Future Proof: The Huggards keep it interesting at Lake Hotel

The Huggard family has been in the hotel business for more than 100 years and at one time its seven-strong empire included Ballinahinch Castle in Connemara and Ashford Castle. Today, brothers Niall, Colman, Tony and Joe Huggard run the Lake Hotel in Killarney having cut their teeth in the business as youngsters during their school holidays.

The Huggards have owned the Lake Hotel since 1940 but the original building was a regular resting place for those visiting the Lakes of Killarney in the 1800s. At that time the hotel could accommodate about 30 guests. Now it has room for more than 200.

While bookings are up about 15 per cent so far this year, general manager Niall Huggard, is frank about the challenges of living through the recession. “We’ve had a lot to contend with,” he says.

“In particular the impact of Nama-owned hotels on small, independent operators like ourselves. Their rates amounted to unfair competition and put family-owned hotels – that continued to meet all of their financial obligations in full – under enormous pressure.”

In 2006, The Lake Hotel was flying high enjoying strong occupancy levels and peak rates. In 2007 the economic crash brought it down to earth with a bang. Two years later things went from bad to worse when a huge Atlantic storm caused major flooding and extensive damage.

“It was a big blow but we got stuck in and installed new flood provisions,” Huggard says. “It’s an old building that needs constant attention at the best of times. We spent €160,000 in 2014 on maintenance alone and will spend the same this year. That’s a major overhead before you do anything else. Let’s put it like this: if someone gave me a million in the morning I’d have no trouble spending it.”

With such difficult trading conditions to contend with one might expect the hotel to snap up any business on offer. Not so. Potentially lucrative large weddings and other big functions are a no no.

“Our ethos is to make our guests feel cared for. If you bring in outside groups then residents have to share the facilities. The place becomes much busier and this totally changes the relaxed atmosphere,” Huggard says. “We want each guest to experience personal service. You can’t do that if your staff are trying to serve two masters. This is also one of the reasons we don’t take big bus tours. Our typical customers are couples, families, independent travellers and small groups.”

While each brother has his own area of responsibility within the business, the recruitment of an outside professional as financial controller in 2008 has played a key role in the hotel’s resilience according to Huggard.

“Tony [Roche] came from a hotel background which was crucial,” Huggard says. “He introduced budgets for every department, streamlined rosters and pay roll, changed suppliers to get better deals and signed up with a new purchasing group. This saved us around €30,000 on food and cleaning supplies alone.

“A big effort was also put into educating staff about the necessity to turn off lights and other appliances when not in use. We also did the more obvious things like changing to energy saving bulbs and a more efficient boiler.

“When around 44 cent in every euro is accounted for by labour it takes inventiveness to control costs while avoiding the death spiral by which I mean cutting so deeply that everything is adversely affected.”

Roughly 60 per cent of the hotel’s guest are Irish with visitors from the US, Germany and Canada next in line. Repeat business from Irish customers is the lynchpin of the operation and the hotel’s most effective marketing tool is word of mouth.

“We put a huge effort into making sure people want to come back,” Huggard says. “We have a great natural advantage which is our stunning location, but we have also worked hard to create a strong team of friendly staff and to develop our food and facilities. We’re not interested in awards per se; we prefer to go after those that mean something like our AA rosette for food. We don’t aspire to be bigger – just better.”

At one time the Lake Hotel had its own jarvey, ran its own boats on the lake and even had its own beer. The jarvey and the boats are long gone but the beer has recently been revived and thirsty guests can now sample Huggard Irish Pale Ale at the hotel. All going well there are plans to set up a microbrewery in the grounds.

Turnover for the Lake Hotel this year will be about €5 million. In 1955 it was £46,069, according to a set of carefully typed accounts hanging on the wall. The hotel has a long history and a great deal of it is displayed for visitors to see. However, today’s guests expect all mod cons and Huggard says it “cost a fortune to install a state-of-the-art wi-fi system”.

Also eating into the hotel’s budget is the herd of red deer that freely roam the grounds. The deer are a big attraction for visitors but they enjoy snacking on the hotel’s trees and plants. During the last harsh winter they ate everything in sight.