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Are you running, or thinking of running, an apprenticeship programme, but finding yourself weighed down, or scared off by administration?

It doesn’t have to be this way!

ApprenticeStop is a bespoke, streamlined, online system that supports you from start to finish.

From finding the right accommodation, to providing a system that automates your joining instructions and creates clearly accessible audit trails to track attendance, ApprenticeStop does it all, and even allows for bespoke online feedback and mobile booking!

When it comes to choosing the right accommodation, it can take hours of searching, shortlisting, calling and negotiating with hotels before you find the right one. ApprenticeStop takes all of this off your plate, reviewing and shortlisting hotels based on your preferences and negotiating the best prices to meet your unique needs.

ApprenticeStop can also lighten your load when it comes to the general administration of an apprenticeship programme. You will be supported by a dedicated team who will chase all your learners and provide 4-way communication between you, venues, clients and learners so you can focus on the content of the programme.

Often, the hardest thing to manage on an apprenticeship programme is safeguarding and duty of care responsibilities. As such, ApprenticeStop users benefit from both system and administration support in outlining, communicating and monitoring aspects of safeguarding and care for all learners whilst onsite at a venue. The online dashboard gives instant visibility of key documentation and online feedback to support continuous improvement. The system also benefits our clients supporting with a full audit trail and accessibility for duty of care 24/7.

If you would like to learn more about how ApprenticeStop could help you, email Michelle Land michelle@hospitalityguaranteed.co.uk or go to https://www.hgonestop.co.uk/apprentice_stop/packages.

Emma Hall

Five reasons to start planning your Christmas party NOW

Yes, it’s Summer.

Yes, we know you’re thinking more about beaches than Christmas markets.

But with so much going on between now and then, Christmas will come around in a flash. Still not convinced? Then here are five reasons why you should start planning your Christmas party now. 

1. Get the first choice of venues and dates
If you have your heart set on a specific venue or date, you’d better be quick! It won’t take long before the best, most quirky or accessible venues and key dates are snapped up. Not sure where to host your party? Or need somewhere with plenty of bedrooms? We can help with that. 

2. Price
By booking far in advance, you have the opportunity to negotiate on price and package. While this might not always mean a reduced rate, it could mean some added value, such as a free overnight stay for the organiser, a drinks reception or additional menu choice.

3. Greater flexibility with other suppliers
Photobooths, caricature artists, venue dressers and other suppliers are keen to fill their diaries as quickly as possible. With so many extras to add to your event, when you have your date and venue organised, you can let your imagination run wild to make your event even more unique with a wide choice of suppliers.

4. Give plenty of notice for decision making and payment
We understand it’s not always easy for everyone to agree and there are often a significant number of people involved in this decision. Starting now gives you the opportunity to provisionally hold venues while the decision is being made. If you leave it any longer, you might find you don’t have many choices to make a decision from! 

Remember Christmas is an expensive time of year for everyone and factoring in a Christmas party can often be a luxury guests can’t afford as the festive season approaches.

The earlier your party is arranged, the more time guests have to plan their payments or even pay early.

5. Allow time for new recruits
It’s all very well and good arranging a party for your current workforce but the chances are, people will come and go before the party arrives.

Venues don’t mind adding or removing guests, within reason, up to a set period before the event, so book now to give you flexibility, rather than people missing out if the only venue you can book last minute holds half the number you need. 

If you’re starting to plan your Christmas party but worried about sending multiple invitations, managing menu choices, accommodation and responses – never mind chasing everyone who has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth – don’t worry.

EventStop gives you the opportunity to create a dedicated webpage branded to your Company, custom invitations, online delegate registration and payment. By managing everything for you, you can then focus on your daily role and making the event look fantastic. 

For more information, call our team on 03448 223227 or visit www.eventstop.co.uk

Victoria Brunton

In this modern world, we’re all guilty of making life that little bit more complicated than it needs to be. But we’ve got ask ourselves, ‘why?’

