Staff shortages see guests at Cornwall holiday park offered £10 an hour to clean loos

  • Watch Patrick Langmaid, the holiday park's managing director, talk about his offer

Guests at a holiday park in Cornwall have been told they can get paid to help clean toilets during their stay.

Holidaymakers are being offered £10 per hour to help maintain Mother Ivey’s Bay holiday park.

The park’s managing director, Patrick Langmaid, has asked guests to help because of staff shortages caused by the NHS Covid-19 app ‘pinging’ people to tell them to self-isolate.

He said: "I’ve got a team of 27 staff and we reckon we can still run the campsite with 21 staff. The situation for us at the moment is very serious. We’ve got 900 bookings that are quite literally six pings away from cancellation.

Patrick Langmaid says the park's 900 bookings are under threat if just six of his staff have to self-isolate Credit: Mother Ivey's holiday park

"I’m desperate not to be put in a position where I’m cancelling holidays so I’m actually looking at all the options as saving holidays if I reach a point where my own team has been pinged into self-isolation and become dysfunctional.

"If it comes to it, we will be paying any guests that we need to help with the cleaning of toilet blocks.

"We’re also going to be welcoming all our guests regardless of whether they’ve volunteered or not providing we can keep the toilet blocks open and safe so it isn’t a question of it you don’t volunteer, you can’t come."

Patrick sent an email to guests to let them know that they could get paid for cleaning while on their holiday.

Some people have since cancelled their bookings but there are still 900 who will still be in attendance.

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Patrick also highlighted large amounts of people are self-isolating at the moment because of an increase in coronavirus cases as well as other factors.

He recognises hospitality in the region is particularly hard-hit because of staff shortages and other issues facing the Duchy.

He said: "We’re facing a perfect storm at the moment. We’ve got Freedom Day approaching, we’ve got covid surging, and one of my management team has actually got a positive test in her family so she’s self-isolating.

"There is a recruitment crisis across hospitality, I happen to but fully recruited but across hospitality, there is a recruitment crisis and in Cornwall that is compounded by the housing crisis that is ongoing."