Jon Hyatt

As Cornwall looks forward to what it hopes will be another successful holiday season, we meet Jon Hyatt, director of the popular family-owned Hendra Holiday Park in Newquay.

You’ve always been involved in the family business, joining straight from university.

My great uncle started the business. My parents, second generation, were co owning and running it. And we grew up in the house on site here. So, I was here from year dot! I’ve always enjoyed the business and always enjoyed being here. I went away to Oxford and did my masters degree in chemistry but didn’t really want to carry on in research science. And I never went on to work in Boots, like a few people assumed!

So rather than look at some ideas in London, there was the opportunity of coming back here. The call of Cornwall and Newquay and working in the family business where you get your hands in and make a big difference, to be part of something I believe in. And I’ve never really looked back.

And very much proud to be a family business?

Yes, and my cousin, Tom May, he’s third generation also and recently been made a director. My parents, auntie and uncle, the shareholders, the owners, they’re still very much involved on it. Not so much on an operational basis, but certainly a strategic basis. And the brand means an awful lot to them, the staff mean a lot.

We go to 260 on the payroll in the summer and at this time of year, in the winter, while the park is closed, we’re still about 60 to 70 members of staff, some part time, but most full time.

What typically goes on at this time of year?

Winter is actually our busiest time of year, working on the business. We’ve got 320 foundationed units, 600 touring pitches, and generally because they’re all our own, we like to keep them fresh. And generally, we’ll swap out between 50 and 60 caravans every year. So that’s 50, 60 caravans sold off to other holiday parks, base works, utility works done, new caravans all on site and all made ready. And we’re doing a big capital project in terms of refurbishing our Terrace restaurant. It’s probably the biggest amount of work done to that building, which was made in the 1970s. We’ll always have a pretty busy, probably over ambitious winter plan in terms of development and investment.

Is this something you think of towards the end of each season, what sort of projects are needed?

Yes, or a couple of years in advance. We’ve got a new climbing centre in the planning pipeline, which will probably be built this time next year going live at some point in 2024. But yes, whether it’s a new bar, play area, set of accommodation, upgrading camping facilities, there’s always something to do and we are committed to continual and significant investment in the site.

You mentioned you own all the pitches. Has that always been a conscious decision?

It started out 51 years ago as a campsite. And in the 80s, they brought on the static holiday homes. And we just found the holiday only model works very well for us. A lot of other holiday sites, particularly the national chains, they seek a quick return on selling out a base or a unit to an owner. That massively changes the dynamics of the park. They become more focused on selling a unit as opposed to necessarily delivering a holiday. So we are, for those seven months that we’re open, 100% focused on delivering a customer experience, a 5* holiday experience.

First we had Brexit and then Covid. And now we’ve got the cost-of-living crisis. It can’t have been easy over the past few years operating a holiday business?

No. And we’re looking at another odd year, aren’t we? We always used to base our business performance on the previous year but we’re still benchmarking on 2019 now. Covid gave us time to move our product on, probably three or four years in the development cycle. It really forced us to focus on the really important bits, namely our staff and our customer service. We’ve got an incredibly strong team, everyone owns the brand, and there’s a lot of loyalty there. But our customer base has grown and we’ve got close to 4,000 people on our loyalty scheme. And they are people who stay with us year after year.

And how is the rising of cost of living impacting on things? Are fewer people holidaying? And if they do come, are they spending less?

When that was beginning to bite towards the tail end of last summer, we were expecting that but what we noticed is people were probably spending more time with us, on site. So whether or not they decided to opt for a location where they saw a more reliable value, maybe, and base themselves here and not suffer transport costs, or what have you. They spent more time on site and there was a bit more take up in our own secondary spend, whether it’s the food or the entertainment on site, rather than necessarily going off site as often. In the peak weeks, in the summer, we’ll have up to 3,500 guests a night. And we’ll do 1,000 covers across our various food outlets.

Last summer was the first one after Covid that people could go abroad again. Did you feel that impact?

We were worried about that, but we have benefited from a surge in loyalty and a huge number of guests who stayed with us in 2020 and in 2021 and booked for the following year whilst still on site. Generally, we’d always get to January, February and the bookings would start coming in earnest for that season. But the last couple years, a big trend has been people booking 12 months in advance for us. Over 30% of guests who stay with us book again before leaving which is an incredible vote in confidence in our product

Overall, though, has the lead time for booking got shorter?

