Cameron House certainly had a busy year in 2023 with its management team changing and the hotel kicking off its 200th anniversary celebrations. The team now includes Resort Director Michael Lavizani, who joined in June 2023, from Marine & Lawn; Allan Wilson, General Manager who came from Voco Grand Central, Karen Avery, Sales Director, MICE who has a background in the luxury market from working with Relais and Chateaux, as well as large convention hotels such as De Vere Cotswold Water Park, Jody Reaoch, Group Marketing Director, who was former Head of Group Marketing at Apex and Andrea Molloy is the new Director of Spa with more than thirty years’ experience within the spa and wellness industry latterly as International Training Manager at ESPA International.
Now that they have got their feet firmly under their desks they are powering ahead in 2024 with the aim of becoming one of Scotland’s leading destinations for corporate events of all sizes with their eyes firmly on the international market too and Michael is also determined to make Cameron House “the most internationally recognised luxury hotel in Scotland.”
The focus appears to have changed from high end transient guests to events with its competitor set now the likes of Barcelona and Portugal. I paid a visit to the resort to see the type of itineraries that the team put in place for their Meetings, Incentives, Conference and Exhibition guests and to find out more about the green initiatives which has seen the resort win two Greengage Awards recently – silver in the ‘Hotel or Accommodation’ category, with Environment & Sustainability Officer Tim Henson winning silver for ‘Sustainability Champion of the Year’.
The Resort can now offer conference facilities with enough accommodation to cater for all delegates onsite. Following the completion of The Lomond Wing the hotel offers 208 bedrooms which includes 28 suites. There is also its 700 Sq ft ballroom, as well as seven other flexible function spaces – catering for between 16 and 600 people – which include the Loch Fyne and Loch Katrine Suites. Add in a 29 seat private cinema, a spa and 18-hole championship golf course, in addition to a 234-berth marina, and you can see why it is gaining traction in the international arena.
The hotel is seeing enquiries from larger clients who want to take the whole Resort over. The only proviso is that the two restaurants that serve the resort’s leisure and yachting guests stay open for their use.
This is a new segment for the Resort, and the trend has emerged because of the size of the Lomond Suite and the fact that the accommodation now stretches to 208 rooms. It’s competitor set in the UK now includes the likes of Boston Manor and Celtic Manor. As well as the restaurants at the Marina and which service the leisure club, the hotel has a further six bars and restaurants including the Cameron Grill and Great Scots’ Bar, which won ours sister magazine’s Molinari Hotel Bar of the Year in 2023.
The former Tamburrini Wishart restaurant has been rebranded as The Monarch and is being used for afternoon teas and cooking demonstrations. For conference groups it can now be utilised for private breakfasts as it is connected to its own private kitchen. As well as a full tour of the hotel we were treated to a presentation in the luxurious cinema, The Lomond wing with its impressive conference space which can be split into three, depending on the size of the event, also has 68 modern bedrooms including suites. Some have views on to the loch, the others have views of the gardens.
The rooms in the Lomond wing also have all the mod cons you would expect. In order to get a feel for the food on offer we ate in the Cameron Grill on the first night, after enjoying a pre-dinner drink in the Great Scots Bar.
The following morning we were treated to a chef-led workshop from Szilard Szentesi, the Head Pastry Chef. He gave us a masterclass in how to make focaccia bread, which he encouraged us to try with a platter of exceptional produce. He emphasised that they use suppliers from Scotland as much as they can, to reduce food mileage, and reinforced the fact that the chefs at Cameron House “work closely” with their suppliers.
Then we headed to The Library to partake of Afternoon Tea this also allowed us time to catch up with Tim Henson, Environment & Sustainability Officer and Jim Brown, Director of Environment and Sustainability.
The pair are driving the resort’s sustainability initiatives. Both Jim and Tim hold a long-standing passion for the environment, and have been working on the hotel’s sustainability progress for a number of years, in their former Woodland & Estates Management positions. However, last year they stepped into formal part-time roles dedicated to Environment and Sustainability.
