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Live aboard Holiday Experience.


Quaysider

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Hi All,

Just thought I'd share our good news today...

As some folk already know, we've been planning to run "Ellis" as a 'live-aboard holiday experience' - Hotel boat sort of thing...

Well, today, a nice man at CRT phoned me to confirm our business licence has been approved and we're good to go - OK so I had to dish out the money for it but that's unavoidable.

AS of 1st April we can operate as a Hotel boat.  The Non-private BSS has been done and the Commercial Insurance all sorted out.

 ALL good news given we've so far got 6 bookings lined up .  We expected to spend this first year pottering around the system on our own so we're really chuffed to have some folk joining us along the way.  We DO still need some more guests to cover living costs but having (or rather being in the process of) voluntarily registering for VAT, the reclaim on the boat build should be enough to keep us afloat... EVERY pun intended.

If anyone feels like sharing the website, we'd be very much appreciative.

http://www.narrowboatellis.com/home.html  - we sort of set up a facebook page too but it seems to be full of Russian brides somehow!

Mark.

Edited by Quaysider
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Well guys this is fantastic! :clapping: 

I just popped over for a look at your website and I would definitely book a holiday with you (but I have a dog so I would have to work round that).

As someone who is single it is really difficult if not impossible to book a holiday on a canal as I don't fancy the bigger hotel boats and can't single hand a hire boat, this is a great way to do it.

I wish you all the best.

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Cheers - I hope the message comes across that we're NOT a proper hotel boat... they are much more refined than us but we DO want to share our travels and give folk (perhaps like you said) who'd otherwise not be able to have adventures such as these.

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Yes, good luck to you, I think you may have spotted an important gap in the market.

I'm impressed at your bold decision to include the underrated Wolverhampton in your itinerary. It's not usually thought of as a tourist destination, but going through there by canal is interesting. There's the character building 21 to do to get up there, and the rather grand tunnel under the station approach.

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We've got family there (Wolverhampton) so it's made sense to  offer the journey there as "holiday weeks" too.

 

We hope we'll appeal to ex / retired boaters that MISS boating but don't want either the hassle of hiring OR the "full on"hotel experience... a hard market to find I suppose but with a bit of luck, a few reading on here might think 'what a good idea - let's do it'

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We can't wait to set off - lets face it, working mad hours meant up until now, the farthest we've been is to Gargrave and back from Wakefield - or one week hires in the past.

 We've NO idea if our cruise itineraries will be easy/hard work but who cares? - it's the adventure either way and worse case, we might end up with some long days...  NOTHING compared to full time employment draining your soul... I can chug for hours come rain or snow! (not too keen on the wind though - natures NOT mine) as my parking   mooring can sugger somewhat :-) 

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Yes, nice website, one thing you maybe did not mention is, that as the boat goes at walking speed,  keen walkers might have an opportunity to do some walking on the towpath, not sure if this is always possible.

Edited by LadyG
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19 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

I'm not sure I fancy some of your overnight stops around Birmingham, I wouldn't stay overnight at Smethwick Junction or Aston. You may want to review those stops.

Nothing's set in stone... we've not been there before so we'll have to take a view when we get there.... if places look a bit rough, we'll keep on a bit.

12 minutes ago, Pie Eater said:

Well done with the website, Not nit picking but you need to proof read it as there are one or two errors i.e. chiefs/chefs.

Best of luck with the business.

Yeah I know.... trouble is, when you read what you wrote yourself, you "read" what you think you wrote don't you.   - I suppose it 'proves'' we're not a big business kind of affair... just a middle-aged couple trying to have an adventure and share it with others.

11 minutes ago, rasputin said:

what d0 the punters d0 with their cars?

As (with the exception of the Wakey/Leeds/Wakey ones) we're on a progressive journey, we hope people will come on the train - all our starting points and ending points are in places with railway stations... 

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