10,000 orders by App! Balbirnie's 2020 Hospitality Revolution!

If you had told us in early March 2020, that we'd be writing this article today, we would certainly have raised our eyebrows! 

No physical menus. Nobody to take food and drinks orders. No handwritten check orders being run to our kitchens. No cash accepted. Nobody creating guest bills, nobody physically accepting guest payment. WiFi everywhere in the gardens. Basically, a Hospitality Revolution!

And as for dining, Bistro al Fresco in the gardens! 

And not only the above combination, but in a timeline July 6th 2020 onwards and lasting less than 8 weeks, that we would successfully process over 10,000 guest orders, using an App? Or rather, THE Balbirnie House Hotel App. 

This was created for Balbirnie, by Criton:

A dozen of our brigade were on duty on opening day. We said on our social media channels that we could only begin to bring our other colleagues back to work, if we were able to justify this, based on how busy we would be. 

Our re-opening was certainly assisted by a lovely article in The Courier: 

Every single component was focussed on what we thought we could deliver for our local Fife community, emerging from Lockdown. Great food and drinks, great value. Savings enabled by technology, but deployed into increasing Hospitality even further. 

The initial dozen focussed everything we had in Hospitality, knowing that what we were about to deliver, could or could not help bring our colleagues back to work. 

What amazed us on opening day, was the fact that arriving guests weren't only familiar with the concept of the App, it was the fact that they had already downloaded it, and were already familiar with the menus, and even the overview of how to process an order. 

Bistro al Fresco wasn't a matter of opening up and starting. It was a couple of months in planning, conceived by those who were still working during March to July Lockdown. 

We shifted all reservations into ResDiary. 

In tandem with ordering via Hungrrr.

Our guest reviews for the first two weeks were basically 100% guest delight. 

As news of al Fresco then started bringing guests from beyond our core of regulars, this did bring a few further reviews which brought the technology into question, specifically if someone was for example trying to download the App, on a phone which was so old that it was incapable of doing so. 

Fundamentally, one of the main reasons for transitioning to App, was to deliver contactless service between brigade and guests, and the next reason was to be able to collect guest information for what we thought would eventually turn into a 'track and trace' system for Scotland Hospitality. We were correct! 

Some guests were disillusioned about having to input their payment information, at the point of placing each phase of order. But we worked with the technology suppliers to successfully then customise this into a one submission process. 

Other guests were disillusioned that there was no way to leave a gratuity, so again, this capability was customised. 

Very quickly after the opening days, we started getting busier, and busier, and busier. Watching guests arrive one after another, and being visibly so happy to be out after Lockdown, in many circumstances meeting friends and loved ones after months apart, well that was such a joyful aspect for us to see. Recognition that we'd gone a country mile to deliver safe social distancing for service, was certainly another. 

Our previous food and drinks service systems were designed to cope at ground floor level, with up to 100 guests. Quickly, as we began to bring more and more colleagues back to work, we needed to change systems, to create workflows capable of handling up to 350 guests per day. In amongst all of this, fully incorporating all new Covid-related and social distancing requirements. 

In many circumstances our working roles also changed. Personally, my own resources at outset were best deployed on The Pass, which is the focal point at which food transitions from kitchen, to front-of house service. Basically, 6 chefs delivering dish after dish onto a hot stainless steel 2m x 1m, and 'building' individual trays leaving the kitchens, with all cutlery, gourmet salts, accompaniment and dressings, at a rate designed as one tray per minute. You will either run The Pass, or it will run you! 

And there I have stayed, on The Pass since the beginning of July. 85 hours at work a week! In the two months, literally, I've only taken one day off work, as it was my birthday! To be honest, I've not wanted to take time off, because firstly I've enjoyed it so much, secondly we're doing absolutely everything we can do to begin to recover, following the £1M cost of suspended trading, and thirdly we wish to remain in business! 

