PONTYCLERC FARM HOUSE BED AND BREAKFAST ACTION PLAN

When you're ready to travel again, the Pontyclerc Farm House team is ready to welcome you. 

As the world adjusts to new travel norms and new expectations, we're enhancing the travel experience for you by redefining cleanliness and supporting guest wellbeing throughout your stay at Pontyclerc. By strengthening our housekeeping procedures we hope to give you, the guest, greater confidence and our hospitality team the protection needed during this pandemic. 

BEST PRACTICE

We're following all World Health Organisation and UK government guidelines and have been actively following industry best practice and key tourism bodies and specialists, as they have developed the strategies for us to adopt. We will continue to update our specific risk assessment, which identifies the possible risks and then develops the controls needed to reduce the risks. As a result of this living risk assessment, we have invested in various types of equipment and implemented a number of procedures in our site to reduce the risk of infection and demonstrate to our guests, that we offer an environment that is safe. Please note that the guidance is constantly changing, so the following guidelines will continue to be adjusted as guidance is updated.

COMMUNICATION

We'll share as much information as possible to provide assurance and transparency:

We've updated all of our pre-arrival email communications to provide additional information relating to health and hygiene, making sure that our guests have received all necessary information to make the most of their stay.

For our guests, we've considered the entire customer journey to assess how we can keep you as safe as possible, whilst still giving you the outstanding Pontyclerc Farm House experience that we're known for:

1. PRE-ARRIVAL

You can book online at www.pontyclercfarmhouse.co.uk or by calling us on 01269591909.

The following procedures are for your peace of mind prior to your stay, however, we are very happy to talk or email with you if you have any further concerns or questions.

We politely request that if you are displaying any signs or symptoms of COVID-19, that you call us to postpone your stay. These include;  a high temperature, a new and persistent cough and loss of taste or smell.

We strongly recommend that you download the government track and tracing app, to ensure we are all alerted to any guests who may pose a risk of spreading COVID-19.

Our booking terms and conditions state that your balance is due 24 hours prior to arrival, the card details provided upon booking will thus be charged prior to your arrival, allowing us to maintain contactless payment.

2. ARRIVAL AND CHECK-IN

We politely request that if you are displaying any of the symptoms of COVID-19 that you do not enter the bed and breakfast. We reserve the right to check your temperature on arrival and any guests displaying COVID-19 symptoms or a temperature greater than 37.8 degrees C, may be asked to leave the premises and return home.

In order to manage social distancing, we will ask you to give us your planned arrival time and may ask you to amend it slightly should we already have other guests arriving at the same time.

Check in time is from 3pm and no later than 9pm, unless pre-arranged. 

A fully automatic, contactless hand sanitiser is provided at our entry/exit and we request that all guests santise upon entering and leaving the farm house.

Our check-in process has been streamlined to allow a fast and reduced-contact experience. All surfaces, door handles and equipment will be regularly cleaned and sanitised throughout the day. We thoroughly clean and disinfect our room keys between guests. 

If you have any special requirements, please let us know before you arrive so we can make the necessary preparations with everybody's safety in mind. 

3. COMMON AREAS

We have heightened and enhanced our cleaning procedures to include extensive cleaning of shared surfaces throughout the day. 

We have installed an automatic and contactless hand santising station for you to use and politely ask you to use this when entering the bed and breakfast and also before entering the dining and sun room for breakfast. 

We have taken our communal customer toilet out of use for the foreseeable future, for the safety of our guests and staff. We ask that guests staying with us use the bathrooms in their bedrooms. 

We have removed all books, leaflets and board games from our living rooms to avoid cross contamination but if you do require any of the above, please ask and we can provide a range of information or leisure/relaxation activities knowing that they have been santised between uses. 

When walking through the building, we will ask that you please use your discretion and consideration by keeping a social distance of 2 metres (if possible) between yourself and other guests. 

4. BEDROOMS AND BATHROOMS

Our usual high cleaning standards and procedures have been enhanced and updated to include a new risk-based approach and all team members will be trained accordingly, prior to re-opening. 

Every guest bedroom and en-suite will be fully sanitised before each stay with a World Health Organisation recommended broad spectrum virucide disinfectant cleaner. Once sanitised, the rooms will not be accessed afterwards, to ensure no contamination occurs prior to your arrival. 

