Features

Hotel brands you need to know... Macdonald Hotels

21 Mar 2011 by AndrewGough

This range of high-end properties across the UK could make a pleasant alternative, says Tom Otley

Who are they?

A Scottish company with 48 UK properties, as well as being one of the top five largest timeshare businesses in Europe. Hotels are upper four- and five-star and branded as Macdonald, while the lack of a London property is solved through a marketing alliance with the separately run Royal Garden hotel in Kensington.

Where in the UK?

There are 48 Macdonald hotels and resorts throughout the UK, from the 44-room art deco country house hotel, the New Drumossie, ten minutes outside Inverness, to the 115-room Macdonald Burlington hotel in Birmingham. The broad geographical spread and diversity of its properties is partly for historical reasons.

The company was formed in 1990 by Donald Macdonald and colleagues, floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and returned to private ownership in 2003 in a deal underwritten by the Bank of Scotland. Although the company does have city centre hotels in Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester (it has two there), most are in towns or country locations, and there are clusters of them – there are three in and around Windsor, for instance.

What are the hotels like?

As a glance at the website will show, there is no such thing as a typical Macdonald hotel. City breaks, weddings, golfing trips and spa retreats are all equally on offer, with the number of rooms varying from 27 in Macdonald Pittodrie House near Aberdeen, to 455 in Macdonald Aviemore resort in the Scottish Highlands, and locations ranging from the Cotswolds and Lake District to the New Forest and Chester.

Despite this, the chain owns all of the properties, and sales and marketing director Ruaridh Macdonald says consistency has come from the service values and investment the brand has put into its properties and staff. He says: “We own all of our assets so we have a vested interest in continually developing and improving them, not only to enhance the customer experience but also to enhance the asset values.”

In addition, Macdonald says that the main board of the company and the senior executives “are all hoteliers, so we’re in business because we care about the experience we deliver to our guests”. He adds: “We are committed to quality and standards, both through physical improvements in our properties and staff training. We employ almost 4,000 staff in the UK and want all of them to have the opportunity to further their education or gain a qualification.”

Are they for business travellers?

Unless you have factories or businesses to visit in some of the most beautiful rural spots in the UK, you may have trouble getting some signed off on expenses for regular business travel. That said, the prices are keen, with midweek stays in May in properties such as the Bobsleigh hotel in Hemel Hempstead starting at £51. Properties such as the Burlington in Birmingham or the Manchester hotel and spa certainly cater for business travellers, and most have meeting and conference facilities, allowing for off-site get-togethers combined with spa treatments or golf if desired.

Macdonald also points out that although the hotels are all very different, there is a consistency in the standards offered, and the company has invested nearly £1 million in the group’s booking system and website. He says: “[It includes] the development of a site purely aimed at corporate clients with features allowing meeting buyers to see room availability, view capacity charts, layout plans and check delegate rates all within a few easy clicks.”

Is there a loyalty scheme?

There are two, one for individual travellers called Club (macdonaldhotels.co.uk/theclub), and a company reward scheme for SMEs and the meetings, incentives, conferences and events market called Club Corporate (macdonaldhotels.co.uk/theclub/corporate). For individual travellers, there are three tiers – entry-level Club, with full membership awarded after two stays, Elite level (30 nights’ stay or £3,000 spent on rooms per year to qualify) and By Invitation, for top spending guests.

Rewards at the Elite level include a half case of select wines and a £50 voucher for dining, spa or golf, with room upgrades, free newspaper, no room service tray charges and exclusive offers. For every £2 spent members can get one point, and they can buy vouchers with them once they have earned at least 240.

Macdonald says the intention was “to make it more lifestyle-oriented, so [loyalty scheme] partners give our customers the chance to reward themselves with a stay at the Langham in London or shopping at House of Fraser, or to enjoy hospitality at the Open [golf championship], which we think is more appealing than offering air miles”.

Tell me the good news…

The chain is investing heavily in its properties. In January it gained its second Manchester property, the former Grade II Listed Princess on Portland hotel, a ten-minute walk from Piccadilly station, and has given it a £3.5 million renovation to turn it into the Macdonald Townhouse. The hotel has 85 rooms and eight purpose-built function spaces, allowing conferences and events for up to 70 delegates in the Waterhouse room, accompanied by the Portland room for up to 36 people.

Smaller board meetings can also be hosted in the executive boardrooms for 22 delegates, and additional syndicate rooms for up to ten are available for breakout sessions.

In addition, the chain is in the middle of a £16 million refurbishment and investment programme, along with brand marketing. Starting this year, projects include a £765,000 revamp of bedrooms at the Macdonald Bear in Woodstock near Oxford, and a £250,000 upgrade to meeting facilities at Macdonald Berystede hotel and spa in Ascot. North of the border, Macdonald Inchyra Grange is opening a newly refreshed spa, following a £2 million splurge on the hotel’s leisure facilities that is part of a £4 million redevelopment scheme. The group spent £10 million on the 120-bedroom Macdonald Windsor hotel, which opened last September.

And the bad…

There is no London hotel. Macdonald says: “London is obviously a key target area for us… but we have an affiliation with the Royal Garden hotel in Kensington, which is on our website and in all of our brochures. It is privately owned and is 100 per cent aligned with the quality and service [of Macdonald Hotels]. It’s a good fit and gives us the ability to quote for business in terms of corporate rooms”. At present the London property isn’t part of the loyalty programme, but Macdonald says it will be, and the delay has been “more a systems integration issue than anything else”.

Future plans?

The company’s aims for expansion are described as “opportunistic”, with London a focus. But for now it is concentrating on its existing portfolio of 48 hotels.

Where can I learn more?

Visit macdonaldhotels.co.uk, which works well now but will be relaunched in the third quarter of this year with added functionality.

Loading comments...

Search Flight

See a whole year of Reward Seat Availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Be up-to-date
Magazine Subscription
To see our latest subscription offers for Business Traveller editions worldwide, click on the Subscribe & Save link below
Polls