Congratulations
…to: Lynn Francis Room Attendant at WLP voted Simply the Best for November 2009 – a well deserved award [pic top left]
…to: Wanda Ioannou, Lisa Bennett and Esther Smith, all in Housekeeping at WLP and all having successfully completed their NVQ Level 2 in Housekeeping- everyone is delighted for you! [pic bottom left]
…to: Andrew Swales on 5 years with the Gardens Team at West Lodge Park – well done Andrew [pic centre top]
…to: Grant Cook and his team for the building of a new shower facility in the staff accommodation at WLP (much appreciated by all the team) [pic centre bottom] and for the opening of the newly refurbished Bedroom 90 at WLP with a light olive Zoffany wallpaper that does much to improve this spacious bedroom [pics top & bottom right]
Great news!
…WLP finally joins the free wifi community – on the week commencing 18th January the old Swisscom paid for wifi service will cease and a new free service will be installed. This will be a big benefit to our corporate guests who have been requesting this for some time. At Beales Hotel we already have free wired broadband in every bedroom and conference room – this latest project makes it even easier for our guests to go online.
Gardens news
although the Beale Arboretum might be in a deep freeze in recent days, we have been busy with winter plantings which this year have included no less than 17 rare oaks (Quercus) for the top field just beyond the lime avenue, and a further 9 rare hollies (Ilex) thereby creating two great new collections of trees and shrubs to grace the arboretum.
And finally…
a look back at 2009 at Beales Hotels. At first glance it is a year to forget for all of us, our guests and our team. However on closer inspection it has been a year full of achievement – some of the highlights of 2009 include:
– the triumphal opening of the Mary Beale Restaurant
– refurbishments completed in the WLP bedrooms 33, 36, 29, 28, 54, 55, 56, 58, 60, 62, 90
– the huge growth and improvement in our web presence with www.bealeshotels.co.uk
– the first pots of honey from our West Lodge Park beehives !
– New Freeview TVs in every WLP bedroom
– New Room master computer system at WLP
– Visit of the International Dendrology society – the top tree organisation in the world.
– Visit of Ann Widdecombe for a memorable lunch at BH
– The return of Diego Granada as Head Chef at BH
– Fantastic press coverage of both hotels during the year
Happy new year for 2010 to all our guests, staff, and shareholders!

Andrew Beale
Managing Director