In our sister magazine Hotel Scotland we interivew hoteliers from across the country and this issue we take a look back at three hoteliers who have made their mark on the Scottish hospitality scene. They all prove that hospitality is a career with massive opportunities.
By Susan Young
The news broke this month that Apex Hotels has bought Meldrum House Country Hotel and Golf Course in Aberdeenshire. The man at the helm of the hotel is Managing Director Jordan Charles who I interviewed last year, and who is staying with the business.
When the news broke he said, “This is a great opportunity for Meldrum House as we have had a couple of record years of performance and solid economic growth. The new owners have great plans, vision and ambitions and I look forward to helping them drive the business forward with our team.”
He joined the hotel in 2018, and was in charge during the pandemic which due to the efforts of the management team actually came out of the experience on a good footing. Explained Jordan, “We were one of the businesses that exited the pandemic stronger than we went in.”
This was due in no small part to their decision to invest in Domes for the outside area which are spectacular. The Domes have been the most successful project the business has ever done and although it started out with one 3.6m Dome there is now a family of them, with a dining capacity of 72 plus the 10sqm Titan Sky Bar.
Jordan, who is in is early 30s, hails from Cumbernauld, did a law degree at Stirling University, completing his diploma at Strathclyde, before entering the world of hospitality… actually, that’s not quite true. He completed his degree while working full-time in hospitality! Says Jordan, “I worked at Westerwood Hotel, part of QHotels and a well-managed hotel, when I was at High School. When I went to Stirling University, I continued to work there to earn cash to help me through Uni. During my last year at Stirling, I managed to work full-time and during my diploma year at Strathclyde, I took on the role of Banqueting Manager. It worked quite well because I went to Uni full-time Monday to Thursday and then worked the weekends.
“When I graduated, the GM at the time, Paul Bray, presented me with a unique opportunity to progress more in the hospitality industry in the role of Conference Manager where things were booming and busy. After all the years at law school and my spare time in hospitality, it made me weigh things up and I realised my passion lay with hotels, and I’d make a much better hotelier than a lawyer.”
He went on to join the Cambridge Belfry as Food & Beverage Manager before getting his first deputy role at the Telford Hotel and Golf Resort – a 114 bedroomed hotel, with a large leisure facility and golf course in the heart of Shropshire before returning to Scotland and Meldrum House.
Says Jordan, “Andy Burgess, the CEO at the time, and the directors had fantastic vision which was a really exciting proposition. They wanted it to be a mini-Gleneagles with regards to the quality of the venue. I could see the opportunity and potential and was delighted to accept the role of GM when I was offered it.”
Within a few years, with Andy Burgess as his mentor, he progressed to Managing Director. Jordan also sits on the board of Visit Aberdeenshire; he was formerly vice-chair of Aberdeenshire Hotel Association and is Chair of HIT Scotland for the Grampian HIT Dinner. He says, “I love HIT Scotland. I’m a huge advocate of what they do. I like it because you see can see the benefits it brings your team.”
One of the highlights of Jordan’s personal career was picking up an Acorn Award. Says he, “I’ve always had a desire to be successful. When I got the job at Meldrum House, the turnover was £3.5m in sales and the golf club turned over £800K. In the last year, we turned over £5.2m in sales and golf turnover grew to £1.2m. I would like to see the business continue to flourish.”
That’s certainly the intention of Apex Hotels, Chief Executive Officer Angela Vickers said of the purchase, “After a strong trading period across our portfolio, the acquisition of Meldrum House represents an opportunity to continue to diversify Apex Hotels, giving our guests even more choice of a city or countryside option.
“This is an exciting time for the company and after getting to know the team at Meldrum House it was clear they share the same aims and ambitions we have at Apex. Meldrum House will be one of our flagship hotels and we are delighted to be the next custodians of this historic property.”
Mike Baxter CEO and co-founder of House of Gods has just opened his latest hotel in Glasgow. He describes the hotel as “a place where everyone knows how to have a great time.” Saying, “We’re here to treat each and every guest like the rockstar they are.”
