Hastings Top 10 Holiday Park owners to invest $250,000

Svarn and Sharelle Creswell with their children (from left) Logan, 2, Scarlett, 4, and Carson, 6. Photo / Paul Taylor

A Hastings couple have wasted no time embarking on a quarter-of-a-million-dollar renovation programme to boost Hawke's Bay's visitor capacity, only three months after buying a well-known holiday park.

Svarn and Sharelle Creswell took over the Hastings Top 10 Holiday Park in April and have started a 14-month programme of improvements with the aim to increase the number of visitors and to attract a new corporate offering on top.

"The park is currently undergoing a revamp that will include $250,000 spent on capital improvements," Sharelle said.

The revamp would include 14 new bathrooms in the park's motel and ensuite units, updating ablution and kitchen facilities, along with lighting work to help improve and modernise the facilities.

"We have already started renovating the motel units. These units have been updated with new furnishings and with new bathroom fittings that are now running on gas, which means instant hot water for showers.

"We have been very busy painting the dining area, TV room, group cabin kitchen and toilet blocks. There is all-new signage for the park, and we are in the process of designing a new website.

"Capital work will be finished by September 2019, we will also continue with maintenance and updating every year following.

"We expect to improve our occupancy especially on the shoulder seasons, early winter/spring. We are currently targeting holiday makers and tourists, sports and family groups but we also really want to make it more attractive for corporate and business people."

The couple had also bought several caravans, which are being renovated and will be available for guests to stay in, as well as the park's existing 11 motel units, four ensuite units, three apartments and 21 cabins.

The rest of the buildings in the 4hapark would also be freshly painted.

The couple now own two holiday parks. At the end of last year the Creswells crossed over from a farming career to buy the Mahia Holiday Park.

Managers have now been installed at Mahia.

"Owning Mahia definitely prepared us for Hastings Top 10 as it has given us a better understanding of how the tourism industry works in this area. It also gave us knowledge of what is involved with running a park successfully and gave us the confidence to take on a larger project, like Hastings Top 10," Sharelle Creswell said.

"Without having owned Mahia, we would have had no idea what to expect when taking over Hastings Top 10 and the transition would not have been as smooth."