Winter News from the hotel........

With winter very much upon us (looking out to grey clouds), the plans for our Festive season are complete, and we are now in the process of bringing down the decorations from the attic so that they are ready to go up in the first week in December, and the trees have been ordered from the farm just along the road near Cupar.

The advance bookings for Christmas and New Year are as good as always, so much so that we are for the first time planning to open the Garden Suite for lunch on Christmas Day - but with a twist.

Rather than repeat what we have available in the Terrace Restaurant, we have decided to produce an option aimed more at the extended families. We will have a fantastic, heavily-laden hot and cold buffet table in the room, which will offer a more relaxed and informal style of dining - perfect if the children want to be able to run around a bit - and clearly taking a bit of the pressure away from the parent.

So, if anyone is still looking for somewhere to book for Christmas Day lunch, please call Sarah.
I cant promise snow, but I can promise a great lunch for all.

Looking further ahead to next year, my deputy, Craig McPherson is currently out in Malaga for a week at the main European Golf Show talking to all the agents who want to send clients to St Andrews next year, so it will be interesting to find out next week how he got on. We did get a call from him yesterday, and even though it was 31 degrees in the south of Spain, he did say that he was working hard.

Winter Refurbishment Plans

Now that the summer season is past, it is time to start planning our refurbishment schedule to be carried out during the quieter winter months.

As usual, the decision on what needs to be done is not an easy one, as each of the Partners and General Manager, Stephen, have different opinions on priorities! My sons, Mark & Chris, are keen to invest in new technology and want to create a more modern image for the hotel. Stephen (being at the sharp end) is more concerned with customer’s first impressions and his priorities lie in upgrading the major public areas of the hotel. I am the balancing act between the two camps. My first priority is to finish the ongoing upgrade of the restaurant and drawing room to complete the overall effect, then refurbish a few more bedrooms & upgrade bathrooms.

One thing we all agree on is to continue to invest in our facilities so that we meet or exceed customer’s expectations, in spite of the recession. Customer feedback is therefore extremely important to us in prioritising the work to be carried out, and comments from our monthly on-line guest surveys are taken into account when making our investment decisions. (Sorry, no swimming pool or leisure facilities are in the pipeline in the foreseeable future)! Unfortunately we won’t be able to tackle a major upgrade of the reception and front hall area this winter much as we would like to, but this will be reviewed at a later date.

This winter our agreed priorities are:

- Complete the installation of LCD flat screen TV’s with freeview
- Complete the replacement of radio/alarm clocks with ipod dockers
- Redecorate & refurbish three principal bedrooms
- Upgrade bathrooms in recently refurbished second floor bedrooms
- Replace curtains in the Terrace restaurant
- Complete the refurbishment of the drawing room

As ever, your views on the above proposals are very welcome.

Rufflets announce their 2010 Open Championship corporate hospitality package. Now we are aware that corporate hospitality is not in vogue at the moment but we feel our offering will be attractive. It is ideal for smaller groups of 8 people upwards and is at least 50% less than the Official (read expensive) packages on offer.

More details Open Championship Hospitality.

Rufflets are working on a new website for the winter of 2009. The project started as something much smaller but has since turned into a full blown re-development. The new site will have a more image rich look and be easier to navigate.

Have a look at the sneak preview and feedback anything you would like to see.

The summer is slowly coming to a close, but thankfully with a good amount of sunshine which means that we still have some happy golfers around.

This week sees one of the busier times for the town, with the students arriving for Fresher's Week at the university. Lots of parents dropping off children with mountains of luggage for what will be a new beginning for many. It is great to feel such a buzz of excitement in town!

We have now had the repsonses from our last Guest Survey that was sent at the beginning of the month, with some interesting feedback.

Suggestions for improvements include:

• Room Safes - a guest surpirised that we do not have them
• An uncomfortable mattress in one room - one that I have slept on myself, but now need to get someone else to test it out. We have already ordered a softer mattress topper for it, so will see what happens next..
• Leisure Centre would be good. This is something that we have looked at and whilst not discounting it completely, have put it on a back-burner for the time being. We can arrange for our guests to have access to the spa facilities at the Old Course or Fairmont if they wish.
• A lift for easier access. Would be interesting to see if we could even have one installed, but not as straight forward as it might seem.
• Slippers and bathroom scales - something that I have asked Heather our Housekeeper to look into.

All in all, the responses have been very positive, with 98% of our guests stating that they will definately be back, so we must be doign something right.

Perhaps the most surprising bit of feedback is that 23% of our guests have stated that Green Policies are not importnat when chosing a hotel, and 65% of guests are not aware of the Green Tourism Business Scheme - the lead initiative for green measures in tourism in Scotland, so it looks like we need to do more awareness work on these issues.

Coming towards the end of the school holidays, it has been interesting to see how the numbers of families using the hotel and lodges has increased this year - is this the 'staycation' that the press have been telling us all about?

Perhaps it is, but perhaps it is because we have looked to make it simpler for families to stay at Rufflets - simpler pricing, better family facilities (although the beach boxes have not exactly had much use!) but the garden games have had more than a few airings.

So, we will be looking ahead to the October school holidays to be able to grow our family-friendly activities and facilities.

Rufflets exterior gets a facelift!

The north elevation of the building has just been given a smart new look with a fresh coat of cream paint, so that it now matches the new Garden Suite extension. The porch has been re-glazed and all the dark woodwork has been painted in a lovely soft shade of putty green, giving the front entrance a much lighter look. Andy, our head gardener, has filled the hanging baskets with trailing fuscias, which complete the new look. The gatehouse and staff cottages are due to be painted later this month to complete the facelift.

