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How to Deal With Tricky Neighbours · Outdoor Hospitality Podcast: Glamping, STR, Resorts, Unique Stays, RV Parks, RV Resorts & Campgrounds

• 0:00
  Unknown: All
• 0:08
  Craig Mills: The glamping businesses that I've seen, you know, NC500 Pods being one of them obviously, one thing I always really like, is that they seem to have a really good connection with local community, local businesses. In your mind at some of these places, you've got, like a welcome hamper, but there was those really nice local products. It just feels that you've got a more of a connection with the area that you're in. If it was two glamping sites in a hypothetical situation, next door to each other and they offered similar product, I'd be looking at, well, did it connect with the locals? Do they offer me some local advice? Do they get a discount with your bike hire company or something like that, because that's got a little edge to it, which is quite nice. It goes back to that thing you're saying about the locals not liking the glamping sites. Just because one person doesn't like it, the other 99 people might like it.
• 1:03
  Nick Purslow: Hello, and welcome to the Glampitect Podcast. Today I'm joined by Craig Mills, who's the head of operations at NC 500. NC500, not to be confused with nc 500 pods, which is our co founders' glamping business, is the brand behind the north coast 500 route, a 500 mile stretch of road across the north of Scotland. The company was established only a few years ago, but it's taken off completely since then. The reason I wanted to talk to Craig is because there are a lot of parallels between his business and the glamping businesses. For one, he has to strike a balance between preserving the feel of the local area while building a successful business. He also has to deal with wary locals, which is something that you'll probably have to do on your glamping journey. Craig gave some really useful advice for dealing with these issues, as well as on creating a good team and partnering with local businesses. I'm really happy with this one and I strongly recommend listening to the end.
• 1:49
  Nick Purslow: As ever, I hope you enjoy and find value in today's episode.
• 1:54
  Nick Purslow: Hi, Craig, thank you for coming on the Glampitect podcast How you doing?
• 1:58
  Craig Mills: I'm doing well, Nick, no, thank you very much for having me today. It's great to face our name.
• 2:05
  Nick Purslow: So you're the head of operations at NC 500, which is the brand behind the big North Coast 500 route all across the north coast of Scotland. You know, it's got loads of scenery, loads of tourist attractions, and all that good stuff. And I'm just interested in, well, first of all, tell us about yourself, and how you came to work for nc 500. And the business and the concept behind it.
• 2:30
  Craig Mills: Yeah, of course, quite different for me. Usually, for the last five years, or just over four years I've been with the company, every chat that I've done has always been about the route. So this is one of the very first times we've ever spoke about the team behind it.
• 2:42
  Craig Mills: It's really exciting to talk about. So myself. Yeah, Craig, I've been with North Coast 500 for just over four years. And before that I have quite a long career in retail working for a national retailer, always working all over Britain over Scotland, always working my way north trying to get as far north as possible, because I love the area. And so I've moved all the way up here, opened a shop in Inverness for my last company.
• 3:15
  Craig Mills: And just my situation changed, family, kids came along and I decided I just didn't want to work in retail any longer. I seen an advert for North Coast 500. And just from holiday in that area for so many years, it just interested me. I didn't really understand what it was about, I went along to the interview quite open minded about it, not knowing that Tom, my boss, he was looking for somebody with a huge retail background to take on the role.
• 3:49
  Craig Mills: So it was quite a good match made in heaven, really. So for the last four or four years been working nonstop with North Coast 500 getting a lot of things changed. Growing with the company, the company is only six years old. So it's been quite an interesting journey. Trying to change a lot of things for hopefully for the better for everybody.
• 4:08
  Nick Purslow: Yeah. For the benefit of the listeners, what is the business model? Like? You said, off camera we said, you know, we always have to mention the dirty word. It's money. So what sort of model do you have?
• 4:19
  Nick Purslow: And how do you guys make your money?
