Award Winning Opinion – Liz Lawson - The Chieftain Hotel, Inverness
We asked Liz if she would be kind enough to write a piece for the website, this is how she reflected on her long career in the hospitality industry…….
It was a real honour to receive the Best Bar None Award for Best Hotel Bar 2022. We feel the award reflects the hard work and effort of everyone at the hotel in trying to provide our customers with the best experience possible.
I started in hospitality 50 years ago as a silver service waitress. My family were all involved in hospitality, my uncle had hotels and my mum was a cook, I suppose you could say it “runs in the blood”. From there I worked as a commis chef in a large hotel, then gained experience working in kitchens and bars, before taking over the hotel 12 years ago.
I have been doing Best Bar None for about 16 years now, which I think is a great tool for every premises. If you need to know anything the guidance is there, I find the assessments really helpful for things like fire safety and our general housekeeping. It’s reassuring to get an independent set of eyes to confirm we are doing everything we can to ensure our customers have a safe and enjoyable experience.
We also attend training events, My daughter and I went to one recently in Glasgow. They covered a few different topics, one of which was child protection. I found it so interesting that I arranged a further session here and invited everyone from our local Inverness pub watch. The session just opened my eyes to things I didn’t know and I wanted to share the knowledge with others. We are hopeful more events will be hosted locally.
The Chieftain has so much to offer for everyone, we have pool tables, a dart board, tv`s all around the bar so you can watch sports. All our food is cooked from fresh & homemade, we have a large range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks to choose from. We have something for everyone and pride ourselves on the warmth of the welcome customers receive.
Sergeant Keith Jack asked me what else we did to support our local community? He commented that from what he saw, members of Best Bar None did so much more than provide hospitality. I don’t think we are very good at blowing our own trumpet, but we do a few things. We support Highland Hospice, providing a venue for their functions free of charge, we sponsor Tomatin Football Club with strips and after match hospitality, as well as sponsoring five pool teams. Last year we were proud to sponsor a young local girl to attend a dance competition in Florida. We feel very much part of the community and do everything we can to support it.
What advice would I give to anyone thinking of joining Best Bar None? I think you’d be silly not to, it is so rewarding and will help your business.
Liz Lawson(owner) - The Chieftain Hotel
