Michael Davern, general manager of a St Andrews’ Seaton House hotel, is optimistic about the upcoming summer season as the venue marks the first anniversary of opening.
Davern joined the Seaton House team while the venue was still in the planning stages. The hotel was developed and is operated by Valor Hospitality Partners on behalf of owner Links Collection.
The overhaul of the property, previously known as the Scores Hotel, and which in a previous life was the Seaton family home, took a year to complete. It resulted in a five-star luxury hotel with 42 bedrooms, two restaurants (one of which, Ondine, is an established restaurant name from chef patron Roy Brett), a bar and a gym and is operated by a team of 60, under Davern.
It’s far from the GM’s first shot at helming a luxury hotel property. Prior to joining Valor he had overseen the refurbishment and relaunch of The Marker hotel in Dublin. Before that he was CEO of another luxury Irish hotel, The K Club.
He told SLTN that the Seaton House project was attractive for two reasons.
“It was really to work for Valor, because a long-time friend of mine (Euan McGlashan)is the CEO and founder of Valor Hospitality. I’ve known him for many years and so was very interested in that.
“And the opportunity to do a small, bespoke, luxury build and refurbishment – to be able to orchestrate that from the ground was very nice.”
And despite the troubles both local and global, it’s been a strong first year for Seaton House, said Davern, with the hotel having built a customer base of tourists as well as locals.
“In St Andrews the season kicks off in earnest in May. You have a huge number of international golfers coming in to stay. But also you have a lovely audience of luxury customers as well, who will be booked through travel agents and so on.
“Outside of the summer period there’s a lot of domestic business, particularly because of the attraction of Ondine. We get a lot of weekend business in the winter period from people coming to dine in Ondine.
“We also have wonderful university business as well. A lot of parents coming to visit.
“We have the R&A Club just across the road from us and they frequent us a lot. A lot of their members will stay with us as well.
“There’s a huge amount of support from the golf tour operator base in Scotland and Ireland.”
The secret to repeat business, said Davern, has been getting the team right and ensuring they are delivering top-class Scottish hospitality experiences to guests. That includes showing them more of the town than the famous golf courses and making sure they are aware of the full range of activities available.
“The whole experience and creating memories and so on is very important, but it’s that level of personalisation that’s very special,” he said.
“Having been a year open now we have a very stabilised operating team. Making sure people are receiving very warm hospitality, but also very authentic and genuine, and that people are getting to interact with Scottish hospitality. We can all build great buildings, but at the end of the day it just comes down to people.”
And even although the majority of visitors are from North America – with the various uncertainties that currently involves – Davern is confident St Andrews will remain a popular destination through 2026.
“Travelling to St Andrews is such a special trip that it’s not something you’re going to cancel easily,” he said. “Certainly not on a whim. I think, for a lot of people, it’s been the dream of a lifetime to be in St Andrews, to play the Old Course. So I think we’ve very lucky to be in a destination like this, where people will continue to travel and continue to feel safe doing so.”
