Right royal Christmas and a busy New Year

When you read this, you will all, I hope, be running or organising various Burns Night events throughout the country - as, of course, we are. Being only two miles from the Glenturret Distillery, Scotland's oldest, has its advantages at this time of year.

I play the bagpipes and this is one occasion when pipers are sought-after.

We have just waved goodbye to our 650 Christmas and New Year guests. We ran at full occupancy for both the three-day Christmas and five-day New Year packages, with a repeat trade of about 70%.

We took the opportunity to run some statistics on 31 December and were pleased to discover that our repeat referral business has grown from 49% to 64% for the year. Of course, we are not resting on our laurels and the projected sales and marketing spend increase next year tops 50%.

I believe we do three things well, which attract people back.

First, we reinvest in the fabric of our buildings and properties. Second, we spend a lot of time and money training at all levels in our organisation (we have just been reaccredited with the Investors In People award, now into our seventh year). The third thing is to sell and market to our new and regular customers, at various levels, appropriate to their needs, both before and during their visit.

While having a three- and a five-night package is great for custom, keeping all these guests entertained offers quite a challenge.

Of particular interest to our customers is the fancy dress parade on New Year's Day, held in the afternoon for the children and in the evening for adults. This year's theme was Royalty Through The Ages, which gave great scope for guests' creative ideas. And for chocoholics, there was a chocolate-eating contest - a new challenge for this year.

Meanwhile, work has now started on our various projects, including an Accommodation and Corporate Sales Office, the second phase of improvements to our leisure facilities, and room refurbishment across the board.

All in all, December traded particularly well in all three units, and January and February look to be on target, which will be an increase in turnover of 4% on last year.

Let's hope this trend continues.

STEPHEN LECKIE is managing director of the Crieff Hydro leisure hotel in Crieff, Perthshire

Next diary from Stephen Leckie: 1 March