In Good Company E04 - Beverley Holidays

About this episode

It feels worth saying upfront. This episode is out the week after International Women’s Day, and that timing was not planned, but it felt right. Four women around a table, talking openly about running parks, leading organisations, understanding guests and navigating a sector that is changing fast.

Claire Flower has just taken on the role of chair at HARPA at a significant moment. The rebrand people will have noticed was never really about the name or the logo, as Claire explains, it was about culture, and about how the organisation wants to show up for its members, whether they are running a holiday park, a residential park or coming in as an associate. The community feel that has always defined this sector, that thing where you can be in a room full of competitors and everybody is still openly sharing ideas, is something she is determined to hold onto and grow.

The NextGen network comes into that conversation too. Led by Sarah, it has taken time to build momentum, but the people behind it are truly passionate and it is growing. Getting younger people invested in this industry is not a nice thing to have. It is what makes the whole thing work over time.

From there, the conversation turns to what Beverley Holidays is actually seeing on park, the Beverley Holidays experience. Not sector data, but what happens when guests arrive. Their app has a very high download rate, but as Claire points out, different members of the same family still want information in different formats. The printed entertainment guide. The TV screen in the lodge. The app. All of it is valid, and all of it needs to work.

Older guests are often far more comfortable with technology than people assume. Ordering from a screen in the show bar because it means keeping their seat and not queuing is something that appeals across age groups. Meanwhile, some younger guests do not want the app at all. Claire puts it well: it is less about age and more about personality. Different people are motivated by different things.

Lisa picks up on something specific in the dining patterns. Families tend to come in earlier, eat and leave before entertainment starts. Couples and guests without children tend to come later, when it is quieter. But over half term, families were eating later too, around eight or eight-thirty, which is unusual. There is a theory in the room that staycations are starting to feel more like being abroad. More packed-in, later evenings, people trying to make the most of a shorter trip. Lauren ties it back to segmentation, and the opportunity to actually know who is on park at what time and what they are likely to want, rather than sending the same communication to everyone.

The QR code payment system gets a mention too, and it is a good example of technology simply earning its place. Guests who want to pay and go can do it in seconds. Staff do not have to chase a bill through a packed Friday service. It is not a headline feature, but it works, and people, including older guests, appreciate it.

Towards the end, things go somewhere unplanned and the better for it. TikTok, doom-scrolling, fridge-restocking videos and whether the reason those feel so satisfying is because everything else is just too much. There is something in there about how people absorb information now, and what that might mean for how parks communicate. But the episode leaves that open. Worth listening to and thinking about yourself.