel & Spa

On 20th June we held our first Team ‘Well Being Day’ to promote a healthier lifestyle at work and home.

The hotel team took

The hotel team took advantage of mini treatments including mini facials, hand and neck massages in the Spa
to help relieve aches and pains. There were smoothies at morning break and protein bars in the afternoon as
well as healthy salads for lunch.
Be Sunny – Caines Arcade
During our Mapping activities some of our team members told us that they didn’t always get to know people
from other departments. This made us consider whether we were providing enough opportunities for
people to get to know each other and think about how we could encourage better interaction and team
working. When we spoke to our team about Rise and Shine, the module they all remembered the most was
Be Sunny and the arcade built by Caine. The Training Team put together the team build based around this. It
was tried and tested at on a group of children belonging to the New Hall family to see if the workshop would
meet its objectives; once we paid out in chocolate bars as a reward, the kids delivered their feedback and
after a few tweaks to the notes Caine’s’ Arcade was ready.

New Hall Hotel & Spa

In early July the Training Team at New Hall delivered the team
build for the whole hotel. 44 team members took part across
two workshops designed to encourage the teams to work
together to achieve an end result. We also wanted to encourage
creativity as well as develop communication and problem
solving skills. The Hotel team were invited to attend but given
no detail; simply to turn up on the day be ready to participate.
On the day they were given a token with a number on; this
decided their team. Once in their groups they were asked to
choose a team leader and a team name. The competition
started to heat up once they knew that they were required to
build a working game and there would be a prize at the end for
the winners.

As part of the workshop each team was required to deliver a short ‘Dragons Den’ style presentation back to
Jonathan and the rest of the room including a working demo of their game and why it should win. Jonathan
also tested each of the games himself as you can see.

After plenty of creative thinking and ideas, plans were put into action and the game ‘Duck or Hit’ was
decided as the winner. This consisted of a bucket worn as head gear and catching small rubber ducks. If you
did not duck then you got hit….. the team that designed this did issue a health and safety warning at the
start of their demo!!!

The workshops were a lot of fun and we are now looking to see what else we can put together to help keep
the messages of Rise and Shine alive and continue to drive better team working.

Be our Guest

During August; we invited our team members to Be our Guest at Open Table events. We hosted a breakfast
and an afternoon tea and used these opportunities to seek feedback on what the team thinks we are doing
well; what’s not going so well and where we could make improvements for our team member experience as
well as creating better experiences for our guests.

Our Guiding Team has had a refresh and held their first meeting on 4th September – we look forward to
seeing Be Me being completed though October and November and seeing what further activities they come
up with for the next few months.

New Hall Hotel & Spa

International Houskeeping Week
To mark International Houskeeping Week Jonathan surprised our Housekeeping Team by arriving to work
with them at the start of one of their shifts. He was paired up with members of the team. A direct quote
from one of our Room Attendants was ‘He was actually ok but could do with speeding up a bit’ ….. Jonathan
was unavailable for comment.

The team were rewarded for all of their hard work with goodie bags and afternoon tea – Jonathan was
rewarded in EOM with a certificate from the team for achieving the required standard of bed making 

Nutfield Priory Hotel & Spa

BACK TO SCHOOL – TEAM PARTY!
The team at Nutfield enjoyed an end of summer “Back to School” disco on Sunday 17th September 2017. It
was fantastic night which was enjoyed by all who attended. A huge thank you to Georgie Keast and the SCC
for making it happen and to Nikki Plummer, Claire Milsom and Amanda Clarke who helped cover the bar for
the night 

OUR SWIMMING POOL REFURBISHMENT PROJECT…
Week commencing the 4th September we closed our swimming pool area so it could undergo a complete
transformation, new tiles, new signage, new lighting and even new panic alarm buttons!......and what a
difference we re-opened it back up to our members on Friday 8th September and have had some great
feedback ! Why not come and take a look yourself”

Nutfield Priory Hotel & Spa

The Revenue & Sales Team Org Chart with a difference 
Our team have decided to do their organisation chart a bit differently now… in Disney style – so if your not

sure who does what at Nutfield in the Revenue team – then now you know!

In the spirit of housekeeping week we celebrated our fantastic housekeeping team by inviting them to a
"Thank you!" party!
The super team were given a personalized water bottle each along with some further fun prizes including a
55 minute and a 25 minute spa treatment and a bottle of wine!

