Dowans Hotel “Where every guest is a VIP

DOWANS HOTEL

WHERE EVERY GUEST IS A VIP

Strathallians, Steph and Lauren, talked to us about their family business the ShawFern Group which now operates two hotels in Speyside, Dowans Hotel and Hotel 1881 Archiestown, and explain what made them decide to go into business together.

Tell us a little bit about yourselves? Steph: I’m not entirely sure what would be said about me, but I think I’m a fairly sociable person (I guess you have to be in our line of work!), friendly and conscientious. I’m ambitious in terms of both my personal and private life — turning 30 definitely impacted on the things that I now expect of myself! — generally that means that I’m always striving for more. That ambition impacts on my ‘hobbies’ in so much as they are often based on furthering a skill that I already have i.e. researching new dishes and finding an opportunity to cook them in order to better our offering at the hotel. Deciding to work together with Lauren was a family based decision due to a building frustration for myself of trying to find a job after I finished my post graduate degree in Human Rights and International Politics and Lauren’s aims after finishing her degree in Hospitality Management.

Rather than continuing to try (and struggle) to find jobs working for others, we decided that it would be far more beneficial to work for ourselves and then we started to look for a business that would allow us to start the beginnings of an enterprise and the Dowans Hotel was it! Lauren: I am an avid book reader of which the non-fiction element of that has certainly come in handy over the years when we are looking to expand on our offering. As Steph spoke of, the ability to create conversation with pretty much anyone would be one of my personality traits that I am sure would be picked up on by my friends — although I’m not sure if it is always a positive one ha!

Tell us about what inspired you to set up Dowans Hotel? As mentioned before, one of the factors in our decision to go into business together as a family was the frustration of filling out job application after job application once Steph had completed her postgraduate degree and the lack of options for Lauren when she completed her undergraduate degree.

Unfortunately, we both happened to graduate at a time when the world economy was still bouncing back from the economic crash of 2008 and each role that Steph specifically looked at increasingly asked for more experience that she just couldn’t match. As a consequence, she had continued her work in the hospitality industry which is how she had put herself through her latter degree; on receiving a promotion to management and realising that it was an industry that she loved, a move to opening our own business empire was the next best tactical move.

After deliberating over a few small Deli based properties in Glasgow, we decided that our family of 5 would be better suited to a larger space allowing us to each have our own to work within: a hotel dream was born. Out of the group of those style of businesses that we looked at back in 2011/ early 2012, the Dowans was the only one that had a stable structure from the point of view of the ‘books’ Hospitality, as with many other industries, was only itself bouncing back from the economic crisis so many hotels that we viewed had very little operational ‘business’ of which to speak. After many conversations that often led late into the night, we decided that the Dowans was the only viable option as it was a business that needed substantial investment, had the ground work for us to start from and was the best option in terms of target audience as Speyside and its attached whisky industry was also getting increased investment.

Almost 8 years later and the target whisky consumer/corporate audience is still our mainstay at the Dowans, however, with a business that is now 4.5 times the size of the original and with a new hotel (Hotel 1881 in the village of Archiestown — about 10 minutes away from the Dowans), they are not the only audience!

Our central ethos as owners of the newly expanded Shawfern Group (our business name under which we operate both hotels) is that there is no one VIP — all of our guests are treated with the same level of respect and will be given the exact same, high class, 5 star, service. With very many awards that reflect that investment in time and energy with our guests, we can safely say that we have a business that has taken that central ethos into its every day operation and it is the first ‘lesson’ that our staff are taught when they are brought on board.

Spé Restaurant The Dowans Hotel Sisters Lauren and Steph

...there is no one VIP — all of our guests are treated with the same level of respect and will be given the exact same, high class, 5 star, service...we can safely say that we have a business that has taken that central ethos into its every day operation and it is the first ‘lesson’ that our staff are taught when they are brought on board.

What’s it like owning your own business and what have been your greatest challenges and top highlights? Steph: Owning your own business is certainly tough — it takes a huge amount of work, sacrifice, and dedication over and above anything else. Our first few years at the Dowans were extremely tiring and it was us and our parents who conducted every element of the everyday operation of the business, whether that was taking bookings or cleaning the toilets and changing the beds.

