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Can you tell us a little bit about your career and experience working with hotel properties?
I started out my career in finance in 1986 in a local bank sorting cheques into pigeonholes and working the cash desks. I now work as a business relationship manager at the Cumberland Building Society where I have worked for just over a year now.
In my role, I work predominantly with hotel and other hospitality business owners in Scotland, providing them with lending options up to £250k, providing annual business reviews, and touching base with them regularly to offer ongoing support and counsel.
What does the average day look like for the commercial team at the firm?
The thing I love about my job is that no two days are the same! I might be speaking to a hotel owner who is looking for investment to expand one day, a business owner who is looking for support in managing their loan repayments the next, or I might be taking a look at business plans in detail to offer my advice, having spent almost 40 years in finance.
How do you support and offer counsel to hoteliers in your current role?
We support all of our customers as best we can to ensure that their businesses can thrive and they can continue to make a difference in their local communities. If the business is struggling and the customer is finding it hard to make ends meet, we may be able to look at practical ways to help, such as payment holidays or extending the loan period to reduce monthly payments. We can then also take a look at how the business is operating on a granular level and offer business advice.
We are also there to support our customers through times when their businesses are doing well. Sometimes you can become a victim of your own success and struggle to keep up with demand, and so we can look at extra financing opportunities to help our customers to adapt and meet that demand.
What do you wish more commercial property owners knew about the lending process, and why?
I wish they knew about relationship-first lenders like the Cumberland! Day in and out we hear of customers who originally went to a high street lender and struggled to get an appointment.
At the Cumberland, we adopt a relationship-first approach, putting a huge focus on building and nurturing relationships with all of our customers. That is something I really value; I like to be contactable and on-hand to help my customers, that is really important.
