PERSONALISED REGISTRATIONS
Hastings' hospitality
20 November 2005
The
gleaming Rolls Royce Silver Seraph parked outside the headquarters
of Hastings Hotels in Belfast, like many expensive cars, sports a
personalised number plate.
While tailored car registrations are not uncommon among high
earners, this one - BIL 1066 - is deserving of closer inspection.
It belongs to Billy Hastings, boss of the hotel group that bears
his name and one of the North's wealthiest men.
The Battle of Hastings, as all students of British history will
tell you, occurred in 1066, hence the unique registration plate on
Hastings' car.
The theme does not end there. The eagle-eyed observer will note,
while browsing the company's brochure, that all its hotel
switchboard phone lines end with the number.
In Hastings' personal office, the number is literally written
large on the wall. “We enjoy ourselves at work,” said Hastings.
A few hours spent in the company of Hastings and his staff will
testify to this. The septuagenarian has surrounded himself with
his four children who hold senior positions in the company.
His son Howard is managing director, daughter Julie Maguire is
marketing executive, Allyson Hastings is events director and
youngest daughter Aileen Martin handles sales. They also have
customised number plates.
As you would expect, Hastings speaks highly of them.
“I suppose they're there because they are my children but they're
all very good at their jobs - far, far better than me,” he said.
“I regard that as a tremendous achievement.
“I was a second generation person - having inherited four
working-class pubs - but I've now handed that to a third
generation. They make me look good. I'm able to bask in their
glory.”
Hastings has taken a back seat in the management of the hotel
group in recent years.
With a number of high profile properties, among them; the Europa
and Culloden hotels in Belfast, the Merrion in Dublin, in which it
has a half-share, and the Slieve Donard in Newcastle, Co Down, the
company claims to have been the first all-Ireland hotel chain.
According to its latest accounts, the group has an annual turnover
of €45 million and pre-tax profits of €4.9million. Hastings is
happy in his semi-retirement, but is not ready to hit the golf
course in a full-time capacity just yet.
“I'm not really in the engine room anymore, but up on the bridge,”
he said. “I just love still being involved, accumulating
knowledge. I don't know how to retire completely. I cherry-pick
what I want to get involved in.”
Hastings Hotels is an unusual beast by Irish standards.
Having sprung from the pub trade in the 1940's, the family-owned
business has resisted the temptation to take the money and run.
Hastings, casting his eye over the past 50 years or so, would not
have it any other way.
“I have had many offers down through the years - many attractive
offers - where people have said they'll buy me out and make me
chief executive but I don't want to do it, I'm not interested.
“I always tell my children the day they take the money it becomes
a whole different business.” Owning a 50 per cent share in the
Merrion Hotel in Dublin, Hastings has taken more than a passing
interest in the Jurys Doyle soap opera that dominated the business
pages throughout the summer. “PV Doyle was a great guy who
established a great business,” he said.
“His family have expanded that business with tremendous success.
Don't get me wrong, but they're now answerable to their
shareholders - they're driven by profit. It's inevitable that it
will lose some of the family touch. You can't have it both ways.”
The Merrion holds a special place in Hastings' heart. “I'm very,
very pleased with it,” he said. “I was looking for an avenue to
get into Dublin. I liked the proposition but I also liked the
people involved [Lochlann Quinn and Martin Naughton].
“They were looking for a big brand but at the same time wanted
still to be able to do things their way. It was a very happy
compromise - for them and me.”
Putting aside any qualms about selling out to the big brand names,
Hastings maintained that Irish hoteliers were instinctively good
at what they do.
“Irish men are good at the hospitality business - they know what
people want,” he said. According to Hastings, what people
increasingly want is comfort and high-quality service.
He points to the turf fires and wooden floors that adorn the
Merrion as an example of what more and more hotel patrons demand.
“With success comes new challenges - the opposition has now
weighed in - the branding boys have arrived,” he said.
“Most brands in Belfast are budget ones, but I believe we've
something better to offer. The demand for quality, for wining and
dining, is moving at a rate of knots. We're not interested in a
quick fix.”
Hastings' pet project is the refurbishment of the Slieve Donard in
Newcastle. Nestled beneath the mountain, the hotel aims eventually
to compete with the likes of Gleneagles in Scotland.
“When we bought it in 1970 I called it the Titanic, but we're now
involved in a major development there. We're putting stg£12
million into it. We want to make it an icon to rival anything in
Ireland.
“When Tiger Woods landed there, he got out of his helicopter and
walked around to the first tee. He turned around, looked at the
hotel and said: ‘Gee, that's one hell of a clubhouse!’ “
“We found that the hotel wasn't matching the demands of the type
of clientele that wanted to stay there. A hotel should be more
than a place where you put your head down to sleep.”
Hastings speaks rarely of the bad old days, the Troubles in the
North. The Europa, which he bought in 1993, once laid claim to
being “the most bombed hotel in western Europe'‘.
Hastings' purchase of the hotel coincided with the ending of
hostilities in Belfast.
It was no time at all before it played host to peace process
linchpins such as Senator George Mitchell and decommissioning boss
General John de Chastelain, both of whom spent up to two years
living there.
Hastings' commercial interests did not entirely escape the ravages
of the Troubles.
The Great Northern Hotel in Rostrevor, Co Down, had to be levelled
in the 1970s after an IRA bomb attack. He said that while he was
sad to see it go, the group simply had to pick up the pieces.
With nine grandchildren, Hastings is contemplating the possibility
that the family business may yet be passed to a fourth generation.
“It won't be my problem, but I think it's something that'll have
to be addressed in the next decade,” he said.
Family businesses rarely last so long, and given an increasingly
competitive hospitality market, the next generation of Hastings
could perhaps be forgiven for choosing a different career path.
However, Hastings said the life of a hotelier was viewed
differently than in the past.
Lobby Lives, a BBC television production currently proving a hit
with viewers, documents the daily comings and goings at the Europa
and has made minor celebrities out of its staff.
“What it has done is improve people's idea of what it must be like
to work in the hotel trade,” he said. “It always used to be the
case that the Aunt Sally - the stupid one - ended up working in
the hotel business.
“Now 25 per cent of our staff are graduates and the figure is
growing. Kitchens aren't what they used to be - there's no
butchering going on there any more.”