In so many ways, a re-connection with Hospitality, taking this 53 year old back to being a teenager working as a chef in London kitchens. 

The view to the right:

And, the view to the left: 

Each printout, a multiple course meal for each table, all needing to be coordinated at the same time. Potentially up to 30 tables each 2 hour session. 6 sessions per day. (GDPR compliant image for Vibe Manager)

Bistro al Fresco, and its variants inside the house when we also opened for that mid July, have been a truly epic adventure in Hospitality. And it has been a profound experience for this hotelier, bearing witness to the combined efforts of our brigade. 

Some hoteliers might have sat back and simply continued as is, when we began to achieve delivery for 300 guests per day. To the contrary, at that point we pressed the pedals further, and began introducing more new dishes, and better new dishes. This has been a quite amazing exercise in consistency, and I especially pay tribute today, to the efforts of Executive Chef Oscar Sinjorgo, and our entire kitchen brigade. 

At 19.59 on 29th August 2020, we received App order number 10,000!!! It was a pleasure to personally serve those two Classic Prawn Cocktails, and of course, we despatched a bottle of Champagne, on the house. 

I really don't have the words to thank community for such support over these two months. On behalf of all at Balbirnie House, thank you is all I can say.   

And facing the continuing future, and ongoing social distancing mixed into autumn and winter ahead? We're basically going to shift Bistro al Fresco inside, into Ballroom Bistro, sub-titled 'food in the woods', taking everything we've taken this to thus far, and then adding even more ahead. 

A totally new take on Fixed Price 2 and 3 course lunch deals, a brand new take on Afternoon Tea, unprecedented gourmet sourdough Pizzas from our new Italinox oven, and also for the first time in our 3 decade history, a brand new offering of fondue. Our version, we're rolling with a blend of gruyere, fontina, and gouda. 

'Knock, knock!'

'Who's there?'

'Fondue!' 

'Fondue who?' 

'Exactly!' 😘

Ladies, tradition has it that if you drop something in the fondue (subject in 2020 to social distancing), you need to give every guy at the table a kiss! Gents, if you drop something in the cheese, you need to buy everyone at the table a round of drinks! By Balbirnie App!!! 😂

Còsagach and Hygge ahead!

During August 2020, incredibly in the context of timing and global pandemic circumstances, our wedding planning team have taken future bookings for 20 weddings. Nobody knows when we will be able to cater for weddings without social distancing in place, so in the meantime (and continuing to provide a 12 week rolling review for all wedding clients), we'll be continuing doing all we can for the evolution of Balbirnie's Bistronomie. 

Al Fresco has been so much fun, to conceive and deliver. We've had so many people asking us to repeat again next year, so we're going to have a very careful think about how we could perhaps do this, but it would only be potential to do so at times when our many weddings are not using the gardens. 

With the nights now drawing in, our 8pm table guests in the final weeks are arriving with blankets, into darkness, with table centre heat lamps, and the spectacular backdrop of the house lit by LED. Summer 2020 Hospitality we'll never forget you. 

With all best wishes from the brigade, 

Nicholas 

MD Balbirnie House 

2020 summer Memories were Made of This: 

The cherry on the top. Baked Alaskas, centred with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sorbet.

Bang Bang chicken.

Passionfruit and Mango Trifles with white chocolate shavings and popping candy, served of course in a beautifully chilled glass. 

Chicken Liver Pate Parfait, with Cumberland sauce. 

(Pate sealed with a very thin pouring of clarified butter)

Ciara McCulloch with the very first outgoing Baked Alaska, prior to the cherries being deployed! 

*Ends*

The Safeguarding of Balbirnie House

It’s a six Zero hit, but we’re ready for the new future.