• 4:23
  Craig Mills: Yeah, so it goes right back to the to the inception of the route, which was in your first question, so I blabbered on as I tend to. So, the north coast 500, the idea came about because it was seen as a way to try and get people north of Inverness. For so many years Inverness has been seen as the ceiling of Scotland. People get their and that's their trip done. They explore the area, and don't get me wrong, it's a lovely area. It's fantastic Inverness, but the North Highland initiative, we're tasked with this concept of how do you get people further north because there's a whole whole landscape here that's untouched, it's the size of Belgium, North Coast 500. So it's a big area, lots of things to do. But unfortunately, it's an area that's in a bit of decline with an ageing population. There's not a lot of opportunities, but tourism has got to be one of those opportunities.
• 5:17
  Craig Mills: So North Highland Initiative were tasked with that concept, they quickly come up with a few ideas, which was, rather than selecting one other area and creating effectively another Inverness, you know, you could take Wick, wherever it may be, you create another Inverness, it should be a honeypot. So they decided that they wanted to try and get people to, to move around the area and see more of it and see the differences in the area, that doesn't have to be all in one go, you know, week to week long trip, it can be over months or years, they'll come to one area, and they should come to another area and see the different areas that make up the route. So that was why the idea behind the north coast 500 was to get people to see the area and then come up north.
• 5:56
  Craig Mills: It was decided that rather than being the traditional route to market in Scottish tourism, which is, you know, centrally funded, and getting government money issued to you, that this was going to effectively wash its own face, we're going to stand on our own two feet, we're gonna be a private company. And we're gonna do things differently. And that hasn't appeased a lot of people. A lot of people dislike that, because they're quite traditional in their ways. But at the same time, there's a lot of people take notice. And that's been part of the story of why it's become so popular, it has worked to a degree being a private company. So we were told, with our proof of concept by Professor John Lennon, we found the way to monetize this brand, that's the key to unlocking it as who we were going to be successful. So that was quite interesting. He thought this was a great idea that gave us the backing, we just had to find a way to monetize it.
• 6:51
  Craig Mills: So the way that it was started to monetize was the trademarks, northcoast 500, and nc 500 registered, so we took them out.
• 7:01
  Craig Mills: So we've got them. And we started to say, Well, how can we start to promote the businesses and to make money off these trademarks. So in its most basic form, we have got our business membership scheme, which allows the best local businesses such as Glampitect, NC500 pods, to use our branding for the promotion of their business. So we allow you guys to use nc 500, North Coast 500 Pods, whenever you're doing all your promotions, you pay for that right to do that. But what the trademarks have also done as a subsequent is we can stop people from promoting the area that are maybe doing it a disservice. So you know, people have been organising races, we can stop that because we have to trademarks. People who are advertising motorhomes that are way too big for the route, we can stop them. So that's been a by-product of having the trademarks. It's not all about that that dirty money word.
• 7:57
  Craig Mills: It's obviously helped try and police the route to an extent.
• 8:01
  Craig Mills: So that's that's one of our ways of having an income generation is with the businesses. We've also got a different level of membership for people that are outside the route because if you go onto our website, you'll see Arnold Clark and all these big companies that are quite clearly not local businesses. So we offer a different level of membership to those guys, you know, depending on what they want, and I think we'll maybe touch on some partnerships later on. But that's where we work with those guys. The trademarks have allowed us also to pull up licence agreements for businesses that perhaps don't want to become a business member, but they want to use our trademarks. So we'll work with people to do that. We've got exciting new products coming out this year that are using our trademarks, which are really, really good I can't say too much just now, unfortunately. But watch this space for some really cool products on the shelf, which is really quite good.
• 8:49
  Craig Mills: And also we have got our merchandise and our own memberships as well or private memberships. This is just something that we do. It's never something I intended for us to have as this big income drivers, t shirts and private memberships. But the demand is there. So we have got that there. Watch this space again, because this week, we're launching a whole new rebranding new merchandise, everything's hitting the shelves this week.
