Case Study · Holiday Parks
From Disheartened to Confident.
How Sandholme Lodge went from one sale in a year to sold out in three months, without changing a single thing about the park. It just needed to get in front of the right people.
30 minutes · no obligation · a straight answer either way
Figures from the campaign's first three months, 31 March to early July 2026.
The Park
If you run a park, you know the quiet worry that sits behind lodge sales. You can have the most beautiful setting in the county and still watch a whole season go by without shifting stock. A year ago, that was Sandholme.
Sandholme lodge holiday and country park is a stunning park which sits on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds near Newport, with York, Beverley, Hull and the coast all within easy reach, yet the instant you arrive the outside world goes quiet. Twenty one lodges sit around two private fishing lakes that Sandra and Rob dug and landscaped themselves, each with its own peg, an island at the centre, and blossom along the lane as you drive in. Five rescued Shetland ponies graze the fields, geese return every spring to nest, and owners describe it, over and over, as somewhere they can finally breathe out.
It is not a corporate operation, and that is the whole point. Sandra and Rob have run it for 23 years, and it has been in Rob's family for over 35, growing from a few touring caravans in a single farm field into the exclusive, owner-only park it is today.
Evening across the water: the peace and quiet Sandra's owners buy into.
Our park is special because we offer peace and quiet. As a business we always try to be fully transparent and honest with our customers. And it is a family run business, which shines through and through.Sandra, Sandholme Lodge
A park this special ought to sell itself. For a long time, it did not. Not because anything was wrong with Sandholme — nothing was — but because the people who would fall in love with it simply never saw it. That distinction is the most useful part of this whole story.
The Problem
Sandra had tried to sell her lodges the way most owners do. She listed with a national park sales company for a full year. It brought her a grand total of one sale. She brought in a marketing man who arrived full of ideas and delivered none of them. She posted on Facebook herself now and then. Alongside all of it there were pull-up banners in both of the family's garden centres, a sign-written trailer in a car park, and leaflets on every restaurant table. Plenty of activity. Almost nothing to show for it.
"Last year was just so hard," she says. "I kept getting enquiries, but nothing anywhere near anybody wanting to commit."
When slow sales push you toward a park you never meant to run.
It got to the point where Sandra started looking at options she never wanted to take.
Sandholme does not allow subletting, and never has. It is one of the reasons her owners chose to buy there. But with sales so slow, she and Rob reluctantly considered changing the rules simply to bring money in. When they sounded out a couple of their owners, the answer came straight back: do that, and we will leave. They looked at going residential too, and their planning consultant told them what most owners in that spot hear, that the licences are rarely changed, and in truth it was not what they wanted anyway.
This is the part a lot of owners will recognise. When sales dry up, the pressure is not only financial. It quietly pushes you toward becoming a different park from the one you set out to build.
The Decision
"There was just something about the advert that excited me and gave me hope again"
Sandra had seen Zen's advert on Facebook long before she got in touch. When she finally enquired, it was late in the year, so we agreed to pick it up in spring. Underneath the timing was the honest reason, the one nearly every independent operator will nod at.
It just seemed like lot of money for a park like ours, but it's been a great investment.Sandra, Sandholme Lodge
That is the real objection. Not "could this work for somebody," but "can I afford to find out that it doesn't." If you have felt that, you are in good company. Here is what she decided.
I said to Rob, in the end we just need to jump in with both feet and give it a go. If we only need to sell one lodge a month, then it's been worth it.Sandra, Sandholme Lodge
So she set the bar where most owners would: one lodge a month and the campaign pays for itself many times over. What followed cleared that bar, and kept going.
Sound familiar?
Sandra had the same hesitation you might have right now.
She weighed the cost, gave it three months, and cleared her park. See what the same campaign could look like for yours.
A 30-minute call. We will tell you honestly if your park is not a fit, and we only work with one park per catchment.
The System
What we actually ran.
What we ran for Sandholme is our Holiday Home Sales Engine — the same system we have run for 40+ UK parks. See exactly how it works →
The Results
What changed, and how quickly.
