#116 - Hospitality Meets Douglas Waddell - The Hotel Operations Director

07/27/22 • 60 min

1 Listener

This week’s episode is brought to you in partnership with Zero Procure who are here to make procurement simple, offering great value and quality for products and services, all for zero cost. Just click on this link or visit their site at www.zeroprocure.com/podcast to help support both this podcast and your business.

Another week passes and we have another one of the industry's gentlemen and all round exceptional human being, Douglas Waddell - Operations Director at Handpicked Hotels (https://www.handpickedhotels.co.uk/).

It's another packed chat and we get through so much including:-

Breaks
Accents
Handpicked Hotels
Getting a taste for hotels
Teaching Skiing
Learning leadership skills
School v College
The first job
Climbing the ranks
Stephen Carter (Again)
Becoming a GM
Improving the basics
Moving to leisure
Gaining influence
Stepping up onto the board
Hostile takeovers
Thistle
Handpicked
The changing world
Making mistakes

And so much more. Douglas has got a great story to date and has done some incredible things. His journey is another great example of what you can achieve if you apply yourself and find that thing that gets the best from you.

Enjoy!

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

It's another packed chat and we get through so much including:-

Breaks
Accents
Handpicked Hotels
Getting a taste for hotels
Teaching Skiing
Learning leadership skills
School v College
The first job
Climbing the ranks
Stephen Carter (Again)
Becoming a GM
Improving the basics
Moving to leisure
Gaining influence
Stepping up onto the board
Hostile takeovers
Thistle
Handpicked
The changing world
Making mistakes

Enjoy!

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Previous Episode

#115 - Hospitality Meets Robert Cook - The Hospitality Industry Titan

What a treat I have for you this week as I managed to get some time with the incredible Robert Cook, CEO of Hostmore PLC (https://www.hostmoregroup.com/) and all round industry Titan.

Robert has such an epic career so far and is an inspiration to us all. He's a natural story teller throughout and my word he's done some very cool things.

We get through sooo much, including :-

Peterhead
Being born into the industry
Learning 5 star
Stephen Carter
Climbing the ranks
The first GM role
Malmaison - The First Stint
Monaco
Ken McCulluch and David Coulthard
CEO at 36
If you’re good enough - you’re old enough
Village
Virgin active
The Cookie Jar - Northumberland
Moving to Fridays
The opportunity to float
Adapting to the market
Being up for the challenge
How to become a CEO
People
Creating Experience
Taking breakfast to Margaret Thatcher
Lord Rupert Whoopsie
Characters

And so much more. It's so wonderful to hear that even someone who has developed such an incredible and serious career, the over riding message throughout is that he has had a lot of fun along the way. A wonderful message for us all to remember.

Enjoy!

This week’s episode is brought to you in partnership with Zero Procure who are here to make procurement simple, offering great value and quality for products and services, all for zero cost. Just click on this link or visit their site at www.zeroprocure.com/podcast to help support both this podcast and your business.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Next Episode

#117 - Hospitality Meets Simon Drake - The Lifestyle General Manager

Another exciting career journey this week as I got some time with the wonderful Simon Drake, General Manager of The Other House (https://otherhouse.com/), one of London's most exciting openings for 2022.

Simon has had one busy career so far, reflected in what we get through:-

The Other House
Starting as a lifeguard
Life at Marriott
Learning about F&B
Getting some mentors
Traveling
Bermuda & Island Life
Building your experience
Labour Party Conference
Volume
Moving to London
Taj
VIPs
Calling out the bad
Going country House
Conrad
The Mandrake
The Covid wobble
Cross department training

And so much more. Hospitality very nearly lost Simon and he talks openly about that with the caveat that his opinions about his career and experiences are his own. Having spent some time with him at The Other House, it's clear he's found his home again and I can't wait to see what they bring to the marketplace.

Enjoy!

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy