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It's Chriiiiiistmas and the End of Another Great Year!

23/12/2016

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As you might have read I'm a HUGE fan of Nottingham Playhouse. I love sponsoring the arts and supporting the theatre, and we often have actors staying in our apartments (here's one of our most popular blog posts ever – an interview with actor Amy Trigg).

Every year the Nook & Cranny crew go to the panto (oh yes we do!) and this year was no different. So, two weeks ago a group of us went along to Cast for a delicious dinner followed by a hilarious night watching Aladdin. Nothing gets you into the Chrismtas mood more than a panto and singing along with hundreds of other people to X factor tunes!
Nook & Cranny go to the panto
I recently wrote about my relationships with local busiensses, how we all work together and help each other, and part of the reason we go to the panto is so that I can say thanks to them. I loved hosting a group of the dedicated people who support Nook & Cranny behind the scenes all year to a fun evening out, including my accountant, my property manager and my Google expert!
Christmas night out at Aladdin
I'd like to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us have the best 12 months we've ever had. These are exciting times for Nook & Cranny, we're going from strength to strength (I'll show you our gorgeous new apartments in the new year!) and exceeded all our expectations this year. Whether you're a guest, someone we work with, a friend, or you just read our blog once in a while, a really big thank you for your support.

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you and your families from all of us at Nook & Cranny!
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It's Been Another Great Year! And the Secret of Our Success..?

5/12/2016

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Now we're well into December (we've got our Christmas Party at Nottingham Playhouse this week – a blog will follow!) we're beginning to look back and reflect on the last 12 months. And it's been another fantastic year!

As a business, of course the financial side of things is important and there is clearly a BIG (and increasing) demand for high quality short-term lets outside Nottingham city centre – our turnover has grown this year, as has our profit, and occupancy is at an all-time high. By May 2016 we had 21 properties, now we have 28 so it's fair to say that business is booming. We haven't felt any ill effects from the Brexit vote and, as we have such strong ties with businesses and Universities throughout Europe and the rest of the world, leaving the EU (if it ever happens!) shouldn't affect us too badly.

But even more importantly than our growth on paper is the feedback we get. We never let any of our success go to our heads and it feeds our desire to provide the best luxury short-term accommodation in the area – with a difference!
Nook and Cranny get the job done in an extremely professional manner with a bespoke service making you feel like you're their only client. 5/5 stars
- Paul Eaton, Titanium Project, Nottingham
And that difference is the extra effort we put in.

I live in West Bridgford and I personally  make sure that every property is perfect and ready before our guests arrive. Last year, I talked about my aim of 
providing a service that's the complete opposite of the dehumaising experience many people experience when they relocate or travel for business. We want our visitors to feel part of the community they're staying in the moment they arrive, so we make sure they do by finding out exactly what they need during their stay (whether that's a gym, a cot, information about local schools or any other help with relocating). ​
Lovely little house in West Bridgford with all the necessary amenities. Katie was an excellent host - very welcoming and nothing was too much trouble during our stay. 
– Matt Barnes, Melbourne, Australia (January 2016)
Earlier this year one of our visitors wanted to send her luggage to us before she arrived. Now, if you stay in a hotel they'll usually let you leave your suitcase there for a few hours before you fly. But three days before you arrive?? Probably not! That's the sort of thing we can do for our clients. When it happened the property was occupied before the guest was due to arrive so I took her luggage in and looked after it until she arrived.
Wow. This truly is a 5-star experience. My family of 4 and I have been to several hotels and Airbnb's throughout the UK and we've never felt as comfortable and spoilt as we did at Katie's! Every detail was spot on. The house is fully furnished and renovated with new and modern styles, including the kitchen and all bathrooms.
– Ameen (September 2016)
It's not just the customer care that makes us different, we do lots of things differently! For years I've believed in supporting the local economy, so we work with local suppliers who take care of several aspects of the business as varied as the plumbing, decorating, accounting, blogging, cleaning and Google! We're helping small local businesses but it helps us too. As our partners become friends we all help each other out. And with nearly 30 properties to look after it's worth being friends with everyone just in case you need to call them on a Sunday evening (it has happened!) – because you're friends you get a response straight away!

Things seem to go wrong at weekends so I've had to call out an electrician on a Sunday morning – who else gets that kind of service? – and when a freezer in one of our properties broke (one Saturday night) I was more than happy to move our guest to another flat while the problem was fixed (which I managed to do. Amazing given my limited electrical knowledge but luckily it was only a blown fuse!).
We pay our invoices and bills before they're even sent to us and I'm sure that's one reason why we get such amazing service. We all enjoy working together, which is better for business but also better for our visitors as we always provide an amazing service. And that's what it's all about.
short term accommodation west bridgford
Katie's flat was exactly as described and more! It was absolutely stunning and completely spotless when we arrived! Prior to arriving, Katie responded to emails/questions immediately which of course put me at ease having booked a flat abroad. The location was perfect for us being in West Bridgford and just a short walk to the shops, restaurants, and cafes. As my husband and I travel frequently to the UK staying in a hotel with parking fees is quite pricey so I must say that we really enjoyed the secure, assigned parking space.
– Erin, Philadelphia (January 2016)
We've had a fantastic year and we hope you have too. We intend to keep growing on our success and carry on providing the best short-term accommodation around! If you'd like to check out our luxury apartments and experience our customer service for yourself please get in touch. And don't forget to come back soon and read about our Christmas Party!
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The World's Biggest Coffee Morning - With a Twist!

20/10/2016

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On Friday 30th September, we took part in the World's Biggest Coffee Morning and held our own event here in West Bridgford to raise money for Macmillan cancer support.