It has got shorter if you look at the grand scheme of things over the last five-to-ten-year period. But what we’ve really noticed over the last two or three years is we’re getting a huge cohort of guests who are booking for next year before they even go home, which is fantastic. And this year, we’re already seeing a huge swell in new families and couples booking which is really bucking the expected trend in terms of the cost of living.

What are the main challenges that keep you awake at night?

Utilities are quite key at the moment. In 2011, we built a 1.5MW ten acre solar farm next to park, that generates most of the site’s electric. That was a big success when we installed it but even more now as it’s underpinning our energy security moving forward. Likewise, the switch to biomass for heating our fun pools. So, utilities are always a concern, but we have somewhat underpinned that with previous investment and have plans for further sustainable developments.

Staffing, the last couple of years have probably been our biggest challenges. At one point, we had around 25% of our staff living on site, over double the usual number. We have a number of staff accommodation units anyway for seasonal use, but we have had to bring in more staff accommodation units in order to meet employment needs.

Are most staff from out of county?

No, the majority are still local, but there is a cohort of seasonal staff coming down to do the bar shifts and the lifeguarding and such and mostly live on site for the season.

The recent acute pressure on staffing coincided with Brexit in terms of reduction in the size of the labor workforce in hospitality generally. But also – if you look in Newquay and the loss of affordable seasonal accommodation since Covid – has drastically reduced the available seasonal labour force; that’s why the accommodation we’ve got on site is so valuable for our staff. So we have a lot of staff applying, but they just can’t afford to live in Newquay for instance. And some staff have had to move out of Newquay because they can’t afford to keep renting.

And it must be competitive with other holiday parks and hotels in Newquay, to get the best staff?

It is, but we are very fortunate with a good retention. We’ve got seasonal staff who come back year after year. And fortunately, we have an outstanding management team here and they grow very strong teams.

How has the park developed over the years?

It started off back in the 70s as a campsite and was one of the largest campsites in Europe at one stage. And it kind of grew from there, following the trend and popularity for Newquay holidays. In the 80s static accommodation was added. And ever since then it’s been focused solely on families and couple groups. So we like to say we’re a holiday park run by families for families. Our key focus is delivering memorable holidays for families, by making the most out of Newquay and Cornwall and wanting to come back, whether that’s for a short break or their main holiday.

What give you most pleasure from working here?

It used to be seeing the number of returning guests. But since Covid, it’s really having such a strong, close-knit and motivated team, and in seeing what we can achieve together. Because we’ve all gone through the Covid period together and helped move the brand on through our 50th year. Every single member of staff is in it together and are all driven by a common goal. And that’s to deliver quality memorable family holidays for generations of both guests and the team to come.

What makes a for a great holiday park?

I think it’s quality, reliability and attention to detail in everything we do, right from the from the point of booking. We’re 100% focused on holidays and the vast majority of our bookings come direct. We don’t really rely on online travel agents, we’re not on booking.com or AirBnB and so guests can have absolute confidence in what they book direct with our bookings team. Our return and referral rates are high. It’s not only the quality of the accommodation we’re offering, but also the quality of the staff that are servicing that accommodation.

It’s the continued investment in that accommodation, the bar and restaurant facilities, the swimming pool and the high quality entertainment. It’s day in, day out service delivery and investment in the facilities and team.

Many holiday businesses look to extend the shoulder season. Is that the same with you?

Yes, whether that’s targeting families with preschool aged children or empty nesters, that sort of thing. Also short breaks from local destinations, whether it’s Cornwall, Plymouth,

Devon, we get a lot of visitors particularly in the shoulder seasons coming down for a short break and making use of the facilities.

Where do most guest typically come from?

The M5 corridor largely. And there’s a growing contingent coming from the south east as well.

During the height of Covid, did you fear for the future of the business at any stage?

We’re fortunate in that we’re a family business with a farming mentality. So, we’re in it for the long game and the business was in a healthy position with good financial security. And ultimately, tourism was always going to bounce back quite quickly. Our biggest concern was making sure we were doing things right, listening to the local community, listening to staff and not putting too much pressure on them. We were conscious about tourism and tourists not overwhelming the local infrastructure and area, hence why we restricted site capacity to 60% for 2020 for instance.

And, of course, when things did open up, summer 2021 must have been crazy?

There was an absolute explosion in demand for Cornwall and tourism in 2021. We also had the G7 summit where we hosted a big contingent of event staffing which added extra pressure. So yes, there was huge demand in 2021. But again, taking a long-term view on it, we were careful not to cash in and hike the prices to match the soaring demand. Rather we focused on delivering a sound and reliable holiday for what were many guests first visit to Cornwall; as such they weren’t disappointed and have become return guests, unlike what has been the case all too often elsewhere with over priced and under resourced accommodation.

