FOUR FABULOUS NEW AWARDS

Well Dear Friends, firstly to say that Memories were certainly Made of This last year, with Balbirnie becoming the recipient of a hat-trick of global awards ... amazing.

In turn, these circumstances led to a Motion of Congratulations in Scotland's Parliament!!! It was such an honour to be asked to represent Scotland at the #HauteGrandeur global hotel awards. 

And so this year begins. As this week’s Regional Awards for the 2018 Scottish Hotel Awards, Balbirnie's brigade received 4 fabulous brand new accolades. 

Back at Balbirnie:

If you zoom in to either certificate, you'll see that at the foot they all state, 'ENCOURAGING, RECOGNISING & REWARDING EXCELLENCE IN SCOTTISH HOSPITALITY'. 

In these contexts it is with absolute certainty that I can say that Balbirnie would never have received last year's global recognitions, without the ongoing input, expertise and guidance which we have firstly received from all of those involved with judging the Scottish Hotel Awards, over the last 14 years. It is always a creative and dynamic process to be involved with, and it's one key way in which we seek to accelerate evolution in what we do. Always the big H in Hospitality. 

It was great firstly to catch up with industry colleagues at the presentations this week, in the beautifully refurbished Principal Edinburgh Hotel, the current Scottish National Hotel of the Year.

Formerly The George Hotel, every time I visit I’m reminded of my late father Alan’s memories of working there as a young chef, way back in the day. His story from back then, … ‘upon leaving catering college, many of my college chef pals decided to immediately chase as high a salary as they could possibly earn. I did the very opposite, as I wanted to work and learn in one of the very best kitchens in Scotland, and to secure a place working in that kitchen within The George Hotel, I was fully agreeable to working for a very low salary’. He would then always add, … ‘That decision paid off later on in life’.

Fast forward 5 decades, and the new accolades for Balbirnie, are across a significant span of what we do in Hospitality. As always, the judges for the annual Hospitality Oscars are absolutely focussed on the evolution of exactly what is happening across Scotland’s hotel sector.

The judging process as always, has required significant production of materials and input from our brigade, sincere thanks to Balbirnie’s Kerrie Guthrie for collating and summarising all of our ongoing annual evolution.

So, 2018 - here goes:

REGIONAL HOTEL AWARDS: CENTRAL SCOTLAND AND FIFE

BALBIRNIE HOUSE IS REGIONAL WINNER IN FOUR CATEGORIES:

1. STYLE HOTEL OF THE YEAR 2018

Over recent years, independent hotels have done incredibly well if they have been physically able to reinvest 2.5% of their annual revenue. 

Our most recent 3 years: 5%, 5%, and 9%.

All out of absolute necessity, in safeguarding, maintaining and improving the Grade A Listed 1777 National treasure.

Ongoing interior design has been overseen by my very lovely wife and fellow company director Gaynor, with assistance across the entire span of design, and specialised contractors.

We’ve been pushing the boundaries of contemporary country house design, whilst still retaining a respect for Balbirnie’s inherent architecture and contexts. It seems to be the case that the more we push, the more it is appreciated by today’s customers. So we’ll keep on pushing! 

Room 106, contemporary country house Scotland:

Our new Drawing Room, 2017's project of the year: A Project of a Lifetime

2. FINE DINING HOTEL OF THE YEAR 2018

Well, this is absolutely revolutionary, and unprecedented in Scotland. Because this is actually a redefinition of what ‘fine dining’ is all about. In early 2017 Balbirnie became the first Scotland destination country house to ditch the ‘tradition’ of multiple course fixed price evening dining per se, and instead, to totally embrace individual dish pricing, accessibility and approachability – in our case most especially aligned first and foremost for our localised Fife community of 350,000 people.

In 2020, when flying taxis become all the rage we’ll also be well placed to welcome arriving guests from their 5 minute 150mph journey from central Edinburgh, St Andrews, Perth and Dundee. 

In the meantime our previous research for this 2017 ‘menu informalisation’ extended to the success of the absolute cutting edge of London’s hotel scene. Citing two pertinent examples, that of my former bosses Tim and Kit Kemp at Ham Yard Hotel, and additionally Berner’s Tavern in The Edition Hotel.  What? London’s cutting edge of hospitality now has classics such as Shepherd’s Pie, Mac’n’Cheese, and Fish’n’Chips, on the menus? 

Where have all the slicks, and gels, and foams, gone? 

Vamoosh! That’s where! The classics have returned, and they are here to stay. We have gone back to the future.

Congratulations to our kitchen brigade.