We wanted to do it a little bit differently so we decided to give it a health slant. At our coffee morning we had someone offering hand massages, someone selling oils and salts, someone giving pilates lessons... and of course there was lots of coffee and cake!

Thanks to the generosity of everyone who came along we raised a fantastic £354 (which we're going to double to make a total of £708). Not bad for a morning's cake-eating. I've just popped over to the Macmillan website and at the time of writing, all of the coffee mornings nationwide have raised £8,641,243.02. Now that's a lot of cake!
We were really lucky with the weather – here we are enjoying the beautiful day in late September.

We had a great turnout, about 30 people called in, and we thought it might be a good idea to re-open our doors at 5pm for anyone who couldn't make it during the day, so we picked up lots of people after work too.
Nook & Cranny coffee morning
This is Angeliki with a gorgeous collection of her extra virgin olive oil and sea salts, which went down very well. Angeliki runs Elia http://eliafoods.co.uk and specialises in bringing Greek food to the UK, feel free to contact her if you'd like to know more.
Above is Corinne, who's the local Executive Manager at The Body Shop at Home. She raised lots of money by offering luxurious hand massages to everyone for £2 a pop. And here's Nikki – owner of Studio Bùa in The Park, Nottingham – teaching some of the ladies about pilates and helping them burn off their coffee morning treats! 
pilates in West Bridgford
Katie Aungles Nook & Cranny coffee morning
Not only did we have all that going on but we managed to fit in a raffle with some brilliant prizes from lots of local businesses too, so a BIG thank you to Côte, Mud Crab and La Storia – which contributed to the total we raised.

And finally a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who came along, brought cake, bought cake, ate cake or donated in any way to make the morning such a huge success. Our guests say thanks too, they were extremely happy to be greeted  with the delicious leftovers when they arrived in their apartments!


​So, shall we do it all again next year? Same time, same place?

Feel free to get in touch to talk to us about cake, coffee mornings or our luxury apartments! 

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Behind the Scenes with Our Army of Cleaners

2/6/2016

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It's really important to us that our guests have a relaxing stay in our apartments, sometimes they've relocated around the world, they're away from their families or they find themselves somewhere completely new. We have Katalin Pfortner and her team – "The Pink Army" - to thank for making sure that our properties are always spotless and for doing our guests' ironing, so I decided to track her down and find out more.

Two and a half years ago, when I first met Katalin, she was a cleaner and housekeeper for Bright & Beautiful. Now she's the franchisee and Operational Manager in Nottingham, with a team of 22 cleaners.

Here's our chat from earlier in the week...

What is the best bit about what you do?
There are so many things I love about my job. As you can imagine I like places to be clean and tidy but there's a lot more to it than that. I really enjoy providing a personal service and the face-to-face contact I have with clients. There's lots of problem-solving when you're managing over 100 customers and I find it really satisfying.

What do you do for Nook & Cranny?
We do two different types of clean – interim (during a guest's stay) and exit cleans, which are more thorough. We also change the bed linen and towels, and do the ironing if guests ask us to. Last year we updated ALL of the bed linen and towels in every single flat, that took some organising! Now you've got over 20 apartments, with people arriving and leaving at different times, we have a special system to manage exit cleans and we provide a 7 day a week service just for you to fit in with your guests.
katalin pfortner nook and cranny cleaner
Katalin, Cleaning Chief & Head of Housekeeping
"It's a luxury service, like a hotel"
What makes Bright & Beautiful different?
Well, firstly the products we use are all eco-friendly, we don't use bleach or anything else that's harmful to people or the environment. We use soft cloths and feather dusters, nothing harsh or abrasive. The other thing is the way we're set up. We're not an agency, we believe in looking after our staff so all of our cleaners are employed and they're paid for their travel time too, which is unusual in the industry. As the boss, I treat everyone the way I'd like to be treated myself and I wouldn't ask someone to do something I wouldn't be prepared to do myself!

Have you got any funny stories (please keep it clean!)?
There are a few stories I can't share... all I'll say is that some of the exit cleans after actors' parties are interesting! Nook & Cranny has a lot of different guests so we meet all sorts of people - actors, tourists, professionals, sportspeople. The team tends to fight over who gets to clean your apartments when you have professional footballers and cricketers staying in the hope that they might meet them!
cleaning at nook and cranny
The Pink Army
​Have you got any tips for those of us who might not be quite so keen on cleaning?
Yes, a few... my first one is that if you're not sweating you're not doing it right! Cleaning is great exercise, none of us need gym memberships any more. I'd also recommend doing two hours of cleaning if you feel stressed, it's surprisingly relaxing.


Thank you so so much to Katalin, there's always a lot more to a job than meets the eye, I might even start viewing my cleaning as relaxing...

A lot goes into providing an excellent service to everyone who stays at our properties, we'll be giving you a behind the scenes look at some of the other people who make it happen soon.

If you've got any comments or questions fire away and, as always, feel free to contact us if you're looking for short-term luxury accommodation in West Bridgford, Nottingham.

​Now, where's my feather duster...

Katalin's Story
​Within a month of joining Bright & Beautiful's army of cleaners, Katalin was made Team Leader, she quickly became Senior Team Leader and then the full-time Operational Manager. She now owns and runs the local franchise of Bright & Beautiful, which covers all of Nottingham city and beyond (postcodes NG1 to NG14). Her local team provides a professional cleaning and ironing service, offering regular weekly and fortnightly cleans. Kat has already grown the business and has a team of 22 cleaners, and she's aiming to double that within the next 2 years. Having seen what she's capable of we're sure she'll achieve it!
1 Comment

    Katie

    I live in the community where these apartments are located, I know the area, its people & places and enjoy sharing so that other people can enjoy it too.   

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