Our regular customers will have noticed that the ladies cloakroom was upgraded and redecorated at the start of the season, giving it a more contemporary look. We have received a lot of comments on the disappearance of the “pink pigs” wallpaper, which has been a talking point over the years, but they had to go! So many people have asked me for the name and manufacturer of that particular paper (Osborne & Little) which I renamed my ‘female chauvinist pigs’ wallpaper. I do hope that the replacement silver foil paper, silver Amtico floor tiles and polished concrete vanity top will prove just as controversial.

Two years ago we took the decision to move away from the old style Country House Hotel look, with chintzy curtains, swags and tails and bric-a-brac, to a more classic, uncluttered and contemporary look. This was kick- started by the interior design of the new Garden Suite, opened in December 2007, which has proved very popular with our customers and staff. Since then, all planned upgrading of bedrooms bathrooms and public rooms has been carried out in this vein.

We are always interested to have your feedback on the ongoing improvements and refurbishment as your comments help to shape our future decisions.

Back at the Desk....and a first-time blogger?

Having enjoyed a good two week break to France, it is strange to say that I am glad to be back!

A fortnight of good food and wine, in the wonderful company of the family, plus the fishing (caught half a dozen sea-bass!), the beaches and plenty of rest has helped re-charge the batteries. It was clear that there was much less UK traffic across in France this year, which does back up the fact that more people are doing the 'staycation' thing.

The hotel has thankfully been busy, but it is always re-assuring to know that Craig and Heather, along with the rest of the team, have been here to look after the guests as always.

It was good to come back to see the newly painted north-face of the building which had been in progress when I left, and what with all the topiary being trimmed in the gardens, everything is looking good.

So, back to the hard work for the rest of the summer, and ready to start looking ahead to finalising the plans for Christmas and Hogmanay.......

Every month we conduct an online guest survey. Below we share the feedback to the question “What areas could we improve on?” and provide some commentary where it might be of interest.

1. Menu was rather restricted - we would prefer good honest Scottish food such as Aberdeen Angus Sirloin/ Fillet or lovely fresh perfect fish - it doesn't need dressing up inbto a mish-mash of current culinary fashion. Also your vegetables are so fresh & delicious why try to improve on nature? Ditto fruit.

2. You upgraded us to the Tower Room which was lovely - thank you. We may not have been pressing the right buttons but think that the spa bath was not working as well as it should. One of the buttons produced an effect, the other not at all. As I say, it may be our mistake, but I think it should be checked. That did not effect our enjoyment of the room and our stay

3. Smaller key rings!

4. I ranked the Restaurant Service as Good instead of Excellent. This is because we had been promised your best table for our dinner on our wedding night but when we arrived at the restaurant the table had been given to someone else. This disappointed us (mostly my new wife) but we understood that mistakes sometimes happen. And your staff did their best to make up for the error and we appreciated that. Apart from this everything else was wonderful.

5. For reference the hot chocolate served in the tall glass was lukewarm. unlike the one in the cup the following day which was perfect.

6. leave wine on tables at dinner (or else have someone to pour it!)

7. If you are not going to leave the wine bottles on the table during dinner service you must ensure that you are much better at making sure diners' glasses do not run empty. This occurred on our table for both the starter and main course despite the restaurant being very quiet.
Comment: the two issues above relate to the same evening and this has been addressed.

8. i can honestly say we all had a perfect weekend.

9. dinner menu could be better, steak quality disappointing Comment: we only use the best Buccleuch Estate meat on the menu.

10. We stayed for 2 nights and the menu was the same - would have liked to see at least one different dish on the menu on the second night. Comment – we have an A La Carte Menu with 8 starter options and 8 main courses plus two steak options. The menu changes with the season depending on local produce and the produce from our own gardens.

11. Bar could do with refurbishment without destroying the character and charm of the property. Comment: we have a regular refurbishment programme, the gust surveys help wth our decision making

12. WiFi needs to reach the rooms. Very trying to make special trips to the downstairs to receive it. Comment: we do offer free WiFi in public areas, meeting rooms and most of the rooms in the main house. Due to the thick walls reception in all areas is not ideal, we are looking at options to improve this.

13. Yes - Smoked Haddock for Breakfast clear off (smelling strongly). Replaced with another choice but should not have happened in the first place.

14. We accidentally took a key home with us and will pop it in the mail soon...so sorry
Keep the comments coming. Comment: in reference to comment 3 above, they are obviously not too big!


Good to see some more good reviews on Trip Advisor this month.

Welcome to the Rufflets Blog. Just a little bit about the blog, who we are and how we are going to use it.

Rufflets is owned by Ann Murray-Smith and her two son’s Mark & Christopher Forrester. Mark and Christopher are the 3rd generation to be involved in the business and work closely with Stephen Owen, the General Manager who runs the hotel on a daily basis.

Ann, although officially retired, is still involved in many aspects of the hotel, mostly involving room refurbishment and developments like the recent Garden Suite. Mark and Chris run their own businesses on a day to day basis but support Stephen on various operational and marketing issues.

The owners and Stephen will use the blog to keep you posted on what is happening at the hotel. We view it as an informal way of communicating with guests and potential guests on a variety of issues ranging from guest satisfaction to major developments at the hotel. The blog allows us to also gather feedback from the posts which can be useful for making service improvements and investment decisions.

The blog is an extension of the way we wish to talk to customers moving forward and compliments our website, monthly guest satisfaction surveys, newsletters and consumer review websites.

We look forward to welcoming your feedback.