Hotelier of the Year 2003: Robin Hutson

The award criteria

The judges were looking for a candidate who:

• Exhibits strong attention to detail.
• Is willing to impart knowledge to staff.
• Has an exemplary business track record.
• Has the personal touch with guests.
• Is totally dedicated to the industry.

The 2004 Hotelier of the Year competition will be launched in August.

Vin extraordinaire

The votes are in. The die is cast. Robin Hutson has been named Caterer's Hotelier of the Year for 2003.

Winning this award has capped what has been a very good year for the 46-year-old.

"It's always nice to win awards, but this is very special. It's the industry equivalent of the director-of-the-year Oscar. I'm chuffed to bits," says Hutson.

He was presented with his award at a lunch held at One Aldwych, home of last year's winner, Gordon Campbell Gray. "But there's no way I could've done this by myself. In this case it's good not just for me but for the whole staff, who feel like they're part of a winning team."

Hutson is quick to emphasise the help he receives from the other three directors at Hotel du Vin - Gerard Basset, Charlie Morgan and Peter Chittick - who he says are great mates as well as excellent colleagues. Then there's his wife, Judy, who has helped him design the last five properties, and all the staff across the six-strong portfolio.

So how does he think he clinched the title this year? "We've had a cracking year, we really have, and a very strong performance year on year," he says. "We'll pass some big financial milestones this year, like breaking the £20m turnover barrier. Maybe our brand has come of age, and my peers can see it's not just a flash in the pan."

Hutson rather modestly puts a large part of his and the company's success down to timing. But could he repeat his success if he started now? "There are always little gaps in the market, but there's been such development in our industry over the last 10 years that these gaps have become few and far between."

He also thinks the chain sweats its assets harder than most. It provides a product for business users that is also sexy enough to attract leisure business - and destination restaurants to boot.

Hutson on the hotel industry

Hutson is truly passionate about the industry and his six-strong brood of properties. Interview him in one of his hotels and he's constantly chatting and joking with the staff, glad-handing the guests and generally overseeing and taking an active interest in everything that goes on. The industry needs people like that.

"I love it, I really do," he says. "I've been in the industry for 28 years and I can count on one hand the number of times I haven't wanted to get out of bed and go to work. I'm having the time of my life right now - I reckon I've got the best job in the world."

Yes, the hours are long, and he admits that balancing his professional life with his private life can be a challenge, but he loves the fact that his role is so varied now. He has to combine administrative, financial, logistical, legal and regulatory elements with food, wine and hotelkeeping.

And he likes the entrepreneurial side a lot more than he ever imagined he would, although he says he always had a hankering to do his own thing.

Hutson is passionate about hotels that deliver high-quality service, and he has a lot of time for mainstays such as London's Dorchester and Lanesborough.

"Hotels at any level should be about comfort and service, but when one of these hotels really works it's truly magic," he says. "I've been in the industry for nearly 30 years but I still get excited about that."

On the other hand, he feels that design-led hotels often don't deliver - they're all show and no depth. "Ask the barman to describe his three Speyside single malts and he wouldn't have a clue," he says.

Hutson's approach to hotels

For his part, Hutson aims to ensure that Hotel du Vin backs up the key areas its reputation rests on - such as cigars and wine - with real knowledge. For instance, he takes five or six barmen a year out to Cuba for the annual cigar festival, at a cost of about £1,000 a person. But Hutson sees it as a worthwhile investment. Cigar sales alone bring in more than £250,000 a year at Hotel du Vin - and Hutson is convinced that investments like this contribute enormously.

He is also proud of the fact that every general manager but one and every head chef but one is home-grown. "One of the joys is to get young, enthusiastic people and give them a good career path," he says.

Hotel du Vin offers stylish yet unstuffy hotels in which a focus on basics such as customer service keeps standards up, and an absence of frills and superficial gloss keeps prices down. Hutson trademarks include blending new and old furnishings and using bold, rich colours in a modern way.

