Making our parks and hotels more accessible is integral to what we do. It’s everyone’s responsibility to find ways to be more inclusive, creating appealing holidays and a great experience for every guest, every time.
Chief Financial Officer, Bourne Leisure
Bourne Leisure is a leading UK leisure and holiday company, operating through two businesses: Haven and Warner Hotels. Focused on family fun and entertainment, Haven offers 39 high-quality caravan parks with 40,000 pitches across the English, Welsh and Scottish coastlines. Warner Hotels is the UK's only adult-only hotel chain, with 18 coastal and countryside hotels providing a place for adults to unwind, relax and enjoy themselves.
Aside from ensuring that all its parks and hotels conform to the Disability Discrimination Act3, Bourne Leisure is always looking for ways in which it can be more inclusive. “Every time we invest in a new site or refurbish an existing one, accessibility is at the heart of our decision-making process,” says Iain MacMillan, Chief Financial Officer.
Iain explains that several of the company’s services, while being available to everybody, are potentially very helpful to people with specific requirements. For example:
Accessibility and inclusion are multifaceted. It is about understanding your team, your customers, and your physical property, and making sure that the right thinking is embedded throughout the organisation – it’s everybody's responsibility.
Chief Financial Officer, Bourne Leisure
Iain believes that encouraging teams to have an open dialogue on accessibility issues is key to embedding inclusion in the culture of the business. He explains that one of the biggest barriers is staff concerns about doing or saying the wrong thing, which discourages them from engaging in conversation. To overcome this, the company provides staff with very specific training and guidance, for example through a podcast that focuses on helping people feel comfortable with accessibility language and terminology.
By promoting these conversations, Iain says the business has moved from a small number of people trying to work out how its holidays can be made more accessible, to having every team member contributing to what the organisation can be doing differently and what more it can offer. Iain says: “Our people are empowered to engage about this as they know it’s something that the business cares about.”
“We've got fabulous locations, brilliant accommodation and amazing facilities. But what makes the biggest difference is how our team members interact with our guests,” says Iain. “This is often highlighted through the regular feedback we get from our guests – whether it’s about staff learning some sign language so they can communicate with guests or ensuring guests with visual impairments have good line of sight for a show.”
To ensure it fully understands the needs of all its customers and staff, Bourne Leisure uses an experience management software to gather customer feedback, and carries out regular team member surveys. It also recently commissioned some Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) research in conjunction with KPMG to identify what else could be done do to enhance accessibility, particularly in terms of more hidden disabilities.
“The data and insights gathered from these surveys help to motivate us for new accessibility and inclusion initiatives,” says Iain. For example, Haven is currently trialling ‘sensory packs’ in one of its parks. These include a sensory map of the park, ear defenders for those who might struggle with noise levels at shows, and fidget spinners and other activities for children.
Iain says: “I'm really proud of what we’re doing to move things forward, but I also know that we’re not perfect. We’re continually evolving, trying new things, learning from those things, responding to feedback, and trying to improve. There is always more we can do to be better.”
Working with Barclays
Barclays has been Bourne Leisure’s main banking partner for decades and one of the company’s primary lenders. The team also uses Barclaycard data to gain insights to assist with decision making.
“It has been our pleasure working with this leading UK corporate in the hospitality space for an extended period. We have watched with pleasure as they have expanded their offering in the UK around the diversity and inclusion space and the work that they are doing in this particular area undoubtedly enhances their customer experience. Visiting their numerous sites across the UK and seeing this brought to life is particularly insightful and we look forward to working with the team at Bourne Leisure to expand their offering in the future.” says Duncan Irvine, Relationship Director, Hospitality and Leisure, Barclays Corporate Banking.
Barclays has a team of people who really understand our business and our consumer group, visit our sites regularly and have been invaluable in helping us to grow our business and develop our M&A strategy. We value their support and the good relationship we have with them.
Chief Financial Officer, Bourne Leisure
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1https://www.linkedin.com/company/bourne-leisure/about/^
2Survey and research carried out by Bourne Leisure
3https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1995/50/contents^
Your next steps
At Barclays, we seek new and innovative ways to help businesses remove barriers to ensure an inclusive customer experience.
Find out more about accessibility support at Barclays.
To discuss your business requirements and how Barclays can support you, contact us today.
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