06/08/2026
A little (too much) honesty from us owners…
We won’t name or shame anyone, but after the last few weeks, we feel it’s worth sharing what life is actually like behind the scenes of running a small country holiday park.
In just the past six weeks we’ve dealt with:
• Children painting poo on amenity walls.
• Guests emptying chemical toilets and poo into our urinals (despite us being off-grid and those chemicals damaging our system).
• Guests stealing firewood from other campers.
• People helping themselves to other guests’ fire pits or stealing the parks
• Café staff being clapped at and demanded to provide instant service.
Guests skipping out without paying.
Most people who stay with us are absolutely wonderful. They wave, they chat, they leave kind reviews, and they remind us exactly why we bought this park and why we work long hours to spend more in person time with our guests.
(A 15hr day and 9.30pm finish isnt an uncommon on weekends)
But unfortunately, it only takes a handful of people to make life incredibly difficult for a very small team.
We’re not a corporate holiday park.
We’re a little country park run by our family and a handful of incredible local staff.
During busy weekends, 14-16 hour days aren’t unusual. While guests are enjoying the wine bar, the Bath Haus, clean amenities, kids’ activities and later free check-outs, someone is cleaning toilets, answering phones, fixing pumps, emptying bins, cooking meals, checking people in, cleaning cabins, ordering stock, repairing infrastructure or responding to messages well into the evening.
(Tonight it was 9.00pm)
We’ve also made a conscious decision not to pass every rising cost onto our guests. In fact some rates have stayed the same for 2ys now.
That means for some stays, we’re lucky to make $2 a night.
Insurance has increased.
Fuel and levies has increased.
Water costs have increased.
Repairs have increased.
Waste collection has increased.
Staff costs have increased.
Infrastructure upgrades and repairs have cost over a hundreds thousand dollars.
Instead of dramatically increasing our nightly rates, we’ve invested in working smarter to give you more.
We’ve built AI systems like our receptionist to answer common questions, automated bookings, made our office mobile, and streamlined as much as we possibly can.
Why? Because using 15 minutes of staff wages to process a booking that only makes a few dollars simply isn’t sustainable. In fact, it’s a loss - and thats bad business.
We’d rather invest our staff time into things that actually improve your stay. Like late nights on weekends serving local wine.
Which brings us to the screenshot attached.
A guest wanted to cancel a booking during a peak period today.
Our manager—while home sick—called them back to explain our published cancellation policy. Because this week includes public holidays for our usual guests, we get busier than usual - we staff accordingly, often turning away other bookings and rostering extra team members.
When they thought they should be an exception to our policy and continued arguing well after 6pm, we continued replying to messages offering options until 9.00pm instead of sitting down for dinner and tv with our own family.
That commitment to help - when sick or we should be off clock isnt bad service if you ask us.
Our cancellation policy wasn’t created for this guest. It applies equally to everyone.
You don’t have to agree with every policy a business has. That’s completely okay.
But kindness is still free.
If our style of park, our policies or the way we operate aren’t for you, we genuinely wish you all the best finding somewhere that better suits your holiday.
But if you’re looking for a family-run country park where people genuinely care, where your money goes back into improving the experience, and where our team will work incredibly hard to make your stay memorable…
We’ll keep showing up every day.
All we ask in return is a little respect.
Or at very least - dont wish us ill will like this person did or deliberately ruin the stay for others 💩
We’re people too.
Because behind every booking confirmation is a real family, real staff, and real people doing their absolute best. Usually for far longer days than most could endure.
❤️ Amanda & the Stanthorpe Holiday Park team
