I know this sounds extremely early but to be ahead of the game for both our Christmas / New Year programmes and the party season we really need to have everything agreed now and printing organised over the next couple of months.  My daughter was horrified when she heard we’d been planning Christmas menus and ideas last week - she’s only just getting over this Christmas!
My next job is to update the Christmas section on our offers web page now that we know how much we are charging and what we are offering.

will be on Friday 26th February in conjunction with Wadebridge Wines.  At the moment details are limited but it will be a very special evening and limited to just 18 guests.  More information will be forthcoming once Tamsin returns from a buying trip to Italy.  The wines will be Australian and from Barossa Valley with the main theme being Shiraz.  I’m really looking forward to the evening and seeing what dishes we can match with what promises to be some very exciting wines.

If you would like to receive information about this do please e mail us and let us know.  Rooms will be available!

But best not to look at it at the moment - it’s really windy here and up on the roof it is extremely exposed so the camera is wobbling a bit - may leave you with a slight touch of seasickness!

Over Christmas we had a fault on the main router for our web and e mail server which caused us a few issues and the only way around it in the short term was to pinch the router from the web cam.  I decided it was better for us to be able to communicate with the outside world rather than transmit pictures of our glorious view.

With almost all IT solutions these days the trend is to fix things remotely and 99% of the time this is possible.  When it isn’t, I seem to be the one who has to sit by the relevant machine and follow some extremely complex instructions to change settings here there and everywhere.  I must admit it is fascinating but definitley beyond my normal scope.  Here’s to this one lasting a long time!

As I am sure you would expect we all want to make The Metropole a better place and we, along with Andrea at The Fowey, have been tasked with increasing our quality scores from the AA.  Part of our work has been talking to other owners and managers of four star hotels in Cornwall to see what they do and how they run their businesses.

We had our first two visits on Tuesday, we really couldn’t have picked a worse day with the rain lashing down on us.  While the weather was cold the welcome we had from Toby at The Nare and Peter at Carlyon Bay was warm and very helpful.  Some people might think it a little odd for competitors to share information like this but apart from being in different markets, we all want to see the quality of hotels in Cornwall improve as this helps us all. We got a very different perspective from both gentlemen but all was very useful, I hope you will see the results in our hotels over the coming months.
There are now something like 12 four star hotels in the Duchy so we can really go out and sell Cornwall as a high quality destination.  Malcom Bell has taken over the reins at Visit Cornwall and we are expecting great things from him.  We’re also very prepared to work with him to help him deliver his goals of increased visitors and an increase in the value this brings into the county.

We’re all recovering from a very hectic week with around 60 guests in for our Christmas programme and then another 64 in last night for our New Year’s Eve party.  Everyone worked really well and the feedback we’ve received has been excellent with a few people already booking for next year!

Padstow itself is really busy this time of year with yesterday and today being no exceptions:  the queue for the ferry over on the beach at Rock was very visible from the hotel and everyone who came in said how busy it was.  Today we have had lots of people in for lunch - most of them visitors to the town.  The weather is clear, cold and sunny so an ideal day for a walk around town or a stroll on one of the nearby beaches, perfect for blowing the cobwebs away.

Christmas and New Year has been great fun for us all again and we’re looking forward to this year already!