CRAIG EWAN has spent nearly 20 years years at The Kingsmill. SUSAN YOUNG caught up with him to find out more about his role and the business he loves.
After nearly two decades at the helm of one of Inverness’s best known hotels, The Kingsmill, as well as looking after the company’s 5-star Ness walk, Craig Ewan is still as passionate about his role as Operations Director as he ever was.
Craig, an Inverness local, started in the industry part-time while at school, working with Trust House Forte, although he had originally set his sights on becoming a PE teacher. He explains, “I wanted to become a PE teacher, because I was really into my sports. But I failed my gymnastics and dance exam.
“I was absolutely gutted. However, my father, who was a head teacher, said to me “Son, I think you’re more suited to hospitality. Why don’t you go away and suss out one of the open days at university for hospitality? I was like what you can do a degree in hospitality?”
You can, and he did – he was part of the first cohort of hospitality students who went to the newly opened Caledonian University (Caley) in the former Queen’s College building. It was a decision he has never regretted. “I absolutely loved it,” he recalls.
His first professional break came with Swallow Hotels which he joined as a graduate, landing in Bournemouth in time for the Tory Party Conference. “That was a 10-day eyeopener. It was high profile and intense, but it gave me a taste for it,” he says.
He soon however returned to Inverness as Assistant Manager at what was then the Swallow Kingsmills. By 2000, Whitbread had acquired the hotel and began rebranding it as a Marriott.
Craig helped lead the transition, even taking on the role of Marriott Champion, working with head office to understand the brand. “We were sent back and forward to headquarters to get the training right,” he says. “It was a massive learning experience.”
Following the rebrand exercise in Inverness Craig moved to the Aberdeen Marriott in Dyce, where he spent two and a half years managing operations there. He tells me, “Oil and gas was absolutely booming. It was really, really busy and very vibrant.”
Then at just 26, he was offered his first General Manager position at Courtyard by Marriott in Lincoln. The only problem was he was offered the job on the Monday and had to start the following Monday.
He smiles, “It was a great opportunity, but my wife was eight months pregnant at the time, so the move from Aberdeen to Lincoln was a big one. But I promised her we would be in a new house by Christmas when the baby was due instead of in the management flat.”
However, they didn’t manage that and instead their child, Logan, was born on the 27th December and the address on his birth certificate is the Courtyard by Marriot, Lincoln! Craig stayed at Lincoln for two and a half years, and he was able to travel.
“I went to the General Manager’s Conferences which were often overseas, so I got the international experience and that was really, really good.”
From there, he moved to the York Marriott. Says Craig, “It was an exciting proposition because the hotel was due to get a large extension and the property backed onto the racecourse and catered heavily to race day clientele and jockeys and of course big race days generated a lot of money. I didn’t know anything about horses, but I learned fast. It was great experience and good fun.”
He again was there for just over two years, and life was going well when fate stepped in. His mother passed away suddenly. Says Craig, “That was a turning point. My dad started to struggle, and I just felt that pull to come home to Inverness. I spoke to my wife, and she was on board too. It was the right thing to do.”
He looked at buying a small hotel and even began exploring opportunities with a local operator. Then news came that the GM at Kingsmills was moving to Dubai. Craig contacted the company, which was Marriott his current employer, and applied for the position. “They asked me why I’d want to leave a bigger hotel in York in such a strong market. I had to explain – this was about family. They saw the sense in what I was saying and gave me the job. That was 2006 and I have been here ever since.”
However, today the hotel is not owned by Marriot but by Tony Story. Craig continues, “After about a year I got a surprise call from the Vice President of Marriott for the UK, Middle East and Africa saying he was coming for a visit.
“I knew something was up and sure enough after dinner, he delivered the news: the Kingsmills was one of five hotels up for sale. “It was a blow, but not a shock. The hotel needed investment, and it was losing money,” says Craig.
It was during the hotel sale process that Craig met Tony Story, the eventual buyer. He was asked to give him the show around. Says Craig, “I was doing the show round with him, he seemed larger than life at the time, and very, very passionate. We got on right away. I liked his energy.
He said, ‘If I buy this hotel, what’s your plan? Will you stay on?’. It just felt right.” So, when Marriott offered him the GM role at its Manchester Airport Hotel or Bournemouth Craig declined. “I’d come back to Inverness for a reason. I wasn’t going to uproot again. I told them I was going to stay and work for Tony.”
Tony took over the hotel on 30 November 2007. Says Craig, “I remember the day very well. Tony made me pull down the Marriott banner at exactly midday and replace it with the new Kingsmills sign. He wanted to announce we were in town, so we had invited corporate guests and gave them little oak trees as a symbol of new beginnings and it was our new logo.”
“After the event I was sitting with Tony and his family when some guests started coming in for tea and scones and I went to meet them. I asked them ‘What brings you here today?’ They told me that they would support the hotel now that it was independently owned and not owned by a large corporate.
“It was amazing, because the whole Marriott brand case is the yield premium, and how when you have the badge it will bring you more business. Well, that is not the case in the Highlands. It was the complete opposite.”
However, in Aberdeen it was a different story and when Craig soon found himself also looking after Tony’s Patio Hotel in the city, the decision was taken to rebrand it as a Doubletree.
Says Craig, “At the time every hotel wanted an American brand because of the whole Houston US oil situation. Americans like American brands.” He continues, “I was spending part of the week in Inverness and part in Aberdeen. I did that for nearly two years – it was intense.
“In fact, one night I fell asleep in the first-class train carriage and woke up alone in a dark, empty train. That was a sign.” He stepped back from Aberdeen and Tony put a Manager in, at the same time Tony’s son, James Story, started working for the business.
