A Cumbrian couple are putting their award-winning hospitality experience to help others in the industry across the county.
Chris and Allie Hodgson ran the Haven Cottage guest house in Ambleside for five years before recently selling the business and have set up Lakes365.
Lakes365 aims to offer SMEs in the hospitality, retail, food, drink and tourism sectors which may need help quickly or short-term.
Allie said: “Smaller businesses often need help quickly, for a short period of time, but aren’t ready to commit to recruiting full-time staff. We can help plug those gaps by providing business sitting services during holidays or for sickness cover.
“Equally we know how seasonal some businesses in the Lakes can be; again, we can help out in these situations when demand exceeds the capability of the existing workforce.”
“We have experience across many sectors and having operated at senior management levels in larger businesses, and also run our own small businesses, are flexible enough to cover roles at most levels within an organisation. We can represent companies in sales and marketing but are equally very happy to be more hands-on helping fulfil orders, in the back office or front of house.”
Chris added: “We are incredibly passionate about the Lakes and think we have a huge number of talented companies in our area. We want to help those companies to grow and become even more successful.”
While running Haven Cottage, the guest house was named Cumbria Tourism B&B of the Year in 2019, won a Visit Britain Rose Award for Outstanding Customer Service, was rated as 12th best B&B in the world by TripAdvisor and spent two years ranked at number one on TripAdvisor for the Ambleside area.
