Friday, February 7, 2025
Friday, February 7, 2025
HomeFeaturesInterview: Anne Gracie Gunn, Ship Shape at Sonas

Interview: Anne Gracie Gunn, Ship Shape at Sonas

Anne Gracie Gunn remains as passionate about the business she founded 21 years ago, with husband Ken, as she does today, although she has been navigating the Isle of Skye-based Sonas Collection without Ken by her side, since his death in 2018. Susan young talked to Anne as the business celebrates its 21st anniversary.

At a time when most people would be winding down, Anne Gracie Gunn who heads up the Skye-based Sonas Collelction is as exuberant and as busy as ever and certainly seems to thrive on juggling all the different parts of her life including moving into her new custom-built house across the road from their Duisdale Hotel – a 30 month project. In fact she took time out from moving in to talk to me.

Over the last few years Anne has been busy ensuring her family-owned business which includes Toravaig House, Duisdale House, Skeabost on Skye and Knipoch House Hotel in Oban continues to flourish.

To this end she is hands on with every renovation project, and has been actively growing and developing the business. She tells me, “We don’t focus a lot on planning it is usually a lightbulb moment and when it happens, look out.

“For me that has always been the joy of running the business and we always try to meet and exceed customer expectations and we have done that from the beginning.

“Over the years all the revenue that we made we have invested straight back in. Because I believe that the customer needs to come back to something new, vibrant and fresh.”

Anne, I think would be first to admit, has had an amazing life and is certainly a glass half full, kind of person. It’s a life that has had highs and a tragedy – she lost her son at the age of 18.

It nearly broke her. But she says the result is that it has “pushed her on” and keeps pushing her on, as she tells me she often thinks what would he think of what she is doing and what he would think of the next thing.

Anne admits that her life became much easier four years ago when Andreas Maszczyk joined as Group General Manager. She also loves the fact that she gets to work with daughter Jen who came on board in 2015.

Says Anne, “We are the three musketeers.” She continues, “I have felt such a benefit since Andreas came to work with us. He’s got the most incredible background in hospitality and we’re incredibly lucky to have him. It really eases the burden of running a business when you share it. “

“Jen, who is also a clinical psychologist, is very good on systems and such like and is very organised, and she is ideally suited to hospitality because in her other role she is used to looking after people. Whereas I, to put it nicely, like creative mayhem. I have an idea, and I want it done tomorrow – that’s me.”

In her early days Anne trained in a medical practice and had a flourishing B&B, but had given it up after her son died. She had then gone to work for an American company called Wyndham who actually owned Country Cottages in Scotland and England.

She says, “There I was trained to AA standards and to grade places according to the quality of the finish from décor to furnishings. I think the skills I learned there have helped me take this business to a different level.”

Anne went on to take roles aimed at propelling Skye forward. She was involved with many organisations including a local Enterprise Company, she was a Director of Skye and Lochalsh Enterprise, and was also a director of leader funding for Skye and was also on the Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board.

Meanwhile her husband, prior to meeting Anne, was sailing the high seas as Captain of the five-star cruise ship the Hebridean Princess.The most famous guest to charter the yacht was Queen Elizabeth, who booked it for her 80th birthday to cruise around the islands.

When the two met they both realised right away that they had similar ideas. She tells me, “Over our first meal, we realised we had the same focus and that we would both love to run a hotel.”

That they did in 2003 when the two of them bought Toravaig House. Anne laughs, “We thought we were buying into this dream life and that it would be easy. We had both stayed in boutique hotels and we thought they were lovely.

“We thought that we were going to have an amazing life running this small nine-bedroom hotel. We would have one chef and staff and there wouldn’t be any drama! I even did a course in how to run a successful and profitable hotel.”

She continues, “We soon realised that we couldn’t make any money at Toravaig. The reality was you needed not one chef, but a few, because a chef doesn’t work seven days a week.

“We needed a bigger team because we wanted to offer the same service that the Hebridean Princess did, but of course we weren’t charging their rates.”

She laughs, “I ended up working in the kitchen, doing reception and everything, as you do! However, she did discover that she enjoyed cooking saying,

“I do enjoy commercial cooking, it’s quite different from cooking for your family. You can concentrate on cooking because you don’t have to do things like take the washing in or answer a phone. I enjoyed it.

“In fact, I gained a Rosette for the hotel when I was doing it. Ken did breakfast, and he did that incredibly well, and we both served tables. But we didn’t have enough rooms to make a profit.”

Toravaig was yards from the sea and Anne soon persuaded Ken to go and look at a yacht called Solus. She could see the commercial benefit and she was right.

The yacht became an integral part of the business and became the Toravaig’s unique selling proposition – with Ken’s nautical expertise and Anne as First Mate (she did a crash course in Tenerife to get her qualification) and Toravaig’s coastal charm, it proved to be winner with guests.

Says Anne, “We felt we needed to do it. We wanted to give people a chance of helming a yacht in the west coast of Scotland. It was great.”

Their success with Toravaig and Solus meant they really needed more rooms (Anne says that is always her refrain – she always needs more rooms) and the couple bought the 18-roomed Duisdale House just along the road in 2007.

Anne admits, “It was really Ken who was keen on it.”

Luckily by that time the duo had built a tidy reputation at Toravaig and won some awards, and had gained credibility and the bank backed the purchase.

“It was just as shabby as Toravaig had been when we bought it, and we ripped the guts out of it and totally renovated it.”

Duisdale emerged as character-rich hotel and has gone onto win numerous awards over the years, the latest was when it was named a winner of the Island and Coastal Category of Scotland’s Greatest Escape.