Explains Craig, “James has a degree in accounts and worked in banking and in America. Once he came on board the expansion of Kingsmill really started and that became our main focus.”
The Kingsclub, with 37 rooms, opened in 2010. A conference and events wing followed in 2014, adding space for 300 guests and 38 more bedrooms and in 2015, they added 13 garden rooms. The hotel went from 77 bedrooms to 147.
The growth wasn’t just physical. Craig reveals, “When we bought the Kingsmill, the turnover was about £2.7 million. This year we’ll hit around £12 million. That kind of growth doesn’t happen without constant reinvestment, and great team work.”
Seven years ago Tony also rewarded Craig’s hard work by making him a Director of Kingsmill, and when Tony started to plan Ness Walk – a five-star hotel on the riverside in Inverness, he asked Craig to be a director there too. Ness Walk opened in 2019. Craig comments, “It was a natural progression. We wanted to bring a proper five-star experience to Inverness, but with our signature warmth.”
The timing was tough. COVID hit just months later and they had to close both hotels, though at Kingsmill they were able to keep the garden rooms open for essential workers. He admits, “Furlough was a lifeline. If furlough hadn’t come along, we would have had to make people redundant, which, you know, was the worst thing that we would ever want to do.”
Craig’s team dug in and when they reopened business got off to flying start. Both hotels bounced back strongly, but challenges remain. “Costs are up across the board. Labour, energy, supplies, it’s all more expensive. But demand has remained strong, especially with the American market.
Craig oversees 200 staff at Kingsmills in peak season and 165 in winter, plus 65 more at Ness Walk. “We’ve got long-standing managers at both sites. Shona and Kevin do a brilliant job. We promoted people from within, which has helped preserve the culture.”
That culture is based in visibility, and he leads by example. For instance, he always works Christmas Day and brings his family to stay over at Hogmanay. He explains, “Christmas First thing I do is drive to Ness Walk and just go round and wish all my team, ‘Happy Christmas.’
“Then I go to the Kingsmill and do exactly the same thing. I take everybody to their tables and do as many checkbacks as I can. So, I’m here from about 10am to about 5 pm, and I do that every year- it is leading from the front. And it helps on so many fronts. It helps the customer, but it also helps the staff.
“They can see you rolling up your sleeves and getting involved. And I think that’s just a good example of how we work and what our culture is like. I think it’s part of you in terms of ownership, the passion. My family don’t know anything differently, because they’ve always been around that.
“When we do Hogmanay here, we do a four-night, five-day, all-singing, all-dancing package, which is wonderful. We get about a 70% repeat rate of families coming year after year. When people drop off, it’s usually when their children have grown up – they go away to uni, and then move on, and other people come in.
“Over the years, as my kids were younger, I would never see them at Hogmanay, so I’d actually move them in to the hotel – they’d be part of the package. Now my kids are 22, 20, and 18.
“It’s a bit more of a challenge these days to get them to come along, but it used to be a treat, mixing with the families over Hogmanay.
“We end up with about 200 people with us for five days, doing all sorts of things. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, plus entertainment in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Some of it uses third parties – we take them roller bowling, 10-pin bowling, or to the theatre to see a pantomime.
“But on the night of the 1st of January, in our main suite, we do a big grand buffet. After they’ve eaten, we put on our staff pantomime – a 45-minute production. Every year, I’m always the baddie.
“We use scripts because we don’t get enough practice to memorise it. We had a wonderful guest relations manager, Bill Sloan who wrote it. Bill passed away about three ago. having worked here for around 40 years on and off. In his latter years, he was 86 when he retired, he’d just come in for a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening, just to see the guests.
“He was still writing pantomimes for us every year. He’d take a theme, like Jack and the Beanstalk, and make it quirky to Inverness and Kingsmills, and relevant to current politics. People remember those things – they’re special.
“When he passed away, our resident pianist, who’s been with us for 25 years and was head music teacher at Gordonston, approached me. He said, ‘I’d be honoured to keep the pantomime going.’ And he has.
“Long service is celebrated every year with a lunch for staff who’ve been with the business five years or more. This year we had someone hit 34 years. That kind of loyalty says something.”
Craig is also a believer in modern tools that support his team. The company uses a digital rota and HR system called Bizimply.“Staff can request holidays, see shifts, and managers get real-time reports. It’s efficient and user-friendly.”
On recruitment and retention, he says, “We were one of the first in the Highlands to move to a four-day week in the kitchens. That’s helped with retention massively.”
Pay transparency and culture matter too. But more and more, it’s about quality of life. People want flexibility and recognition.” Craig is clear about what drives him. “Success is never final. You’re only as good as your last banquet. I say it all the time. Standards matter. But so do people. This is a people business.”
What about life outside of hotels? Craig laughs. “My wife works here too. She came in to help with admin one Christmas nine years ago and never left. She now handles all sorts, including festive bookings. She reports into a different manager, which helps!”
Does he see himself leaving the business anytime soon? “No. I’m a director of two hotels, with a third on the way. Our next project is Kin, a new-build city centre hotel due to open in 2027. It will be 4-star but with a younger, tech-savvy twist.
“For instance, there will be no reception desk. Guests will check in on their phones and be greeted by a host. It’ll be efficient, fun, and fresh.”
I’m still learning, still developing. And I’m still here because I want to be. People walk in and say, ‘You again?’ and I say, ‘Still here. And not going anywhere.’”
Craig Ewan’s career is a masterclass in modern hospitality: grounded, ambitious, and always forward-facing. In a sector known for movement, he’s built something lasting – and he’s far from finished.
