Trail Meets Brean Leisure Park's Sarah House

In our new series, we're putting operations in the spotlight. Getting unique insights from the front line. Today we're interviewing Sarah House, Director at Brean.
Jo Stephenson-Thompson
 • 
Dec 2023
4 min read

Brean Leisure Park rolled out Trail to cut down on paper and embrace a 100% digital operation.

Sustainability is a core focus for the team at Brean, so going paperless was an easy decision.

But Trail helped them in more ways than one. We caught up with Sarah House, Director at Brean, to find out how going digital helped them streamline their complex operations and operate during Covid.

How would you describe your role at Brean?

Busy! My role is very operational and hands on in delivering HR & Health and Safety across our various holiday resort areas.

What’s the best and worst thing about your job?

I love putting smiles on people’s faces and seeing customers have a great stay/visit.

The most difficult part is ensuring levels of consistency in our multiple areas. I have to prioritise based on urgency, safety and service. And empower our department managers with the right tools to make the right decisions, so they can manage their own areas successfully.

What has been your biggest challenge at work during Covid?

Keeping up to the date with the changing guidance for both our team and guests.

People now have to pre-book activities rather than just turn up, and order food and drinks through an app to reduce physical contact between team members and guests.

You joined Trail in March this year, what were the main problems you wanted to solve?

First of all; to save paper. Our main focus during 2021 is putting sustainability at the heart of everything we do. Each area would usually have a daily record book split into daily, weekly and monthly tasks. We have over 16 areas, and we make the books ourselves, so this has saved lots of paper and time.

Moving online gives you real time information, you can instantly see which areas are performing well, who is running behind and who is using it as a tick box exercise.

It is also creating some healthy competition between areas on who is receiving the highest score.

What are the most valuable tasks you use on Trail?

Some of the tasks are fairly complicated—like water tests for the pools and hot tubs—but they are crucial for the maintenance of our facilities. And the reports are really useful to review over time.

Customer complaints and incidents tasks are also valuable. We have them setup on notifications, so the relevant area manager is informed straight away and can take action.

Brean Leisure Park customer testimonial


What customers are saying

"I f****** love Trail, it's taking my businesses to the next level."
Josh Paterson
Owner
"We rarely provide training to our guys, they just bought into the idea straight away. I love that I have a full visual of everyone's activity in front of me."
Katrin Toots
Compliance Manager
“It’s not a paper diary that’s covered in barbecue sauce. We have clarity over what’s done in our sites and are confident going into our audits.”
Jay Brown
Operations
“The EHO visited almost every site last year and every store was given a five star rating."
Jay Brown
Operations Chef
"We turned our Costa Checks and various compliance forms into regular tasks on Trail, which has contributed to some of the best scores we have had."
Delroy Daniels
Operations Director
"Our teams love it, it gives our managers of all levels absolute clarity on what they need to achieve every day."
James Brown
Operations Director

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