Dear Buffalo Motel and Country Retreat Guests,

Happy New Year and a very warm welcome to all of you.

After a very forgettable 2020, impacted so drastically by the effects of the January 2020 bushfires and then Covid-19, we are really looking forward to enjoying a more relaxed set of trading conditions to kick off 2021 (even though events of recent weeks are telling us we must remain vigilant to potential deterioration in our hard earned calmer Covid management conditions very quickly). Hence, we request your co-operation in observing requirements to wear masks in indoor public areas and also government guidelines regarding social distancing whenever you are indoors or outdoors with other motel guests.

Please note that we had to temporarily close access to the lounge area from 1 January 2021 as we could not confidently monitor and control person limits imposed by the Government on indoor areas in an appropriate manner. As soon as we are able, we will re-open the lounge area for your enjoyment.

We are proud to be one of the first motels to act quickly to implement non-contact guest check-in and check out practices in 2020 in accordance with CovidSafe guidelines issued by the Victorian Government. We also took urgent steps to upgrade our top to bottom room cleaning regime to heighten our alertness and respond to potential Covid-19 cross-infection risk.

I wish to thank all our guests and also, our staff members who graciously co-operated with us in the implementation of the above initiatives to keep us all safe.

You will be pleased to know that we embarked on a motel improvement program during the extended 2020 lockdown period to improve the overall presentation of our guest rooms by undertaking the following initiatives:

• Giving most rooms, a fresh coat of paint
• Installing brand new all-cotton easily washable bed doona covers and
• New sun-blocked window coverings

to increase the overall comfort of our rooms for all our guests to enjoy.

I am pleased to announce that we will be extending the deck area to create the following improvements:

• An open community kitchen area for guests to access and use from February 2021.
• A pergola over the BBQ area and
• Later in the year, we plan to apply for Council permits to install a weatherproof roof cover over the BBQ area

All of the above initiatives will greatly enhance our open air deck dining facilities.

In addition to the above initiatives, we have also added a number of new teak timber tables and chairs to increase guest-seating capacity on the deck. This initiative was made possible by a special grant offered by the Victorian Government to certain Hospitality venues. We are delighted that our application for this grant was successful and implementation of these improvements is already underway.

I am pleased to advise that most of the above motel facility improvement projects will be ready for guest to access and enjoy by the 22 January (Australia Day) weekend.

Looking ahead, we hope to gradually install a number of simple landscape improvements to the Ovens River front area over the next two years. This will allow our guests to explore that area more comfortably when they walk down directly to the Ovens River front edge during their stay with us.

The start of the New Year has seen many of our returning guests use our direct online booking function (which is displayed prominently on our website:  www.buffalomotelretreat.com.au) to book their stays with us more frequently. This increase in direct online booking traffic to our website is very positive as it was set up to make your online booking experience more user friendly.

I wish to thank all our guests for the positive feedback they have given us during 2020. Thank you sincerely for making the effort to submit your feedback as we use this feedback to help us continuously make improvements to our motel service, guest rooms and facilities and also our overall ground presentation.

I would be most grateful if all of you continue to give us your valuable feedstock into 2021. This can be done, either through the Buffalo Motel and Country Retreat Trip Advisor Review windows or through the booking engine you have selected.

I wish all of you a very Happy, Healthy and Rewarding New Year for 2021.

Kind regards,

Irene Wong,

Director, Buffalo Motel and Country Retreat Pty Ltd