Driving Success in Scotland's Hospitality & Accommodation Sector

The Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA) is delighted to, once again, be partnering with HotelPartner, a trusted market leader in revenue management and distribution services for the hospitality and tourism industry, to explore the solutions available to Scottish hoteliers to ensure that the market can continue to thrive.

Whether you operate a luxury hotel or budget accommodation, boutique hotel or a youth hostel, this webinar will share accessible and actionable advice on tackling challenges such as the skills shortage, optimising performance and how best to utilise technology in your operations.

Overall, the hotel market has performed reasonably well during H1 2025 across most parts of Scotland, particularly in the capital, Edinburgh, as well as Glasgow and Inverness.

The increasing number of international investors now attracted to its robust performance is driving an exuberant transactions market, which is set to grow further this year and seen as a focal point for significant capital deployment.

While the outlook of having a strong pipeline of hotels also remains positive, particularly in the luxury segment, the industry is facing a series of headwinds. These include a confirmed 5% levy on overnight accommodation in Edinburgh from July 2026, with Glasgow and Aberdeen authorities introducing levies from January and April 2027 respectively, other local authorities are still to decide on their position. These additional costs to the visitor and the business, plus ongoing recruitment challenges, and operators needing to adjust to counter the rising costs of doing business are placing added pressure on the P&L bottom line as well as Scotland’s ability to remain competitive as a tourist destination.

Speakers:

Robert Holland, Managing Director UK & Ireland, HotelPartner Revenue Management

David Orr, CEO, Resident Hotels

David has a track record of successful development and value creation in the hotel sector, co-founding CEO of City Inn that became Mint in 2010. By developing a new hotel brand from scratch in an Edinburgh office at 8 St Andrew Square, to two of the most successful hotels in Europe ever, 2700 rooms and 1500 careers, David has a unique track record in brand invention, property development, hotel operations, customer advocacy and value creation. Earlier in his career, David was a partner in a property advisory company where he led recovery of commercial property assets and advised blue chip clients on landmark development and investment projects. David conceived and 'drew up' the concept and initiated the Harvey Nichols flagship into Edinburgh. David is Chairman at Fraser Giles Partnership a Hospitality, Travel and Leisure Executive Search business, a Trustee at Sparks the children's medical research charity and retains active connections in the 'Arts' world. At Mint hotel David oversaw the creation of more than 40 active Arts partnerships between the hotels and local and National arts organisations.

Andrew Renouf, Director, AR Hospitality Consulting

AR Hospitality Consulting was founded in 2023 by Andrew Renouf, a hospitality professional with over 30 years’ experience in operations and consultancy. After a 20-year career in hospitality operations and ownership, managing four-star hotels, conference centres and restaurants, Andrew joined the Hotels team at Avison Young (then GVA) Edinburgh in 2011.

Following promotion to Director in 2015, Andrew led the Hotel Consultancy team in Scotland and has been client lead on numerous development, acquisition and other advisory projects across Scotland and the UK, for both private and public sector clients.

AR Hospitality Consulting specializes in market and feasibility studies for all types of hospitality developments and acquisitions, operational and strategic performance reviews for trading assets, and advising local authorities on market need / capacity and delivering hotel developments.

Andrew’s extensive operational and consulting experience adds significant value to any project with robust modelling informed by a comprehensive understanding of market trends and demand dynamics. Andrew is also very well connected to all the major brands, operators and funders active in the sector

Neil Farren, Director of Customer Success, HotStats