• 9:14
  Craig Mills: So it's really exciting. And it's it's good that with the trademarks, and the merchandise is a way of always having to stay fresh. You know, that's what we've done. A lot of rebranding work over the past few months has come to fruition this week. And the benefit of that is that we want to help them monetize our brand. But at the same time, it's also going to help those 500 local businesses that we work with because it's keeping things fresh for them, it's really exciting.
• 9:39
  Nick Purslow: Yeah, and this obviously sounds like a huge project. Really, you know, you mentioned north of Inverness is the size of Belgium, which surprised me. You've got quite a small team, am I right in thinking? Aow does how does that work? And how do you guys tick?
• 9:52
  Craig Mills: Yeah, so the team is, when I tell this people are always quite surprised because we have got team of, it's six staff in total, three of us are full time. That's including myself and three are part time.
• 10:03
  Craig Mills: So we're really smaller than they think that last year we had, what, just over a million people alone last year visit our website. We've got an audience reach 11 billion people and social media, which are 23 million, that six people have done that in the last year is unbelievable. It's just, it's quite a good success story to tell people, you know, when I speak to other small businesses around about the route, Craig, can you do me a discounted rate, please? I've only got five staff. Yeah, that's just less than me, you know, we're a small team as well. So it's quite nice from here that a lot of people think that we are some huge company, huge organisation. And it can can be further from the truth. You know, that's the thing, but it's just shows how hardworking we all are. And one thing that all six of us share is we've all got our areas of responsibility. Mine is quite overarching, with a lot of things, jack of all trades, master of none I think the saying is for me, I do a lot of it.
• 11:02
  Craig Mills: But what keeps us all tied together is that genuinely each individual works, is the passion that we've got for the area, and it shines in all of our work.
• 11:10
  Craig Mills: You know, that's the thing, we all care so much about that. So the thing that drew me to the job was the fact that I knew the area so well, I'd holidayed here. I thought it'd be really good to be part of the messaging to get more people up here and let them see why see why I come on holiday here. And although I've been recruiting new staff or other staff have left, it's the one thing that's always been there's been the passion, and in my time that people have left us, they left they didn't want to, it was just circumstances mostly because they'd wanted to be here still, they'd loved the job, loved the area, it was really good. And being a small team, as you guys are similar as well, you's will know that they're a big thing for us is that all of us working together, you know, we all can work hard to each other and pick up parts of each other's jobs. Others, you know, when someone's struggling with something, you can help step in, so hard work, dedication and passion. There's really what keeps us going, which is really, really good for the last four years.
• 12:07
  Nick Purslow: And how do you think that passion is transferred into success? Why is the NC 500 so popular with visitors?
• 12:13
  Craig Mills: So I think that it back to the start, and my boss will probably hate me for saying this. But I think genuinely at the very start it was a case of it was the right product at the right time. I think it was there was an element of luck there.
• 12:29
  Craig Mills: Don't get me wrong.
• 12:30
  Nick Purslow: I think that's the case with a lot of businesses
• 12:32
  Craig Mills: It really is and I think the staycation market, as isn't it?
• 12:37
  Craig Mills: the media started to kind of dress up as that, which I personally hate that terminology staycation, but it's the buzzword isn't it? That was starting to take off. As you can see the Visit Scotland it just all tied together nicely. The Instagram kind of influencer generation was starting to really kick off and I think people will realising that you didn't have to pay hundreds of pounds on flights and accommodation to go abroad. It didn't have to happen like that.
• 13:09
  Craig Mills: You could stay here, you can travel here, you could do things a bit differently. And effectively, the fact that the North Coast 500, I've said it a few times now like a broken record, being the size of Belgium, is so diverse and appeal to so many different people. And that's what's really kept the popularity, the higher level that it's at. I think at the start we hit a real kind of oil patch, you know, it was great. We managed to get that interest piqued.
• 13:37
  Craig Mills: But we managed to keep it up there because there's so many things for people to do. I always get asked, What's your most favourite part of the route? Or where would you go.
• 13:47
  Craig Mills: And I genuinely have to say to people, it depends. Because like yesterday, I had a day off, and it was just me on my own, like my car was in the garage getting fixed. That's why I had the day off. And I got on my bike for three hours on the west coast.
