Torquay and Devon Holiday Blog » TLH Staff News

Goodbye, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu…

Kazzy — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:00:08 +0000

The time has finally come to say goodbye to the place I have spent the majority of my Summer. As you may or may not have seen in my first blog post, I have been helping out with all things Marketing over the summer whilst I have been on holiday from University. That time of year has come back around quickly where I will be heading back to the world of further education which means my time here at TLH Leisure Resort is coming to an end.

Many of you may spoken to me before as I was the anonymous face behind the company Facebook and Twitter accounts, and I have also been sending you all lots of exciting emails over the summer to tell you about all the latest goings on and special offers! I have loved hearing about your amazing holiday experiences with us, be that on Facebook, Twitter or reading your reviews on TripAdvisor. It is so heart-warming to see that so many of you appreciate the hard work and effort the staff put in here to make sure your stay is the best one possible, and it’s even better to see so many of you letting us know that you have booked to come back!

I remain true to my first blog words and I am still astounded at just how much TLH has to offer, be that to locals or residents. The staff here work to an outstanding level to ensure that everything runs smoothly and that your holiday here is the best it can possibly be. There really is never a dull moment here! As I look back at my short time here, I have to say my favourite experience was standing in as an extra for a very small bit part in our new TV advert, which is still in production as we speak. Nick Darby, our resident entertainer, ensured that despite our little roles the experience would be fun for all, I don’t think I have ever laughed that much in my life! You will have to keep an eye out on our Facebook page for an exclusive viewing of it when it’s released in the next couple of weeks (and maybe see if you can spot me, but be careful, blink and you’ll probably miss me!).

My time here really has been short but sweet and I feel very privileged to work for a company who value their staff just as much as they do the guests. My farewell consisted of cupcakes, flowers and my favourite nail varnishes (they know me so well!!) and I will be extremely sad to be leaving! I have met many fantastic people who I am sure I will continue to keep in contact with in the future and TLH Leisure Resortwill always have a special place in my heart!

My beautiful leaving flowers.

Goodbye, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu… is a post from: Torquay and Devon Holiday Blog

TLH Training – The Latest

Jenny — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:54:31 +0000

Training at TLH has been very busy over the last few months, so I thought I’d let you all know what’s been going on. Our award winning STARs training has been going from strength to strength and during June & July, Gary and I delivered our annual refresher training. Over 5 weeks and 19 sessions, we delivered this vital customer service training to 318 of our onstage and backstage staff! During the session we told everyone about our exciting new Aztec Active programme and everyone is really excited about offering so many activities to our guests! I can tell it’s going to be an exciting and busy summer! As you know, customer service is at the heart of our business and we are always looking for ways to improve the service we offer our guests, so getting everyone together helps for the teams to understand the importance of working together. The customer journey can take our guests to every aspect of our business, so teamwork and internal customer service are vital. I know that our teams work really well together and it’s nice to see a real sense of family when I walk around our resort!

Also on the training side, Gary & I have decided to offer some of our management development training courses to external businesses. Open to any business, regardless of sector, these courses are designed to help new and existing managers develop their skills in order to lead a winning team. We have 4 dates coming up – Leadership & Motivation on the 7th September, Appraisal Skills on the 21st September, Supervisory Skills on the 28th September and Group Training Techniques on the 2nd & 3rd November.

I will be running a Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering on the 13th September. This is open to anyone who deals with the preparation and service of food on a day-to-day basis. It’s a full day course and gives a recognised qualification from CIEH (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

Well, I suppose that’s all for now. The hotels are really busy so I will be spending the next months designing new and exciting courses to deliver to our staff! I hope you all have a good summer and this gorgeous weather continues to shine!!

If you want any information on any of the above courses, please e-mail me at jshipton@tlh.co.uk or give me a call on 01803 400135.

TLH Training – The Latest is a post from: Torquay and Devon Holiday Blog

Torquay’s Version of the ‘X Factor’

Vicky — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:22:16 +0000

Seen Britain’s Got Talent, X Factor, Stars In Their Eyes and thought ‘ I could do that’?!… Well here’s your chance to shine! If you have a talent of any kind, from singing and dancing to playing a musical instrument, performing magic tricks or making an audience laugh, then Alberts Bar Manager, Roger Heale, wants to hear from you. `The A Factor 2011’ Talent Competition begins with the first heat of up to six performers on Sunday 17th April in Alberts Bar, at the Victoria Hotel, Belgrave Road, Torquay, and it is still not too late to enter and become part of the experience!

There will be five heats, on Sunday evenings, on 24^th April, 1^st May, 8^th May, 15^th May and 22^nd May, so if you are free on any of those evenings and want to come down to Alberts Bar and perform then we would be delighted to see you. What else are you doing on a Sunday evening?! There will also be a Wild Card round on Sunday 29^th May, made up from the third-placed acts from the heats. The Semi-Finals will take place on Sunday 5^th June and Sunday 12^th June, with the Grand Final on Sunday 19^th June.

Come and see us soon!

