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The past two years have been extremely challenging for Scottish hospitality businesses but being a small boutique business, Glenapp Castle Hotel has remained agile and created new opportunities. Sales and Marketing Manager, Gillian Purdie, tells us more.

Can you tell us about Glenapp Castle Hotel and what makes it special?

Glenapp is such a special place situated in a truly unique part of Scotland. Located in Ayrshire, it is completely different from a regular boutique hotel and oozes the very best in five star hospitality. We have often been described as a mini ‘Downton Abbey’ and we love it!

What are the main responsibilities in your role as Sales and Marketing Manager and what do you like best about your role?

My role is extremely varied and I am responsible for all areas relating to sales and marketing including:

• Managing all sales activities
• Attending sales events
• Conducting site visits and familiarisation (FAM) trips
• Digital marketing of the hotel
• Revenue management
• Annual budgeting/forecasting

While ensuring all guests receive the most fabulous five star service. My favourite thing is that no two days at Glenapp are ever the same and my role continually changes!

The past two years have been particularly challenging for the industry and tourism in Scotland — what have been the biggest challenges and how has Glenapp responded?

Working through a pandemic has been very challenging for hotel and hospitality businesses throughout the world. The frequent changing landscape of the rules and regulations, not only by the UK government, but also by the devolved government, resulted in some ridiculous outcomes to which we had to adhere.

That said, being a small boutique business, we had incredible agility, which meant that we could quickly change our direction and adapt swiftly to the changing landscape.

Glenapp is fortunate to have an owner who took the various lockdowns as an opportunity and we undertook significant development at the hotel and its estate from March 2020 to May 2021.

We also took the opportunity to challenge our First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and got the support of the industry with over 300 signatures on a campaign to reverse the rule regarding not being allowed to serve alcohol in the restaurant.

We continued to keep in touch with our clients, our partners, and the national press to ensure that Glenapp was always forefront of mind, knowing that the pandemic would one day be over. This has served us well in terms of customer and partner loyalty.

What plans does Glenapp have for the coming year and what do you hope to achieve in your role?

Glenapp has some great plans over the next few years. The launch of the new Penthouse Castle apartment will see greater success this year. The opening of our Azalea Glasshouse and Bothy Restaurant will also bring a new and significant revenue stream to the business.

We are hopeful that our American customers will return this year and we are working hard to ensure a Glenapp visit is definitely included into their travel plans when coming to Scotland. Excitingly, we will start the plans for a brand new spa to be built on the Estate in the original coach house and we anticipate that opening in 2024.

How did your degree prepare you for this role?

On reflection, my degree enabled me to progress quickly in an industry I was completely unfamiliar with. It gave me the basic knowledge and understanding of the business world which made walking into my role much easier.

What key thing(s) that you learnt at the Business School do you rely on today?

Throughout my role, I am constantly using everything I have learnt from my digital marketing classes, HR classes, accounting classes, and global trade classes. I rely on everything! More importantly, I rely on the people and writing skills I developed at the University to help lead me through life at Glenapp.

What is your proudest work related achievement to date?

I have so many moments that I am proud of from my time at Glenapp from winning ‘Employee of the Year’ for Scotland in the CIS awards in May 2021, to successfully launching our new four bedroom Castle Penthouse Apartment after almost four years of development work.

To see my sales and marketing activities take Glenapp from a 20% occupancy hotel that was making no profit to a hotel that now runs on average at 74% occupancy all year and now makes profit, makes me extremely proud every day.

Alumni wisdom — if you could offer one piece of advice to current students, what would it be?

Enjoy every minute of it, it is all over so fast and you have to really soak up the student experience. When you graduate do not stress about what you are going to do next, sometimes something just comes along and opens a door for you.