• 14:00
  Craig Mills: And I've talked to people who are really professional cyclists in their own right, if they can cycle anywhere in the world, they'll come to the northwest coast is the best place to go. A couple of mates up, again, we'll go to somewhere for mountain biking, we come out with my family and the young kids will go to the east coast because the beaches I think are just a bit more accessible with a young family and there's more stuff for them to do. So I can't pinpoint one area where I think is the best. So that's why I think it's so popular because there is so much different appeal for different people. And I would be doing us at NC500 limited at this service if didn't say that, you know, the way that we're set up as helped that that popularity stay up there as well because we're constantly looking for new opportunities. You know, we're not sitting still, you know, we've got some big talk with some potential new partners this week. We've just launched a couple new partnerships in the past few weeks. And it's something that we're always trying to do to get to the next level and we have to keep on finding new products to keep us going. And that's because if we ever set up, if we will have that income coming in, then you know, we don't have a job, I get replaced. So I have to keep on thinking of things and doing things and getting things out there.
• 15:12
  Craig Mills: It has to be the right fit for the area though, that's the thing. We can't just go and sign up, you know, I'm trying to think of something, like Lamborghini or race cars. That's not right for the rich just because it's money. But we find the right partners who work with them. Yeah, I think it's, we've still got a lot to go there, I can't say too much to just now, again, because we've got some exciting things coming in the future, you know, people think it's just a driving route.
• 15:36
  Craig Mills: Absolutely not, watch this space for some cool new products this year.
• 15:40
  Nick Purslow: And one of those right kind of partners, I imagine are glamping sites. And obviously, that's our interest here at Glampitect and NC500 pods, Calum and Ali's brand are part of the NC 500. And I just had a look at your website earlier and there are other gambling sites on there as well.
• 15:57
  Nick Purslow: So does that make up a decent proportion of your of your partnerships, glamping sites?
• 16:04
  Craig Mills: Absolutely. Yeah, personally, I think glamping is fantastic. I think it's popular across the whole of the UK right now, I think it's safe to say.
• 16:12
  Craig Mills: And the fact that it's growing in popularity up here in the highlands, is just fantastic.
• 16:18
  Craig Mills: Because the thing I like about it, personally, is that I'm more akin to rucksack on my back and head off into the hills with my tent for a few days. So glamping for me is that there's luxury, you know, whenever I rock up to a glamping site, and everything's there it's so good.
• 16:33
  Craig Mills: But I don't feel like I'm in a hotel, momre like a guest house.
• 16:36
  Craig Mills: But at the same time, it can bridge the gap the other way for people who maybe want to experience you know, that wild camping effect, but not really wild. And so it can bridge together these two groups of people who otherwise maybe wouldn't have met and I've met so many people out glamping down in Wales back 10 years ago, who I still keep in touch with because it just click. You know, we'd never met before, we probably never would meet. But there's things that's brought us together. I think it's so good.
• 17:09
  Craig Mills: The glamping businesses that I've seen, NC500 Pods being one of them obviously, one thing I always really like about them is that they seem to have a really good connection with the local community and local businesses.
• 17:20
  Craig Mills: You know, when you arrive at some of these places, you've got, like a welcome hamper, which has got locally sourced goods, if you take that option, but there was those within those local products, it just feels that you've got more of a connection with the area that you're in. No disrespect to any other hotel or accommodation provider because they do that as well. It just feels different I think when you go to a glamping site, so hopefully there'll be more of them popping around about the route as over the coming years as well. Because I think this year, this year is going to be huge for glamping as people are still sort of distancing, people are reluctant getting into lifts and hotels and whatnot, whether there are people, and glamping is going to be really, really popular this year, more than ever. So fingers crossed, it'll keep growing over the next few years. And we can we can all work together to get that.
