How Retention Led Recruitment Saves Holiday Parks Thousands

For holiday park owners and senior managers, recruiting and keeping good people is one of the biggest ongoing challenges. The UK hospitality and leisure sector is known for high staff turnover with some reports suggesting annual rates of up to 35 % in hospitality roles.

In many holiday parks, especially those with strong seasonal swings, it can be even higher.

That staff churn is both inconvenient and it’s expensive. Whether that’s a reception manager, maintenance lead, head chef, or a skilled back-office professional in accounts, marketing, or administration, it costs far more than their salary to replace them.

Lost productivity, guest experience dips, overtime costs, and re-training all add up fast. In a business built on tight margins and reputation, those leaks can quietly drain thousands from your bottom line each year.

Retention-led recruitment is a smarter, more strategic approach to hiring that focuses not just on filling a vacancy, but on bringing in people who stay, grow, and add long-term value to your park.

The hidden cost of staff turnover

Most parks account for recruitment costs as adverts or agency fees, but the real price of high turnover runs much deeper. Research by Oxford Economics and Unum found the average cost of replacing an employee earning £25,000 or more is £30,614, once you include lost productivity and training.

PayFit estimates the UK average cost per replacement is around £25,000, while Croner puts it at roughly £11,000 per employee and significantly more for management or specialist roles.

Even at the lower end, the numbers are significant. If your park has 50 full-time roles averaging £30,000 and an annual turnover rate of 35 %, that’s around 17 people leaving each year. Even at the lower figurer of £11,000 per leaver, you’re losing roughly £187,000 annually.

Reduce that turnover by just 25 % and you immediately save around £47,000 a year, money that could go straight back into guest experience, new facilities, or team training development.

And the impact doesn’t stop at finance. Each departure means lost knowledge, inconsistency for returning guests, extra workload on remaining staff, and often, a dip in service quality right when your park is busiest. High churn can ripple through your team culture, morale, and reputation.

Why traditional recruitment falls short

Many parks still follow a hire-and-hope model, post an ad, fill the role quickly, and hope the person works out. It’s understandable the pace of seasonal business often demands quick fixes. But this short-term approach is part of the problem. Fast hires are more likely to leave early, creating a costly cycle of replacement and retraining.

Retention-led recruitment turns that process on its head. Instead of focusing purely on speed and availability, it focuses on fit both cultural and professional. It prioritises the candidates most likely to stay, succeed, and add value over time.

At its core, retention-led recruitment is about understanding what makes people thrive at your park and building that into every stage of hiring and onboarding.

How retention-led recruitment works & reduces staff turnover

We hire for fit, not just availability. A strong CV doesn’t guarantee success in a holiday park. HPL looks for alignment with your park’s values, guest experience standards, and team culture. When people genuinely fit, they stay longer and perform better.

We believe that behavioural interviews and culture-fit questions reveal more than standard skills checks. We focus on motivation, teamwork, and long-term intent, not just availability.

The first 90 days are critical. A structured, supportive onboarding process improves retention dramatically. It helps new hires feel part of something, not just filling a gap.

Regular check-ins, feedback loops, and stay interviews reduce surprises. When employees feel heard, they’re less likely to leave.

Clear development paths and recognition programmes create loyalty. Many holiday park roles can evolve season to season and retention-led recruitment helps build those bridges.

Why this approach to recruitment matters so much in holiday parks

Holiday parks are uniquely affected by turnover:

• Staff returning year after year hit the ground running, saving weeks of training time.

• Returning guests expect familiar faces, it’s part of what makes a park feel like their special place.

• Many parks are in rural or coastal areas where recruitment pools are limited, making retention even more critical.

• Specialist systems, compliance, and health & safety training take time and money to deliver. Losing trained staff wastes that investment.

• Replacing experienced managers mid-season disrupts everything from operations to morale.

  
  

Retention-led recruitment addresses all of these. It’s not just a HR improvement, it’s a commercial strategy.

HPL’s retention-led approach

At HPL Recruitment, we’ve built our model around long-term partnerships, not short-term placements. Our approach is designed specifically for the holiday park and leisure sector, we know the pressures, the culture, and what success looks like in your environment.

Here’s how we make retention work in practice:

• We understand park life inside out, from seasonal demands to owner expectations.

• We dig beyond CVs to find people who fit your team and will thrive long term.

• We build relationships with high-quality candidates who may become your future leaders, not just next-season staff.

  
  

With HPL, you’re not just hiring you’re building a workforce that compounds value season after season.

Building teams that last

If you’re running a holiday park, you already know how hard it is to build and keep a great team. You can have the best lodges, the smartest marketing, and the biggest investment plans, but without people who stay, everything else becomes harder and more expensive.

Retention-led recruitment isn’t just a hiring method; it’s a smarter business strategy. When you hire people who genuinely fit your culture, who feel valued and see a future with your park, you build consistency that pays back in every direction, smoother operations, happier guests, and stronger profits.

That’s what we do at HPL Recruitment. We don’t just fill roles; we help you build a team that lasts.

Our approach combines industry insight, behavioural screening, and long-term partnership to reduce staff turnover and strengthen your park’s performance season after season.

If you’d like to see what retention-led recruitment could save your business, we’d love to start that conversation.