The health and well-being of our guests and team has always been the most impor tant thing to us. Following government advice in March, it was entirely necessary to close the Estate to protect everyone from the health risk of COVID-19.

Since then, we have been planning our comeback and dreaming up new ways to innovate and excite our guests to make sure that our Estate remains the most memorable hill in the world. We can now fling our doors back open at The Fish and Foxhill Manor on Monday 13th July and at Dormy House on Monday 20th July, however the House Spa at Dormy will remain closed until it’s safe for us to re-open.

We have built our business through the strength of our ‘family’ spirit and we will continue to do so to make sure that all our Farncombe family are kept safe & well.

Stay safe and see you soon,Andrew Grahame, CEO of Farncombe Estate

Our plans to keep you and our team safe We’ll be doing everything we can to reduce the physical touch points for our staff and guests, enhancing our already rigorous cleaning routines to make sure you’re as safe as possible during your time with us. We have put together just a few of the initiatives that we’ll be introducing.

Before we re-openWe’ll of course keep our hotels looking spick and span as always but over and above that we will be deep cleaning our hotels and central offices, all hand sanitisers will be refreshed with additional sanitiser stations installed, especially at the high-touch points like doors. Some details, including soft furnishings, have been removed from our rooms and disinfected and once we re-open this will happen on an on-going basis. Our air-conditioning systems have been sanitised and will continue to be in between guest stays.

We have and will continue to ‘shop’ locally whenever and wherever we can, suppor ting our local suppliers is ver y impor tant to us, and we have been working with them to understand the safety measures that they are taking against COVID-19.

Caring for you post lockdown… we’ve got COVID-19 covered.

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Once we’re back in business

There will be changes to the way we operate and you’ll most likely notice enhancements to our already very strict hygiene routines, especially around the high touch and traffic points in our hotels. Newspapers and magazines won’t be available in rooms or public areas, but we will happily supply them to guests for their use only. Communal fridges and areas where we stock water will be accompanied by hand sanitisers. Just for now we’ve also removed the board games and our games room at The Fish has now been transformed into more lounge space.

We’re asking guests to arrive from 3pm to check-in for their stay when rooms are guaranteed to be ready, so they can get to and enjoy their rooms as soon as possible. All rooms keys will be sanitised and individually sealed. We will also be using technology to make check-in easier and quicker for you and we promise to spare you the questions about ear ly morning calls! So, we can manage guest flow and ensure spacing guidelines are followed, for those joining us for a bite to eat we’re advising that booking in advance is essential to guarantee a table.

There will be the option to opt-out of the daily housekeeping service. We’ll be ventilating our rooms with good old-fashioned fresh air whilst we’re cleaning. Any single-use items that haven’t been used will be replaced before you arrive and where possible recycled.

Although guests can’t usually see behind-the-scenes (however, we’re always more than happy to give a tour!) changes will be made to our operational processes for things such as deliveries to the kitchen to reduce face-to-face contact.

In restaurants we will be giving you more space between tables and reservation times for lunch and dinner will be staggered and extended so there’s as little queuing as possible. We will be introducing full table service in our bar and lounges. We’ve extended the areas as well as the timings of where and when breakfast will be served and buffet items will be ordered on-request from the kitchen. Our chefs have been using this time to work on creating brand new menus (with a nod here and there to immune boosting ingredients!) For those that prefer to dine in the comfor t of their room, we’ve increased the choice of our in-room dining options. Initially we will be phasing our food offerings back in and just for the time being MO won’t be available due to the intimate nature of the restaurant.

Menus will be available by scanning a QR code, giving you the perfect excuse to have your phone out at the table! We’re also moving our whole business to cashless and will be asking guests to pay via contactless payments wherever possible.

Whilst our hotels are often very popular, we’re going to look for oppor tunities where we can leave the maximum possible gap between the occupancy of our rooms.

Whilst the rules don’t allow us to host corporate get-togethers just at the moment, when we are able to things like pads and pencils won’t be supplied (let’s face it they’re only used for doodling anyway!) and water bottles will provided on an individual rather than shared basis. At break times we’ll have a team member on hand to serve tea and coffee so guests won’t have to use the same coffee machines and our lunches will be served pre-packaged with pre-wrapped cutler y. For meeting organisers, our team will be on hand via WhatsApp, text and phone to reduce face-to-face contact. As we’re located in over 400-acres of the Cotswolds there’s no reason you can’t take the meeting outdoors and we can help with marquees, tipis and even inflatable buildings!

For those hosting family get-togethers, reunions of fr iends and other shindigs booked to take place with us in July and August, we’ll be giving you a call to talk through dining and answer any other queries you may have about making the most of your time with us.

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As a family-owned business, our team members are par t of our extended family and their safety and well-being, both physical and mental, is at the top of our agenda. Before everyone returns to work there will be safety briefings and training sessions and we have a dedicated, clear repor ting process if a team member feels unwell.

Since we had to close our Estate and since the fur lough scheme came into place, we’ve made sure all of our team have been paid on time and suppor t them in any way we can. Everyone has access to the services of our industr y charity, Hospitality

Action, which helps those struggling with mental health and well-being and our team can also contact their manager at any time. Any team member that is classed as high risk and needs to isolate for longer will be well looked after.

Where they can our team members will continue to work from home and for those back on the Estate staggered work and break times will be in place as well as longer team mealtimes with a larger dining area. There will be more space for the team to work where possible and we will introduce one-way systems in areas such as our kitchens.

Some team members may find themselves with new daily tasks to help share the workload with other team members and reduce contact. The safety of our team is paramount and we’ve put together risk assessments for every area of our business. Training will be delivered to every team member at both a general and role specific level to make sure any risk to the team is reduced as far as possible including, where there is a need for it, PPE being provided.

And for our family beyond the Estate, we have and will continue to make sure all suppliers are paid on time and in some cases have put in place enhanced payment terms to help them through.

We’re very conscious about being a community suppor ter as well and have run a series of giveaways for those working in the care sector, we adorned Dormy House with a blue bow in suppor t of the NHS and worked with key par tners to pledge our suppor t. We’ve been absolutely blown away by the feedback we’ve received on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook in suppor t of our postings with some of our greatest hits being Harvey’s Happy Hour, our Pic-a-Nick competition and giveaways with our fr iends at Pea, Sharkey & George and Honna.

What if I’d rather come and stay another time?In the majority of cases guests will have the oppor tunity to postpone or cancel their stay penalty free at least 48 hours in advance of arrival (please check your confirmation for the details of your stay).

For those guests that have booked directly with us on a non-amendable rate, we’ve introduced more flexibility allowing you to push your booking back by 6 months to another date where the same rate is available. Please do give our Reservations team a call to discuss your options.

If you’d like any more information and have questions then call us, email us or message us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

We’ve got you covered.

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What we’re doing for our Farncombe Family