Okay, 917 is more accurate, but nearly every one of the 1,000 plus families who visit the Tyler Place each summer patiently fill out our two-page questionnaire at the end of their stay. So....what is the fate of your questionnaire? Ted's kindling pile for long winter nights? Chad's secret bonfire tinder? A file box in Mrs. T's attic?
Absolutely not! The questionnaires are undoubtedly the engine gears that propel the Tyler Place from being a 78-year-"old" resort to an annually refreshed, renewed and cutting edge-family resort welcoming guests from all over the country-and beyond.
Absolutely not! The questionnaires are undoubtedly the engine gears that propel the Tyler Place from being a 78-year-"old" resort to an annually refreshed, renewed and cutting edge-family resort welcoming guests from all over the country-and beyond.
As guests are making their last good-byes on Saturday morning, Dayle Palmer is already at work painstakingly transcribing every written suggestion and comment on each questionnaire so it can be ready for review by each Department Head at the upcoming week's staff meeting. Some items can be addressed right off. Others are broken into "to do" lists including Maintenance Projects and New Improvements/Purchases for the following year. Once every couple of weeks family and key staff sit around Ted and Cathy’s dining room table and prioritize the lists—with some of the work starting before the season is over.
The questionnaire’s format has changed many times over the past 78 years, but they have always been a feature of the TP since Tasney, Chad, Geof, Quint, Hector and Gige's grandparents’ E.J. and “Mrs. T” combed through them over pre-dinner martinis. What is striking is how serious and positive guests are in offering their ideas and suggestions. Of course there are negatives, but nearly always they are presented in a positive, helpful way that we can frequently address—and when they are not, it’s almost always a case of mismatched expectations that the TP could never meet in the first place.
As most of you know, the Tyler Place may have one of the shortest seasons of any resort—just 15 weeks. This gives us and our guests the unique advantage of having 37 weeks to refurbish and take on big projects—as well as sprucing up in the aftermath of some 2500 active children and teens!
Thus, as we throttle up for the 2012 Season, this is a great time to thank you and all our guests of five generations for your individual and collective part in helping the Tyler Place keep fresh and new without losing the nostalgic spirit of another era.
I remember chatting with Kyrie in 2000, on my third visit to the Tyler Place. She was telling me what great people the Tylers were to work for, and I told her how impressed I was that each year, the suggestions we'd made on those surveys had been implemented the following year.
ReplyDelete"Oh no," she replied. "They were implemented the following week."
Touche'!