THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN TIE

We confirm that in relation to the subject matter of this BlogPost, Balbirnie House has now been invited by Guinness World Records, to submit a full application for a World Record. 

The hotel manager is informed-

‘We don't have a record title for:

"MOST WEDDINGS EVER PLACED INTO A HOTEL EVENTS DIARY IN A ROW” You are welcome to suggest it as a new record’.

So, to begin. My father went to the big hotel in the sky on 20^th September 2008. Over the next few days I helped my mother to begin to tidy my father’s possessions.

In amongst a very significant collection of ties, there was one tie still unworn, an expensive one which had been received as a gift. Obviously it had been awaiting a relevant opportunity to be worn for the first time.

I removed the silk tie from beautiful packaging. 
It was Golden, with small white and shaded gold sections.

An absolute work of art. #ArmaniCravatte

I decided there and then that I would break with the established tradition of wearing dark ties at funerals, and I would wear it to my father’s funeral. I felt that it was exactly what he would have wanted me to do. I heard the words in my mind, ‘a celebration of life’. After the funeral, I went home and put the tie into storage.

Fast forward 3 years through the recession, to late autumn 2011. Having been at Balbirnie for almost two decades, I was trying to figure what I should do for the remainder of my working career. Following long discussions with my wife Gaynor, we decided together that we would dedicate ouselves to at least the next two decades at Balbirnie. Thus aligning the hotel manager, to at least a potential 40 years in total!

I could tell you that what then happened to our incoming wedding bookings starting in late Autumn 2011 was a convergence of many factors. Packaged pricing. A quite incredible new LED underlit black dancefloor. LED event uplighting. A brand new revolutionised cutting edge website. A slight change in my own mindset. A much deeper more resonant developed understanding of selling techniques. The arrival of Miss Kirsty Balbirnie, in a brand new additional support role in our wedding planning department. Flawless pre-meeting event planning preparations. New Ipad galleries. New methodology for meeting and greeting, and further extending our warmth of welcome. New tools at our disposal on YouTube.

Those aspects and many more, they all certainly combined in some form or another.

But the actual magic occurred one fine day in late 2011, when I put that Golden Tie back on! You see, I would normally always align a tie choice for meeting prospective new wedding clients, with a consideration of ‘sophisticated understatement’, but the moment I had The Golden Tie on for a first prospective new wedding client showround, it felt completely and utterly, as if it were simply meant to be!

I’ve thought about it long and hard over recent years, and I’ve concluded that The Golden Tie is somehow in itself reflective of wedding celebrations, a component of bridal couture for bridesmaid dresses, and it is instinctively trustworthy as well. It reflects an absolute confidence in ‘the product’, based firmly upon history, tradition, and evolution.

It is relevant to tell you, that up until starting with The Golden Tie, the most wedding client bookings I had ever had in a row, when it comes to talking to prospective new wedding clients, was 5!

Bear in mind, some clients can be considering and visiting up to 15 different venues! And they might have started their journey of discovery, thinking of a city centre venue, or an ancient castle, or a modern venue beside a loch. We were visited for an overnight stay last week by the very lovely Natasha Radmehr, Editor of The Scottish Wedding Directory, who informed us that Scotland’s main wedding publication is now listing 349 wedding venues, there’s certainly plenty of choice.

Anyways, over the first few days, and into 2012, I managed 10 wedding bookings in a row, all entered into our forward Special Events Diary, at the point of our initial 1hr client meeting and showround. This really was quite miraculous stuff.

We kept going. Unbelievably to me, we got to 20 in a row, and by now this had become a big talking point within the hotel brigade. At our team briefings each day, we would discuss the accumulating statistics. I began to start saying, ‘the run of luck will surely end sometime soon’. But I didn’t actually feel that way.

Then we got to 30 in a row. Blimey. This was simply staggering.

Then we got to 40 in a row. Sweet Jiminy Cricket, the hotel manager’s wedding chat was clearly in The Zone!

And you know something? I would never ever take one single thing for granted. Ever. Our blessings counted every single day.

