Published: December 12th, 2024
Business is booming at a luxury cabin business in Herefordshire after it went viral following a huge upgrade partly financed by a grant from Herefordshire Growth Hub.
Bookings have soared at The Rookery Woods – a woodland retreat in Bromyard – since the installation of cutting-edge infra-red saunas in two of its cabins.
Owners Heather and Dale Badman received a £5,363.40 grant from the Visitor Experience Fund – a capital grant scheme funded by the UK Rural England Prosperity Fund – which met 70 per cent of the cost of the saunas.
Heather said help and support from the Herefordshire Growth Hub had been instrumental in accessing the money to develop the site, which features three bespoke wood cabins.
“Most of our traffic is driven by social media – this is the way the world is working. They’re not just looking in magazines or Google, they are finding you on social media.
“I put an eight-second video on TikTok of the Rook’s Nook, and it went viral. I think, to date, 2.4 million people have seen it. That cabin is now virtually sold out until the end of March next year. When people couldn’t get in that cabin, they booked the others.
“I watched the numbers rolling on my screen – it was like watching bingo, the numbers just went round and round! At one point there were 17,000 hits to the website, and the website crashed. We’ve upgraded it now!
“We processed six months of bookings in four weeks. The grant made a huge, tangible difference. It went crazy, and that would not have happened if we hadn’t upgraded that cabin.”
The grant covered 70 per cent of the cost of the saunas and an extension to the Rookery Nook cabin to house the sauna, hot tub and cinema.
The couple were helped with the grant application by Herefordshire Growth Hub’s Rachel Jones, who won huge praise from Heather.
“I can’t credit Rachel enough, she was so wonderful and so supportive. The grant application isn’t something I’d ever done before. Rachel came over and helped with that, and I can’t thank her enough.
“I’m good at creating and building cabins and running my business, but when it comes to IT, that’s not my strong point. Without her we would not have completed that grant.”
The three cabins – the Rook’s Nook, the Rook’s Tower and the Rook’s View – all offer luxury accommodation for couples with hot tubs, private gardens, outdoor dining areas, and essentials such as towels and toiletries included.
Heather said: “We love what we do. When you’re here it’s such an amazing place to be and we are so passionate about the cabins.”
The couple are now converting a workshop in the woods into a home so they can live on site, as well as developing a bushcraft area, which should be up and running next year, which will allow guests to learn woodland skills and crafts like foraging and wood carving.
Heather first became aware of the growth hub through Bromyard Chamber of Commerce. She is now working with Rachel to investigate funding for further development plans, which include a fully-accessible fourth cabin.