As a charity, sports club, organisation or association, you may often find yourself suddenly organising an event; perhaps the Summer party, tournament abroad or just the bi-monthly knees up. Sounds easy enough right? Well, that is until you have to do it three times a year, for lots of people and factor in accommodation, travel and food! Suddenly it doesn’t sound so simple.

That’s where we come in.

EventStop is a handy tool that can save you time and money as well as helping you to stay in control.
Let us tell you how…

Personalised webpage and email invitations
Unlike other event registration tools, EventStop allows you to create your own personalised webpage and email invitations, maintaining your brand and identity.
By following a simple step by step process, you can add your own logos, images and content, making your page look like an extension of your own site. 

Online registration
You can ask for all the information you could possibly need, all in one, easy to use place.
When registration has closed, simply export the details and you have your guest list right there.

Online payments
There’s nothing worse than constantly chasing guests for payment. Following up the “I’ll pay next week” and “My dad/son/friend is going to pay you next week” excuses.
By using the flexible payment options available on EventStop, not only do you save valuable time, your guests can pay by credit or debit card, as soon as they book. No excuses.

Keeping an eye
Need to make sure you’ve not gone over capacity? Want to check payments are being made? The event dashboard gives you an overview of your function at the touch of a button, helping you plan any further promotion – or to get in touch with the venue to increase your tables!

With these and many more advanced features, such as:

•    Accommodation options
•    Badging, scanning and tracking
•    Event management

EventStop is the perfect tool to support your charity or organisation’s event planning, helping you to concentrate on what’s really important – raising funds and doing what you do!

Victoria Brunton

On Sunday 11th June, Victoria faced the Cleveland 4 Peak challenge, along with her friends, family and dog Rosie. 

Setting off at 8:30am, they left Guisborough Woodland Walkway carpark, wearing their luminous t-shirts. The weather was fair however the wind grew stronger as they reached the first peak: Roseberry Topping.

Sounds too easy? Due to a friends’ pledge condition, the males of the group had to do press-ups every time they reached a peak! 

The route to the next peak, Captain Cooks Monument, took the Cleveland Way and resulted in more press-ups. After lunch, the group continued to peak 3: Codhill Heights, chasing Rosie and discovering wild woodland leaves that tasted of apples.

The final stretch was to Highcliff Nab, where the weather took a turn for the worse, but it didn’t dampen their spirits. The group completed the 12.6 mile 4 peak walk on Sunday tired but happy. Rosie was extremely happy to have so much attention from everyone on the walk, and could have kept going…. Next challenge anyone?

A massive thank you to everyone who sponsored the group. They have raised an amazing £1361.89! This really is a great charity doing excellent work to help kids with autism, and everyone is so grateful for all the support that they receive! 

Jade Roberts

We have marked our 11^th anniversary by extending and strengthening our services.    

We have teamed up with executive travel group, Horncastle, to incorporate flights into our corporate packages, bolstering our links to over 80,000 worldwide accommodation venues.

We have also further developed ApprenticeStop – a service for organisations running apprentice or staff residential programmes – which launched in 2016. Intuitive software enables clients to track bookings and delegate information and produce reports and audit trails, such as those required in the education sector by OFSTED.

Both this and EventStop – the online events management tool the firm launched earlier this year – are driven by software developed in-house by our technical team.

These services come on the back of 11 successful years in business, each of which has seen 30 to 40 per cent year-on-year revenue growth. Our company was founded by Victoria Brunton and Amanda Jackson in 2006 and has since built up a team of 18, 3,000 UK and European Venue suppliers and around 50 corporate clients.

We are now confident of further expansion in the years ahead; Victoria said: “The market has changed significantly since we first launched but we’re constantly talking to our customers and looking for ways to make their lives easier.

“A key part of our growth has been our recognition that software solutions are becoming increasingly important in hospitality. We’ve positioned ourselves at the forefront of this trend and have been able to offer clients the greater control that many now demand.”

Amanda added: “Over the next few years, we believe we can maintain the growth trajectory we’ve been on to date. More importantly, however, our goals are to continue making customers happy, being innovative and coming up with new ways of improving our services.”

We’re looking forward to continuing our expansion by recruiting for new roles in the second half of 2017. 

Jade Roberts