“It was clear pretty much immediately that the Holiday Property Bond wasn’t timeshare” – Les Hill.
Bondholders become Bondholders via various routes. For some it’s personal recommendation, for others an advertisement in a magazine. Some are driven by curiosity and for some it’s an aspiration.
But there’s a fifth group: the Bondholders-by-accident. Those who, by chance, find themselves with an HPB leaflet in their hands, and decide – or have it decided for them – to find out more
Such was the case for Les Hill from Dumfries, who, sometime pre-2000, was midway through a career with the Scottish trading standards office. “My boss had been browsing through the weekend newspapers,” he recalls, “and an HPB flyer had fallen out. He was suspicious – this looked a bit like timeshare, then (rightly) getting a very bad press – but couldn’t personally spare the time to investigate further. He noticed, however, that there was an Open Day coming up at Braithwaite Court, HPB’s Cumbrian home, where the Bond would be peddling its wares, so to speak. I was asked to attend.”
So Les, a sceptic by nature as well as by profession, made the short journey south to Braithwaite – and had his (and his boss’s) suspicions comprehensively debunked. “First, it was clear pretty much immediately that the Holiday Property Bond wasn’t timeshare,” he says. “There was a wide (and, as I was to discover, ever-expanding) choice of holiday homes and locations to be enjoyed, and almost limitless flexibility as to when – no being stuck with the same week of the year, every year. Secondly, there was total transparency; it was explained in full what this ‘Bond’ was, and how it worked. And thirdly, there was no pressure – the HPB people were at pains to ensure that my fellow Open Day attendees and I had all the facts; but it was down to us to make our own minds up as to whether the Bond was right for us.”
Doubts assuaged, Les ‘took his work hat off’, looked about him; and liked what he saw. “The quality was little short of sensational,” he says. “I began to see how this could work – for me, my wife Margaret, and our two then-young children, Gordon and Julie.”
Having committed £7,000 in 1999, the Hills’ holidays have taken them far and wide; including, most recently, a summer stay at Duloe Manor in Cornwall (when these photos were taken) with daughter Julie and grandson Blair. “It’s a bit of a trip down Memory Lane for us, this,” says Margaret. “I remember we had a fabulous family holiday here.”
"Just as we are this time around,” adds Les. “There is a perception that the Holiday Property Bond is for a more mature clientele, but I prefer to think of it as multi-generational. Margaret and I became Bondholders in our early 40s, and enjoyed HPB holidays with our young family. And now here we are, spending a different kind of family time, with a new addition to the clan. And loving it.”
But the site that draws them back time and again is Tigh Mor, on the edge of the Scottish Highlands, overlooking Loch Achray. “Tigh Mor was our first HPB holiday,” Margaret explains, “and I remember as we rounded the bend and saw it for the first time, Julie’s face just lit up. ‘It’s like a fairytale castle!’ she exclaimed. And it remains as enchanting now as it was then.”
Julie, Gordon, their partners and offspring have reason to be grateful to Les and Margaret. The siblings and families holiday independently on Mum and Dad’s Bond, overlapping where possible so that all the Hills can spend quality time together: “Another example of the Bond’s flexibility.” And in time Gordon and Julie will inherit their parents’ Bond.
"I would love to say we planned it,” says Les, “though it was really just happy happenstance that we discovered HPB in the first place. But one thing I can say for sure: in all the years, the Bond benchmark has never wavered; in fact, if anything it’s improved. Now as then, the Holiday Property Bond more than fulfils the trading standards brief.”
