Happy Birthday to us!
Happy Birthday to us!
One year ago today we packed up our old lives in Derby and turned up at Barend in Trusty Trudy, our VW camper, for a new life adventure! Not to do things by halves, we turned up in the middle of the summer rush and got straight into the deep end during one of the busiest weekends of the year. We helped clean lodges, set up new supply agreements and washed pillowcases when our old linen provider let us down. Thankfully we have a fantastic team up here who have supported us through the last year. I’m not sure where we’d be without them!
What a Year!
The last year has been an enormous learning curve for us. When we sit back and look at what we’ve achieved, I’m really happy with where we’ve come. Now the new website is up and running we will try and maintain this blog as a bit of a mix of what is going on at Barend and our adventure running Barend Holiday Lodges.
What’s New?
Barend Holiday Lodges have been popular for many years and most of our customers are repeat visitors, so we have no intention of making any major changes. People love coming here to escape the rat race, enjoy the Galloway Dark Skies, Solway Coast and fantastic mountain biking and walking on our doorstep. We aren’t a Centreparcs and we never will be. However, we have made some minor tweaks to keep Barend up to date. New signs, a new website, more social media presence, welcome packs for 4* lodges and an overhaul of the swimming pool and changing rooms have all helped to improve Barend. Recently we have tidied the area around the park and introduced a nature area for children as well as teaming up with Craigieknowes Golf Club to offer you free golf when you stay.
How did we get here?
We had spent many years at Rolls-Royce and fancied a change, so when voluntary severance came up we leapt at the chance. After 6 months of looking for glamping or caravan sites and a few false starts, we found Barend Holiday Village (as it was then known). It caught our interest and had everything we were looking for; a great location, lots of opportunity, fab mountain biking and good schools for the kids. We spent the next few months negotiating, persuading banks to take a chance on us and finally exchanged keys on the 28th July 2017!
Here’s to many more years ahead…
