Our commitment to keeping you safe 

For your safety

We want you to rest assured that we will take all the necessary steps to ensure the safety of our guests and team members and still do everything to maintain the welcoming atmosphere of proper hospitality you expect of The White Swan Inn.

The measures introduced include social distancing, hand-sanitiser in all public rooms and at the entrance, scrupulous cleaning protocols and the introduction of a certified anti-bacterial fogging and steam-vacuuming process and great service from team members will keep you safe but not destroy the holiday experience.

We have provided more detail below and we will be updating and adapting as best-practice advances.

We ask you

While we take these steps and implement new measures, we ask you to be sympathetic and receptive to the processes we have implemented, use common sense, and play your part in keeping everyone else safe.

If any of our team members develop any symptoms of Covid-19, they will stay at home and isolate. We kindly ask that you practice the same approach. If you happen to fall ill before your visit, we will honour all deposits and be as flexible as we possibly can be.

Checking in and out

The Inn has been adapted to reduce touch-points.

You will be met and shown directly to your room, check-in will have taken place either on-line or by phone before you start your journey. Reception has moved and will be staffed between 9am and 7pm, after that the front-of-house team will be delighted and on-hand to assist, over the phone from your room or in the Inn.

Check out will be completed remotely.

Restaurant and Bar

We kindly ask all guests to book a table for drinks, lunch and dinner and to arrive at your booked time to allow us to effectively manage numbers. No tables larger than 6 will be permitted and movement around the Inn will also be a discreet one-way system, in through the front door and out via the Bar door for all guests.

The tables and furniture have been spaced to ensure our guests are all a minimum of 1.5m plus apart, an improvement on current social distancing criteria. We politely ask that you do not move furniture without speaking with a member of the team beforehand.

We will be operating table service to mitigate any queuing at the bar. Our teams will go back to the old traditional ‘station’ service system, with dedicated servers and clearers.  We used to call them waiters and commis-waiters.  Nothing new under the sun … the same goes for plate cloches which we will also be using but the copper plate holders are entirely new and like le Grand Depart cycle event – invented here!  We still won’t be using sachets of anything, but you will have individual supplies of any condiments or sauces.

Tables and chairs will be sanitised between guests and place settings or covers will not be set prior to you taking your table. To reduce menu handling we will be printing personal menus – your menu is yours to keep.

Booking is essential for lunch and dinner to help us manage the flow of guests. Contact details will be taken from every guest for track-and-trace purposes.  Payment will be taken by card and after every service - so no final bill to pay.

Our private terrace is perfect for al fresco summer lunches and will be exclusive to our staying guests in the evening.

Housekeeping

As an Inn, we already upheld the highest health and safety standards and cleaning protocols – however we have redoubled our effort and designed what we think is the best, seven-star principled housekeeping.  We have invested in scientifically proven fogging machines that uses a mild solution of stabilised hydrogen peroxide to kill any germs dead.  Fogging and steam-vacuuming is a German technology originally established for the cleaning of high-dependency medical centres and pharma-labs.  Following check-out we will fog the room with this disinfectant.  After a minimum of 1 hour, the entire ventilated room including the mattress, pillows and bathroom will be thoroughly cleaned by one person using our new sterilising steam-vacuum system added to the standard measures already in place.

Once the housekeeping staff have finished, the room will be re-fogged and sealed for the arrival of our next guest.  Where possible, rooms will be left ‘fallow’ between guests.

To minimise contact in our bedrooms our housekeeping teams will not enter your room during your stay unless you are staying more than three nights (in which case we will repeat the process above during your stay but only if you would like us to). If you require anything additional for your room, please ask a member of our team who will be delighted to help. Fresh towels will be provided daily or as required.

For everyone's safety and peace of mind, we have increased the cleaning frequency of surfaces, door handles and washrooms. We will be fogging all public areas a minimum of twice daily, this will routinely be following lunch service and at the end of the night.

Our People

Our full team will be provided with face masks although wearing them is at their discretion. We have looked carefully into gloves versus hand washing and will be adopting a strict hand washing policy over gloves – which are proven to be less clean.  If you prefer to be served by someone wearing gloves and/or a mask, that is absolutely fine – just let us know. Our kitchen team members have all the equipment they need to deliver your meal in a safe manner.

By time of reopening, all staff will have been fully certified trained on new coronavirus specific modules from cleaning and hygiene to customer service and will have all completed the CPL 'Learning Ready to Serve' programme supported by hospitality trade bodies UKHospitality, BII and Institute of Hospitality.

We are committed to working with supplier partners who uphold the same high standards as ourselves.

Cashless Payments

Please note, we now operate a cashless business for the safety of our guests and our staff. We accept all major credit and debit cards and take payments securely on-line using the Secure Trading portal.

Cancellation Policy

We will be confirming all bedroom reservations by telephone 48hrs prior to arrival. As confirmation of the reservation and in-line with our new check in/ check our policy, full payment for accommodation will be taken over the telephone.

*This statement is up to date as of the 7^th July 2020. We remain flexible and will continue to adapt and update our protocol as things progress and in absolute accordance with industry best practice