Fabric items such as mattresses, pillows, cushions, carpets, chairs and other furniture are sprayed with the WHO approved sanitising solution, which is effective in killing COVID-19 but otherwise harmless to you and us. 

All surfaces are thoroughly wiped down and cleaned prior to your arrival.

Our linens and towels are washed above 60 degrees C for optimal disinfection. All toiletry dispensers are thoroughly sanitised and consumables are replaced before each stay. 

All unneccesary printed material, such as our guest handbooks have been removed from your room to avoid cross contamination. This is available on our website as a PDF, or can be requested during your stay. 

TV remote controls will be covered in individual, recyclable hygiene bags, which enable easy cleaning and can be changed between guest stays. 

Our housekeeping team undergo strict sanitisation prior to starting work and will wear the appropriate PPE during cleaning, as per the most recent Government guidelines and recommendations at the time of your stay. 

Daily servicing by our housekeeping team will only be available upon request, should you require this service, rooms will need to be vacant, windows left opened and personal items including toiletries stowed away. Housekeeping staff will however replace bin liners daily and replenish your hospitality tray.  Linen changes for longer stays will still take place, in consultation with you at the time. Additional towels can also be requested during your stay. We are also no longer providing a non-slip shower or bath mat as standard, these are available by request.

5. BREAKFAST

Our two breakfast rooms - the dining room and the sun room allow social distancing to be adhered to. For many, breakfast is the highlight of a stay at Pontyclerc Farm House and we intend to ensure that we maintain our warm, welcoming and relaxed vibe. We will take all necessary measures to deliver minimum contact, ensure hygiene standards and social distancing are maintained, without losing our Pontyclerc charm. 

Breakfast service will continue to be offered to order, with your choices taken prior to your stay. We won't offer our usual buffet service with sharing plates or jars, however, items such as our homemade granola, fruit, seeds, yoghurts, juice will be offered on the menu - with individual portions served to your table. 

We'll stagger breakfast times and split between our two dining areas so that we can ensure that social distancing is maintained. 

Tables will be pre-set prior to breakfast service with all clean, santised utensils, crockery and glassware. 

Tables and chairs will be sanitised between sittings with a full, deep clean and santisation carried out at the end of every service. 

At the moment, in line with current Government guidelines, the majority of our local restaurants and pubs will be operating with new protocols and will you need to make reservations in advance. Please be proactive and make your resturant/pub bookings before your stay, to enhance your visitor experience here at Pontyclerc. 

Please be advised that we do not permit takeaways in our bedrooms but with prior arrangement, we will happily lay out our dining tables (as per breakfast cleaning protocols) for you to enjoy your meal.

We do ask that you wash your hands or use our automatic, handsfree hand sanitiser upon entering and exiting the breakfast rooms. 

6. CHECK-OUT

An invoice can be provided and sent to you via email, upon request. If you did not book directly with us, you will need to supply us with an email address, if you require a copy of your bill. Please email info@pontyclercfarmhouse.co.uk with your email address. 

To check out, all you need to do is pop your head around the doorway into the kitchen (door will be open during breakfast service and check out time and we will say our goodbyes/see you soons. Please leave your bedroom keys in the bedroom so that we can deep clean them along with your rooms. 

We ask that you use the hand sanitiser before leaving the building. 

7. OUR TEAM: TRAINING, HYGIENE AND PROTECTION

All of our team have undergone comprehensive hospitality-focused training on how to prevent the contagion of COVID-19. We will continue to elevate our training as best practices evolve. 

We will check all staff temperatures on a daily basis and any staff showing any signs or symptoms will be sent straight home to self-isolate for 14 days prior to returning to work. We are providing PPE and face masks for team members and these will be worn in line with current Government guidelines and recommendations, to keep you and our team safe. 

We are dedicated to ensure that we keep up to date with any changes to government guidelines and have achieved the Visit Britain "Good to Go" COVID-19 Industry Standard Award, in recognition that our business has confirmed that we have followed all COVID-19 guidelines, ensuring processes are in place to maintain cleanliness and aid social/physical distancing. 

If you have any further questions regarding your stay or our policies and procedures, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Nigel, Jane and Fay

Owners, Pontyclerc Farm House Bed and Breakfast

17th July, 2020