Our staff, who now number 30, were only a small part of the business back then as we believed that investment was required elsewhere and that meant not paying large salary bills. There were a lot of long days, long weeks, and even longer years! But, with time, energy and investment of ourselves, we can now look back at what we have put in and see the very clear success that has consequently resulted — most prominently, the ability to expand by purchasing and fully renovating another Speyside-based hotel. Lauren: Alongside the success that Steph speaks of, one of my highlights has been the number of people that we have met who we would now call friends. Equally, being an integral part of some of the major festivals in the area such as the very first Speyside Gin Festival has been brilliant fun! Obviously, the current pandemic can probably be pointed to as one of our greatest challenges and we have yet to see how we come out of that so watch this space with fingers crossed! Any unusual incidents or stories you can tell about owning your own business? Steph: Without going into too much detail, people can be very, em, let’s say ‘unique’ so we just always have to try to maintain our ‘poker face’ when rather strange requests are made! It is also amazing the line that people draw as to what they think is ‘free’ to take home with them — we had someone take one of our bed cushions once! Lauren: Steph loves when I mention how many times people have thought she was my mum, ha!

What advice would you give anyone who wants to set up their own business? You need to live, dream and breathe the business every day even if (or probably even more so) if you are absolutely exhausted otherwise you lose sight of why you are doing it. Equally, asking for help and taking a step back every now and then to ask for other insight (whether that is from friends, family or, in our case, staff) is very important as occasionally you can find that you have become blinkered by your dedication to the business and can’t see that there is another way.

What are the latest trends in the industry you are in and how do you harness them? Pre-Covid 19, we would have said that the greatest changes that we have noticed over the last few years in our industry is the push towards locally and seasonally sourced produce and an increased interest from our guests about where their steak/ langoustines/carrots (and whatever else!) have come from, to such an extent that it is often one of the first conversation points between ourselves and our guests, whilst they peruse the menu. Along the same lines, the growth of ‘craft’ produce has been intense with gin not being the flash in the pan that we believe a lot of big spirit producers thought it would be which is great for Lauren as she loves it! PostCovid, we’ll have to wait and see!

How do you keep motivated as business owners? We are very interested in what others are doing in the industry — keeping abreast of new trends pushes us to keep up to date with what we do here and causes us to focus on innovation as a key part of our success as it challenges us to learn on our feet — something we believe that you should never stop doing as individuals!

Luxurious bedrooms...

...delicious food...

...and a roaring fire

The Still has over 500 whiskys to choose from

Luckily, we love being on both sides of the industry as well (in front of the ‘bar’ as well as behind it!) so travelling to other places to see first-hand what other businesses are doing whether that is nationally or internationally is fundamental.

Tell us about your time at Strathallan Steph: I was at Strathallan for my sixth form years which was a relatively short space of time. Having to make the decision to start at boarding school was not an easy one for our family to make however, due to circumstances outside of our control, we started a search in 2000 and, in our search for the boarding school that would best suit our needs, Strathallan was the one that gave us the friendliest of responses when we made our visit. That impact cannot be underestimated for my brother, Sean, and I as the feeling that we got on our other visits was decidedly less so.

On starting, the person who instantly made me feel most at ease was my housemistress Mrs Evans: a substitute mum for someone who was badly missing her own. She often made the effort over and above that which was necessary to ensure that I was settling in ok and that made a huge impact on my first term. Mr Evans, equally, was ‘on side’ when I needed it most at the end of my lower sixth year and I will never forget that. Lauren: For me, independence was certainly one of the greatest things that I learnt during my time at Strath. Mr Thomson (or Tommo as we all called him!) — my philosophy teacher — remains the prominent figure in my memories of Strathallan; he really played a pivotal role in my own self confidence by teaching that my ideas and voice were valid and that it was essential that I stood up for myself. In terms of my fondest memories, the musicals and plays that I took part in were great fun! It is also one of the things that I miss about my time at school. I would love to get the opportunity to be a part of group theatre again.

Tell us anything that you both learnt at Strathallan that you have taken through to your business One thing that we think we both took away from our time at Strathallan is the ability to be independent not only in our everyday interaction with the world but also within our thinking, planning and deliberation about how we want our business to operate — what direction we need to take to get there and our hopes and aspirations for the future.

What are your hopes for the future of your business? Our main hopes for the business are that it continues to be as successful as it has been over the last 8 years and that, despite the current pandemic and the very serious consequences that it has for our business and chosen industry, it can continue to grow with new ideas and investment: we never want to sit back on our laurels and think that our job is done!

Assured of a warm welcome Dowans Hotel and Hotel 118 Archiestown are in Speyside, arguably one of the driest and warmest parts of Scotland. Speyside offers first-class whisky and so much more: unspoilt beaches, walking on the highest peaks, kayaking down the River Spey and mountain biking on renowned trails. To find out more about a stay at either Dowans Hotel or Hotel 118 Archiestown please visit www.dowanshotel.com or call 01340 871488