Portharb Narrow Boat Holidays

[portharb holidays]

Hi Everyone,

There are a lot of questions being asked about our company on this forum both directed to Portharb as a company or about our base and sister company Northwick Marina.

Unfortunatley i dont usually involve myself with idle banter on social networks, but as i am already a member and was advised that it may be beneficial to use sites like this one here we are.

 

To Introduce ourselves, we ( Two Cousins) as in the company Portharb started 8 years ago with one narrowboat on a residential mooring, after having no experience of the industry but have an extensive family history of bargee's. We quickly learned the do's and donts involved with owning and operating as a hire company.

Not to be deterred we soldiered on and managed to overcome the many problems and difficulties and cut through all the red tape and eventually ended up purchasing our own marina to hire from, hence Northwick Marina.~(which by the way always was a marina for over 40 years)

Worcester City Council spared no expence in making it as difficult as possible for us to obtain permission to re-develope the site to make it suitable and after 5 long years achieved full planning permission.

We now have four hire vessels and plans to start the development in spring this year to extend the basin and install all the top notch marina equipment to offer full facilities and extend our fleet further.

As we own all of this and are only really a two man company we are able to keep our costs down and pass on the savings to our customers.

We also firmly believe in customer service comes first, value for money and no frills.

 

So i hope this answers many of the discrepancies that frequent this forum, through misinterpretation.assumption,misinformation,whatever ...We are two Honest hard working lads that have given up most of their lives to pursue a dream, an idea, a destiny if you believe in that sort of thing to offer the very best service they can provide at a reasonable and acceptable cost to everyone.

And implore anyone who has any doubts or any degrading comments to give me a call, come and talk to me in person,check us out, or take a holiday with us and then make your judgement.

 

Thank you the portharb team

[the grinch]

thanks for the info, i must admit i had never heard of you, seldom do i venture down your neck of the woods (got to be 20 years at least!) i hope you do well out of the forums interest in you and your business. times are hard for all of us and i wish you good fortune for the future

 

kev

[RLWP]

Hi Lee,

 

welcome to the forum, sounds like you had a bit of a rough ride setting up your business

 

Richard

[portharb holidays]

thanks for the info, i must admit i had never heard of you, seldom do i venture down your neck of the woods (got to be 20 years at least!) i hope you do well out of the forums interest in you and your business. times are hard for all of us and i wish you good fortune for the future

 

kev

 

Yes i agree they are, thank you and we wish you all the best too ..

[Graham Davis]

Hi Lee,

Sorry, but I queried where you were, as when we lived in Worcester, and had friends in Barbourne, little was known about it, and it certainly wasn't then called a Marina. It is good to know that you have redevelopment plans, so good luck for the future.

 

Oh, and the gallery doesn't seem to work very well on your website.

[stripey]

My wife and I found out about Portharb last year when planning to go on the Gloucester and Sharpness canal. we firstly had a look at a couple of other companies - one in Stourport and the other on the Worcester and Birmingham on the stretch between Hanbury Wharf and Worcester. Both of these promised quite well but were disappointing when we came to look at the boats. I then tried Ebay, having discovered Bettisfield Boats on the Llangollen that way some years ago, and was intrigued to find Portharb there with some useful discount vouchers. We always like to look at the boats we will go on before hiring - after all, that's what matters first, along with excellent customer service, rather than how fancy the hire base might be - and so we arranged to visit Lee and Mark at Portharb.

 

They were both very friendly and helpful, and took us round all four of their boats, even though they knew that we only had one in mind for the two of us, their 52-footer, Ostentatious. The boat was in excellent condition, lovely and clean, so we booked up for July. We were impressed with their prices as well, which struck us as pitched exactly right, and were without all of the extras that some of the big companies impose, such as fuel and cancellation insurance. the damage waiver payment was in the form of a cheque that would only be cashed if required, otherwise returned. It's also nice that each month is priced independently, so that those who can only go in school holidays (we were teachers) are not unduly penalised.

 

As it happened, we had to change our dates, owing to a number of things, including the wedding plans of close friends. With many companies, this is not possible, without paying an extra penalty. For Portharb, no problem, so we went in September instead of July, and were amazingly lucky to have the best week of weather that 2012 has had to offer so far.

 

The boats are good, well equipped with long ropes so vital for Severn locks, and with the best hot water system we have come across in nearly ten years of hiring. One key way of assessing a company is how they deal with problems. We have heard tales of some big companies leaving boats stranded overnight until help could be got to them. On our last leg of the journey, we went up the Avon, and were heading towards Evesham when the engine started to sound unhappy, a warning sounded and lights came on. We pulled in as soon as we could, luckily finding a spot at Sankey Marine, where we got in touch with Portharb. Sankey offered to have a quick look to diagnose the problem and told us that our alternator belt had failed. Lee and Mark both came down in not much more than an hour and got to work straight away, staying after the repair was completed to ensure that everything was working properly. They were entirely friendly, courteous and professional.

 

So, if you are thinking of hiring around the Worcester area, take a good look at Portharb's boats. Don't be put off by the approach to Northwick - what you are paying for is a great boat, run by a team who really look after their customers. I should know - I've just been one!

[Zayna]

Don't you just love good service?

 

What a lovely thread.

[Portharbnarrowboatholidays]

Thank you for your kind words, it really means a lot that all the effort we put into making people's holidays enjoyable gets appreciated. It was a pleasure meeting you both and hope to see you again soon.

All the best regards

Lee and mark @ portharb.

[tafelberg]

well I have run out of likes... Good job guys.. It's so nice to see a company actually bringing back old fashioned service.