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Introduction

Our COVID-19 Policy

We will do our utmost to provide as safe an environment as we possibly can in respect of the COVID-19 crisis, but we cannot do it alone. We are asking all of our guests to take an active role, to do what they can in helping reduce the risk to themselves, other guests, the local community and those that live or work here at Lower Glyn Farm. You need to be aware that anyone found to be ignoring or not following the following instructions will be asked to go home without a refund, as they are knowingly putting the health of all of us at risk.

The COVID-19 policies and procedures listed below are based on current government and scientific advice. We will continue to update this page as government guidance changes.

Prior to your booking, if any member of your family is feeling unwell or showing the initial signs of infection from the virus (high temperature, persistent cough, loss of smell and/or taste etc), please do not travel, please contact us and let us know. We will happily defer your booking to a later date. NB. There will only be an additional cost if you choose a date or accommodation that differs significantly from your original booking.

Social distancing – We ask all our guests to follow the current government advice on social distancing. Please keep 2 metres apart from anyone outside your immediate family group.

Social distancing measures apply to all areas of the farm and yurt site when you come into close proximity to other people.

Please respect the wellbeing and feelings of people that live in the local villages, when going for a walk, visiting local areas or using amenities.

Wash your hands regularly – Avoid touching your mouth, eyes or nose (this is the major cause of infection) after touching something in a communal area unless you have washed your hands first.

LARGE FAMILY, AND GROUP BOOKINGS

In line with current government regulations, we are not accepting any bookings for individual yurts or the Lake House where the accommodation will be shared by more than one household group. We have also restricted the maximum number of yurts that can be booked per group to two, in line with the regulations limiting the maximum number of households that can get together at any one time. Please remember the two metre social distancing rule still applies between different household groups. These measures are to help avoid the risk of spreading the infection in individual yurts, the Lake House or on the yurt site.

NB. The following procedures have been put in place in response to the current COVID-19 crisis and are there to try and prevent the spread of the virus to our guests, staff and ourselves. These procedures will be reviewed as scientific and government policies allow.

BEFORE YOUR ARRIVAL

Hidden Valley Yurts prides itself on always having high levels of cleanliness but we will be going to extra effort to make sure the yurts are as safe as we can possibly make them so you can enjoy your holiday.

We will do a deep clean of the yurt and disinfect all high touch surfaces with an antiviral product, to make sure the yurt is as safe as we can possibly make it.

All doors would have been left open (weather permitting) to make sure the yurts have been well aired in preparation for your arrival.

Any items that could hold a high risk of contamination will be temporarily unavailable. We would normally provide pillows, towels and tea towels but you are requested to bring your own in addition to the usual items such as bedding, duvets and sheets etc.

WHEN YOU ARRIVE

We are reducing the number of cars allocated to each of the yurts and the Lake House from 2 to 1, so the use of only one car should be sufficient.

Please contact us to discuss in advance of your arrival, if there are extenuating circumstances that would require the use of more than 1 car.

NB. provision of an additional parking space will not be agreed if you haven’t contacted me in advance.

Please stay in your car when you arrive and try to park at least 2 metres apart from other cars. If you are the first to arrive please park at the far end of the car park. This will help other guests to park 2 metres away from the next car as they arrive. If you do need to exit your vehicle on arrival, please follow the 2 metre social distancing rule.

LUGGAGE

The driver of the buggy will open the luggage bay of the buggy and the guests will then load their own luggage/bags into the back of the buggy. The driver of the buggy will then close up the luggage bay and make sure everything is secure.

One member of the guest’s family will then sit on the back seat and accompany the driver of the buggy down to your yurt or Lake House. The driver will open the luggage bay and stand back (2 metres) while the buggy is unloaded by you. All other members of the family will walk down to their yurt or the Lake House, unless they have mobility issues.

This procedure will be repeated for departure.

THE BUGGY

Due to the close proximity of the driver to the passengers, we will be installing a clear Perspex/acrylic screen between the front and the back seats. This will hopefully help reduce the chance of infection caused by coughs and sneezes.

No one will be allowed to sit next to the driver in the front passenger seat, we will be temporarily removing this seat to avoid any confusion.

The back seat will only be used by one guest from each party, who will then be on-hand to unload your luggage. An exception will be made for those unable to walk down to the yurts or Lake House. i.e. very young children, the elderly or those with mobility issues.

After each journey to and from the yurt site or Lake House, the back seat area and luggage bay will be wiped down/disinfected. This may lead to traces of disinfectant getting on to your luggage, so please make sure your belongings are packed in bags and not put loose in the luggage bay of the buggy. This will also speed up the transporting of guests to and from the accommodation. Any loose items will have to be either left in your car or carried down to the site.

N.B. These measures may slow down the rate in which we can transport individual families to their accommodation, we ask you to be patient and we will get to you as soon as we can.

ARRIVAL TIME CHANGE

We are changing the time our guests can arrive to start their holiday from 16:00 to 17:00. This is to make sure we have enough time to do a deep clean and disinfection of the yurts and the Lake House. We are sorry that the start of your holiday will be delayed but we feel that the extra cleanliness and peace of mind this will give our guest warrants the additional time.

DAY VISITORS

Guests staying on the yurt site or Lake House will not be able to invite friends to come and spend the day with them as visitors to the site. Only those booked to stay in the yurts or Lake House will be able to stay and use the facilities. This is to help minimise the number of people using the facilities and to help reduce the spread of the virus to other guests. Hopefully this will be temporary, and we will be able to lift this, as lockdown and social distancing measures are reduced.

