'I'M A born and bred hotelier," is how Robert Cook introduces himself when we meet in the opulent surroundings of Devonshire Gardens in Glasgow's West End. He's also returning to familiar territory.
The grand, converted Georgian mansion in one of the city's more salubrious districts was where his former boss and mentor Ken McCulloch launched his hotel empire. Cook is back, only this time he's in charge.
The hotel, popular with touring celebri
ties from Status Quo to Dolly Parton, is part of the "shabby chic" Hotel du Vin brand that Cook now runs along with that other McCulloch creation, Malmaison. He now has plans to expand the chain, though he clearly has other things on his mind, as he is followed up the steps by a member of staff carrying a set of golf clubs. They accompany him everywhere and, weather permitting, he is looking forward to a round or two.
The game is a passion surpassed only by his job and the opportunity he was given to run his own show when the current owners went hunting for an experienced chief executive.
Four years into the job and he admits the economic squeeze will challenge his ability to stay the course, though he's hoping that the Europeans' fondness for his hotels will help. "The Europeans like us a lot, and with the strong euro and cheap air travel, August is looking exceptionally busy. We also still have high-end 'money is no object' Americans coming."
He will entice more customers through initiatives such as a "Tour du Vin d'Ecosse" which taps into his golfing interest. He is working on a package to encourage visitors flying to Scotland to play the game and stay at Hotel du Vin establishments across the country, including a new one at St Andrews, "the home of golf". The aim is to get planning permission for St Andrews by the autumn and have the 42 rooms, bistro and wine cellars ready for next year's Dunhill Cup.
While the economic downturn may not have had a big impact on room occupancy and rates – which Cook says are both slightly up on last year – residents have tightened their belts when it comes to spending on food and drink. "I don't think we've seen the start of it yet. It will get a lot worse."
To combat the depressed market, Hotel du Vin and Malmaison have become more flexible and aggressive on pricing,
and to cope with higher fuel prices and utility bills, Cook jokingly points out that "candlelit dinners are really popular at the moment" in the hotels' restaurants.
Cook had the hotel and hospitality industry bred into him: his family ran hotels in Aberdeenshire and the natural step was for him to study the sector at Robert Gordon University. He graduated in 1983 and has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, including Intercontinental and the Balmoral in Edinburgh.
He once spent £800,000 on cutlery, crockery and glassware for the opening of the Balmoral in 1991 following its transformation from the North British. It was the same sum that his mother's hotel had cost. "My mum couldn't believe I spent that much money on cutlery. It was a quantum leap to a different kind of place."
He discovered his aptitude for running boutique hotels when he joined McCulloch's Malmaison baby in 1996. Under the Glaswegian's leadership, Cook became director for Malmaison in the north of Britain, looking after hotels in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Newcastle. The two worked closely to build one of Britain's most successful boutique hotel brands. When McCulloch sold Malmaison, Cook moved with him and McCulloch's business partner David Coulthard, the Formula One racing driver, to take on the challenge of opening the Columbus in Monte Carlo in 2000. After four years, Cook was lured back to Malmaison by its new owners, the property company Marylebone Warwick Balfour, to become chief executive.
A year later Cook oversaw the purchase of Hotel du Vin and its integration with Malmaison, though they are run as two distinct brands. There are now 22 hotels in the group, and it's on target to reach 30 by the end of next year. Joining the portfolio will be the Aberdeen Malmaison, Edinburgh Hotel du Vin and the former Old Golf Hotel in St Andrews, transformed at a cost of £7m into a Hotel du Vin.
Cook now wants to export the Malmaison name overseas. "I would like to think that in 18 months' time we'll have something meaningful in Europe – a hotel either open or about to open. We're of a size now that if we don't grow, we'll stagnate."
For him, western Europe is a bit passé and he would rather launch the boutique hotel concept in the Middle East and Baltics, rather than Milan, Paris or Rome. "There has also been huge growth in territories such as China and India, and the boutique scene is yet to happen in Dubai."
Cook is deciding whether the group should branch out internationally on its own or sign up partners, such as real estate firms, who will share the risk of expansion. "The Malmaison product will change its shape a bit as we're not arrogant enough to think that what works over here will necessarily work overseas." Even within the UK, Malmaison and Hotel du Vin shape themselves to their environment, and all the establishments, with the exception of Liverpool, which is a new build, are refurbished properties with an element of heritage.
The new Hotel du Vin in Edinburgh's Bristo Place was previously an asylum, Oxford Malmaison is an old prison where The Italian Job was filmed, and the Newcastle Hotel du Vin, opening in November, was the Tyne and Wear Shipping Company. Malmaison in Leith is a former brothel.
The history of the buildings begs the question of whether there are a few resident ghosts in the hotels. If so, Cook wryly points out that "it keeps the occupancy up". He dismisses speculation that appeared in the catering trade press earlier this year that he was planning to quit Malmaison and Hotel du Vin as "absolute rumours", sparked by his decision to take a shareholding in the Alternative Hotel Group, which owns the rival De Vere chain, in order to offer advice as a non-executive director.
"I'm not going anywhere. I've been around Malmaison on and off for nearly 10 out of its 14 years. I'm running what I think are the best two hotel brands in the UK and I happen to have investment in another hotel."
His enthusiasm extends to a keen interest in how the staff perform and he meets all the youngsters who join Malmaison and Hotel du Vin's popular graduate programme. There were 400 applications for its 16 places this year. "When graduates join I say in my speech to them that it's an 18-month programme, but they probably won't finish. They initially think I mean they're going to get the bullet but, in fact, they're all going to get a management position in a hotel before the end of their training."
If anything, he "over-communicates" with staff, partly to reassure them about the future of the hotels, which MWB has stated it wants to sell by the end of 2010. MWB is primarily a property company that fell into hotels by buying Malmaison and it has always been clear about its exit strategy. Last summer there was interest from Vector Hospitality, which promised to be the UK's first real estate investment trust specialising in hotels, but that was dropped.
"It was Northern Rock time and the interest wasn't there," Cook says. "The business is valued at £700m and we're not selling it cheap. We're willing to bide our time."
The full article contains 1299 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