As the business took off Ken and Anne were able to spend more time doing what they loved most… sailing. The couple left the running of the hotel in the capable hands of their team and ran their commercial sailing trips for 11 years, hosting many adventures and weddings across the Sound of Sleat to the Small Isles and St. Kilda.

Over this time they bought bigger yachts ending up with the Solus a Chuain – a 50ft luxury yacht which, because of its size, had to be berthed at Largs. Anne loved it.

“We lived the dream. People would come to the hotel to stay because we offered them the opportunity to sail. It was incredibly popular, and our yachts got bigger to accommodate our guests. We would just walk away in the morning and leave the staff to run the hotels and deal with any problems. You know when you are not in the business, they do just that.

“I cannot believe how lucky I was to spend that time aboard talking to people from all over the world, enjoying what we loved most.

“2014 was one of the best years – the business prospered and the hotel won the Visit Scotland Thistle Award for Best Independent Hotel Scotland. The ceremony was at Stirling Castle and it was a real high.

“Plus it was the year when the sailing with the yacht was just at its peak. So that was just amazing.”

The following year the couple bought the iconic Skeabost, north of Portree. This move saw Anne’s daughter Jen, and her husband Matthew, come into the business. Says Anne, “I was delighted. Skeabost was where they got married and we all knew this hotel as the most iconic hotel in Skye, where everybody went for fresh salmon at the river (which you can’t do nowadays), and afternoon tea and all that sort of thing.

“They were keen for us to buy the hotel and Matthew came in first. He was a farrier to trade. Then Jen very quickly followed after that. We’re very lucky we’ve got Jen’s experience it is a real string to our bow within the business, especially when it comes to recruiting and such like.”

Over the next few years although the business flourished Ken suffered ill-health, and died in 2018. Anne threw herself into work and when the pandemic came, she couldn’t sit still.

“I saw it as an opportunity to do things we wouldn’t be able to do when the hotels were open. I already had plans drawn up for three lodges at Duisdale, and on the first day of the pandemic, I sat and drank a glass of wine in the afternoon on the deck, and I thought, I’m in here by myself in an 18-bedroom hotel, now what can I do?

“I thought, I can make a mess, I can get building, I can start this project. So I did. Obviously because the government were good to us at that point and furlough had kicked in, I wasn’t worried about staff.

“I bought a gate lodge up at Skeabost, gutted it out right to the stone walls and put it back together as luxury accommodation. I even designed my own furniture and Jeff at Select worked his magic. I also put two new suites into Skeabost and tarmacked 750 meters of drive.

“I was busy. I was able to turn a negative into a positive.”

She continues, “Andreas joined us just after lockdown. I was delighted – he brought a new level of experience to the business. And one day he said to me is there anything else you’d like to buy?

“He had seen a hotel that he thought looked interesting and we went to see it. That was Knipoch House Hotel in Oban. When I saw the stone room, which was built in 1635, I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is fabulous.” The rest is history.

It has joined the Sonas stable, been totally renovated, and last Autumn Knipoch announced the launch of 1635, Scotland’s newest culinary experience. Business, Anne is pleased to report ‘has never been better.’

“2024 saw our business skyrocket. We thought we wouldn’t be able to beat our 2023 figures, but we did. I think it is because we have adopted good, clever business practices and Andreas has the experience of working with very high-end groups and American agents. It’s just quite amazing how all this all came together.”

She continues, “By last November we had taken in about half the revenue we were expecting for the whole of 2025. That business is already on the books. Our agents are also telling us that they expect this year is going to be busier than last – although we might have a slower start because of Easter.”

But it hasn’t come about by accident. Says Anne, “We are always looking at the market. We’re looking worldwide. We have a marketing spend and we use it wisely targeting the different markets. We are very vigilant and try to make sure that we’re getting ourselves noticed.”

Certainly Sonas is a slick operation but it doesn’t just invest in its hotels, it is also investing for the benefit of its staff and has invested £500K on new staff accommodation at Duisdale, with en-suite rooms and kitchens. There’s even a mini-gym.

Anne explains, “There is real lack of housing in Skye and when houses do come on the market they are snapped up.

“With 165 staff at the height of the season we need to make sure that accommodation is provided and that it is of a good quality. Staff have to be able to relax.”

She continues, “We’re now at a different stage of operation. We have our own construction team on board, our HR is based in Manchester, our Central Reservations function is based at Duisdale and there’s a team of eight.

“Our Group bookings are done remotely, as is our Revenue and we have GMs in each property, and an operations manager. Our PR is done remotely.

“Remote working works well for us particularly because of the issues with accommodation on Skye.”

As for the future Anne tells me, “Looking ahead, we plan to stabilise over the next year. 2024 was a busy year particularly with the opening of Knipoch House Hotel. We’ll now take a moment to reflect on what’s next”

And before I signed off I asked Anne if there were any hospitality issues looming that she would like to comment on.

“The Tourist Tax – I would have hoped it was a fixed fee rather than a percentage. I think that it’s going to make Scotland an incredibly expensive country to visit, more than it already is and that worries me.”

However, there is not much else that worries Anne. She remains optimistic, proud of all that that they have achieved and she still likes to talk about Ken.

She says, “I think if he is looking down I don’t think he would believe how much the business has grown. I think he would be so proud. I speak about him when I do business talks, which I have started doing more often. After all we’re living his dream, as much as mine.

“I love waking up in the morning and wondering what the day holds and always get up with excitement and enthusiasm for the day ahead.”

As for retiring – that’s not on the cards. She smiles, “I’m at the stage where I get all the good jobs, although I do deal with the bank and accountants. Now that I am living so near to Duisdale I will probably pop over and mingle with the guests more often than I used to.”

That is when she is not enjoying the view from her new house which gives an infinite view of the sea from just about every window. Anne has got an amazing view and an amazing view on life.

 

 

 

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