Before heading to Malaysia, we introduced 'The Balbirnie Six', representing our hotel brigade past and present:
From Facebook 3.11.2019
Two weeks onwards, and now that the dust has begun to settle ...
I would like to dedicate the Balbirnie House 2019 Haute Grandeur global award for 'Best Destination Wedding Hotel', to the boys, girls, men and women, who have made up our hotel brigade over the 3 decades. Personal thanks to every single individual who has contributed on our hotel journey.
Thank you to everyone for the absolutely incredible support we saw during the 2019 summer 'Rate Us' campaign, all the messages when the Balbirnie six were heading to Malaysia, and for everything that has subsequently happened. It has been profoundly humbling for our brigade today, to be on the receiving end of so many heartfelt messages.
The global hotel accolade is a very significant new aspect for our brigade to live up to now and onwards, and that's simply the joy of future Scotland Hospitality. Now more than ever before, we'll continue driving ahead with all that we do.
With gratitude and best wishes to one and all,
Nicholas / MD Balbirnie House
Nicholas / MD Balbirnie House
Quite surreal newspaper headlines:
The journey to Malaysia took us almost 24 hours.
Arrival:
On the day of the awards ceremony, 9am Scotland, 4pm Malaysia - as agreed with Steven McEwan (Balbirnie's groom that day), we would have a run together. So we hooked up on FaceTime, and off we went. For myself it was 33 degrees, breaking into a thunder storm with monsoon rain, most refreshing! And what were the chances of running in Kuala Lumpur's beautiful Perdana botanical gardens, and meeting the only other guy with a matching Scotland head scarf!!! This most charming Malaysian man had visited Scotland and walked The West Highland Way.
At 6pm, a glass of bubbly for The Balbirnie Six, and off to the awards dinner.
I was the only individual at the awards dinner, with a laptop computer!
Balbirnie's media liaison Lauren Dall was on standby back home.
Lovely to be interviewed before the meal:
The Ballroom in The St Regis hotel is the first hotel Ballroom to feature in-built surround LED HDR screens, it was totally surreal seeing Balbirnie House appear on the world stage.
And then we were invited onstage:
So the news broke with a first Facebook post at 3pm Scotland time, on Saturday 19th October 2019:
Blue smoke from Balbirnie's chimney, with quite surreal circumstances on the roof of Balbirnie House, with Chewbacca and piper Rich Gordon. Sincere thanks to Andrew Glen and Maddison Productions for the ultra HDR drone camera work.
Following the onstage announcement in Malaysia.
A Telegram was sent immediately to @BalbirnieHouse on the news of ‘Best Destination Wedding Hotel’, @HauteGrandeur 2019 global winner.
Celebratory champagne, which was on standby, was served to all wedding guests, and with the very kind permission of the bride and groom, all hotel brigade on duty were also invited to assemble in our Millennium Ballroom for a commemorative toast. 🍾🥂
The toast itself, was delivered over the PA system, by MC David Murray. ‘The past, the present day, and the future!’
Congratulations to Steven and Suzi McEwan, wishing you every Happiness for the future 🥰 Memories of a Lifetime 🥰
Image via @LifetimePhoto1
A Telegram was sent immediately to @BalbirnieHouse on the news of ‘Best Destination Wedding Hotel’, @HauteGrandeur 2019 global winner.
Celebratory champagne, which was on standby, was served to all wedding guests, and with the very kind permission of the bride and groom, all hotel brigade on duty were also invited to assemble in our Millennium Ballroom for a commemorative toast. 🍾🥂
The toast itself, was delivered over the PA system, by MC David Murray. ‘The past, the present day, and the future!’
Congratulations to Steven and Suzi McEwan, wishing you every Happiness for the future 🥰 Memories of a Lifetime 🥰
Image via @LifetimePhoto1
2 hours later Scotland went live with an 18 minute Balbirnie House commemorative film clip. This had been prepared to soon acknowledge Balbirnie's 3 decades as a hotel, and adapted to include the global award news, all as part and parcel of what we had prepared and left on media standby in Scotland.
From judges of The Scottish Hotel awards:
To former Balbirnie House colleagues:
Over the course of the 2019 summer Rate Us campaign, and the few days before during and after the Haute Grandeur awards night, our Facebook alone saw over 300,000 related impressions.
In passing, to this date, nobody has even mentioned Chewbacca to myself, perhaps so surreal that nobody knows what to say!
And on that note, we are straight back to work! A 21st Century Kilt, on an 18th century backdrop, with a 21st century red carpet.
First day back, thought I'd bring The Lucky Golden Tie (original) out of retirement. First weekend back we were visited by 14 prospective future wedding clients.
And so, to the past, the present day and the future.
An incredible result for Scotland's Hospitality sector, much for us to live up to, and we look forward to embracing the challenges ahead.
My gratitude to one and all,
Nicholas
I was disappointed with the venue and the food...
ReplyDelete