All contestants must be 16 or over on the day that they perform and, apart from that, the stage is yours! There will be a total of £500 cash prize money with the winner getting £250, second place £100 and third place £75. There will also be £25 for each of the runners-up and a TLH Goodie Bag will be given to all of the finalists so what have you got to lose?

The winners of the heats will be judged by audience applause, so don’t forget to get all of your friends to come down to support you! The Semi-Finals and Final will be judged by a panel of entertainment experts.

Entry for the `The A Factor 2011’ is free and you can either call in to Alberts Bar for an entry form or e-mail Roger Heale at alberts@tlh.co.uk or call him on 01803 400115 leaving your contact details and an entry form will be sent to you.

We hope to see you and your friends at Alberts for `The A Factor 2011’ this year and to all those of you who enter we wish you the very best of luck!

Torquay’s Version of the ‘X Factor’ is a post from: Torquay and Devon Holiday Blog

The French Riviera meets the English Riviera

Gary — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:52:00 +0000

The French Riviera met the English Riviera when a group of students from Cannes completed a work experience period at Torquay hotel group, TLH Leisure Resort.

15 students from the ‘Ecole Hoteliere de Cannes’ worked across the group’s 4 hotels, the Derwent, Victoria, Carlton and Toorak. The work experience period ranged from 3-4 weeks and the students were accompanied by 3 members of teaching staff.

The students worked within either the Restaurant, Kitchen, Bar or Reception areas of the Hotels. Whilst here they also spent a day at South Devon College with Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism students.

Gary Brenton, Personnel and Development Manager at TLH Leisure Resort, explained ‘We have hosted students from

The Victoria Hotel team and students

Cannes for many years now and we really value the relationship we have with them. The students are extremely professional and work very hard during their time with us. It is quite an achievement to go to a different country and work as they do. They certainly grow in confidence during their stay and they hopefully learn from how we do things. I am very grateful to our Managers ,Heads of Department and Staff who do such a great job in supervising the students’ placements and look after them whilst they are here’

The main photograph above shows the students together with staff from TLH Leisure Resort shortly after the presentation of their certificates to recognize their time at TLH.

The French Riviera meets the English Riviera is a post from: Torquay and Devon Holiday Blog

South Devon Skills Awards Success for TLH Leisure Resort

Gary — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:22:34 +0000

TLH Leisure Resort had 4 reasons to celebrate at the South Devon Skills Awards held at the Riviera International Conference Centre last night.

Marcio Barbeitos, Restaurant Supervisor at the Derwent Hotel, had been nominated in the category ‘Achieving Skills for Life’ and he received a Highly Commended award.

Jenny Shipton, our Training Officer, was announced as joint winner in the category ‘Tutor, trainer or mentor who most inspires others to learn’.

TLH Leisure Resort had been shortlisted in the category ‘Skills in Large Businesses; Employer of the Year’ and we came away as winners of this category.

Then, finally, TLH Leisure Resort was also announced as the overall Winner of Winners on the evening.

We are absolutely delighted with this success. Training and skills are so important to us and this is an award for the whole company.

The awards were arranged by the Torbay Development Agency, in association with Productive Skills for Devon.

South Devon Skills Awards Success for TLH Leisure Resort is a post from: Torquay and Devon Holiday Blog

South Devon Skydive Raises over £1000 for Rowcroft Hospice

Jenny — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:02:33 +0000

3 months after jumping out of a perfectly good plane, all in the aid of charity, me and my fellow skydivers from TLH Leisure Resort have finally collected all of our sponsorship money and today were able to present Laura from Rowcroft Hospice with a cheque for £1185!

Thanks to contributions from MJ Baker Foodservice, Steers Greengrocers, Caterfood and Academy 4 U Training in Exeter, we were able to increase the amount of money we had raised to over £1000.

The photo below shows us presenting Laura with the cheque.

Thank you to everyone for your support, I still can’t believe we actually did it and managed to raise such a great amount for such a deserving charity.

Not sure what we’ll be doing next, but I definitely think another skydive will be in order!!

Jenny, Steph, Darryl, Adam & Ryan.

Steph, Ryan, Laura from Rowcroft, Darryl, Adam & Jenny

South Devon Skydive Raises over £1000 for Rowcroft Hospice is a post from: Torquay and Devon Holiday Blog

The best Party Night in Town!

Jenny — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:19:22 +0000

Me & the Toorak team!

Every year I go out with the Toorak Reception and Housekeeping teams to celebrate Christmas and this year we decided to spend the evening at the Toorak for one of their infamous party nights!

Having never been to one before I didn’t really know what to expect, especially as I see how hard the staff work and how tired they all are after the party nights! And oh what a night! Everything about the whole evening was fantastic. We arrived to be greeted by Hayley who directed us to the Conway Bar for our pre-dinner drink, where we were served by the lovely Krzystof who was his usual efficient and friendly self. Chris showed us to our table when we got to the restaurant, which happened to be right by the entrance (I think he wanted to keep an eye on us!!). We had all the party stuff on the table – streamers, blowers, hats and crackers – to make it look lovely and festive.

