NICOLA Taylor was raised in the hotel industry. Quite literally.

When the chief executive of Chardon Hotels came blinking into the world, her father was running the Lorne Hotel in Glasgow. It was then the city’s newest hotel– and ultimately home to Ms Taylor for the first five years of her life.

“When I came home from hospital, it was my first home, because in those days, as a general manager, you used to live on site,” she said, the soothing thrum of guests enjoying morning coffee in Chardon’s La Bonne Auberge restaurant filling the background. “They don’t do it anymore, but it is actually a good idea, because it means you have someone permanently on site.”

It was not to be the last hotel Ms Taylor lived in. By the age of five, she was residing in the 10-bedroom Albany Hotel her parents had developed in Edinburgh’s New Town.

“Because all their money went into the building and the hotel itself, we lived in a flat in the basement,” Ms Taylor noted. “When people say, how do you understand how it all works? It is a bit like if you are the kid of doctor or a journalist - you have a better understanding of the industry. Even at a very young age, I was thinking I was helping my mum  and I would iron pillow slips. I don’t think I was very helpful!”

Despite her family links to the hotel industry, and the status of her father Maurice as one of the sector’s most illustrious figures, it was not preordained that Ms Taylor would build a career in hospitality herself.

In fact, although her upbringing gave her a thorough grounding in all aspects of hotel operations, Ms Taylor found herself forging a different path, initially at least.

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After studying beauty therapy at Champneys Tring in London, she began working in sales in the hospitality sector in 1987. A spell in conference and banqueting sales with Queen’s Moat House Hotels was followed by a return to London to work for Hilton International, selling rooms in London and Paris. She shared a home in London with her elder brother. “I thought I was the cat’s pyjamas,” Ms Taylor said. “I wasn’t even 20.”

From there, she moved to work in sales for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin empire, which at the time included Necker Island in the Caribbean, Kensington Roof Gardens, hotels and riverboats on the River Thames, which were rented out for private parties.

Soon the family business came calling, though, and it happened when her parents were developing the Parklands Country Club in Newton Mearns in 1989. Ms Taylor recalls that, with her brother returning north to work in the venture, she was not given much choice. “I was told I was far too young to be living in London on my own, which I wasn’t very happy about! I was about to do a trip to Necker Island, which I missed.

“That was the first time I worked in the family business as a proper job.”

However, it did not mean she was back for good. When the family sold their stake in the club in 1993, Ms Taylor moved back out of the hospitality sector, and embarked on a decade-long stint in media sales, beginning with The Herald. “I decided to go back down to London and they were looking for sales people to work in the advertising department in Gray’s Inn Road. I went to work for The Herald and Evening Times down there, selling advertising to agencies.”

From The Herald she moved to Capital Radio. “That was good fun,” she said. “The thing that was very different about radio versus press, of course, is that the radio presenters would come out with you. If you were going to speak to Ford Motor Company about a Monday morning or a week promotion, Chris Tarrant would come with you.”

After Capital it was on to a senior commercial role with The Mail on Sunday, but family matters then brought her back home. Her father was to undergo heart surgery (from which he made a full recovery) and the family briefly considered the idea of selling the business.

“My dad had a triple bypass in 2000, and I thought, ‘what do we do with the family business?’ At the time, we had these two hotels (Holiday Inn Glasgow Theatreland and Holiday Inn Express Glasgow) and we were starting the hotel management company, where we ran hotels for other owners and investors.

“So, in 2003, I came back home, and we developed that business until we sold it [to US giant Interstate Hotels & Resorts] in 2013.”

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By the time of its sale, Chardon Management was operating around 50 hotels for different owners under a range of major brands, including Hilton, IHG and Accor, with an employee base of around 2,500.

But the deal did not mean the Taylors exited the industry.

The family retained ownership of its two Glasgow hotels and then subsequently acquired two hotels it previously ran under management, at Edinburgh Airport and in Perth. Two further hotels came on board when the family bought properties, one in Dunfermline and one on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, it had developed for other parties. All six come under the umbrella of Chardon Hotels.

Looking back on the Chardon Management era, Ms Taylor reflected: “We weren’t as focused on our own hotels. The other thing was that, the way the business was going, we almost needed a couple of big hedge funds to start delivering new hotels. A lot of the big hotels are owned by hedge funds who give them to management companies to operate.

“We sold out to Interstate, who are the biggest in the world, and this was their platform to go into Europe, which is what they have done. They now have about 90 hotels under management.”

While Chardon no longer employs thousands of staff, the responsibility for owning and running six hotels means life is still as busy as ever. And there are plenty of big issues to face, from rising overheads such as business rates and wage costs to the competition brought by Airbnb.

“It’s quite a complicated business,” noted Ms Taylor. “We’ve got almost 600 bedrooms, so every night I’m looking for 600 new customers. There are not many businesses that are looking for 600 new customers every night.

“Hospitality is the same as it was 50 years ago, but the way that it internally operates can be quite different. Years ago, you would have had a cellar man, a porter… but because of costs [you no longer do]. And also people aren’t looking for it anymore. Even if you want to walk into a very high-end hotel, most of us are happy to carry our own suitcases, because we have probably dragged it on and off the plane!”

There are also challenges posed by booking websites, which Ms Taylor said are largely owned by the major travel agents and take a cut of booking rates. Ms Taylor sits on IHG’s global board of hotel owners, whom she said have responded positively by offering customers discounts by booking directly or through loyalty cards. But she said: “People like booking.com do a good job of letting the customer think they are getting a better deal, but they are actually not.”

As she speaks in the elegant surroundings of La Bonne Auberge, which forms a cornerstone of the firm’s Holiday Inn Glasgow Theatreland, Ms Taylor comes across as being completely at ease with her place in the industry. While she has had other important roles outside the family business, it is hard to challenge the notion that there is no other job she would rather be doing than running Chardon Hotels. She still works closely with her father, who is now chairman of the company, and can count on the support of a close-knit management team.

But she admits that family business does bring its challenges.

“It was never my intention to work in a family business,” Ms Taylor said. “It is not for the faint-hearted. Most of us get on well with our families, but you wouldn’t necessarily spend every day with them, because inevitably they are quite like you!”

Six Questions:

What countries have you most enjoyed travelling to, for business or leisure, and why?
I have been fortunate to travel extensively on both business and leisure and have enjoyed everywhere for different reasons. My favourite city would be San Francisco or London. I lived in the latter for many years. The best beach would Fort Myers, Florida, preferably with no one on it!

When you were a child, what was your ideal job? Why did it appeal?
I really wanted to be a vet, but when we dissected a rat in primary school, I cried all night so that was the end of that!
 
What was your biggest break in business?
I’ve done so many different things it would be hard to pick. In recent years I’d say the ‘great recession’ of 2008 as,  ironically, it assisted in growing our hotel management company which we successfully sold in 2013.
 
What was your worst moment in business?
The flipside of my best moment has to be actually selling the hotel management company and leaving behind all the great people I’d worked with for over 10 years.
 
Who do you most admire and why?
I admire lots of different people for lots of different reasons. As opposed to pioneers and entrepreneurs, I most admire people who manage to have a good work/ life balance, as it’s something I have never mastered and aspire to greatly. Maybe 2019 will be my year!
 
What book are you reading and what music are you listening to? What was the last film you saw?
As my time is short, I’m still on the December edition of Vanity Fair. My music taste is pretty varied, however I love listening to a bit of Take That. The last film I saw was Darkest Hour on a flight back from the US.