I wanted to post a short blog to first of all say I hope everyone finally managed to get home safely on Saturday night or Sunday morning. I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who helped others during this truly horrendous time, I don’t think I’ve ever seen flooding like this in all my time here at the hotel!
I arrived at work on Saturday morning and having already driven through some of the worst conditions in a while, I knew we were going to be in for a tough time of it. I wasn’t quite prepared for what Mother Nature threw at us for the next 24 hours or so. Some areas saw more than 300mm of rain, streams turned into rivers and roads simply disappeared under the water, in fact some were just washed away!
Many of our staff were unable to get through, most deliveries turned back or were stuck between hotels, not able to move until the next morning, several guests were cut off on-route or just had to turn back and head home.
Having said all that, in true British style we carried on, we weren’t going to let the weather cancel our Christmas party night! We started to get things ready and look at final numbers for the event, then, one after the other, guests started to come through the front door! These weren’t people booked in but people stranded up and down the road. Thankfully we managed to accommodate all of them in the end, from elderly couples to young families with children, everyone got a lovely meal, a warm drink and more importantly a bed for the night! I met some wonderful people and there was certainly that feeling of people pulling together and getting through! The only thing missing from the evening was our resident DJ. I think it goes without saying he was doing more important things, he was helping the local emergency Lake warden team on several call outs.
Fortunately because we’re built on a hillside we weren’t affected by all the rainfall and we’re open as usual. We’re now doing everything we can to help those not as lucky as we were. Several hotels and guest houses have been severely damaged by the latest band of weather, and in fact some are even closed indefinitely. Our hearts go out to them and their hardworking teams of staff and management.
Jonathan Allan
General Manager