Greater Edinburgh Area
I am an experienced hotel manager with over 25 years experience in the hospitality industry, in both branded and independent properties. My specialties are leadership, general Management, strategy development, finance, project leadership, excellent Customer Service, product improvement and development. My passion is creating strong working relationships with all stakeholders through transparency and team work to deliver a shared goal. An experienced Hotel & Resort General Manager, with a passion for hospitality and leading teams to sustainable success. With a proven track record in developing profitable and sustainable businesses through a measured and realistic business strategy aligned to delivering consistently excellent standards and service in all areas. Combining a positive attitude with the tenacity and focus to succeed, a strong and persuasive people-oriented management style that delivers results
Following an interim appointment I have been appointed as General manager to Thainstone House Hotel. My remit has been to provide strong, hands on leadership in refocussing and repositioning this hotel; to recruit and train a newly forming team, to drive service and product standards that have been inconsistent and below expectation, to drive revenue and profit performance , and to drive performance standards in every area of the business. Reputation has been critical in achieving these aims, in the past four months the reputation has improved significantly driving increases in occupancy,rate and M&E conversion.
This was a business that was seriously underperforming in all areas, and with a poor reputation in its region and within the brand. I along with senior team, developed a strong strategy to reposition the hotel to deliver its true potential. I led and developed a team who over three years consistently outperformed expectation in all areas. Navigating this hotel on a journey of growth in reputation, trade and profit, achieved through a hands on management style required to realign the culture of the team. Success came through reputational growth, and also through a restructure the sales function, more consistent communication and reporting, measured strategic planning, the implementation of an accountable and closely targeted sales and marketing plan that explored a more diverse range of revenue streams and the delivery of a successful revenue strategy. * Sales and EBITDA growth of 22% and 50%. Key focuses: - Product Improvement, Customer Focus, Sales Development, H&S, Profit. * Successful repositioning of hotel rate strategy with a more diverse market mix, a 75% growth in weddings and events, increase in corporate golf, spa, golf and event related revenues. * Well defined Sales and marketing plan for each revenue stream delivering measured and realistic growth. * Development and delivery of a strong business network through proactive participation within the regional market and intracompany via Accor. Particular Success enjoyed through the Armed forces Covenant initiative opening potential group, event and golf revenues. * Stabilising and improving all departments with stronger and more organised leadership. * Significant and sustained improvement in reputation. TA Moved from 3/5>4/5 Booking.com 72%>84%. Within 12 months of appointment putting the hotel into the top 10 within brand from a position of 54th out of 70 units.
Having spent twenty successful years in Hotel Management, I embarked upon a project of owning and operating my own family business in the Scottish Borders. In April 2016 I took on the lease on the Old Bakehouse Restaurant, a Bistro Style restaurant twenty miles south Of Edinburgh. We gave ourselves a two year timeframe to decide whether this prospect was long term. We enjoyed success in restoring reputation and trade, ultimately however trade levels did not reach the required levels for long term success and we opted to sell the lease.
Titanic Hotel Liverpool General Manager – Harcourt Construction February 2015- March 2016 Positioned at 5 star level, the newly opened Titanic Hotel Liverpool hotel located in a regeneration area at the heart of the docklands of Liverpool, 153 bedrooms, 1000 conference covers, 150 cover restaurant, Spa, with annual sales budget of £12.5m. My primary focus was to develop the leadership team and to define their role and responsibilities and delivering a sustainable sales and operating strategy aspiring to be first in market in all measures. Recruitment and selection were critical in terms of forming a stable and focussed leadership team and necessitated by very high labour turn over. The hotel was lacking in system and process and I led the heads of department and functional leaders in terms of developing systems and processes to deliver the key business objectives. Service delivery and the customer journey were sadly lacking and through the heads of department I developed a customer journey for each area of the business, robust training, service level measurement and action planning. Major Achievements Sales and EBITDA growth of 26% and 128% respectively Key focuses: - Restructure, Product Improvement, Customer Focus and Sales Development. After 9 months £1.5m in revenue growth to budget. Moved from 39th on Trip advisor to 11th, removing the culture of apathy from the operation. Reduction of payroll from 42% to 37% through strong sales, improvement of departmental efficiencies, better planning and systems. Development and introduction of Brand standards in all areas of the business, SOP`s, Training, auditing. Comprehensive introduction of an active and measurable health and safety system/policy.