INTERVIEW
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE CAMERON HOUSE AT LOCH
LOMOND FINALLY OPENED FOR BUSINESS LAST MONTH, AFTER FOUR TUMULTUOUS YEARS FOLLOWING THE DEVASTING FIRE WHICH DESTROYED MUCH OF THE HOTEL IN DECEMBER 2017. SUSAN YOUNG VISITED THE HOTEL AND CAUGHT UP WITH RESORT DIRECTOR ANDY ROGER TO SEE ITS TRANSFORMATION AND FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE MAN WHO HAS LED THE WHOLE PROCESS.
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ndy Roger, Resort Director at Cameron House, may have the air of a man who is very calm but there is no doubt his feet have been paddling like mad. As we talked over a cup of tea in the newly created library reception room of the hotel it was evident that he is both relieved and happy to have the hotel finally receiving guests. He did admit a wee regret that it didn’t quite feel like a grand re-opening because there had been no champagne corks (and no that is not because of supply issues) and no opening party. The hotel had been open for business for less than a week when I visited, and despite the facade remaining the same once you come through the front doors of the hotel the entire footprint of the hotel has been transformed, and not just the 20% destroyed in the fire of 2017. The change is quite dramatic but no more so than the morning and the days following the fire. It has certainly been a long and difficult journey complicated by Covid but he is mindful that although they are looking to the future, they are not forgetting the past. He says, “We are trying to create a new story in the most sensitive way we can.” Andy’s own story started after leaving school. His first job was at Malmaison in Glasgow, but it was only a stop-gap before heading off to New Zealand for a gap year before attending Edinburgh University. But a combination of having Andrew Hepburn as his boss in Glasgow, and an opportunity to spend time working for Robert Cook helping at the opening of the Malmaison in Newcastle, gave him a great introduction to the buzz and the personalities that hospitality attracts. Andy came back to Scotland and while
at University took a bar job at Espionage, a popular bar and nightclub, and after graduating he considered, and in fact nearly took, a graduate job with UDV/Guinness but at the last minute he took up former boss Andrew Hepburn’s suggestion that he did his graduate placement with Malmaison instead and help open London, which then became Birmingham. Explains Andy, “The salary and benefits on offer from Guinness were better but by that time I realised I was craving the buzz of hospitality.” He spent a year bedding-in Birmingham with his focus initially on Food and Beverage. He then moved to the Malmaison in Glasgow as Restaurant Manager before graduating to the role of Deputy GM. This in turn led to his first GM role at the age of 27 at the Hotel du Vin in Tunbridge Wells. A small 34-bedroomed hotel. “I loved it and knew if I performed there I would have the opportunity to open the Malmaison in Aberdeen.” Before revealing, “I was really lucky. When I went to Aberdeen it was 2008 and the start of the financial crisis. The world was falling apart but in Aberdeen, we were completely insulated. Our room rates were good and food and beverage boomed. I had a brilliant three years there – and I found it a very welcoming city.” However in 2011, the central belt proved too much of a draw and when Garry Sanderson left One Devonshire Gardens he took the opportunity to move back West and took over Garry’s role as General Manager - a role he held until 2013 when he moved on to Cameron House. Says Andy, “It was a great company to work for and it was very good to me. It gave me good opportunities and allowed me plenty of personal development and of course, I got to work with some great