Friday 20th March 2020. A night we’ll never ever forget. Shutdown!!! 
The next day’s bride had already checked into our Pearl Suite, and it wasn’t even as straightforward as that. You see, the bride and groom had already ‘lost’ their initial intended wedding elsewhere due to the Thomas Cook travel company having collapsed into administration. Our company directors had heard of these tremendously sad circumstances and so we had offered to step in and gift the entire wedding, from Balbirnie House. All I could say to the tearful bride was, ‘We are so saddened we do not have the words, but we will look forward to re-scheduling, and it’ll be the third time lucky!’ 

30,000 people saw the first post 30 minutes later:

After that, I put ACDC’s ‘Hell’s Bells’ on repeat on my car sound system at full tilt, and headed home for the night, beginning to think of what we’d need to do to safeguard Balbirnie’s future. 

Absolutely devastated for Saturday's and Sunday's weddings, and thoughts immediately with all future clients. 

Poignantly and so very personally, thoughts with our entire brigade, and their families reliant upon income. Families with children. Bills to pay. A few days left before their rent or monthly mortgages would need to be paid. Company directors the source of ensuring it happens. It's easy to panic when faced with such a challenge, but our underlying foundations were strong, so ... shoulders to the wheel and onwards we go. 

This mindset: 

Unlike many industry colleagues, we were fortunate in 2020 foundations. Firstly, a few years ago we’d shifted our entire company banking over to HSBC, specifically because of the facts that (a) they tend not to bank independent hotels (as it’s a high risk sector) - therefore those they do work with tend to already be on very solid financial status, and are fully supported on that basis (b) at outset they were as enthused as we have always been, about helping us preserve and improve Balbirnie House, as one of Scotland’s most treasured Grade A Listed national treasures. 

Secondly, in 2020 we had a sub 40% Loan to Value. 

Thirdly, our company management team had delivered basically, what we were told by CreditSafe Credit Rating earlier in 2020, as the best credit rating they had ever seen for an independent hotel. 

Fourthly, over more than a decade, our company directors had been working with ongoing consensus, that we should do all possible to roll into the future maintaining a continual current account cash surplus, envisaged ideally at between £200,000 and £250,000 - believe me, if you can run a company like this, you can usually sleep at night. The financials are protected, everyone’s job is secured, and prioritised reinvestment is dictated by how much cash you have in the bank, and how much you think you are going to have in the bank! Cash kept in the bank permanently, no overdraft required! 

After shutdown, the assistance from HSBC was immediate, focussed and very resourceful indeed, via Relationship Manager Scott Shankland, and Jan Campbell, Deputy Area Director, Business Banking Scotland. We were immediately offered a most welcome 6 month break from making traditional capital repayments. This was supplemented by immediate and ongoing assistance also, from EQ Chartered Accountant, as partner Mark Gibson has audited our annual accounts for many years. 

Perhaps sections of the general public thought that hospitality industry hibernation costs would be minimal? Today’s Blog certainly defines that’s not the case. 

Without any cash coming in, there are the many suppliers who needed to be paid for previous supplies. To deliver for all employees within the scope of the UK furlough scheme, you need actual funds in the bank, to pay all employees first before then reclaiming. 

To say the least I was shocked beyond belief to see industry colleagues elsewhere immediately losing their jobs back in March en masse, in some circumstances from what appeared to be from the employment of companies run by high net worth individuals, or companies with high asset values. Those who made those decisions will live with those decisions for the rest of their lives. Reflecting on timeline, I know for sure, entire brigades lost their jobs, without employers taking time properly investigating re-financing prior to making that first furlough payment. 

You then have all ongoing fixed costs, financing costs, banking costs etc etc. Any employees still employed would need to be paid regardless. In our circumstances, wedding planning team, accounts, gardening and grounds, and in-house security all needed to keep going. 

Insurance for Business Interruption? All insurers across the span of Hospitality stated they would not provide any payments. As our intermediary insurance broker remarked at the point of Lockdown, 'Insurers won't make any payment, so for the hospitality sector it's going to be the survival of the fittest!' I confirm today that Balbirnie House is now one of hundreds of businesses in potential future combined Class Action via London legal firm Mishcon de Reya. 