Add in Balbirnie’s accelerated #Hygge – and the end result is truly wonderful for socialising with family and friends, a Scotland hybrid of combined, bistro, bistronomie, and brasserie deluxe.

But how can you have a ‘fine dining’ hotel that has burgers on the menu? Well, the same as our London examples, it’s because of the thought that’s gone into the burger. As one example, let's take our combination of chipotle mayo, bacon and cheese, the finest Aberdeen Angus burger itself, with gherkin and crispy onions and hot spicy bbq sauce, it's been well considered, and constructed with a combination so as to elevate a humble concept, into becoming a memorable dining experience. 

Classic favourites, amazing value, yet visualised and created with a fine dining mentality. So enthused are we, at recurringly consistent online guest ratings for all of this in the mid 90 percents, that we’ve also applied the seasonal switching of menus, into one main menu across all we do. Our Orangery therefore has the same menu as our Bistro, but our Orangery becomes #BrasserieDeluxe by including starched linen napkins, breadsticks with a dip of the day, complimentary chilled in-house filtered water, and a complimentary sorbet or sherbet of the day. Our customers are clearly loving it, and that’s all that mainly matters. We can also serve many parts of these menus to room service, and also across all Grade A lounge areas ... our many corporate clients totally love this new aspect. 

3. WEDDING HOTEL OF THE YEAR 2018

Because evolution is what it is? No sooner had Balbirnie received the award last year, incredibly for the 11^th annual time, for Scotland’s (2017) Wedding Hotel of the Year, within the next calendar month that followed, we had introduced 25 additional brand new aspects into what we do.

Judges have told us before, ‘there’s always such debate from hoteliers, as to our final decision for example, for Scotland’s Fishing Hotel of the Year, or Scotland's Golf Hotel of the Year, however no hotelier has ever debated Balbirnie’s ongoing wedding results’, continuing ‘there’s a recognition that somehow, in specific relation to weddings, Balbirnie seems to be able to remain ahead of all industry curves’.

Well, that’s so lovely to hear, and we can only agree! We do so on the basis that our brigade certainly meets every single month, it’s always the last Tuesday for multiple team discussions, and we contemplate evolution across the entire span of weddings, hospitality, and what we do here at Balbirnie. All of that isn’t just for fun by the way, it’s also about future survival, in what is a massively competitive marketplace. Last time I looked, the Scottish Wedding Directory was listing 350 Scotland wedding venues! 

Our brand new online 2018 wedding literature is over 22,000 words. New for this year, increased conceptuals based around exclusive use, and additionally as we seem to have more and more overseas clients, specific recommendations for what our overseas visitors can do, if in residence for multiple days.

There’s also a new section in our literature, on the relevance of choosing lucky dates for a wedding day, as we’re big on lucky numbers. 2020 is sounding especially wonderful!

4. COUNTRY HOUSE HOTEL OF THE YEAR 2018

Here’s a brand new image, taken just this week.

Now that’s what a  2018 country house hotel looks like!

If I look back over my first 25 years at Balbirnie, I can certainly reflect that many former country house hotels elsewhere have reverted back into ownership as private houses. That is because they have not remained financially viable. They end up being worth more, as a private house. And I’m talking of the properties, ususally with 10 bedrooms or less. And unlike our much bigger current 34 bedroom operations, those other properties were also not boosted by what we do, in terms of providing a backdrop for such a range of Special Events.

It’s wonderful to see Balbirnie today, presented at her absolute best in history. Our focus remains resolutely concentrated on the entire future, remembering that everything our brigade has achieved over the years, has only been made possible by our customers.

There’s currently much brexit uncertainty across the span of hospitality, so how are we reacting in 2018? Well, we’ve factored even better value in 2018, than ever before. Whilst the house these days is certainly a national and international destination for Special Events, we’re going to keep on doing all we can to maintain the vision of doing more and more, to see Balbirnie being used by our local community for socialising with family and friends? All socialising contexts, of course, are only going to remain viable if that is what our customers will support on an ongoing basis, all visitors are so very much appreciated.

The best we can do for Scotland hospitality, here in the geographic heart of our amazing Kingdom of Fife. We thank you all.

The 4 categories now roll ahead into the Scottish Hotel Awards ceremony, taking place in Edinburgh on 22^nd April. Always the most special night of the year, for Scotland's hotel Hospitality industry. 

Please do Follow us over on Twitter for updates that night!

All best wishes,

Nicholas / MD Balbirnie 

(All new season 2018 menus available from the Balbirnie website)