You see, there’s something I don’t know, when stepping into a new client meeting. I will certainly know the names of those getting married, the potential numbers and logisitics, and geographical start points. But what I don’t know, is if the client is either (a) a multi-millionaire Lottery winner, or (b) if someone has been saving hard-earned cash since the day their wee boy or wee girl was born, knowing that one day in the future they would come to visit Balbirnie to have this conversation. It has guided me so very well over 3 decades, to approach every single meeting with a perspective of the latter.

When we got to 50 in a row, well that night at home we popped the cork on a bottle of bubbly. By this point, each time I was putting on The Golden Tie, it felt as if we were now creating a wee piece of history. I started wondering if there was any hotel in the world, in which a hotel manager had ever taken more than 50 wedding bookings, in a row.

And I confirm, many of these couples who had booked their special day with us, had already firstly visited between 5 and 15 other wedding venues!

We reached 60 in a row, Oh My Oh My! Oh Boy Oh Boy!

That day, I ran outside and jumped over a hedge, with absolute joy.

Then we reached 70, I downed tools and we went to Edinburgh’s Café Royale, my favourite pub in the world. We sat drinking Schiehallion lagers in front of tiled mosaics of famous Scottish inventors, and I wondered LOLZ if the tie and I should write down and reveal our secret!

By this point, every single incoming client new meeting was individually a very significant brigade talking point in advance, at our morning meetings. Surpassing 75 I nonchalantly proclaimed, ‘we appear to be on a roll’. At every stage however, knowing I was dealing with something so incredibly special and emotive, that mere words would not ever begin to convey.

At 80 in a row, I confirmed to the team, ‘I am not a gambler, I never will be, you’ll never ever see me standing quaffing champagne in a casino, but, my dear colleagues, one thing I can certainly say is that we are clearly onto something with our new client meetings’.

On the night we surpassed 85, late that night I went out to the south lawns, looked up to the stars, and very quietly said two words, ‘thank you’.

We achieved 89. On the 90^th client meeting, after the 1hr discussion and showround the groom said, ‘I think we’re going to take our time, as it could well be the case that a city centre venue will work better, for multiple reasons’. I replied, ‘you should only ever book your wedding venue, if you feel the Love’.

My colleague the very lovely Meghan Davies and I returned to our office. We both knew we had reached the end of something incredible. Mind you, Meghan still called that groom 2 hours later, just to check once again! But no, they wished to take more time to think.

Late autumn 2011 into summer 2012, some 8 months and 89 wedding bookings in a row. There stands the record.

Early the following year, having entered a competition in a catering magazine, Balbirnie House won an entire collection of the most amazing steak knives, for our customers. So we got them all engraved!

I’ll always reflect back on those 89 client conversations, with such incredible fondness. I still can’t believe it actually happened, but it all confirms once again, yet another reason as to why we work in Hospitality. It was such an honour and a privilege for me to have been here at Balbirnie, and had all those client discussions.

After the 89 result, The Lucky Golden Tie was immediately retired. The replacement, aka The Lucky Golden Tie 2^nd – well, that one remains in use today. #ArmaniCravatte, still Golden, but with a different style.

And whilst the original Lucky Golden Tie and I were at the sharp end leading each and every conversation, the real magic of course actually happened elsewhere.

The real magic you see, is the preparation, consideration, consultation and support provided, by the amazing team in our Special Events department. It is to them, of course, that the real credit is due.

My sincere gratitude as always.

Meghan Davies, Kirsty Balbirnie, Gaynor Russell xxx

Balbirnie's Wedding Planning Special Events Team 2012

(Image via Rob Thomson, Lifetime Photography)

Nicholas / MD Balbirnie

1992 – present


My late father, Alan Russell
'Cheers Dad' 

This Blog post is dedicated to the very lovely Reni Korosi, Balbirnie’s 2014 Employee of the Year. Thank you Reni, for suggesting I should write about my ties x

I take it you meant ‘my ties’ … ???

As opposed to ‘Mai Thai’s’ - !!!! 