Their roles now involve everything from: overseeing the development of positive relationships between Cameron House and the local community, as well as the National Park Authority; ensuring all suppliers to the hotel are at the helm of sustainable sourcing; developing and implementing stringent initiatives related to energy, water, waste and recycling that are consistent with Cameron House Resort’s sustainability policy goals and ensuring a harmonised approach incorporates all aspects of the 400 acre Cameron House Resort, including: Cameron House Hotel, Cameron House Lodges, the Marina, its loch-side restaurant, and Cameron Club and Spa.
Tim’s background was in conservation as and he continues with many of his previous woodland and estate management duties – which he previously did as Woodland Ranger.
Says Jim, “I spent 16 hours a week and Tim spends 20 on our sustainability roles. It is a long journey and we are right at the start.
“We have benchmarked where were were and we quickly identified somethings we could do. Part of that was ensuring that staff were trained and got enough information on that through the likes of newsletters.
“When we talk about sustainability staff now know what we are talking about. However it means different things depending on your job. Sustainability to housekeeper looks different than sustainability to groundsmen or to chefs.
“Over the last nine months we captured all new starts at their induction and then Tim does monthly newsletters to keep sustainability on their agenda.
“We have been trying to reduce as much general waste as possible. It means we have less wagons coming, fewer deliveries and less waste is going out. So far it has been a tremendous success.
“We looked at removing a huge amount of single use plastic and moved far more towards glass and now we are looking at putting our own walter filtration system into the hotels.
“In the future we hope to introduce food digestors in the kitchen to reduce kitchen food waste. This will be a circularity system where the waste food becomes a nutritious compost which we can use on our golf courses.We also have plans afoot to create our own in-house laundry. It will help us maintain quality and reduce emissions too.
Tim added, “When we started looking at educating ourselves for the sustainabilty journey – we had no idea where to start. We contacted Greengage – and we have been working with them ever since. They helped us with regard to replacing single use plastics and we now applied to join Green Tourism and hope to have that by Spring.
“We have 11 beehives here which local beekeepers put in. We buy the honey from them and sell it in our shop. “We also have bat boxes or as we call them bat hotels. Bats in a bat hotel can get through 4000 midgies a night. So we encourage as many bats as we can to use them.
“We also have an application for Green Tourism – Spring 2024. So we’re hopeful we can keep the momentum going.”
He concludes, “We are currently working with a company that is measuring all our gas and electricity waste to give us our carbon footprint… as we think this will become even more important to companies booking in for conferences in the future.”
Jim’s commitment to environmental stewardship and a hands-on approach to sustainable policy is embodied in his role with Cameron House Clan’s Welcome and Induction seminars, in which he presents the Resort’s Environment and Sustainability policy to all new employees, as well as his training of staff at all levels on environmental issues and responsibilities.
Every new employee is enrolled on the Clan’s Welcome induction which also sees them getting a welcome pack with reusable water bottle. They also get to go on the same type of activities that their guests do.
Says Karen, who did it last year. “You have that special bond with other new starts because you go through experiences together.”
We too got to take part in activities normally organised by Cameron House for guests. We were picked up at the front door of the hotel and whisked off by 4X4’s to experience all that the Scottish weather could throw at us. After an exhilarating drive, which we all took part in, up into the hills of the Luss Estate, we stopped for refreshments which were served in the Gamekeepers tent – where we enjoyed a dram and some fresh salmon bites… it definitely warmed us up and was a most enjoyable experience. I can see why guests would want to do it.
We retired back to the hotel for dinner and we were lucky enough to enjoy a dining experience in the hotel’s Private Dining Room. It gave us all a chance to enjoy the exquisite cuisine that Cameron House chefs delight in.
Next morning it was off to see the Spa along the road at The Carrick. From the outdoor infinity pool (pictured) to the relaxation rooms, the Spa is another draw for guests and of course there is always the golf too.
Other activities range from flights in the seaplane to clay pigeon shooting, and all manner of country pursuits. There is also a new Italian Restaurant which will open shortly in the place of The Boathouse at the Marina.
It’s certainly all go at Cameron House Resort!