Crerar Hotels, a luxury hotel chain consisting of four- and five-star hotels and inns offers something special – from picturesque settings, indulgent spa treatments and leisure facilities, each hotel has its own personality reflecting its history and the essence of its location. Guests will be served by friendly staff with the utmost professionalism.
CEO Chris Wayne-Wills explains that the company was founded as North British Trust Hotels Ltd in 1902 and changed its name to Crerar Hotel Group in 2012. In 2022, the group was sold by the Crerar family to an investment fund.
With more than 25 years of senior experience within the hospitality sector, Wayne-Wills himself joined the company nearly five years ago and led the Scottish hotel brand through Covid-19 and the successfully reopening of all the Group’s hotels and inns following multiple lockdowns. He also recruited a new executive team to reposition the hotel group and secured significant investment.
“We are now a privately-owned hotel group with nine hotels in Scotland and one in the Lake District. What distinguishes us throughout all of our hospitality is our focus on bringing the spirit of the region to life.”
“We all worked hard during the pandemic, with a considerable investment made in turning all of our properties into either four- or five-star establishments. All that hard work culminated for us last year, when Crerar Hotels won the AA Small Hotel Group of the Year Award for 2023 and 2024. That achievement probably sums up the company in recent years.”
Essence of the location
Wayne-Wills affirms that getting the sense of location through the type of hospitality that the company offers is a key part of the job. “Obviously, it’s things like local food and beverages but also the team and their local knowledge. When people come and stay with us, they often want to feel part of the local life.”
“At the Island of Mull, for example, they can visit a mussel farm, or even go out with a fisherman and pull North Atlantic lobsters out around the Treshnish Isles, which they can take back to hotel to be cooked for them. This type of hospitality really works for people.”
He further affirms that each of the hotels is unique and offers something else. “There are different reasons why people visit different hotels. For example, Golf View Hotel & Spa, Nairn on the coast from Inverness, in which we have invested heavily, is now very much the destination spa hotel.”
On the other hand, Fonab Castle Hotel in the heart of Highland Perthshire draws inspiration from its historic past, and offers the tranquillity of its breath-taking surroundings. A completely different experience again is on offer at The Glencoe Inn, sheltered among picturesque Scottish lochs and Munros, a natural meeting point and welcome resting place for hikers near the West Highland Way.
Guests that choose to stay at the traditional Balmoral Arms country inn in the heart of the Victorian village of Ballater will get a chance to taste the same bacon and sausages that the King is having, as the hotel uses the same local suppliers and services as the Balmoral Castle and Estate of the Royal family.
Recognised for excellence
Using the time during the pandemic to invest in the property, to emerge fully upgraded, has clearly paid off. For the last financial year, the company recorded a 31% growth in turnover and a 30% gross profit increase.
“Especially 2023 felt very much like the culmination of years of work, as Crerar Hotels was awarded the title of ‘Small Hotel Group of the Year’ at the AA Hospitality Awards, in recognition of the hotel group’s repositioning and success in recent years – a proud achievement of the whole team.”
The individual hotels themselves have done very well within the Scottish Prestige Awards over the last three years – the Isle of Mull Hotel & Spa was voted Country Hotel of the Year for 2022 and 2023, while the 2024 award was scooped by the Loch Fyne Hotel & Spa. The Isle of Mull, into which the company has invested heavily, also won a World Traveler Award for the best spa hotel in Scotland. “Out of the top ten spa hotels in Scotland chosen by Conde Nast Traveler, three are operated by the Crerar Hotels Group,” says Wayne-Wills.
He himself has received awards several times for his outstanding leadership, including being awarded the prestigious title of Master Innholder in 2023 as the only Scottish-based hotelier to be awarded in that year. This year, he has received the CEO of the Year Award at the first Scottish Professional Awards, as the only CEO from the Scottish hospitality industry to be nominated.
However, he insists that the recent achievements are the result of a joint effort. “It’s all about the teams at the hotels. There’s only one of me and 600 of everybody else across the company. I have an exceptional executive team, I’ve got a brilliant group of general managers, and we very much are pulling in the same direction, very focused on what we’re trying to achieve. That’s what makes the difference.”
Best teams for the best hotels
During the pandemic the company also reinforced its focus on human resources, launching an academy as well as Scotland’s first private spa apprenticeship. “We also launched an innovative range of benefits back in 2021 and are starting to pay bonuses for length of service, recognizing the commitment that people make to us. We look after our team and the team looks after our guests. That’s a big part of our philosophy. Clearly, the best teams are going to bring the best hotels to life to get the best results.”
With the focus on authenticity and location, sustainability is part of the equation. Crerar Hotels supports recycling and carbon measurement and works with the guests to minimize their impact. This translates into supporting local suppliers.
“Some of our suppliers have become true long-term partners. We don’t necessarily look for the cheapest price, we try to balance the quality versus the price, versus, in some cases, the types of companies that we work with. Our guests understand quality. They will remember the quality, the way we made them feel, a lot longer than they remember the price involved.”
Despite the impressive achievements made over the last few years, Wayne-Wills affirms that there is always room for further improvement. “There are still projects that we want to invest in. So over the next year or so, we will be continuing to look at those opportunities as they come around.”