We may be limited to a certain number of people that can gather in a single group and we will ask all guests to adhere to this or risk being asked to return home. Currently no more than 2 individual households’ groups can meet, and they must follow the 2 metre rule.

YURT SITE

COMMUNAL KITCHEN AND BATHROOMS

Yurt 1 has its own kitchen and toilets. It also now has its own outdoor safari shower, installed in 2020 to help with social distancing. Yurt 2 also has its own toilet. We are currently also working on creating separate bathrooms to avoid the need for communal usage between yurts 2, 3, 4 and 5. We will have 1 bathroom to share between yurts 4 and 5 and another bathroom to share between yurts 2 and 3. This will be ready for use in 2021. If the government announce that we are able to open as long as there are no shared bathrooms we will accept a booking of only one of each yurt so that each yurt has its own private bathroom.

Communal usage rules:

Each family/yurt will be allocated a time slot to use the communal kitchen and bathroom. A blackboard and chalk will be placed at the entrance to of each of these facilities with available time slots for morning and evening (the communal kitchen will also have slots for the preparation and cooking of mid-day meals). The slots will be no more than ½ an hour and each time slot will be allocated on a 1st come 1st served basis. We ask our guests to respect this and not to over run their allocated time. Cleaning materials will be left in the communal kitchen and bathrooms to allow guests to wipe down the facilities before and after use. For your comfort and privacy, this will mean a member of yurt site staff will not have to wait outside the bathrooms/toilets to clean them after each use.

Please see the alternative cooking methods section below.

We will be initiating an additional clean of the communal bathrooms on the yurt site, there will be 2 a day the 1st at 11:30 and the 2nd at 15:30. No one will be able to enter the facilities while they are being cleaned.

Due to the chances of cross contamination, we will not be providing hand or bath towels in the communal bathrooms and request that you bring your own. DO NOT leave your towels or any products in the bathrooms.

Those with private facilities (Yurt 1 kitchen, shower and compost loo & Yurt 2 compost loo), we ask that you only use those facilities and refrain from using the communal facilities (i.e. please do not use the flushing loos if you have your own private compost loo), this will help to maintain social distancing. To lower the risk of bumping into someone when entering or leaving the communal bathroom facilities, please call out to enquire if someone is already using the facilities and wait outside if they are.

ALTERNATIVE COOKING METHODS

Each yurt has its own BBQ & BBQ tools. We request that each yurt uses these as much as possible to alleviate the use of the main communal kitchen.

As well as the double BBQ by the safari tent, there is also a log burning pizza oven, which can be used for cooking things other than just pizzas. Just make sure you leave plenty of time for the oven to warm up, about 2 hours.

We also have a Dutch Oven you can borrow for campfire cooking. Additional campfires have been created to help alleviate crowding around the main fire.

All these alternative cooking options will help maintain social distancing and can also be fun to experiment with.

We will also be looking to introduce other meal preparation and cooking options.

Please make sure all plates, cutlery, pans and cooking utensils are cleaned thoroughly and put away after use. If using the dishwasher please use a program with a temperature of 60 degrees or more, as we understand this will be hot enough to kill the virus.

WASHING HANDS

There is a double sink in the main communal kitchen, 2 hand basins in the communal bathrooms, a kitchen sink in yurt 1 kitchen and 1 by the pizza oven. You will find a pump dispenser of liquid hand soap by each sink/basin, which will be checked and replaced as necessary twice a day.

Hand sanitiser will be left as normal in each yurt, each compost loo and additionally by each of the flushing loos. There will also be 2 sanitising hand gel dispensers located on the main communal deck area, which we ask people to use before entering and after leaving the kitchen or bathrooms.

If going for a walk on the farm, please remember to wash your hands on your return to the yurt site. Alternatively take the bottle of hand sanitiser in the yurt with you and use after opening each gate. Please return it to the yurt when you get back.

NB. We will try to make sure that we have plenty of stock of hand sanitiser but may find that we run low due to use on site and public demand, so we do ask that if you do have your own please bring it with you just in case we run short or are unable to source a supply.

All hand washing, sanitising and cleaning products provided are there to help protect yourself, your family and others from the risk of contracting the virus, they are not a complimentary gift and we kindly ask you not to take them home with you. Thank you.

DEPARTURE

The procedure for luggage transfer will be like that of arrival (just going to the car park from the yurts rather than the other way around).

If the weather permits, we ask that both doors of the yurt are left open (please use the door stops) to allow air to circulate and all rubbish in the yurt is picked up and placed in the waste bins provided, prior to our cleaners arriving.

ITEMS AND SERVICES THAT WILL NOT BE PROVIDED ON THE YURT SITE FOR THE TIME BEING:

Pillows
Bedding hire
Hand & bath towels
Tea towels
Books
Board games
Internet shopping service (please bring your own groceries with you)
Chickens for eggs
Rope swings (all areas)

THE LAKE HOUSE

Due to the specific nature of the Lake House, certain items are being provided that will not be available on the yurt site.

Towels, tea towels, and all bedding etc. will have been washed at 60.c (or higher) and then along with pillows and duvets left fallow (in storage) for at least 3 days/72 hours before being used again.

Please follow the arrival and buggy procedures listed above.

If you are staying in the Lake House, please do not go over to the yurt site or use any of the yurt site facilities.

On the morning of departure, we ask that you strip the beds and put all used bedding and towels in the bags provided. We would also be grateful if you can wipe down the showers, sinks, toilets, make sure all washing up is done and left out ready to be put away, empty the refuse bins and leave them outside the main door.

You will find a supply of cleaning products and cloths under the kitchen sink.

Please leave all outside doors open, weather permitting.