Rhinefield House Hotel

Rise & Shine – Be Me
We’ve had lots of team members get involved with Be Me over the last few months and we’ve had our
Handy Maintenance team make a brilliant Wheel of Fortune for those that have taken part!

Wimbledon at Rhinefield
We carried out our annual Wimbledon at Rhinefield doubles tournament.
With Jeff (GM) & Nicki (HR Manager) vs. Jon (Maintenance Manager) & Chris (Assistant Maintenance
Manager).
Jeff congratulating the Winners – Well done Jon & Chris. Go Team Maintenance!
We had a great team get together after, lovely buffet and a few drinks.

Rhinefield House Hotel

New Staff Canteen at Rhinefield
We are very excited to have a new staff canteen. The team have worked so hard on improving it. More seats
for everyone, new tables, notice boards and we love the colour.

Great Start to Team Meeting
We had a great start to our team meetings with record turnouts from the team. Top on Rhinefield’s agenda
is Teamwork.
Thanks for everyone’s support. Here’s to the next one!

ROOKERY HALL HOTEL & SPA

In August we had our AA Red Star Audit and we maintained our Red Star
status achieving our highest score to date of 89%. This is a fantastic
achievement and credit goes to the team here at Rookery Hall for continuing
to deliver such a high standard of service.

We also had an Acoura H&S Audit and we received a total
score of 93.6% with 100% achieved in 15 of the 25 areas
assessed.

Communication Meetings were held by the General Manager, Mart Louwerse, on Wednesday 30th August
for all of the team members to communicate the following:-

VUES survey results – 88.5% and the breakdown of:
 What we do well
 what we need to improve on
 Recruitment
 Where we are up to reminding the team of our ‘Recommend a Friend’
scheme
 Revenue – where the hotel is now and what we are aiming for

ROOKERY HALL HOTEL & SPA

Nantwich Show 2017 –
The Nantwich Show and International Cheese Awards were held in a beautiful parkland setting on the edge
of the historic market town of Nantwich, on Wednesday 26th July 2017.
The day included;
The largest cheese show in the world, showcasing over 4,500 entries of every type of cheese, with
something to suit everyone’s taste;
Celebrity chefs, James Martin who stayed at Rookery Hall, Will Holland and Sean Wilson undertook live
cookery demonstrations throughout the day;
This year Rookery Hall had an external marquee in a new location near to the main ring which meant a
steady flow of visitors to the stand – despite the steady flow of rain in the morning!.
Special offers for midweek Afternoon Tea and the opportunity to enter a free prize draw plus the attraction
of a taster of Port with cheese throughout the day kept the stand busy. The prize draw attracted over 300
entries with potentially 600 visitors to the stand.
The team were kept busy selling membership, Spa Days, Weddings,
Afternoon teas, Festive Dining and party nights.

Our Front Office Reception Team were celebrating National Water Melon
Day with a beautiful display of food and drink.

ROOKERY HALL HOTEL & SPA

Rookery Hall has had a stand at this 3 day Celebration of all things ‘foodie’ since 2007 and each year has
been part of the growth of the event, supporting and even sponsoring in some years. 2017 proved to be an
even busier year and over the 3 days Mairi and the team spoke to hundreds of people, gave away 1000
macaroons, 1000 mini mince pies, 6lb of cheese tasters with biscuits and 6 bottles of Port (in mini taster
shots). We had 949 entries into our Free Prize Draw – a fantastic uplift to our local database for ‘food’
related events. We gave away 1000 flyers about Afternoon Tea and Private dining, 1000 flyers for a Spa
treatment offer, 220 Christmas brochures, 500 Christmas Party flyers, several Wedding enquiries received
and over 100 of our Special Occasions brochures were picked up. The team were certainly kept busy for 3
days and the local awareness opportunity was fantastic.
One of the main attractions in the Bakery Tent at the Festival was Candice Brown winner of the 2016 Great
British Bake Off and of course she also stayed at Rookery Hall.

Stanbrook Abbey Hotel

Meet Stan the Lamb
Stanbrook introduced Stan the Lamb to our guests and
team.
Stan is placed outside the guests room should they wish to
not be disturb. Stan is loved by all guests and a fair few of
our team members too.

