Acorn winner Oliver Harris steps up to Queensberry hotel general manager

Acorn Award 2023 winner Oliver Harris has continued his rapid career trajectory with a promotion to general manager at the Queensberry hotel in Bath.

He joined the 29-room property as hotel manager in November 2024, having spent eight months as deputy general manager at De Vere Tortworth Court in Gloucestershire.

Harris will now oversee operations at the Michelin Key hotel and its Michelin-starred Olive Tree restaurant.

He graduated from the Edge Hotel School nine years ago, having secured a place on the Exclusive Collection’s graduate programme at South Lodge hotel in West Sussex. After two years he became food and beverage manager at the group’s Fanhams Hall hotel before moving in 2021 to Whatley Manor, a two Michelin Key country house hotel in the Cotswolds.

There, alongside former general manager Sue Williams, Harris was integral to the operations team which helped the hotel become the UK’s first to achieve Earthcheck Silver Accreditation.

In only a year he rose from guest services manager to assistant operations manager to operations manager.

Harris said his new position at Queensberry is “what so many aspiring leaders dream of, and work towards, in their hospitality careers”, adding: “I am under no illusion that the hard work starts now, and I look forward to taking on this challenge, and grasping this opportunity with both hands.

“I’ve had an incredible decade of learning, and feel very grateful for the good industry connections who always advised me well, and I look forward to giving back to the next wave of true hospitality aces!

“I would like to thank proprietors Laurence and Helen Beere for the amazing opportunity and look forward to working closely with our talented executive chef, Chris Cleghorn, to continue to offer the finest food and service in the beautiful city of Bath.”

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