Callater Lodge in Braemar awarded ‘Gold’ status from VisitScotland

Edinburgh, Scotland, 2016-Aug-09 — /Travel PR News/ — A Victorian shooting lodge in Royal Deeside which has been converted into a 4-Star guest house has achieved its ‘Gold’ award from the national tourism organisation in recognition of its excellent customer service.

Callater Lodge in Braemar, was already a 4-Star guest house but has now been awarded the added ‘Gold’ status from VisitScotland, representing the continuing attainment of outstanding customer service and hospitality for its guests.

Built as a shooting lodge in 1861 for a wealthy young man who had come into his fortune, it has now been a successful and highly-regarded guest house for over 50 years. It has six luxuriously appointed ensuite rooms – three double, one twin, one family and a single room, all individually decorated and equipped to a high standard.

The art nouveau-inspired guest sitting room has deep sofas and comfortable armchairs allowing visitors to relax beside a cosy wood-burning stove – the perfect place to curl up with a book and a glass of whisky or local beer after a day of Cairngorm mountain air.

The property also holds a Taste Our Best award, which means they aim to minimise food miles and waste while maintaining a reputation for quality. They aim to source Scottish food and ingredients when possible and when not available they will buy British before looking further afield.

Every effort is made to use the best locally-sourced ingredients. Callater Lodge’s breakfast menu includes sausages and bacon from the local butcher, eggs from their own hens and salmon from Loch Fyne. They bake bread daily, and also make their own preserves, tattie scones, baked beans and granola.

The Lodge is licensed and visitors are invited to enjoy a drink in front of the wood-burning stove. With over 55 malt whiskies of different styles, they are also proud to serve Cairngorm Brewery beers. As well as this, they also offer a whisky sampling package tailored to guests’ individual tastes. They start by discussing visitors’ likes and dislikes, talk about the influences on whisky flavour, and suggest three whiskies for them to try.

Katy Fennema, who owns Callater Lodge with husband Julian, said:

“This is a great honour for Callater Lodge and it will inspire us to continue to do our best for our guests. We are proud to welcome people to the village of Braemar and take great pleasure in making them feel at home. Many of them return to us regularly and have now become our friends.”

Jo Robinson, VisitScotland Regional Director, said:

“It is fantastic to see Aberdeenshire’s tourism offering enhanced by Callater Lodge’s well-deserved achievement. High-quality guest house accommodation is vitally important to our visitors, which is why VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance gradings are so important to the tourism industry as a whole.

“Developed and improved for over 30 years years, our Quality Assurance schemes are world-leading and provide a trusted, independent and impartial source of information for visitors. They allow you to not just meet visitor expectations, but exceed them.

“Quality Assurance is about much more than just the ‘stars’ on your door – it’s about the entire visitor experience, investing in your business and making it as economically sustainable, and profitable, as it can possibly be.”

VisitScotland’s 4-Star Gold Quality Assurance Award recognises serviced accommodation businesses which consistently achieve the highest levels of excellence within their VisitScotland star grading. Businesses that achieve the award excel in areas of customer care and hospitality, showing evidence of a real commitment to development and training.

QA can open the door to new customers. It is a powerful marketing tool and works well with online review sites in using an independent perspective to measure visitor experience against tried and tested criteria, so visitors know exactly what to expect.

For more information, visit www.callaterlodge.co.uk

For more information on VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance scheme, please visitwww.visitscotland.org/quality_assurance.aspx

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Notes to Editors

• Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
• VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
• The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
• This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
  1. Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland       to visit different parts of the country
  2. Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
  3. Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international       opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One       Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
  4. Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
  5. Quality and Sustainability: we will provide support and advice to businesses, with the goal of improving the quality and sustainability of the tourism sector in Scotland. We will provide quality assurance to visitors through our Quality Schemes
  6. Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
  7. Working in Partnership: we will listen to and work with the industry, partners and communities to shape our offering and support
• VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
• The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
• Spending by tourists in Scotland generates around £12 billion of economic activity in the wider Scottish supply chain and contributes around £6 billion to Scottish GDP (in basic prices). This represents about 5% of total Scottish GDP.
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• 2016 will shine a spotlight on Scotland’s achievements in innovation, architecture and design through a wide-ranging, variety of new and existing activity.
• The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design begins on 1 January 2016 and ends on 31 December 2016 and will build on the momentum generated by the 2015 Year of Food and Drink as well as previous years including Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Year of Creative and the Year of Natural.
• Through a series of exciting events and activity, the year will showcase Scotland’s position as an “innovation nation”, its outstanding built heritage, and its thriving, internationally acclaimed creative industries sector.
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Contacts

Kim Walton

Corporate Press Officer
North Region, Expo
Kim.Walton@visitscotland.com
01224 269187
Out of hours – 0131 472 2324

SOURCE: VisitScotland

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