Perhaps the most significant advantage that independent ownership has over often much larger ‘chain hotels’ is the facility to react quickly. Every decision that is made at Mandolay, happens in this building, there is no long reporting procedure, if an idea is good enough then it is evaluated, and acted upon immediately.

Our senior management team have the experience and autonomy to respond to questions and suggestions from event organisers, guests, suppliers and staff. This way of doing business attracts managers with flair, confidence and a belief in the abilities of themselves and their colleagues.

As our Sales Director, Tami puts it ‘great ideas come from every direction, it is the job of senior management to assess the benefits to our business, and our clients, and if it feels right, we just do it.

Ours is a very crowded market, and clients expect us to have a genuine point of difference to our competitors, many of whom offer exceptional service and facilities. Our pockets will never be as deep as theirs, but we have the right attitude on our side, and we work very hard to make this difference count.’

Does it work?

Mandolay has been in private hands for more than 25 years, and in that time the hotel has been transformed from a 48 bedroom establishment with no classified status, to a 4 Star AA accredited hotel, conference and events venue.

We have received awards from Conde Naste Johansens, Green Tourism, the AA as well as multiple recognitions for our service and facilities. Our business continues to thrive despite recent challenges that have faced our industry, and soon we will be beginning work on adding more new bedrooms.

We invest sensibly in our people and the fabric of the hotel, our ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) programme is the envy of many much larger businesses, and we continue to work with suppliers that share our way of doing business.

 

Our independent spirit is the thing that makes Mandolay so special.