We initially calculated that we would be losing £6,400 per day for the first 3 months of suspended trading, and then £3,300 per day thereafter. Thereafter, we would need to make some reinvestments for re-opening, and over and above  that also pay the financial way for cash flow.

Current account surplus, gone in days! Vamoosh! 

CBILs: CoronaVirus Business Interruption Loan scheme via HSBC delivered a new £300,000 debt facility (repayable in 6 years), plus a new £200,000 overdraft facility. Underlined, CBILs is only accessible for companies that can meet specific criteria, including being able to deliver operating budgets and cash flows evidencing ability to repay! 

Then, add the loss of all positive cash flow which would have otherwise been incoming, for April, May and June 2020, extending further until we know when we can fully re-open for non social distancing trading. 

The combined implications are certainly already in the ballpark of £1 million. 

Setting aside the generalities of the UK furlough scheme for covering wages, how much have we successfully claimed in Grant Assistance? There are seemingly 2,500 Scotland tourism and hospitality businesses with annual rateable value above £51,000, therefore above the threshold for receiving any grant whatsoever. It is totally staggering that this remains the case today. This entire tranche of Scotland tourism and hospitality, basically thrown under a bus. Unless you can borrow more cash as we have been able to do, or have additional cash to hand, you are finished, basically. 

EQ Chartered Accountants recommended we apply for a Grant within the Scottish Enterprise Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund, quote ‘for firms which are vital to Scotland’s economy’, and we proceeded with this. It was a significant submission, and we were over-the-moon, and the rest, to be told two weeks later that we had received assistance of £85,000 - whilst less than 10% of the impact we have seen, this sum will be absolutely vital for supporting our successful re-opening. 

Stephen Montgomery, Scottish Licensed Trade Association, writing on The Scottish Hotels Covid-19 Action and Support Facebook Group: 

So, we are now most thankfully fully financed and ready to re-open. The 2020 financial circumstances will set Balbirnie House back a few years, but the important things to mention today, are that we’re so very thankfully still in business, and we fully envisage continuing. 

Additionally: 

The hospitality, passion and determination from our wedding planning team has been epic. We have successfully helped more than 80 wedding clients re-schedule with new future Balbirnie House dates, in what is now a rolling program of review, enabled and carefully managed through 18 phases of Policy and Status updates. As and when we can fully deliver non social distancing weddings, it may be the case that in the following 12 months we’ll see Balbirnie House provide the backdrop for 185 weddings. 

Specifically and only from Hospitality perspectives, there will be hotels which are remembered for how badly they handled the pandemic, and to the contrary there will be hotels which are remembered for how well they handled it. Writing today, I certainly know that we've truly delivered our absolute best for every single future client, many of course who have found themselves in amongst the most incredibly challenging circumstances. 

On behalf of our company directors, a massive thanks to Scott Shankland, Jan Campbell, Mark Gibson, and internal accountant George Russell. 

Signing off today, our brigade's hospitality heads and shoulders proudly high, Balbirnie House fully safeguarded, and most importantly of all, our entire brigade 100% intact and ready to get back to serving our community. 

We're starting with brand new external dining on Monday 6th July, with hotel accommodation opening 15th July. Our opening team is 15 strong, and our ability to get the other 70 of the brigade back to work depends absolutely, on how busy we are going to be. 

Thereafter, our company directors are fully committed to the entire future, in the further knowledge that we'll need to be making enhanced outgoing payments, to cover what we've had to do to bring stability and enable re-opening. 

We'd therefore very much appreciate any and every single guest visit ahead. 

It's also a new future we're now looking at, with completely dedicated online reservations, food and beverage ordering via App, and payments across-the-board via digital as opposed to cash. 

Embracing necessary change, without ever losing sight of where we've come from, and certainly since March 20th, what one and all have all been through. 

