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A letter to the Customers & Guests of The Grand
From The General Manager
Christmas 2011

“As has become the practice since I took over at The Grand, in November 2009, I would like to take the opportunity to update as to what is happening within the property.”

“Christmas at The Grand”

Dear Guest of The Grand,

Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday we were ripping open colorfully wrapped boxes and turning Poirot off the TV whilst unable to move for all the Turkey and Plum Pudding. But since then we’ve had a Royal Wedding, phone hacking scandals and one of the hottest Octobers on record and now we’re back hanging stars on trees and buying scarf’s. Christmas has arrived, who knew?

What is Christmas, at The Grand? Well, this is the time that sweeping 18ft trees appear from nowhere to parade their glory within the finest set of meeting and function suites on the south coast. This is the time that crackling log fires, mulled wine and delicious German Christmas treats receive you from the chilly air whilst our glorious team of pianists unlock their Christmas song books as an atmosphere of Christmas past descends upon our fine grade 2 listed building, glowing brightly every night on the Leas.

And that is just the start.

The atmosphere during Christmas in The Grand is as spectacular as you will ever see and within our rooms Gourmet Christmas Lunches, Kentish Turkey Dinners, the pride of Folkestone’s Christmas offering in our county renowned Christmas Day Gala and a New Years Eve to remember or some of Kent’s best loved Musicians unplugged with a festive “Gig at The Grand”- we will endeavor to have something for everyone, whether it’s a Christmas Party, a Family Dinner, the most amazing New Years Eve or just a bed for the night in our four star accommodation, because this December:

If you love Christmas, You’ll love The Grand.

The thing about Christmas, to me, is that the world changes. Everything just feels different, a little more magical maybe? We stop running around tied up with what’s important today and we take a step back and take a look at the bigger picture. Spend time with family, with friends or just say “Happy Christmas” to the neighbor whose name we just couldn’t quite remember. Now you may, or may not know, two years ago I tasked a portion of our resources to working with local, Kentish, charity and I selected a charity on the grounds that it had to do some good in our area. So in January 2010 a successful partnership was raised between The Grand and the East Kent Child Witness Service, a wonderful charity supporting Children locally. Now after two years of proactively raising thousands of pounds for these wonderful people, mainly volunteers, the time has come to say goodbye, albeit with a heavy heart. After two years we are moving on to support the Rainbow Centre Charity, based locally in Folkestone Town. This is another valuable group who work so hard to improve the daily lives of real people in this area. I couldn’t be prouder to be permitted to spend a portion of my time, and the businesses time helping to make (at least) a small difference.

More details regarding The Grand’s work within the community can be found on our website:

http://www.grand-uk.com/Charity_2010.html

But I’m getting ahead of myself- what else is going on?, well at the time of writing we have launched our second “Grand Memories” competition, wonderfully supported by the kind people at the Folkestone Herald, giving you the chance to win a table for four at our envy of the county, our Christmas Day Gala Banquet, worth £300.00.

For those of you who may not remember, Grand Memories was our competition run in the Folkestone Herald where members of the public kindly shared with us their memories and experiences of The Grand. With entries as far afield as New Zealand proudly displayed on our website and the winning family enjoying our festive fayre it seemed ridiculous to not bring back Grand Memories for a second year and this year with photographs accompanying all entries and a table reserved for the winners we take great pleasure in sharing these memories with you, our guests and friends.

http://www.grand-uk.com/Grand_Memories.html

Finally, I’d like to leave you with some news, an exclusive in fact! From January 2012 the renowned Jazz at The Grand will become free to enter, all your favorites from Ian Shawcross to Bill Barnacle will still be there, the only thing that’s going is the door charge! Contact sales@grand-uk.com for more details.

2011 has been an amazing year and the future gets brighter everyday!
If you haven’t been to The Grand in a while now is the perfect time to start.

I look forward to seeing you all soon, but in keeping with my own tradition I will leave you with
three little words…….

He is Returning……….
2012

Robert Richardson, MIH
General Manager