• 18:09
  Nick Purslow: Yeah, let's hope so. And then you mentioned at the start about that a big part of your business was convincing people to go north of Inverness, and how, you know, is is built on driving foot footfall to places where there probably wasn't that footfall beforehand.
• 18:23
  Nick Purslow: And a big part of glamping really is a lot of it's in remote places in the countryside and things like that, you know, you don't really plunk a dumping site in the middle of Glasgow.
• 18:32
  Nick Purslow: And so what sort of tactics did you employ to drive footfall to these remote places? Because I imagine there's a lot of correlation between how you do that, and how glamping sites in remote places would do that. So what sort of tactics did you use? And how and how could they be applied to glamping sites?
• 18:52
  Craig Mills: Yeah, absolutely, you're spot on. Yeah I would not recommend a glamping site in the middle of Glasgow, having lived there for a number of years, it wouldn't be done very well. I think the big thing is, and I'm the wrong person in the business to get the intricate details on.
• 19:05
  Craig Mills: But as far as content creation, and interaction with your business, your visitors, even before they arrive, you know, on social media, or your website, on emails. And when I say content, I mention this to some small businesses, which again, we are a small business, they get really scared. They think that I mean, some highly polished media content, or emojis, spending 1000s of pounds. Not at all these days, a lot of the attraction that we get on social media and on our website is user created by a guy with an iPhone or any kind of phone, you know, they take a really good picture. And the people just go crazy for online and that's what this really helped drive. I think when you're when you're living in an area, like looking at my window just now, I see views. It's a nice Glen that I live in just just at the very start of the North Coast 500, it's in Inverness, it's a nice glen, lovely trees. I take that for granted when I'm standing at the sink, doing the dishes. But actually, that visitor coming from further afield, you know Cornwall, Truro, far flung visitors, that's really what they want to come to the area for. So it's just trying to show what you've got on your doorstep, and it doesn't have to be dressed up. I think the more raw the content is, the better.
• 20:21
  Craig Mills: I think just showing people as best they can, I think some organisations will wait till we get the perfect day to get a drone operator or photographer on that one day of summer that we get. We'll take a picture, and then the vistor will come, Oh it's raining, and I'm like sorry it rains quite a lot here.
• 20:38
  Craig Mills: Sorry. So the raw pictures are always really, really good.
• 20:42
  Craig Mills: And I think that, you know, if I was comparing two glamping sites, if there was two glamping sites and a hypothetical situation, next door to each other, you know, and they offered similar products, the first thing we all look at as consumers is price and availability and ease of booking. That's what we all look for. But it came down to this were all similar, I'm looking at Well, did it connect with the local, did they offer me some local advice, if I book with NC500 Pods, do I get a discount with you know, a bike hire company along the road or something like that, because that's getting a little edge, which is quite nice. There was a company in a previous job that did that, you know, you arrived at their glamping site, they will be there for you, if you wanted, they could arrange that.
• 21:26
  Craig Mills: So it's really nice when you've driven for four hours to get to your location, you can hop on a bike and go and explore the area. It's just really nice to see that. And I think that's what would spin it for me a little bit. And I would pay more for that.
• 21:39
  Craig Mills: I mean, I always say to people, whether it's glamping, or hotels, whatever the businesses is, think would you buy it? Or would you go there?, Always put yourself in the consumer shoes, you know, with accommodation as a whole, you know, it falls into that need category. And my retail background, we always had the two columns of need and want, and you don't want a room but you need somewhere to stay if you're on holiday. So it's just kind of how you try and sell yourself over those other needs. And I think it's just always put yourself into that customer shoes.
• 22:12
  Nick Purslow: Yeah. And that's a perfect segue really into the next question, because, as I said, you know, your business is built on driving people to these more remote places. But it's also built on partnerships with other businesses. And you said there about partnerships with local bike places. And one thing that we try and push at Glampitect, because, you know, eventually, more and more glamping sites are coming to the market. So they need to be able to differentiate themselves from the local competition. And one of the things that we suggest is anytime USPS, and one way of having a USP is partnering with a local business, like, as you say, a bike company or a yoga retreat or whiskey distillery or something like that. And now you guys are obviously the experts in doing that. Because that's your that's your whole business model. So what advice would you give to glamping site owners in partnering with local businesses? And how they should go about it?