When I first interviewed him I actually called him the Rock’n Roll hotelier because of his outlook on life. But no doubt the last two years have taken its toll because it is never easy opening a new hotel. The 22-bedroomed House of Gods Edinburgh, opened in 2019 and was named Sunday Times Hotel of the Year Scotland in 2020. He is aiming to replicate that success in Glasgow and the next city on his agenda is Manchester.
Mike and his brother Ross have instilled into their hotels the ethos of ‘decadence.’ He told me, “If I want to stay in a hotel I want to escape my life and my own four walls and I think other people feel the same way. I literally want to fall down a rabbit hole. So with House of Gods, we have created something more experiential and exciting for our guests.”
The passion that Mike has for his hotel is very evident, but surprisingly, he and his brother Ross, do not come from a hotel background. Before opening the hotel Mike was in property development, and Ross was an offshore engineer in the oil industry.
Mike was always ambitious. He explains, “At school, I looked old for my age and I would rent a nightclub and sell tickets to nights there.” When he went to Aberdeen University he continued promoting nights and became one of Aberdeen’s key promoters running the hugely popular Wednesday nights at First Leisure’s Amadeus. This led to him opening his own bar, Eskobar, in 1997, when he was only 22. Says Mike, “We lived the life. They were halcyon days and we had a lot of fun. I maybe was a bit too young because I was going out and enjoying myself, and just happened to own the bar.”
But by the time he had hit his mid-twenties, he was using his money more wisely and investing in property development. It was the brothers’ desire to invest in property that led them to open The Baxter hostel in Edinburgh’s West Register Street, which, on the day it opened, had 100% occupancy and subsequently, in 2016, a hotel in London called Kip. Explains Mike, “It is much more of a utility hipsters style hotel – which is not food and beverage led.”
Then they had the idea of the House of Gods. The two saw an opportunity in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket in a building that had been left devastated by the 2002 Cowgate fire. Says Mike. “233 Cowgate was a shell of a building. We could see its potential.” They opened House of Gods in 2019, with Mike designing the interiors and Ross taking charge of the operational side of the business. Says Mike, “It has been incredibly successful. The difference between House of Gods and some other hotels is that it is a lifestyle brand. Guests don’t come to us because they need an accommodation solution solved – they come to us because they want to live their best lives.”
Their latest hotel in Glasgow’s Glassford Street has 28 “maximalist rooms and suites’, a downstairs cocktail bar and lounge and a fantastic rooftop restaurant and bar inspired by the Garden of Eden. Much like its Edinburgh counterpart, exquisite interiors are at the heart of the House of Gods experience. From hand-painted 24 karat-gold embellished de Gournay wallpaper in the lobby bar, to the marble fountain crowning the rooftop bar, the attention to detail within the hotel is to be applauded.
Says Mike, “Creating the ultimate escape here has been our main priority. In addition to offering services like early check-in and late check-out as standard, we have worked alongside incredible artists and craftspeople to create a destination which celebrates true extravagance. From working alongside Siobhan Mackenzie who has designed our team’s uniforms to creating a custom toile de jouy wallpaper designed by Gregory Lewis, who has previously worked with a multitude of key fashion brands including Chanel, Fendi, and Christian Louboutin to name just a few.” It’s certainly been well worth the wait.
Jonathan Doherty may come across as very laid back, but the man behind the WORQ Group is more industrious than just about anyone I know, and I know a fair few people! He admits to being a workaholic, a trait he tells me he inherited from his father.
His hospitality business includes, Riva Hotel in Helensburgh and Boutique50 in Glasgow’s west end, as well as Revolver Glasgow. He also has restaurants Chianti in Falkirk and El Santo in Glasgow plus Scotland’s largest log cabin construction and design group – Log house Cabins Scotland.
I met Jonathan at his LGBT-friendly hotel, Revolver, in Virginia House above Delmonica’s in Glasgow’s Merchant City. But first I had to navigate past the giant teddy sitting on a bean bag in reception – a familiar site for guests checking-in. This definitely sets the scene – this is no ordinary hospitality business – but a hybrid hotel/hostel venue which has 38 rooms with a capacity for 128 people where rooms start at £25 and go up to £300. In fact, you don’t even have to check-in at reception, Revolver has its own app which allows guests to check in remotely and find out all they need to know about the hotel and Glasgow.
