FRONT OF HOUSE | ARDEONAIG HOTEL
experience is much more staff focused . The service and the food .
What was changed during the refurbishment ? It had a full kitchen refurbishment which included a £ 60,000 cooker which is called an athanor suite and a chef ’ s table . It had five chalets built in the garden to five-star standards , with thatched roofs , all with their own private views over Loch Tay and the mountain range and the 13-acre garden . More running down the side of the Ardeonaig burn – which is the Ardeonaig stream – so they ’ re incredible . And it ’ s an incredibly peaceful location so no noise around or anything . It ’ s complete and utter relaxation ; peace and quiet .
How would you describe its theme now that it is done ? It was always a high end hotel , it was always a luxurious hotel but this has added an extra mark of luxury to it . So it ’ s now a very high end hotel catering for a luxurious market . You can call it a boutique hotel I suppose .
How was the hotel affected during refurbishment ? It was closed . At the time I didn ’ t own it but I knew the guy that did . It was closed for nine months . It was opened by that same owner , he traded fantastically and then the owner after that which was 2011 till 2016 seemed to trade fairly quietly . So we ’ re looking to build it back up to what it used to be .
Are there any plans in the future for more refurbishment ? Nothing major , but we ’ re looking for possibly getting some hot tubs .
What kind of guests do you get at the hotel ? We get a complete mixture ; we ’ re on the Rob Roy Way which is a walk across Scotland . We get passing trade for that looking for soup and sandwiches at lunch time . We do a £ 45 a la carte menu in the evenings to a two rosette standard .
Do you hold any weddings or special functions at the Ardeonaig ? We have got six weddings already booked for this year . We tend to cater for anniversaries and milestones birthdays – 40th , 50th , 60th and so on . We have got a dozen of those since we bought the hotel ; it ’ s very much a special location hotel .
How much custom does that make up for the hotel and how important is it ? It probably accounts for about a tenth of the business that comes in , but in terms of what we do it makes what we do worth doing because we ’ re enjoying catering for people ’ s special occasions .
Are the rest of your guests regular tourists ? Yes . We have many repeat customers from when one of the previous owners had it , a guy called Pete Gottgan – a South African guy – people are coming back from his era . They want to see how the hotel is doing and look at [ its ] progress .
What does the future hold for Ardeonaig ? I hope to see it as a busy , high class hotel catering for the luxury market for people wanting peace , tranquillity and to be well looked after with fantastic food and wine .
What do you enjoy about working there ? I don ’ t actually have a hands-on role there . I ’ ve got a management team in there who are fantastic . I enjoy the location , I enjoy the customers . I was there a lot last year , they have amazing customers . An incredible management team , great we ’ re looking to build on . And a fantastic kitchen team .
How has your new head chef changed things ? [ David McCalloch ] has been sourcing ingredients – all Scottish – and mainly locally . So we have got a local butcher , local fish merchants , fruit and veg , everything that we can buy locally we do .
What difference has sourcing local ingredients made to customer satisfaction ? We had to work on portion sizes because we had a few comments on [ it ], but apart from that , customers are incredibly happy with the food . It ’ s very high class food . We would like to think that sometime in the future we will be able to gain a Michelin star .
How does it help the surrounding community to source local produce ? It is helping to keep people in jobs . It ’ s helping to look after local people . We are still looking to source from the local fish farm where we buy our fish , we are buying local meat . We are looking for local vegetables suppliers , when and if we can find them . It would be amazing if we could source everything from within a 30-mile radius of the hotel .
36 www . hotelowner . co . uk May 2017