Cornwall can be expensive, can’t it?

I think Cornwall caters for such a diverse clientele that some places are very expensive. We’re trying to position ourselves for our guests so there is something here for every budget. But yes, you’re right, Cornwall can be perceived to be too expensive.

In the summer of 21, I think many people made the mistake of putting up prices too much. We heard examples of people putting up prices by as much as 40%. But ultimately, you saw TripAdvisor scores and return booking rates for those establishments go through the floor, because guests were left unhappy.

How big a challenge are the likes of Airbnb? Because Cornwall could be full, but more people could be coming in because it’s unregulated and you don’t know how many private rentals are out there.

And this is why I strongly support the move with Cornwall Council and Visit Cornwall to get compulsory registration for private rental properties. Cornwall just couldn’t cope with the numbers of 2021 and no one knows how busy areas are going to be until the day, let alone the pressure on roads and bins and beaches – and for sustainable development of Tourism throughout Cornwall.

So what I think we’ve seen since that explosion in Airbnb and private rental properties; a lot of people made a fair bit of money from that, but a lot of people also had their fingers burnt and guests had bad experiences on holiday. There’s no surprise why during 2022 and certainly so far into 2023, private rental figures are well down. The flip side being you get a lot of enquiries turning to established holiday markets like ourselves.

Looking ahead to this summer, how do you see that going?

At the moment, given the national context and the cost of living, we’ve entered this year, pretty cautious, like everyone else. But crucially, we are comforted by a decent amount of forward bookings from last year. And where we were expecting a slow start to the year, we’ve actually seen quite a flurry of bookings and activity. And that’s what’s really intriguing and exciting for us, is a lot of new enquiries from people have never seen here before.

Are these from people possibly downsizing from a more expensive foreign holiday?

Quite possibly. There’s certainly examples of families and couples who are trading down and instead of going abroad might be staying at a holiday park in Cornwall, but the fact that they’re willing to stay with us and make that commitment five, six months in advance, we’ll take that definitely.

And looking forward to the next five years or so, what plans have you got?

We’re looking to target two main drivers. One is to extend the season, not so much over the winter period, we’ve seen a lot of places who actually opt to close for February half term and cancel bookings rather than stay open. But try and flatten our demand curve and get more demand in the shoulder periods, or by adding more value to those periods by investing in energy efficiency and security. And people want a more experience-based holiday, so we’re adding more facilities such as a climbing centre, expanded indoor play, nature activities and developing partnerships with local attractions to offer our guests even more variety.

Is any of this open to non-residents?

The Oasis fun pool is open to non-residents. We have 200,000 people a year going through the pools and 40% of those are locals or other holidaymakers staying elsewhere. We’ve got a locals scheme which gives discounts for the pool, the restaurant, the soft play facilities, particularly at the shoulder seasons, when we’ve got that capacity.

The business has been going 51 years now. Has there ever been any family temptation to sell?

We must get a letter through the door every week from some agent or the other, or someone representing a big group. And the number of holiday parks that have changed hands in the last four or five years is unbelievable. But you quite often see the cycle, where an independent sells out to a national chain, a load of staff are made redundant, that park’s reviews and TripAdvisor status tumbles and not many have really recovered that far. We’re proudly independent. The whole family are in this for the long term and we enjoy what we’re doing.

Does it give you an advantage being an independent. Do you care more?

Absolutely, we do care about every detail. The team mean a great deal to us and we get to know a lot of the returning guests. We live on site, what impacts anyone on site impacts us, and our personal reputations are intertwined with that of the business, we’re all in this together. It means an awful lot. I grew up on the site and still live here with my young family now. It’s a fantastic environment for them to grow up in.

Never had any regrets working for the family business, that you didn’t go in a different direction?

Certainly not in another direction. I’ve got a twin brother who’s an airline pilot and younger brother who is a GP. So, I’m really pleased to represent them here, make my contribution to the family business and hopefully help lead it on for the next generation.

Was there any pressure on you to work in the family business?

There was certainly pressure when we were 14, 15 to go and clear tables!

But no, no pressure to stay, it’s both the lifestyle I wanted, which is absolutely fantastic, but also the dynamic business I could thrive in.

Probably the one regret I get is other than four years away at university and a bit of traveling, is not taking any other time away in industry to bring back learning to the business. But I can’t complain of the what has been learnt here!