On behalf of the brigade, we are together, Yours in Hospitality,

Best wishes one and all, 

Nicholas Russell / MD Balbirnie House 

Within a few hours of this Blog post going live, it was created into the day's main splash via Hotel News Scotland. 

Balbirnie House: £1m loss but ready for the new future

PS (We live in hope ⬇️)

Balbirnie House - Scotland's 2020 Wedding Hotel of the Year!

In the week leading to 26th April Balbirnie House was notified that the 2020 Scottish Hotel Awards would be taking place in The Virtual World. 

The brigade were then informed of this, via our Closed Group 'Balbirnie Buddies' Facebook page, which we have in situ during lockdown, to keep everyone fully appraised of progress whilst trading is suspended. 

So, on the Sunday evening for the awards ceremony, the team got our kilts, tuxedos, gladrags and ballgowns on, grabbed some 'refreshments', and headed on over to meet for the awards ceremony via Zoom video and audio. 

For those who attended, it was to be a 4 hour conversation which I'm very sure, none of us will ever forget. 

Vibe manager Angela Ferguson and Special Events Sarah Rees were delivering a continual flow of information from The Scottish Hotel Awards Facebook page. 
A few screen grabs taken prior to the dancing starting: 

Next morning:

Truly remarkable circumstances. Yet again! 

And so, into the newspapers: 

Fife Free Press: Fife hotel breaks records with 14th award

(Image credit via Isobel Russell)

The Courier: Balbirnie House Hotel clinches top wedding accolade for record-breaking 14th year

Image credit via Rob Thomson/ Lifetime Photography.

Well, over the last 12 months we've certainly found ourselves in unexpected circumstances, thereby delivering an ongoing flow of information for the judges of The Scottish Hotel Awards scheme. 

Worth highlighting, Best Wedding Destination Hotel on the Planet.

Our 3 decades of Hospitality summarised in under 20 minutes on YouTube - Today is Not a Dress Rehearsal for Tomorrow. 

Following which, we saw Balbirnie breaking new ground with The Contemplation of Social and Sensory.

And so, onwards we go. 

The in-house tradition of having multiple team meetings every last Tuesday of the month 12 noon - 4pm, considering our ongoing evolution continues, albeit we're paused during this temporary lockdown. These meetings tend to be about remaining ahead of the curve, continually embracing change as we always need to keep finding new ways to work, without losing sight of where we've come from. 

Nearly every single wedding client 27th March - 19th July 2020 has now successfully postponed and re-scheduled their intended special days. We continue to remain in a very carefully managed holding pattern, working with future clients one week at a time, allowing for at least 2 calendar months of contemplation. And stating the very obvious, we cannot wait for the day that we can welcome our colleagues back to Balbirnie, and then open again for guests. 

As part of our evolution, at the point of suspending trading, we were about to go live as Scotland's first hotel to deliver a completely new approach to how we highlight our wedding and banqueting menus, with a full shift into online and visual. 

So, this will be the first part of our updates for the consideration of judges for the 2021 Scottish Hotel Awards!

A quick taster of this project, and a massive thanks to Executive Chef Oscar Sinjorgo, our kitchen brigade, and all of the team who have been involved with delivering this unprecedented project in conjunction with Naomi Vance Photography.

As always over these recent years, we are so very inspired by the Archie Forrest artwork collection throughout Balbirnie House, Scotland's leading contemporary Colourist painter's 'Electricity with Paint' focussing us each day on vibrant colours. 

For the first time ever, here's a snapshot of what our new 2020 banqueting would have been delivering 1st May 2020 onwards, and will be delivering when we fully re-open. 

5 contemporary Scotland food photographs, from 300 taken on the day! 

Showing future clients how individual dishes 'fit together' within the structure of a multiple course menu: 

This main course below is Breast of chicken 'Vallee d'Auge', with caramelised apple, mushrooms and a Calvados creme fraiche sauce. It's our best selling banquet main course, of all time! 

