Looking forward to standing in rubble

By the time this article goes to print, I will be standing amid a pile of rubble with the dust beginning to settle. This should be a scene of organised chaos.

We hope it will be stage one of a well-planned and researched project to convert one of our cottages to further hotel accommodation.

When the idea was first mooted five years ago, it seemed a sensible way to increase room stock by more than 10% while upgrading a property within sight of the main house's front door.

A feasibility study was approved and we set about planning and researching the concept. A simple conversion and tidy-up grew into a building control application. Then, armed with the new knowledge that the building was listed due to its proximity to the hotel, we put together a full planning application.

Our final plans offer a two-bedroom suite with substantial sitting area and private garden. As expected, the costs of the project have escalated, and the more advice we receive, the more elaborate the plans grow, and the greater the bills are.

But if we can complete the task within the latest budgets and our projections are reached, we will have created an added asset. And the extra income would come without having had to increase the public or back of house areas.

One of the most tricky tasks lies with our interior designer who, while maintaining the feel of the hotel, must create a suite with a character of its own. I have just spent two days mulling over plans with him, reminding myself that, while getting excited by his ideas, I must also control the costs and deliver the project on budget and on time.

While the cottage suite will be sold as a very different product from the hotel rooms, it may be that potential hotel residents are offered this suite due to availability and they must not feel that they have been offered a second choice.

This is a bridge still to be crossed by our reservations department. Initially, I have opted to differentiate the cottage by charging a new rate which will stand it apart from the other room stock.

It has been a long time in getting started, being first stuck in red tape and planning and then thwarted by foot-and-mouth but, now that the project is under way, we are all eagerly waiting for it to become a reality.

BEPPO BUCHANAN-SMITH is director of the Isle of Eriska, a privately owned hotel on the west coast of Scotland Next diary from Beppo Buchanan-Smith: 6 December