That’s just one of the reasons it picked up the accolade Independent Operator of the Year last year at the Scottish Bar and Pub Awards with the judges saying, “The accolade goes to an operator who really knows how to identify new opportunities, to innovate and to respond to emerging market trends. It’s a dynamic and forward-thinking business that exudes creativity in what it does and how it delivers in the marketplaces it serves.”
Revolver is a multi-faceted venue which offers various types of accommodation and which is a social hub. Says Jonathan, “I think I can see things in a building that others don’t. When I used to travel for work, I would stay in three or four star hotels, but when I travelled for fun I stayed in nice hostels. In the hotels, the bars were always empty, and the rooms were quite standard, but in hostels you could get a private room and you had an area where you could interact with other people of a similar age. I thought it was a good mix but that it should also be available for the single working traveller, and this is where the concept of Revolver began.”
Jonathan was born in Edinburgh and moved to Ireland when he was four. His father was an entrepreneur and had a very strong work ethic which Jonathan says he inherited from him. He told me, “I think I have always been a serial entrepreneur. I started working at the age of 14 when I started my own carwash business and I also worked in petrol stations over the summer when I was 15/16.
“I’ve done a lot of different jobs, from running catering vans at festivals, to sales. I dabbled in financial trading and have done gorilla marketing – I really enjoyed that. It was unique and we had some crazy creative ideas, but it was all on advertising vans and trailers – there was nothing online.”
But one business which was online was an e-commerce site that he set up with his best friend. Explains Jonathan, “Ireland was in a bad recession, and we decided to buy liquidated stock off administrators by the truckload and sell it online. The business grew really quickly and we ended up employing a lot of people. It was a crazy time. People used to queue outside our warehouses at 7am in the morning to find out what bargains we had. One of the things I most regret was selling it after two years – Ireland doesn’t have an eBay and the market leader now was set up at the same time as our business – although we did get a fair bit of cash for it. However, because we were young, we blew it all in a year on things like a penthouse and cars – all the typical things that young people like. It was a real lesson to us.”
In his late 20’s he made the move back to Scotland and followed in his father’s footsteps with his next business, “I fell into design and construction when I moved back and my original plan was to refurbish properties.” Says Jonathan, “My father had been doing this most of his life. Although he had great success, all businesses have their ups and downs, and my dad was no different. He lost everything in 2009 but that didn’t deter him and he built it all back up again. I have learned from him how important it is to be resilient.”
He continues, “It was the deal that attracted me to Riva. It had been empty for four years and was an old 1800s building. No normal person would have taken it. However, I would travel anywhere for a good deal.” And travel he did, from Edinburgh to Helensburgh for 18 months before booking into a low-cost hotel at Kelvingrove” He smiles, “Three of us did all the stripping out and I built the bones of our own construction fit-out team from that – we learned a lot. Then we started doing fitouts for clients, But we still had a passion for doing our own thing – we took over number one commercial street Edinburgh and turned it into Hemingways. Then opened Chianti and Boutique50 before launching Revolver and El Santo.”
At the same time he opened Boutique 50 plans for Revolver were well underway. Says Jonathan, “After Riva I said I wouldn’t do an old building again. Then along came Virginia House which was perfect for my Revolver concept.
“This is a brand I definitely want to develop into different cities. There is no reason why we cannot scale up and the plan is to expand into Europe too. Revolver is very much about ‘be who you are’, we really promote that ideology, and that is reflected in the unique customer we get.”
WORQ has many other strings to its bow, with hostels and hotels down south, it is also a facility management company and Jonathan is co-owner of Scotland’s biggest log cabin construction and design group. He is also planning a new hotel in Warrington which he hopes to have open next year. Concludes Jonathan, ‘We are lucky we have a great team.” That may be the case, but it certainly helps to have a dynamic boss too!
