Discovery Parks open for business with risk minimisation

How is your business going to do things differently post COVID-19?

There are over 280 parks in the combined Discovery Parks and Top Parks network across Australia, and our parks are set within the wide-open spaces of our regions from national parks to beaches and the wine country.

With travel restrictions easing, holiday and caravan parks provide a safe form of accommodation to go and experience this wonderful country. You could say, we provide isolated getaways. Our parks have cabin accommodation which is as self-isolating as accommodation comes. Well-distanced from one another, cabins have private cooking facilities, ensuites, independent air-conditioning and heating systems, and parking right outside. Caravans and motorhomes are also great self-contained accommodation options; travellers can bring food from home and self-cater… these aspects to our business will remain constant after the COVID-19 pandemic passes.

Like all businesses, we’re also running a little differently right now and have adopted our operations to ensure that the health and safety of our guests and staff is paramount. We’re doing all we can to minimise risk by implementing the following measures:

• Our operations have become as contactless as possible. For example, guests no longer need to check in/out face-to-face with staff.
• The rules on ‘gatherings’ must be adhered to, which varies from State to State. This means, no more than the specified number of people can congregate in public (i.e. in the camp kitchen or in shared spaces).
• We are taking hygiene seriously. Travellers can be confident that our parks are being cleaned to the highest of standards, and that our staff are employing heightened levels of sanitation.
• Where powered sites are available, only every second site is open to ensure social distancing.
• We’ve cancelled kids clubs and any community events for the time being.
• Some shared facilities have been opened but, this varies from State to State. This includes swimming pools, bouncing pillows, playgrounds, ablution blocks.

We are encouraging guests to cancel their stay if they are experiencing any symptoms of the virus and, as a result,have implemented a deposit-free booking process so that guests have peace of mind and feel confident to change their booking if needed, whether that be holidays in the immediate future or beyond

While travel advice is constantly changing, our business operations will continue to adapt and evolve as necessary, taking into account differences in each State/Territory. As restrictions ease, our parks will regain their strong community feel with shared facilities available for group use (playgrounds, pools, waterparks, BBQs) and powered camp sites being used side-by-side. Contactless check-ins as well as more frequent levels of sanitation for shared facilities will become more prominent in our parks and may be permanently implemented, this is the perfect time for us to trial and assess potential future operations.

In the meantime, we are looking forward to holiday and caravan parks being part of Australia’s road to recovery and are waiting to say G’DAY from 1.5M Away.

How is your business going to do things differently post COVID-19?

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