Glencoe House
The project brief was to create a world class, all suite, 5-star hotel in an iconic location providing a unique guest experience unseen in Scotland. In business terms, it was essential that the project delivered a sustainable and outstanding financial performance for the owners who intended to exit within a 6 to 8-year period.
Building Search & Identification
An in-depth search of the market was carried out to identify appropriate target properties that suited the commercial strategy and objective.
Key criteria included:
1. Situated in an iconic location that is recognised internationally.
2. A location accessible for tourists and corporate clients alike to combat seasonality and stand out from the existing competition.
3. An area with wide attraction e.g. ancestral and adventure tourism.
4. A building of sufficient gravitas, status and history to realise the project brief.
The former Glencoe Hospital, which had been closed and was boarded up since 2009 was identified. It was successfully purchased by the owners in June 2011 from NHS Highland.
Development Strategy
The strategy had two phases, firstly to develop and test the suite concept within the mansion house. The brief was to create a unique guest experience and was fulfilled by developing fully serviced suites, the size of which, gives guests the sense of living in their own wing of a mansion house. A key element of the experience was a bespoke in-suite, silver service food and beverage offering in guests individual dining rooms.
The second phase was to extend the suite concept by developing the stable block thereby increasing profitability and create exceptional financial EBITDA. In order to bring the strategy to fruition, a detailed marketing strategy was developed together with operational plan and the formation of a strong management team.
Hotel Development
A detailed 5-year growth strategy was developed for the transformation of the acquired redundant former NHS Glencoe Hospital into Scotland’s only full service, all suite, 5-star hotel. Naturally, the whole building required fundamental internal transformation to realise the suite concept, taking into account the confinements of working within a historic and listed building.
Initially, the building development team was created and detailed responsibilities assigned, together with an opening date of Easter 2012.
Phase 1, the development of 8 suites in the mansion house, was successfully completed by Easter 2012 within budget. As per the strategic plan, time was taken to hone the service offering and to build a strong brand and gain market recognition. Guest responses to completed phase 1 was overwhelmingly positive resulting in Glencoe House being presented “Tripadvisor’s Traveller’s choice Best of the Best” award, standard sustaining a continuous 5-star guest rating.
Phase 2 of the strategy focussed on extending the hotel by developing 6 suites in the former stable block, which opened for business in April 2017.
Click the image or the button below to view
a Savills feature article focussing on Glencoe House Hotel.
Hotel Management
Working concurrently with the building development team, the hotel management team shaped the pre-opening sales, marketing and PR activities to ensure strong business performance from day one.
A strong sales and marketing strategy was vital in the success of the business. Activities included joined esteemed marketing groups such as Luxury Scotland in 2014 and Romantik Hotels in 2016.
The success of Glencoe House can be gauged by consistently exceptional guest reviews. For example, Tripadvisor reviews 93% at 5 star securing the number 1 position for all luxury hotels in Scotland (as of September 2019 at time of hotel sale)
The realisation of the strong business strategy, in an iconic location offering unique guest experiences, resulted in the outstanding financial performance of the business.
Timeline and Exit Strategy
2011 purchase of Glencoe hospital
2012 grand opening of Glencoe House
2014 Luxury Scotland membership
2016 Romantik Hotels membership
2019 sale to Perle Hotels
Roger Niemeyer and Judy Pate completed the exit strategy in a confidential, off-market transaction protecting all employees and delivering an outstanding financial profit.
Glencoe House was bought by Perle Hotels in September 2019. Fasih Rehman (CEO of Perle Hotels) commented:
“Glencoe House and its team are a fantastic addition to our growing hotel group. We appreciate what a very special place Glencoe House is, but also the very high standards at which it operates now and we intend to build further on these in the future”.
Click the button below to read a Boutique Hotelier article concerning the sale of Glencoe House Hotel to Perle Hotels: