Front of House – Cooden Beach Hotel

Speak me through your hospitality career
I went to catering college, hotel management college for two years so I have all the qualifications. And I actually worked at the Cooden Beach Hotel as a 19-year-old during my college holidays so I’ve been connected to the hotel since I was a teenager.

Was that in the kitchen?
No, I was a waiter.

How did you come to own it?
I left catering and although it’s not particularly relevant, I went into hairdressing. I became a hairdresser, started my first salon and built up a chain of 400 salons worldwide. I was the biggest British hairdressing company in the world. I bought the hotel in 2005 after I tried to bu

y the hotel in my 30s, but I was outbid by a bigger company. In 2005 I sold my other businesses and I bought the hotel and that’s 13 years next month.

What attracted you to the hotel?
The location. I’ve always lived in the area and it has this fantastic location on the beach and I could see the potential, being connected to the hotel for most of my life. We refurbished it – my wife and I – in 2005. It was in a poor condition so that was the first refurbishment, the first million we spent on it. I suppose it’s a continual thing, you have to reinvest all the time. More recently this last year, we refurbished all the bedrooms again. It has a more contemporary style this time round. We gutted the kitchen and put a brand new one in with all the latest equipment. We built another extension which is a storeroom, which I know all hotels need. We built our Brasserie on the Beach. It’s a big extension, right down to the water’s edge. It seats 150 people, has bi-fold doors that open up onto the beach. and then we have a beach terrace as well so you can dine in the Brasserie or on the beach terrace.

When did it open?
In February 2017.

How has it done so far and how have guests responded to it?
Fantastic, we thought we’d start with a soft opening but it was extremely busy from day one. The result is that it’s put a million pounds on our turnover, during its first year so it’s been a fantastic success. It’s contemporary dining, more casual and its open all day long, from breakfast right through to brunch and then lunch. We do afternoon tea through to dinner. Also we have Tavern Kitchen which has an open plan kitchen, so the guests can see all the food being cooked. We also refurbished our leisure club, we’ve got an indoor swimming pool with a gym, a sauna, a steam room and a spa bath. So that’s all been refurbished, we gutted all the shower. The whole development has taken about six months.

How was business affected during this time?
We didn’t stop trading, when we did the bedrooms, we closed two a week so we were only short of two bedrooms at a time. The Brasserie on the Beach was built outside first while we carried on with our existing restaurant. Then in January, we closed the restaurant and we merged the new external building into the existing.

How have the refurbished bedrooms improved business?
It’s increased our occupancy percentage, people now come back more often and recommend others. Part of our success is down to my wife who has been spearheading the development of the Brasserie and the menus. She entered the East Sussex Women in Business Awards. She became the East Sussex Businesswoman of the Year for 2017, then we went on to win the Large Business of the Year. With all these different categories that we were judged on, my wife was the overall winner of all the categories. We had a fabulous night and a big do! We put that on our website and we’re trying to benefit as much as we can from that success.

Why did you make the change from hairdressing to hospitality – apart from the desire to buy Cooden Beach Hotel?
Well I started off in catering, so it was going full circle. Hairdressing and catering are both staff-intensified service industries. We could see the potential in the location and we wanted to create a place that we would like to go to.

In the time you’ve owned it, how has it changed compared to previous owners?
The previous owners hadn’t done anything for 12 years prior to our ownership. So it needed everything doing to it. Over the 13 years, we must have spent £3m. We’ve been upgrading continually. We basically did a complete refurbishment. We’ve got planning permission to build seven new bedroom suites, most of which will be junior suites. they’re going to be built above the new Brasserie, right on the beach. They’ll have their own balconies with panoramic views across the sea – so we’re very excited about that. We’re already planning the design of the bedrooms.

Will it be different from the ones you already have?
They’ll be bigger. The hotel was originally built in 1928 so there’s not one bedroom at the moment that’s the same shape as the next one. It’s not like a modern block where they’re all boxes, each bedroom is an individual shape with lovely views and balconies. These new bedrooms will be our premier rooms and they’re going to be big with lounge furniture and dining areas.

Describe the Gin Palace to me

It’s a great big circular bar with a whole team of barmen inside. It’s placed right in the middle of the Brasserie and we have 18 artisan gins. We pair them with Fever Tree tonic, and each one has a separate garnish, served in great big bowl glasses. They’re more of a cocktail than a gin and tonic.

How would you describe your management style?
My management style is hands-on with a team effort. We developed a team culture and  what I put down to our success down to is the staff, because they love the hotel. They love the atmosphere and I think that comes across to the guest.

What skills have you picked up from your different careers?
Managing people. Catering and hairdressing are all about customer service and interaction with a guest, finding out what they want and make sure they get exactly that. We have a lot of regular guests and people who come down and visit us each year, I think its a personal service – referring to people by their names, welcoming them back and giving them traditional values. The hotel really has traditional values with a modern concept.

What do you like most about running it?
Seeing the success of it. There’s nothing like seeing your success with all the people, when I go round tables and talk to people, they’re very pleased, complimentary about the food. Also, being on the beach – the fabulous sunrises, and when people are dining in the evening the fabulous sunsets. all in all, it gives us satisfaction from all the efforts that we make to make it work to see it the success of it.

What kind of guests do you tend to see?
The guests are very varied, we go from young to old. following the refurbishments we’ve had a much bigger influx of young guests. With the Brasserie on the Beach it’s a more contemporary, casual dining experience where previously it was more formal. I think that’s the way the market’s gone and I think that’s attracted a huge additional clientele that’s given us £1m a year additional turnover.

What is there to do in the surrounding areas of the hotel?
The De La Warr Pavilion, which is internationally known for culture and art; it’s an iconic building. It was opened in 1935 where at that time the whole of the royal family stayed at the Cooden Beach Hotel. Following that it was a favourite of the Duke of Windsor and Mrs Simpson, as well as Margaret and Churchill. It’s very private there. We’re right next door to the Battle of Hastings 1066. Each year they have an reenactment of the Battle of Hastings. We have thousands of horses and people in knights armour. The other side of us, we have Hastings with its old town and fishing port. And we’re an hour and 50 minutes to Victoria directly on the train. We’re less than an hour to Brighton, which is like a mini-London these days. The hotel is quite unique, it has a very rare location for this country, being that it’s directly on the beach. We own the beach up to high tide, so it has breathtaking views of the sea. I think that’s our USP. Of course, it’s in East Sussex so we have direct trains to London and we are right next door to Cooden Beach Golf Club and the station on the other side of that. We’re very accessible.

What responsibilities come with owning a beach?
Nothing actually. The council maintain the beach still. It means we can roll out decking if we want to or we can do a fireworks display for a wedding – we’re very popular for weddings because of the location.