Best wishes one and all, and congratulations to all 2020 Scottish Hotel award winners. 

Nicholas / MD Balbirnie House 

WOOD? OR FOOD? 😂

My family and I have the great pleasure of living in Balbirnie Park, it really is an absolutely amazing place to live, such wonderful walks and running trails on the doorstep, in the beautiful and ever-changing landscape, within which Balbirnie House itself sits, as the centrepiece.

We live in an old estate cottage which we acquired more than 20 years ago, which we then extended 15 years ago. 

Well before we acquired the cottage, the previous owners had planted what I think they thought would eventually be a Leylandii hedge, seemingly thinking that the hedge would provide some form of protection from winds from the north. But what they actually planted were Leylandii Cypress trees, which over the course of time grew with some of the largest becoming 100 ft tall, threatening the cottage every time there was a storm. 

So, after much ongoing dialogue with Fife Council upon whose land those trees were growing (there's a tree preservation order in Balbirnie Park), it was eventually agreed, specifically because the trees were not native to the park, that they could be taken down and the threat to property removed, on the proviso that I paid the ensuing £3,500.00 lumberjack bill. 

So, 3 years ago, professional lumberjacks were contracted in for a few days, and those trees were chopped down. The lumberjacks left the trees chopped into large sections, huge logs which would eventually need to be chopped further into smaller logs, eventually for burning in our house log burner.

So, summer 2018 we brought in a commercial log splitter, and then we started chopping! One epic day of work with five of us cleared half of the chopped down trees. 

Summer 2019 then saw the creation of an external log store. 

Fast forward to March 2020 and the global pandemic CoronaVirus lockdown, and I'm contemplating ways to keep myself busy at home. So, I thought I'd 'take on' the rest of the project on my own. 

At my 2020 start point the remainder of the chopped down trees were fairly overgrown, covered in brambles and moss. Basically, in a massive pile stretching from what you see below, for 20 metres or so towards the woodland at the back. 

So, I cleared the undergrowth, and one by one I began to remove moss, tree bark etc. Some of the logs were certainly beasts to shift, as you can see from the size of each disc. 

To give some scale as to what I was lifting: 

There was one log, which was seemingly even heavier than the others. I tried, and I tried, but it just wasn't shifting. So I said to myself, 'right then heaviest of the heaviest logs, I'm gonna need to leave you until later!' 

Here is the large log in question, moss removed and waiting to be lifted: 

So, I went into the house, and got my strength up with a lovely bowl of soup, spicy red pepper, aubergine, red onion and Santini tomato broth. Delicious.

Went back out and had another go at shifting the heavy log. Nope, still not shifting! Food obviously not nutritional enough! 

So I left the heavy log, and got on with shifting other logs. Helped now, by using the Balbirnie House 'suspended trade' keg-shifting trolley. 

Onwards I pressed! 

The harder I worked, the luckier I got with the shifting of the logs! 

Debris to the left, logs to the right. 

Accumulating big chunks ready for future splitting. 

On day 4 of this, I was nearly finished, all that remained was the shifting of that final heavy log. So, for lunch that day I had a bowl of self-invented IronMan soup. This is a base soup of supermarket 'Gorgeous Greens', into a mixture of sautéed garlic, spinach and chilli. I can assure you it is tasty and nutritious beyond belief! Should you wish to do so, you can add further greens, chicken, chorizo and potato. It is, an experience. 

If Heisenberg were to make a soup, this would surely be it! 

Strengthened by my IronMan soup, I headed to finally take care of the heavy log, muttering away to myself, 'It's judgement day for the heavy log!' 

Oh I tried to lift the log, but it just wasn't shifting. So I started cussin' away, as you do! 'C'mon ya big Jessie, get your back intae it! Goddamn it Sweet Jiminy Cricket you are an IronMan! That's it, get the knees bent, straight back, here we, here we go, heave ho!!!' 

