THE ART OF HOSPITALITY

was there, we completed refurbished the whole hotel from top to bottom – the Grand Cafe, the Scotsman Picture house and all the bedrooms. It was, and still is, a beautiful building.”

This brings us nicely back to Cromlix. Barry added, “We are now fully independent. We have our own financial controller and director of sales and marketing which is unusual for a 16-bedroom hotel. We are lucky, because we have owners who are prepared to invest in this this part of the business, some people arguably wouldn’t. We now have a substantial back of house which allows us to do what we need to do. Beforehand, there would have been a head office, but because we now do it ourselves, we are really agile. We can make decisions really quickly.”

Certainly, there was no dilly dallying when it came to the refurbishment – the whole process took only 10 weeks. The hotel has not changed structurally, but all the bedrooms, public areas and just about every bathroom was redecorated and refurnished. At any one time there were up 200 contractors working on the project. Says Barry, “Where possible we used local .

“This was a typical country house hotel in style and design, but we have moved away from that. I think we are relatively unique in the Scottish country home landscape. There is no tartan anywhere – not because we are not proudly Scottish, but because we wanted to be a bit more contemporary. We have retained the old furniture and French polished it, we have upholstered chairs and sofas to fit in with the new style, plus there are of course new pieces of furniture and new artwork too.

“Kim studied art at university and is an artist in her own right, so she was very involved and hands on. They had just finished their family home in Surrey where she had worked with designer Suzanne Garuda and out of that relationship, she asked Suzanne to get involved here. But Kim was heavily involved in every decision from the design point of view. She okayed every paint colour, every wallpaper – and was also super excited about it.”

Cromlix is part of the Murray family history. When Cromlix originally changed from being a private home to a hotel, Andy’s grandparents were the first people to have a celebration there –they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at Cromlix.

Kim paid her first visit to the property when Andy’s brother got married there, and it was also the venue for their own wedding, as well as Andy’s father’s.

Says Barry, “Cromlix is more than just a business for them. There is a real emotional attachment. When you talk to them you can feel it. They want to make Cromlix the best it can be.”

Kim, said herself in the video for the property, “We have always viewed this as a home from home. We want to spend more time here and we wanted to put our personal stamp on it.”

She and designer Suzanne Garuda have certainly done that (see our design pages).

Barry explains, “The whole idea behind the refurbishment was to bring the outside in. I know it is a bit of a cliché, but we are situated in 34 acres of woodland with flowers, plants and herbs and we wanted to make the house feel part of its surroundings. One of the things Kim says is that we are not a country house, we are a country home and that’s the feeling we want people to have when they arrive. It has been deliberately designed that way. For example, we don’t have a reception desk – we have an antique table which acts as a reception desk but doesn’t feel like one plus we have lounge furniture too – it is a space that can be used by everyone. It is not a stately home, so every room feels cosy, we have log fires in most rooms, and I think it makes the place feel incredible. We have not just refreshed the hotel; we have repositioned it to reflect Kim’s vision for the hotel.

“We have a substantial team, 70 in total, from groundsmen to a large kitchen team led by Darin Campbell. We have a big kitchen team and that means we have made changes there too – now we make everything in-house, nothing is bought in. Our pastry chef, who used to own her own cafe, is fantastic and we are very lucky with Darrin. He was formerly Andrew Fairlie’s head chef at Gleneagles and at One Devonshire. He has refreshed the menu – we leave him to do what he does best - simple food, well done.

“We do have plans to create an 80-cover restaurant because we only have 50 covers at the moment. We will need the extra covers when we embark on our next project - which is to build 9 lodges on the estate. When this happens the hotel kitchen will move and we will create an accessible bedroom suite and another room in the hotel. These extra rooms combined with the lodge guests will also mean that we will need more staff accommodation because we will need more people.

“The vast majority of our staff come from Dunblane, Stirling and Falkirk although a few, including myself, live in Edinburgh. We have quite a young demographic. I think half of our front house team would be under 30 with an average age in the early 20’s. We often get members of the same family working for us. Historically it has been a good place to work, otherwise why would siblings want to come? We do occasionally struggle to fill our more senior roles.

“It is a hard industry and sometimes there are long hours, but you have to recognise what people do and reward them to show your appreciation. I do think perhaps bigger corporate companies are better at it than smaller companies – because it is easier for them to do.”

Technology and how to utilise it to is perhaps more orientated towards corporate groups too. Says Barry , “I think technology will help with three or four star level hotels. I don’t think it will be driven by improving the guest experience, I think it will be driven by cost and staffing. When it comes to luxury, what guests will be paying for is the personal interaction with staff. Technology, no matter how efficient it is and how much money or time it can save, can’t replace the genuine warmth and the ability to read someone and at this luxury level, that is what you need.”

As for encouraging people into hospitality Barry also has a view, “There is always more that the government could do to help us. It could allow more people to come in and classify hospitality as a skilled trade, which it is and promoted as a genuine, viable career which leads to success. I am testament to that.

“In my previous role as a telecoms engineer I wouldn’t have experienced the places I have, been as financially secure, or met the people I have. It is all there to be had but it is not promoted as a career, it is promoted as a job that you do to make some money. The folk that like it, stay in it. But, if you think of the successful people in hospitality, it is unbelievable, and all the information and data is there to highlight success stories.”

As to the future at Cromlix, he smiles, “Andy and Kim are more involved than ever, and we do see Kim and Andy’s mum, Judy, who is brilliant with the guests – but we don’t see a lot of Andy. I didn’t realise until I started learning more about the tennis circuit how busy it is. Andy is so popular and well-loved particularly in Scotland, so we are so lucky from a PR point of view. We don’t market ourselves as Andy Murray’s hotel, I believe we stand on our own merit as an outstanding property.”

As for a Cromlix number 2, Barry says, “Certainly Kim and Andy are learning more about the business and are more involved, but I don’t think they are planning to buy another country house - but never say never.

“There is certainly plenty to keep them occupied here for the next few years. This place could grow and grow. Auchrannie started smaller than Cromlix and grew into this big, amazing destination.” He concludes, “There are a lot of people who have mentored me and encouraged me along the way but the most influential is Stephen Carter. When I started here, he sent me a book and wrote a little note in it – ‘when you stop getting better you stop being good.’ That’s my motto!”