It is a hotel “destination celebrating true extravagance” that harks back to the decadent side of the early decades of the 20th century and is lining up a new double-opening, five years after launch.
Mike Baxter, of the Scottish hotel group House of Gods, tells Business HQ Monthly in an exclusive interview he is to open a new hotel in London as part of an expansion that will also see another launch follow in Manchester.
It comes as the Edinburgh-based firm reports a roaring trade since opening its first Glasgow hotel in April.
The building that formerly housed Peckham’s on Glassford Street is now an “opulent” new 31-room hotel, and was only just ready for the opening.
He said: “We still had a bit to do, we still had our presidential suite to open. We wanted to get the hotel open, I think it often happens that you have to have a staggered opening and despite some setbacks we finally got the thing open and so yeah it has just been a roaring success since, so very happy.”
However, pre-publicity helped them hit the ground running.
“We sold so many rooms before we had even opened,” Mr Baxter said. “We did a pre-sale of the rooms and sold about 2,000 rooms in advance of opening and that rarely happens. I think it has probably been the most successful hotel opening in Glasgow for some time. We are delighted.”
Mr Baxter, who along with his former offshore engineer brother Ross, who is less in the limelight, co-founded the business, continued: “It is a great city for things like concerts. It has been tremendous. We were very hopeful that that would happen, that all the artists that come through the city.
“Then really the bars and the rooftop is like every second post on social media, so it is doing the marketing for us.”
Meanwhile, the original House of Gods in the narrow streets of the Old Town, carries on.
“Edinburgh has been fantastic. That was one of the things that as a brand you could be nervous about but if there is going to be some kind of dilution but we just haven’t found that at all.
“Our first property Edinburgh has got a kind of get out of jail card just in the number that go through the city. To be fair that is not really our crowd. We’re not really a tourist hotel.
“Our Booking.com fees are absolutely tiny every year because a very small margin of our custom comes from there, so it is people that know the brand and they tend to be within about a 150 kilometre radius.”
It is aimed more at the leisure market than the business traveller.
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“I always kind of say that we’re that niche hotel stay, we are the happy anniversary, the special night away, the proposal, the birthday, it’s the god, I’m sorry.
“I don’t think anybody has ever gone and stayed at a House of Gods and then gone to a meeting at nine in the morning the next day.”
Mr Baxter said: “We are not really an accommodation solution we are much more that special occasion niche market.
“That’s great, because it almost means we are sitting slightly competitionless.
“Of course there are lots of products in that leisure niche, however, I would say we really do stand out with what we offer.”
The new Glasgow offering took dedicated work through the cost of doing business and supply chain crisis that saw the cost of key materials including steel and plasterboard double.
He guided us through finished article.
“When you come through the door there is a very beautiful bar slash reception area. In comparison to Edinburgh it has much more of a feel of the grand hotel lobby, and we’ve got a fantastic bar in there, we have 24-karat gold wallpaper that took seven months to hand paint, we have some beautiful fabrics, we’ve got a marble fountain that I had imported from Rome. It really is something to see.
“Once you are in the hotel you are often ushered up to your room or whether or not you’re having a drink in the bar or going up to the rooftop.
“What we are finding is a significant number of people that are non-residents are coming to use the bar, it has really been I think a bit of a hit just as a local bar and restaurant to eat and drink in.”
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Mr Baxter said: “Then the downstairs bar is very popular at the weekends, a bit more of that kind of lively, high volume sort of thing.
“Then the rooms themselves have been a great success. We have potentially four different options on the rooms, we have our cabin room which is similar to the cabins in Edinburgh.
“I like to think we’ve upgraded them a little bit, we’ve found room for wardrobes and a few of the essentials that we neglected to put into Edinburgh and they have been very well received, and we have our classics room, again similar to the Edinburgh product.
“Then we have our standard suite, which is a lovely room it really feels like you are in a kind of cabin of the Orient Express, it’s a long thin room, there’s a bath in it and a living room area for your TV, and then the real big difference, and these rooms were bult for that rock and roll star that comes to Glasgow and that might be playing at the Hydro, we’ve got this presidential suite and it’s just an absolutely unbelievable room.
“Having been to a good few hotels Scotland for research purposes only I have to say this is by far my favourite room. It just an absolutely tremendous room, the customers are loving it.
“It’s like living like the others live, it really is special.
“I’m a little bit terrified of the parties that might happen in there at some point but you can’t really preach the rock’n’roll lifestyle and not live it.”
The House of Gods brothers, partially funded by a £1.1 million loan from OakNorth Bank in 2019, and a further £4.8m capital from OakNorth Bank, coupled with a £5m IMBIBA investment, are not resting on their laurels.
“The exciting thing for us is that we now have a project in both Manchester and in London,” said Mr Baxter.
“I can’t quite disclose where the London one is yet.
“Excitingly, London is probably only about 13 months away from opening.
“The guys are all set to go and it is a very big project. It is a really big deal, this building.
“It is similar to Glasgow but more rooms, and with rooftop.
“We are on to a good blueprint of what makes a successful hotel. There’s probably about ten cities in the UK that would be good for a House of Gods, and I am spending some time speaking to people just now about potentially taking the brand abroad.”
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