Balbirnie House is Scotland's 10 time winner of The Scottish Hotel of the Year Awards - 'Scotland's Wedding Hotel of the Year' 

Via Haute Grandeur, 'Europe's Best Destination Wedding Retreat' 

www.balbirnie.co.uk 

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF BALBIRNIE

ELECTRICITY WITH PAINT, at Balbirnie House

This week my wife Gaynor and I visited Archie Forrest, Scotland’s most renowned contemporary Colourist, in his Glasgow studio. We returned back to Fife with 6 framed Multimedia originals of Balbirnie House. These are all now heading into secured storage until the artist is happy with final touches on a further oversize oil painting, which remains sat in place on his easel today. 

Here's the easel, with the edge of the frame itself. 

One fine day in the not-too-distant future, all 7 works will combine together and install in Balbirnie’s Drawing Room, which is to be re-modelled in advance. This is something which we’re going to take our time with and not rush, as that part of the journey is in itself also intended as a most joyful process.

This is where the big painting has been designed to go:

The end result is going to be two individual Multimedia works, and a wall of 4 Multimedia works centred with the main oversize oil painting, which measures a breathtaking 1.75m x 1.5m, the most special project and installation ever seen in Balbirnie’s history. And we’re dating that comment from the year 1777.

The main wall is to be highlighted using a cutting edge overhead lighting feature. The entire 3 room dynamic of our West Room, Library Bar and Drawing Room, is therefore going to become something totally new, in a remarkably transformative way.

This has now been a project which has been 2 years in the making, aligned specifically as commemorating Balbirnie's first quarter century of hotelkeeping, 1989 all the way to 2014, the year in which Archie’s daughter Maya married at Balbirnie House.

The combined installation, is a celebration of all Special Events, a gesture of such sincere appreciation to all who have visited Balbirnie, and a wonderful acknowledgement of all those who have worked here over the years.

After recovering some composure having seen the big oil for the first time yesterday, I said to Archie, 'welcoming those who worked at Balbirnie over the first 25 years back to the house, and walking with them through to the Drawing Room to show them all this, well that'll be quite something'.

Multimedia original for main oil painting:

Artist Biog highlights the memorable phrase, 'Electricity with Paint'. 
Well all we can say, is just wait and see how this has translated into the Balbirnie oil painting. 

We now have images of the main painting, but these won't be used for anything other than showing to our pals, until the Drawing Room project completes.

Walking around the easel to see the oil for the first time? Gaynor exclaimed 'It is sooooooooooo beautiful', and all I can say is that these are memories of a lifetime. The painting is absolutely remarkable, jaw-droppingly beautiful.

To stand in the very place it was created, was an experience we'll never forget.

To see such a painting of Balbirnie left us speechless, even more so, being in the actual place where it was created, let alone beside the artist himself. 

Many future visitors to Balbirnie, will certainly be pausing to view the collection, with much contemplation and joy. Many Special Event clients will clearly wish to have their photographs taken beside the collection.

As an historic note, the main wall of the collection is to be fronted by our existing Drawing Room Trotter desk, which is the only single piece of furniture we have, which is unique to the original Balbirnie House. History and timeless classic, meets the future.

Here's the desk, in current position:

It has also been amazing to contemplate the evolution of the scale of the project. Having agreed at outset that we would have one solitary original to commemorate the 25 years, this was achieved with the Multimedia work which all working at Balbirnie helped us to choose in summer 2016. 

In turn the spirit of generosity and ambition from the artist, expanded to 6 originals, plus the moving from original scope of one A4 size, to the oil of 1.75 metres by 1.5 metres.

Archie Forrest contemplating the wall:

And the way in which aspects have evolved have certainly underlined a real lesson in life from the artist, there’s never any point in setting out half-heartedly to accomplish any important task.

Whilst our initial suggestion was initiated as most heartfelt at outset, the project has evolved so significantly beyond our dreams, as it has been created by so much passion, and it is such a beautiful and vibrant celebration of a totally unique 25 years.

On behalf of all at Balbirnie over all these years, our most sincere gratitude to Archie Forrest. Our eternal thanks, and our blessings counted as always.

With Linda and Archie Forrest, in Balbirnie's Drawing Room. 
That was the day in 2015, that the oil painting inspiration was defined.