But nothing. It just wasn't for shifting. 

So I thought I'd get my axe, and try and leverage it upwards from underneath. 

It was at that point that I realised that it wasn't a log, it was a tree stump! 

Oh My Sides! I sat on it and laughed for 20 minutes! 

'The hotel manager and the unliftable log'

(Image via Isobel Russell)

Best wishes one and all, 

Nicholas / MD Balbirnie House 

A QUICK FINANCIAL AND STATUS UPDATE

Good Digital Day from Balbirnie House. Today, I dream of the day I have the honour of standing on our red carpet, to welcome our brigade back to Balbirnie House. 

Having successfully now processed our March 2020 monthly payroll, our Balbirnie House internal accountant is now working remotely.

Together with our directors, we are already well in progress with HSBC, sourcing funds to see Balbirnie House through to re-opening.

Those funds will be inclusive of making any outstanding supplier payments. 

We can however only continue to pay suppliers, via our usual monthly timeline payments, and all ongoing direct debits in the months ahead, when we are in physical receipt of HSBC funds. We are doing everything in our capabilities, and as quickly as is possible to do so, to make all due payments. 

So please do bear with us. 

We will update as we progress, but please note that HSBC have already told us that we are not at the top of their current priorities (as at last Friday), as they are working with those companies first, who are eg sadly unable to process their own March company payroll.

We also underline that Balbirnie House Hotel Ltd has a Grade A classified 2020 CreditSafe rating, and with current loan to value status under 40%, our directors are fully confident that we will be able to deliver all ongoing payments, and we will very much look forward to re-opening whenever it’s made possible to do so. 

It also occurs today that many potential new future clients, will not wish to make any future wedding venue booking for a wedding, if there is any uncertainty that the company owners and directors are confident in being able to fully re-open their venue, and then sustain future trade. At Balbirnie House we are absolutely confident that it's only a matter of time, until we can successfully re-open. And most importantly of all, we have of course fully retained Balbirnie's entire hotel brigade in place, to do this as well. Our commitment to our brigade ongoing, and enabling all ongoing monthly payroll from our payroll system, is resolute. 

We also highlight, our Special Events department are fully enabled and are working remotely, we are providing prospective new wedding clients with Virtual Tours, and digital face-to-face meetings. We have already taken our first future wedding booking, via 100% virtual process. 

As at June 1st 2020 onwards, and incredibly so, we have 163 weddings booked in the 12 months ahead, and we are working with all clients on a 1 week rolling basis, with 2+ calendar months advance timeline, to re-schedule wedding dates, as required. 

During March 2020, we also took bookings for 16 completely new wedding clients. 

We also mention that despite not being compelled to do so by insurer, we are delivering 24 hr security every day at Balbirnie House, so as to fully protect the 1777 national treasure.

Additionally, all work continues in our gardens, so that when able to re-open, it’s straight back to business as usual. 

Most probably due to how we operate as a hotel, in conjunction with our timeline for liaising with so many future clients, Balbirnie House was Scotland's first hotel to deliver a written Policy and action plan for assisting all future clients. We've delivered four phased updates, my sincere gratitude to everyone who has been involved. 

So as to keep our entire brigade fully appraised of all progress, we have also enabled a ‘Balbirnie Buddies’ Facebook Closed Group for everyone who is on our company payroll. Our directors will be using this to keep the brigade totally abreast re everything we will action in timeline, in preparation for re-opening. 

For main updates and thoughts each day, you can follow via our main twitter feed.

And finally for today, a link through to an article which features Balbirnie House and many of our amazing Scotland hotel sector industry colleagues, via Hotel News Scotland, 'Hope Beyond Closed Doors'

Our thoughts with one and all, in these unprecedented times. 

All best wishes, 

Nicholas Russell MD Balbirnie House 30.3.2020