Saturday Spot - Terri Strick
"I used to get a spot on my chin. It used to start on a Thursday night and by Saturday it was this throbbing lump on my chin that Chris Tyler used to call the 'Saturday Bolt'. I used to get so wound up about it because they used to make me overbook, in case people didn't turn up. They had six berth caravans and we used to book people in who didn't know each other ... at one point we had people in the same bed who had never met before, because we were so overbooked! Because if everyone turned up you were buggered!
"Oh God ... it was the worst, worst nightmare. It was fine the first few hours ... but it was getting the people up and out of bed, especially if they'd had a party the night before. Poor old Mr Tyler (Chris' father) with his, probably three, staff would have to clean all these units and I'd have my charts, with all these people booked in ... "Yes, yes there's a three in there, they're in with a two, that's a four berth, but they can sleep on the sofa ..." and then Mr Tyler would say "That one there is going to need re-painting – you're going to have to move them" and so we'd be juggling all day.
"That's the only thing I hated about Skewjack – the Saturdays! People would go to their chalet and come back and say, "Well we wanted the one in the brochure, the one with the Formica table". There weren't many like that - especially when it got to about August, they'd really taken some wear. And Chris used to hide!! He'd be in reception for a little while and then he'd see someone coming back from a chalet and he'd hide! I hated him sometimes!!
"But the complaints only ever came from people who were expecting a lot more – because that was the time when places were just starting to do cheap holidays abroad. A lot of them had been to Majorca and had perhaps had an en-suite. It also tended to be people who'd perhaps chosen it for a honeymoon, or had a small child, or were just a bit fussy. They were expecting Butlins maybe? And Butlins it wasn't! I only remember a couple of people wanting their money back."