The leads started arriving almost immediately. "I was hoping the campaign would get bums on seats and get the leads coming through," Sandra says, "and straight away it did. That gave me hope, and once I'd sold the first one, I felt more confident that this was going to work."
The very first lodge went to a buyer who had seen the campaign on Facebook and drove over to look. Then it began to build on itself. One of the clearest moments came when the team refreshed the advert for a particular lodge one morning, and Sandra sold it that same day. Another buyer came directly through the campaign after Sandra spent a month patiently following up. More than £135,000 of lodge sales traced straight back to the campaign, and the run of interest it created played its part in roughly half a million pounds of lodges changing hands across the park in those three months. Set that against the cost of the campaign and Sandra's "one lodge a month" bar looks almost quaint. One sale covered the lot.
By early July, she was able to say the thing every park owner wants to say.
Everything that was for sale on the park has gone.Sandra, Sandholme Lodge
Phase one along the water: every lodge that was for sale found its buyer.
Sold out. A couple had even walked in that very morning wanting to buy a lodge she had sold the day before. Sandra is now buying new stock with a confidence she did not have a year ago, and she has already renewed for another three months.
In Her Own Words
What she tells other park owners.
We asked Sandra what she would say to another park owner weighing this up. Her answer was simple: give it a go. She has told us she would happily recommend Zen to any holiday park in the position she was in a year ago.
Her one piece of advice for owners sitting on the fence is about patience. "It does take a while for people to think about it, so three months minimum is a better time." That patience point is worth taking to heart. Some parks panic in the first fortnight if a sale has not landed. Sandholme sold in month one, again in month two, and then twice more in month three. It compounds. The enquiries you gather now become the sales you make later, sometimes much later. We have had a buyer at another park come back and purchase four years after their very first enquiry. Every one of those 87 conversations Sandra built is still there, ready for her next lodge.
The questions owners ask us.
My park is small. Does this only work for the big operators?
Sandholme is 21 pitches, owner-only, family run. Small was not the problem; visibility was. In fact the intimacy of a small park is often the strongest selling point in the adverts, because it is exactly what lodge buyers say they want and exactly what the corporate operators cannot offer.
How quickly should I expect anything to happen?
Enquiries usually start within days; sales take as long as a considered purchase takes. Sandra sold in month one, but her own advice is to give it three months minimum, because the enquiries compound. Parks that panic in the first fortnight are judging a three-month engine on two weeks of running.
Will I have to change how I run my park?
No, and Sandholme is the proof. No subletting, no rentals, no going residential, no gimmicks. The campaign sells the park you already have to the people already looking for it. What we do ask is that you work the enquiries properly when they arrive, the way Sandra does.
What actually happens on the strategy call?
Thirty minutes on Zoom or phone. We look at your park, your current stock and your local patch, and tell you honestly what a campaign could do, including if we think you are not a fit. No slides, no pressure, and a straight answer either way.
Is this your park?
- You have a park you are genuinely proud of, but stock that will not shift.
- Your enquiries dribble in from word of mouth, listings sites or the odd passer-by.
- You have quietly wondered whether you would have to change how you run the place to bring money in.
- You are ready to work the leads properly when they arrive, the way Sandra does.
Sandholme did not need a different park. It needed the right people to see the one it already had. That is the whole job, and it is one we would love to do for yours.
Book your Park Strategy Call.
If any of Sandra's story sounds like where you are right now, this is the next step. Thirty minutes, no obligation, and you leave with:
- ✓An honest read on whether campaigns like Sandholme's would work for your park and your stock.
- ✓What your patch looks like: who is buying lodges near you and what price points are moving.
- ✓A clear picture of the numbers, timescales and what we would need from you, before you commit to anything.
30 minutes · no obligation · a straight answer either way
Zen Marketing Solutions · Holiday park specialists since 2014 · 40+ parks · £14m+ in lodge and holiday home sales · not a single failed campaign
Want the detail before you book? Read how the Holiday Home Sales Engine works →
With thanks to Sandra and Rob at Sandholme Lodge. Story and quotes shared with permission. Sandholme Lodge Holiday & Country Park, Newport, East Yorkshire · sandholme.zenholidayparks.co.uk
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