• 23:02
  Craig Mills: Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:02
  Craig Mills: Thank you for the glowing
• 23:04
  Nick Purslow: Absolutely. And then another thing in common expert. That's great. I'm gonna record that one that. Definitely the partnerships that the lessons I've learned, has been, always make sure from the word go with any partnership, that there's a few key things, and that is that, is it beneficial to both partners? it's a waste of time if it's too heavily weighted to one side.
• 23:26
  Nick Purslow: Inevitably, it's not going to work out. So you have to set right from the word go with each partner involved is the commitments you need frmo each person and the basics of what will you do and what will I do in this partnership. Can that be achieved? And anything above and beyond that is great. But it's got to be agreed right from the word go. We have had partnerships where hasn't worked, and I'd never disagree with that as we have had that.
• 23:52
  Nick Purslow: But then we look back and reassess them it's because those expectations have been a bit different from each side. And that's where it's falling apart.
• 23:59
  Nick Purslow: And that's the learning curve for us. It's basic but it's learning, is that when that partnership has ended, in my time with the company, we have never ended it on a bad footing.
• 24:09
  Nick Purslow: We've always had the departure upon a good relationship and we've just reviewed it we've said to people, this didn't work, did it? Okay, let's move on. We may revisit it in future because the partnership hasn't worked on one specific date, it might work in future so never close a door completely on a partnership. And the key word is partner you know, that's the thing is is a two way street aspect thing. You've got to make sure that each person is willing to put in the time and the effort involved. You know, they've got to make sure that I say to everybody whether they are a one person small business based in the far flung very far north of the route, or whoever it is I'm talking to, I'll say to them you get out of this what you put in. And when you look at the really successful partnerships that we've had, that's been really clear that each team has to end all the maximum effort to it and we've got on best. You know, you look at, I mentioned Arnold Clark, Arnold Clark told us that their Inverness branch were the second busiest branch in all the UK, partners with us. So that's great. You know, that's brilliant. In the same respect to a smaller company, but the girl Alcatel and guess what, surprisingly, they they've always fully booked, you know, compared to other hotels nearby who are involved, members of ours. So they put a lot of effort into, and they hopefully see the benefits of it as well.
• 25:38
  Nick Purslow: So it's just always make sure that you said, what each person's got to enter a written word goal. And don't be afraid to pick up the phone to chat if you need to.
• 25:52
  Nick Purslow: that you have with with glamping site owners is, you'll probably face public criticism at some point, I'm sure you've had people expressed concerns about, you know, traffic on the route and things like that. And, obviously, you know, the belief is that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Clearly it does in your case, and a big part of glamping site setup is during the planning process, we'll get people posing objections about traffic in the area about road access, and things like that.
• 26:22
  Nick Purslow: And some, some is valid, you know, people genuinely looking out for the local area, and they have a difference of opinion with the site owners. Some you get the sense that they're just protesting for the sake of protesting, but that's another issue. But how do you deal with that sort of public criticism and perhaps spin it into a positive? And sort of emphasise that the benefits do outweigh the disadvantages?
• 26:49
  Craig Mills: I don't know what you're talking, we don't get any at all at NC500. No, I think the big thing for us is that all the criticisms put our way, we do listen to, we don't bury our heads in the sand. You know, we go back to that passion that me and my team have for the area, you know, we don't want to see people misbehaving. Or we don't want to see the roads traffic gummed up. And not none of us want to see that. But it's how it's handled. And how it's dealt with is the key thing. We would rather have a really productive chat with somebody about their their fears, and we can help you address those fears with them.
• 27:25
  Craig Mills: Rather than you know, you pick up in a newspaper, or on social media, which is just a horrendous place to be sometimes, you know, people go on there because effectively with that, all it does is it damages, the damages the area and it damages damages your business, it doesn't just damage one business, because this is critical to come into the area.
