Five Stars Help Beacon Shine Brightest
The Sunday Age
Sunday January 12, 1997
TO THE untrained observer, Beacon Resort Caravan Park in Queenscliff appears just like any other in the summer holiday peak. Caravans, tents, cars and boats jostle for space while parents lounge in the shade watching swarms of hyperactive children playing around them.
But to the keen eye of RACV accommodation assessor Mr Paul Anderson, the quality of its facilities, services and fittings have put it in a class of its own.
Last week he and his colleague, Mr Stan Parsons, went through the caravan park armed with clipboards and tape measures, minutely inspecting bathroom tiles, checking the dimensions of shower cubicles, testing light and heater fittings, measuring the height of hand rails and seeing that clothes hooks were fitted.
The verdict was that Beacon Resort deserved Victoria's first five-star rating for a caravan park.
For park director Ms Lorraine Golightly, the new rating was the culmination of years of effort by her family, which has operated the park for 26 years.
"By achieving five stars we have reached the ultimate. We're just going to have to maintain this now, everything is going to have to be kept up to scratch," she said.
Last week the park was full with 1200 guests who had to book 12 months in advance, paying from $17.50 for a powered caravan site to $80 for a motel room.
Mr Anderson and Mr Parsons are part of a team of five RACV assessors constantly touring the state to write reports on the 2900 properties listed in the motoring organisation's accommodation guides.
Each assessor travels more than 40,000 kilometres a year and spends four weeks out of every five staying in motels, holiday units, hotels and bed and breakfasts. They divide the state into 100 regions, and sometimes all five can descend on an area in an assessment blitzkrieg.
Mr Parsons, who manages the assessment team, said all establishments in a region were given a week's notice that assessors would be working in the area.
While Mr Anderson said the blur of unfamiliar rooms could at times leave him feeling jaded, it had also honed his ability to judge what was important.
"We can work up to 52 hours a week while we're on the road, so obviously a bed in good condition is very important, and the bathroom has to be clean," he said.
And there are other requirements: "I hate staying in a place that doesn't have a bedside switch for the television."
So where does he go on holiday? "I don't travel much when I get a holiday, and my wife hates travelling with me because I pick everything to bits. But I would say one of the best types of accommodation I have ever seen is Eucalypt Ridge Bed and Breakfast on Lake Eildon. It's superb."
This year Australian automobile clubs have introduced a new method of assessment. Properties used to lose points for features they did not have, but under the new system they are awarded points for features provided.
Mr Parsons said the system used "primary" and "secondary" points, with the primary point score determining the stars a property received. It meant that minor items such as coathangers and locks on bathroom doors would no longer be enough to lift an establishment's rating.
Copies of the new guides, 'Accommodation' and 'Tourist Park Accommodation', should be available in early May.
STAR SEARCH To achieve a five-star rating by a caravan park must score at least 330 points. Some items points are awarded for: FACILITY POINTS Hand basins (at least 400mm by 300mm) 2 Toilet pans stain-free 2 Shower floor size (900mm square) 3 Barbecue equipment clean and tidy 5 Pay phone in park 4 2-ply toilet paper 2* Shower head convenient height 2* Sufficient clothes hooks 2* * Denotes secondary points, which do not count for star rating. Source: Australian Automobile Association national classification scheme, caravan park assessment
© 1997 The Sunday Age