"It's all very personal to me and Judy," he says. "The strength of the design is in the idiosyncrasies - and the errors we've made. The hotels are like homes: we know where we bought every fixture and fitting."

Personal they may be, but he's very conscious that, being provincial hotels, they need to have a much wider appeal than London ones. "We try to appeal to young, trendy types and grannies," he says. "And different generations have different needs."

So what next?

Hutson has no intention of sitting still - not that he could if he wanted to. "I'm a great fidget with a short concentration span," he admits.

He has plenty of projects in the pipeline. The seventh Hotel du Vin, in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, is scheduled to open in September 2004; he has just exchanged contracts on a site in Cambridge for an eighth; and a "challenging" refurbishment programme is planned for this winter. Then there are the celebrations to organise for the 10th anniversary of Hotel du Vin next year.

"We're taking a long, hard look at ourselves to make sure that we continue to innovate and keep the product moving. There's enough going on - I won't be bored," he laughs.

Robin Hutson in a nutshell

Having trained at Savoy Group properties such as Claridge's and the Berkeley, Hutson went to the Hotel du Crillon in Paris. After returning to the Berkeley, he spent two years as operations manager at a resort hotel in Bermuda.

Back in the UK, he became managing director of renowned country house hotel Chewton Glen before leaving with sommelier Gerard Basset to open the first Hotel du Vin in Winchester in 1994. An instant hit, more Hotel du Vin openings followed in Tunbridge Wells (1997), Bristol (2000), Birmingham (2001), Brighton (2002) and Harrogate (2003).

What the judges said

• Gordon Campbell Gray, managing director, One Aldwych, London: "Robin Hutson is an out-of the-box entrepreneurial player."
• George Goring, chairman, the Goring hotel, Belgravia, London: "He's a visionary and an inspiration to the industry."
• Albert Hampson, business manager at the AA's hotel services division: "The speed of the success of his new hotel in Harrogate is tribute to the model of his hotels. Wherever he puts them they work."
• Peter Lederer, managing director, Gleneagles, Perthshire: "He's done what very few people do - he's created something original and successful."
• Nicholas Rettie, managing director, the Great Eastern hotel, London: "He's created a sense of individuality in an era of big brands and conformity."
• Dominic Walsh, business reporter, the Times: "Everything that Robin does speaks of quality, style and flair."
• Karen Earp, general manager, Four Seasons Hotel Canary Wharf, London Docklands: "He's created genuine destination properties"

Hutson's heroes

• Hotel operator John Jefferies, with whom he worked in Bermuda - got him interested in marketing.
• Martin Skan, owner of Chewton Glen in Hampshire - "A great hotelier who's never rested on his laurels," says Hutson.
• Bob Payton, who operated properties such as Stapleford Park in Leicestershire - "One of the first wave of hotel innovators trying to deliver quality without stuffiness." Hutson got the idea of hotel-room sponsorship from him.
• Nick Jones, the man behind Babington House and Soho House hotels - "We spark very well together in terms of ideas. He's a great innovator."
• Ken McCulloch, founder of hotel chain Malmaison - "One of the great guiding lights for modern hotels."
• Tim and Kit Kemp, the husband-and-wife team behind Firmdale hotels - "They do a great job. I just think it's a great product."
• Hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray - "One Aldwych is an icon."

So what makes a good hotelier?

Robin Hutson lists the following qualities as essential to a successful hotelier:

• The ability to juggle tasks and deal with whatever is thrown at you in a calm and sensible manner - "There's a lot of pressure in this business, and you have to learn to deal with it. I'm so used to having hundreds of things to deal with all the time. It becomes second nature."
• Communication skills - "You need to be fairly straight-talking."
• People skills - "You need to be able to connect with the guy washing dishes and the important guy coming through the door seconds later."
• Passion for the business - "You can't do this in a half-hearted manner."
• Dedication - "It's much more than a job. You can't walk out of the office on a Friday evening and just switch off. There's something going on 24, seven, 365."

The Hotelier of the Year award is sponsored by Louis Jadot