Mr and Mrs Rickard own a property at Audley Ellerslie in the Malvern Hills. They love to travel and make full use of being able to stay in the guest suite at other Audley villages as they travel the country.
The text below is in Mr Rickard's own words, sharing the experiences he and wife have encountered during their travels since 2018.
In early 2018, we decided to do a tour of some of the other Audley villages whilst we were waiting for Ellerslie Phase II to open. At that time we had been Owners for six months but had no facilities so we thought we would take a look at some villages to get a feel for what was on offer, not only for ourselves, but also for the other early Ellerslie ‘settlers’.
We like to provide feedback, so at the end of that year we published a report which got circulated to our friends and also to Audley management. We enjoyed our experience so much that we haven’t stopped visiting the villages and by now we have stayed over 200 nights in the guest suites at eight other Audley villages.
We try to embrace the full Audley experience and to us that includes not only our own fabulous village, but being able to take advantage of the facilities on offer across the whole estate.
We are well-travelled in the UK and we like the idea of exploring new areas, so we always plan visits with this in mind.
We do not use a guest room to visit a specific person, more like a mini-break holiday.
We have also written a series of short ‘impressions’ of our visits to other villages, which get circulated to the Ellerslie Owners.
Some of the highlights:
Many of the Audley villages have allowed us to see a new ‘local’ area, even if we knew the general area before. Visiting the local area is very important to us and we tend to be out during the day, returning late afternoon for a coffee in the bistro or on the terrace followed by an evening meal.
We like the familiarity of the Audley surroundings and we know roughly what to expect wherever we go across the whole estate.
Staff are universally friendly and are always very welcoming.
The food offerings are generally of the standard we are used to here at Ellerslie, so we tend to use the restaurants on most evenings. We can use the gym and pool facilities when we want. We also join in with local activities.
We have met a lot of Owners at other villages and it has been interesting to engage with a whole range of new people, some of whom have become good friends. We are also friends with many of the staff. We like the family atmosphere and that has prompted us to return to some villages on a regular basis.
We like the simple booking mechanisms and we feel the pricing is competitive. We also like that our spending at another village is added to our own Audley account, so there are no payments to worry about.
Having stayed well over 40 nights last year, we think the facilities are really good and live up to our expectations. We particularly liked the welcoming staff and the cheerful atmosphere. We think there should be more guest rooms at some villages and have provided further feedback to the Audley management team.
Thank you Mr and Mrs Rickard for sharing your experience.
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