The lovely Naomi then took our orders and I was so impressed with, not only the speed of service, but also the quality of food! To be able to produce such an amazing standard of food for such a large amount of people is a great achievement. Nick and his team in the kitchen obviously work extremely hard to make sure that they continue with the same high standards that they are known for throughout the year.

After dinner it was down to the Chatsworth for the disco! This was lots of fun and Danni did a great job with the music, a really good mix of party classics and up to date hits….as you can imagine, lots and lots of dancing took place by everyone! So, as you can tell, I had the best time and will definitely be recommending Toorak Party Nights to all my friends and family, and you never know, you may see me there again next year (sorry Chris!!). Oh and finally, if you have the opportunity to stay the night I would highly recommend doing this……everything under one roof and no need to worry about getting cold or taxi’s home, made even more special by the standard of bedrooms and housekeeping service!

Now it’s time to start planning my birthday party night so it’s busy, busy here! Will be updating you with more blogs soon!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Jenny xx

The best Party Night in Town! is a post from: Torquay and Devon Holiday Blog

Our Anniversary Dinner at the Toorak Hotel

Jenny — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:13:14 +0000

Jenny & Trev

On 6th December my husband and I celebrated 19 years together! I know, I don’t look old enough, but it’s true! I met Trev when I was 16, and here we are 19 years later and still very much in love….well most of the time anyway!

To celebrate this momentous occasion we decided to go to the Grosvenor Restaurant at the Toorak Hotel for dinner. We had such an amazing time I felt I had to tell you all about it! We were greeted by Kev in the Conway Bar for a pre-dinner drink and, as always, Kev was his jolly, chatty self. From there we headed to the Toorak Restaurant to be met by Assistant Restaurant Manager, Dan, who showed us to our table and introduced us to our waitress for the evening, Magda.

The menu was positively mouth-watering, and we both chose the same starter and main course (see, I told you we’d been together forever!). Breaded Camembert to start followed by the most gorgeous steak I’ve ever had with a white wine, mushroom and tarragon cream sauce! The whole meal was fantastic and the service from all of the staff second to none. We couldn’t manage dessert though, which is a shame as they looked delightful!

Jenny & Trev - the way they were!

After dinner we headed down to Albert’s Bar for a few drinks before getting the taxi home. It was a wonderful evening and a great way to celebrate our 19 years together, thank you to all at the Toorak (oh and I guess I shouldn’t forget Adam & Karla in Albert’s) for making our evening so special!’

Our Anniversary Dinner at the Toorak Hotel is a post from: Torquay and Devon Holiday Blog

TLH achieves Investors in People for 7th time!

Gary — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:38:47 +0000

We have just said ‘cheerio’ to our Investors in People assessor. He’s been with us for the past 3 days as we have just had our 3 yearly re-assessment for the national accreditation – Investors in People.

Investors in People is awarded to businesses who train, develop and involved their staff to help them achieve business improvements. We first got IIP in 1992, and this is our 7th successful re-assessment - not many businesses can make that claim.

The assessment is a very thorough process. 35 staff were interviewed across the 3 days to establish not only whether we still maintained the standard, but also to see if we had made improvements since the last time he was here. He was really pleased with what he found, and was extremely complimentary about the people he met saying that we had gone from ‘strength to strength’ over the past 3 years.

So great news all round, holding IIP is very important to us as a business and says a lot about the great team of people that work here at TLH Leisure Resort in Torquay.

TLH achieves Investors in People for 7th time! is a post from: Torquay and Devon Holiday Blog

New Year’s Eve Thoughts

Vicky — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 10:26:53 +0000

How will you be spending New Year’s Eve this year?

It’s the one celebration which seems to throw the most hardened partygoers into a flat spin. Where is the best party, who else is going, what shall I wear?

The pressure to have the most memorable party ever gets to some people, who either get hopelessly drunk and miserable or decide to give the whole thing a miss and stay in, with only Jools Holland for company.

My own New Year’s Eve celebrations have been eventful in the past, from a fancy dress disaster (I’m sure it said ‘fancy dress on the invite?!) to an episode of instant food poisoning after a meal out. More often than not there have been arguments, tears and dreadful hangovers the next day. And nobody ever knows what they are doing until the very last minute. A case of waiting for a better offer – after all it is the most important party of the year – it would be disastrous to have accepted the invitation to a sophisticated dinner party while elsewhere other friends are playing Twister and dancing on the coffee table!

Last year we held our own party but the stress of waiting to see if anyone would actually turn up was too much and once again, you guessed it, there were arguments, tears and a dreadful hangover the next day!

So enough is enough and this year I’m looking to someone else to do all the work. I may book a table in the Aztec Bistro at TLH Leisure Resort, where for just £39.95 a head I’ll be able to enjoy a lovely meal and join the live entertainment and disco afterwards in the Starlight Lounge. It sounds like a great way to see in the New Year with a group of friends and the menu looks delicious. Take a look here New Years Eve menu.

Whatever you decide to do, enjoy it and for goodness sake double check before turning up in fancy dress!

New Year’s Eve Thoughts is a post from: Torquay and Devon Holiday Blog