• 27:46
  Craig Mills: And that's not what any of us want. They want to see businesses flourish, they want to see communities grow and want to see that happen. A lot of the chats I've had with people who have had fears, they've actually been very, very productive. And I can point to a few things that our website is the biggest tool that we have at our disposal. We have changed things on our website, on the back of conversations with people, people who felt we weren't displaying information clearly.
• 28:10
  Craig Mills: Okay, let's let's change that.
• 28:10
  Craig Mills: And this is not this, my team hate me saying it but nothing is set in stone. You know, it's not like we've done it so we can't change it. So we have changed a lot of things on the back of good conversations.
• 28:23
  Craig Mills: I always, always listen to people's complaints, you know, if they want to get in touch, they can always get in touch with me. And the way I enter conversations is I don't go into defensive, defensive, and I just really try my hardest to see from their side. That's the big thing is just trying to understand where they're coming from, and not wanting to want to take on the attack. If we need to do that, we can do that. But I would rather not do that. And the thing that drives us forward an awful lot is, is evidence.
• 28:52
  Craig Mills: I'm not saying that someone's lying at all, they've had 400 sports cars drive past their house yesterday, but we've got to look at the evidence because people's perceptions sometimes can overtake that in their in their minds. And so we do work with Police Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service, Highland Council, all the authority you can work with to gather the information. Traffic is a very interesting one. I've had people say to me, the traffic has gone up every year for the past six years, we're at the traffic counters that are around the route to show that that's not the case. It's just people's perceptions that have gotten busier in traffic as well, it's an interesting one for the route because you know, the traffic counters that differentiate between local commercial vehicles who are delivering fish to the hotels that the tourists are eating, you know, that kind of thing. So it's it's an interesting one, but I think that most of the time with people, we can sit down and have a chat with them, and we can present to them this is how we're operating. You know, and this is what we're here to do. We all walk away usually happy with each other, we're all doing our best. You know, as I say, nobody wants to see people too many cars, nobody wants to see these horrible things. So we're trying to get the same common goal. It can be really hard, I'm not gonna lie, you can walk into these meetings, I'm sure people walk away from me that the same headache that I got going my goodness, that was hard, but it does work. See, the thing is, for the advice I'd give to any kind of clamping site or anything at all would be that they bring the locals in, interact with local community, like I've done, you know, I've sat down with large groups of people and communities and showing them all of the stuff that we do, and bring them then you can that you can understand the local fears, especially just after the dreaded C word in the past year, that people are a bit scared for for people coming in, and other communities that they have lived in a small community all their lives, and all of a sudden, lots of visitors are coming through to get a bit scared. So without local, cat glamping sites, bring them in and show them how you operate, this is the way the vehicles will come in. And this is this is the kind of measures we have in place, all the rest of it, just put people's minds at ease a little bit, can just really play a big part. And if they have any fears, then you know, they can talk to you about it.
• 31:10
  Craig Mills: But keeping a good dialogue is always a good thing with any complaints.
• 31:16
  Nick Purslow: Yeah, absolutely.
• 31:16
  Nick Purslow: It's a common theme. In this podcast, I've interviewed a few glamping site owners, and it's commonly said, you know, a collaborative approach is far better than an adversarial one.
• 31:25
  Nick Purslow: And it can be really frustrating sometimes, because people can just genuinely be difficult, and you've just got to get through it. And that's why I think sometimes people outsource it to us. And so we put the planing applications for them. But yeah, it is important that you speak to their neighbours and things like that. And try and get them on your side, no matter how difficult and gruelling it might be. And, you know, you'll get through it one way or another and, and they'll turn out to it to like it. I was speaking to Christine Maclean, who runs the two NC500 pod sites. And I can't remember if it was Brora or Achmelvich site, but they had a neighbour who really was against the project from the start, absolutely hated it. Since it's been up and running, they've absolutely loved it and think it's great. So sometimes you just got to get through and and it will all be alright, in the end, I suppose.