Our Uniform Launch
With Stanbrook being a new
acquisition were keen to make
them feel part of the Hand Picked
Family as soon as possible;
therefore we have focused on the
launch of the Hand Picked uniform
and captured this in a few pictures

New Hand Picked Team Members
Whilst we know the newsletters do not normally contain new
starter information we wanted to update you all on how we are
adding to the Hand Picked Family here at Stanbrook – our new
Front Of House team members;

St Pierre Park Hotel Spa & Golf Resort

Guernsey Memories Campaign
The Guernsey memories campaign (where we are asking visitors to share their #GuernseyMemories with us)
is proving to be popular with lots of great photographs being shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
One of the fun parts of the campaign is our soft toy donkey giveaway, which visitors can collect from the
Reception to take on their adventures around the Island.
Guests can win a range of Guernsey prizes by sharing there photographs on Facebook and Twitter with
#GuernseyMemories.

Staff Communication
One of the areas that we focussed on this year is staff communication. We now have a quartlerly event
whereby all employees can get together, learn about the hotel and ask questions. At the most recent
meeting we had a presentation on the new Golf Club and facilities. We also utilised this meeting as an
opportunity to celebrate Revinate nominations, long service and announce our ‘Rise and Shine’ employee of
the quarter.

St Pierre Park Hotel Spa & Golf Resort

National Housekeeping Week
To honour the fantastic work our housekeeping team do we decided to treat them to an afternoon surprise
of all the good things in life – like cake, cake and more cake!! A massive thank you to the housekeepers in
SPP and across the Hand Picked portfolio – you all do a great job, every day.

Wood Hall Hotel & Spa

Pretty Muddy Harrogate

You might recall from the last newsletter that Liz
Whitehead, HR Coordinator; Kim Armstrong, Spa Manager
and Kayleigh Kavannagh, KP (pictured, left to right) had
decided to complete the ‘Pretty Muddy Harrogate’
experience in aid of charity.
This is a fantastically muddy obstacle course that took place
locally in July.

The trio completed the 10k course, a version of ‘Race
for Life’, to raise much needed funds for cancer
research.
The course included lots of obstacles they had to
climb over or crawl under.....all in an area where
there was far too much mud!
Kayleigh, Liz and Kim can been seen in the picture on
the right at the end of the event, and yes, they had a
ball! Well done ladies, and here’s to next year!

Wood Hall Hotel & Spa

The North of England Wedding
Awards

Wood Hall was put forward by 'the Wedding
Guide' for the North of England Wedding awards
2017 in 2 different categories: Best Venue in
Yorkshire and Best Wedding Coordinator in
Yorkshire. The prestigious awards & black tie dinner
took place on Monday 18th September 2017 at York
Racecourse and, hot off the press, we are delighted
to announce that from 20 finalists in the category,
Wood Hall Hotel won.....

Best Venue in Yorkshire

Our pictures show members of the Wood Hall team
attending the awards, and (see left) Nick, Rachel,
Jayne and Kate from our Revenue Team with the
winning Trophy. This is the 4th year running that the
hotel has entered these awards. Best Wedding
Coordinator in Yorkshire was won by Rachel Cox in
our Revenue Team in 2014 so we are particularly
delighted to add another trophy to our cabinet!

Vision Style Awards

Vision Support Services, one of our Housekeeping Product Suppliers, are running the ‘Vision Style Awards’
this year which means they are on the lookout for the greatest design choices on offer from Hotels, B&Bs,
Restaurants and Spas. James Hare, Head Housekeeper, has nominated Wood Hall’s ‘Mulberry’ room for this
category and the deserving winners will be crowed at the end of October so we’ll be keeping everything
crossed.....

If you want to get involved, this year Vision have a category with a difference, they’re enlisting the help of
the general public to tell them where they’ve had their greatest night’s sleep. Log onto
www.visionsupportservices.com if you want to take part!

Woodlands Park Hotel

!

THE WOODLANDS TEAM CHEERING ON
THEIR FAVOURITE COMPETITORS IN THE

ALL NEW WATCHING AREA

Julian and Wayne playing Tennis! -
Advantage woodlands!!

Woodlands Park Hotel

During our recent Wedding Open day we received 2 new enquiries for 2019 worth a total of £24,000. We
also had a bride who had a wedding on option. She visited during
the open day and now wants to sign her contract for 2018 for an
Exclusive use wedding worth £18,500!

The new design has been put down on paper and several contractors have been out on site to tender for the
works.

CURRENT PROPOSED

Work starts this month and we will be keeping you updated as to how we are progressing with the great
new restaurant and staff facilities!