Nicholas Russell / MD Balbirnie

We have a 5 minute clip about this project, on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGUg6Wr-rjo

‘STREETFIGHTER HOTELIERS!’

Our company policy at Balbirnie over many recent years, has been to always work with a very significant retained current account cash surplus. The pace of our ongoing reinvestment at double the rate of industry averages, is then dictated by the cash amount over and above the current account surplus, both existing and envisaged. This also provides security and underpins bulletproof credit ratings.

This is the only way to continue to approach the future.

Writing this blog in January 2016, there are obviously extraordinary challenges facing Hospitality.

-       National Minimum Wage accelerating at a 38.5% increase over a 260 week span, instigated by Westminster Tories without even consulting anybody in UK Hospitality.

-       Tourism VAT at vastly inflated percentages, when compared to all other EU countries, apart from Denmark. If VAT was a matter reserved to the Scottish government, we would now be at 5%, instead of the current 20%, and that would allow tourism and hospitality to begin to reinvent, further increasing eventual tax receipts.

I recall highlighting these two points in April 2016 with David Welch, one of the judges for the 2016 Scottish Hotel Awards, who said in reply, ‘don’t worry, you are a streetfighter hotelier, you’ll find the way to get by!’

Well, all I can say is that Hospitality character best reveals, when tested!

To these two main challenges above, we then add, The Dog’s Brexit. Mass uncertainty, and costs for food and beverage increasing, as things stand in a band somewhere between 10% and 20%.

The competitive threat from Airbnb to the hotel sector has also been dramatically underestimated, according to new research from Morgan Stanley Research.

“Airbnb usage has increased more than we thought it would and cannibalisation of traditional hotels has been higher,” it said.

Penetration rates among leisure travellers increased from 12% in 2015 to 19% last year and are forecast to reach 25% in 2017. Business travellers’ usage has also grown from 12% in 2015 to 18% in 2016 and is predicted to reach 23% this year.

Then comes the additional cherry on the challenging cake, with rises in rates now to be enforced in % terms which are leaving many hoteliers totally perplexed at the calculative methodology.

Those properties which have had minimal or non-existent investment back into the fabric of assets over recent years? Good luck one and all. And as all above combined circumstances converge into reality, many properties simply won’t be able to afford to continue to reinvest.

And regrettably, one of the further casualties of these circumstances, will be the scale of donations provided by Hospitality, for charities and great causes.

So, things are as they are. Those who don’t recognise the challenges, and act upon them, will struggle to survive.

Here are a few thoughts across the span of Hospitality, on how our management team at Balbirnie are going to endeavour to remain ahead of the curve, maintaining ability to reinvest, and continuing to assist so many charities and great causes.

Owner operators, remunerate yourselves in as humble a way as you can, don’t waste time on anything other than saving costs or creating revenue. Future forecast! Helpfully acknowledge that future client purchasing, will be more and more based upon what they can expect to experience. 
And of course, take the time to enjoy your own journey! 

Accountants, run your figures every Monday, know your exact cash positions, supplier accruals, and sales ledgers. Summarise monthly – management accounts, balance sheet, cashflow, debtor and creditor, VAT, PAYE and future core trade analytics.

Chefs and drinks purchasers, use purchasing and procurement mechanisms, get creative, use Scottish produce, screw down deals, pass on great value to customers. Your direct competition isn’t only the other restaurant down the street, it is very much the success of the formulated M &S two dinner meals for a tenner, including wine!

Managers, streamline, automate, digitalise, and now more than ever, get everything into providing our truly amazing warmth of welcome of Scottish Hospitality. The training standards you set, are certainly what you will get.

Marketeers, if you haven’t yet grasped the phenomenal power of digital, the necessity of in-house retained Data, and capability of online, the bus has already left! But don’t get stuck on computer keyboards and internet devices, fabulous hospitality is always at the very point of personal service.

For all us who dedicate our lives to working in the incredible world of Hospitality, never ever lose sight of one very special thing. The entire adventure on the hospitality rollercoaster, must maintain as being about ensuring that memories are always made of this. All the best from Balbirnie House.

Nicholas Russell / MD and owner Balbirnie House

Former #SHA Hotelier of the Year