• 32:15
  Craig Mills: Yeah, and I think it's acceptable to talk to people, most people I'll find we've got social media, or, you know, the writing an email, whether it's to me or to a journalist, they're very, very, very vocal and block capital letters, and nine times out of ten, when you sit with people and have a cup of coffee, they're a kitten, and you can actually talk to them. And, again, it goes back to that thing about you're saying, you know, the locals not liking the glamping sites, you know, it's just because one person doesn't like it, the other 99 people may like it, but they just won't speak of it. How many people fill our customer service form to say that we're happy with the service they received? Not many, but I'm willing to bet a lot more people fill it wants to say they weren't happy, because something wasn't quite right. So it's a real hard balancing act.
• 32:59
  Craig Mills: But I think if anybody out there ever has got the golden ticket on how to deal with that, we're happy to share with them. I think it's just best practice with each other, isn't it?
• 33:12
  Nick Purslow: Yeah. And so obviously, with that comes, that comes the difficulty of balancing a thriving business with preserving the local feel of the area, and the natural feel of it as well. And so if you could give one tip to a business owner, preferably glamping owner, in how they build a profitable business, whilst also protecting the local area and keeping it keeping it its purity, I suppose. How would they go about doing that?
• 33:39
  Craig Mills: Yeah, again, I'm sure I could talk for a good few hours about that, because it is so complex and was messy, how they go back to getting involved with the local community is a big thing. Making sure that you're you're talking to everybody involving people, if there's changes happening, let them know the changes are happening, you know, get encouraged them to kind of see because i think that's that's the key for me as the community is going to be the big thing for you. You can again you understand the fears of the people when they really see things changing and if somebody is moved to an area for that peace and quiet tranquillity, you know, they've maybe had a busy life in Glasgow or something and they've now retired to a quiet area. They shouldn't have that benefit against the community because the community wants to thrive, the community wants to prosper.
• 34:23
  Craig Mills: And I think that's key, it's just explaining to them what's wrong here to do it. This is what we want to achieve. That can be a big thing. But you know, it's not it's not a North Coast 500 specific issue, it's about areas and having to try and balance the visitors. You know, if you look down to having more looked at the walk home and the Trossachs National Park, I mean, extreme example, but look at Everest, you know, Everest has how many thousands of pounds of rubbish lifted from it every single year, you know, and you think what's the highest place on earth if there's got to be a very, very big balancing act and I think the one thing that, throughout all this is that community thing is trying to get across to them.
• 35:03
  Nick Purslow: Yeah, okay, perfect. And if anyone wants to So always make the most of your local community and specifically for the North Coast 500, you know, be a member of the north coast 500. That's not a sales pitch from me. But what we try and do with the business members as well, as we get more get in touch with you, how can they go about doing that?
• 35:17
  Nick Purslow: involved, we try and get them to talk to each other. Because you might find that, you know, when you open up your site in Brora, for instance, or wherever it is, you nailed up your site. But your next door neighbours had the same issue with the same things. And they can give you some advice and help you get through that as a community on its own, the North Coast 500 usiness member community, so tha's that successful selling point for us, but it does work. You know, a lot of these busines es come together and help eac other, which is what we want to achieve as well.
• 35:49
  Craig Mills: Yeah, so go onto the website, the inquiries button, or email us button. But with us being a tiny little team it may not come directly to me, but it will get to me within about the next 10 minutes, because we send it across to each other. Yeah, please do get in touch with any questions. So I'm always happy to have to chat with people. And this has been different talking about the team behind the scenes rather talking about the route so hopefully people have learned a little bit with this myths and legends to bed about the North Coast 500
• 36:19
  Nick Purslow: Well, that was that was fantastic. Thank you for coming on, Craig.
• 36:27
  Nick Purslow: Thank you for listening to another episode of the Glampitect podcast. I hope you enjoyed and that you found value in today's episode. If you did, feel free to leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts because it really helps us move up the podcast rankings.
• 36:39
  Unknown: Thank you