The owner of a Caithness hotel has reflected on the first full year open after buying the property for £1.3 million.
Melville Hotels acquired Royal Thurso Hotel last year with plans to fully refurbish the 105-bedroom building.
Managing director Thomas Melville believes there is a big demand for beds in the North Coast 500 town.
He and his team have completed the refurbishment of the first 25 hotel rooms and are on track to renovate another 25 this winter.
‘The hotel hadn’t seen a lick of paint in 40 years’
Mr Melville said he was attracted to the property knowing Thurso needed more room for its tourists.
With a “popular reputation” with locals, he decided to take on the “huge risk” of Royal Thurso Hotel.
Mr Melville said: “Before we took over the hotel was lying on its knees.
“It probably hadn’t seen a lick of paint in 30 or 40 years. Locals tell us it used to be a huge part of Thurso and so we dived in.
“They backed us, which is amazing and really important to being a success.”
How was first full year of running Royal Thurso Hotel?
Mr Melville said locals are “at the heart of the hotel” and claims Royal Thurso employed 50 locals during the summer.
He said: “We had some really busy months but I would like it to be busier in the coming year.
“We had to get some outside help in as well because we were busy. Staffing is a challenge for all hospitality businesses but we’ve retained a team of 12 going into the winter.
“What you’ll find is people book their North Coast 500 trip years in advance so we will start to see more of that market next season.”
“Probably for the past 40 years the hotel has closed down in October and opened again in April.
“It was a really difficult decision to make when we cut some of our staff’s hours and let others go.
“Staying open all year round did mean we needed to keep a spine, even though we are losing money, but it’s worth it for when the next busy period hits.”
Ongoing refurbishments
Mr Melville said the money made by the hotel will be spent on refurbishments and is looking forward to another year at the helm.
This winter is the second of four which will see rooms at the hotel transformed.
He said: “This is a big building which hasn’t been looked after properly. We’re really lucky because we have our own in-house refurbishment team.
“We also have a maintenance guy who has worked on the hotel for maybe 25 years and knows the building inside out.”
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