Business award for top hotelier, Claire

Claire Hunter is pictured outside the Marine Hotel in Ballycastle which she co-owns with her business partner, Colum McLornan.

Hotelier, Claire Hunter (39), from Armoy in rural County Antrim, has just been named as Businesswoman of the Year at the Belfast Telegraph Business Awards.

Claire, who co-owns Ballycastle’s rejuvenated Marine Hotel, collected her award earlier this month at the event in the Ramada hotel at Shaw’s Bridge in Belfast.

Licensed & Catering News reported in August last year on the work undertaken by Claire and her business partner, Colum McLornan, to restore the substantial seafront hotel which had closed its doors three years earlier at the height of the property crash.

Since then, the 31-bedroom venue has re-established itself as a tourist hub within the stunning Nine Glens area and a popular centre for local events. Speaking again to LCN following her awards victory, Claire indicated that business was strong at the Marine:

“Our occupancy levels are up and we’ve come through the winter in Ballycastle, which is a challenge in itself,” she reported. “Through careful management of staff and costs, we’ve stayed on budget and we have begun to come through on the other side since the end of February or so.”

Claire said that when she had first spoken to LCN at the end of last summer, the hotel had not been trading long enough for her to judge its performance:

“Since then, however, we’ve had a number of charity functions and four or five weddings and everything has gone very well for us,” she added.

Claire and Colum – who owns Antrim-based singles travel agency, Friendship Travel – bought the hotel in March last year, reportedly paying £400,000 for the property. A further £700,000 was spent on refurbishments. It now boasts 31 bedrooms, a stylish Costa coffee shop called Proud to Serve and Marconi’s Bar and Bistro – named in honour of the telecommunications pioneer who lived in the town.

A total of 70 new jobs – 26 of them full-time were created when the Marine opened its doors again last year.

Claire, a mother-of-three young children and a farmer’s wife, first met her business partner, Colum, at catering college 20 years ago. After completing their studies, the pair went off to separate universities and Claire subsequently spent a decade working in various hotels and restaurants before diversifying into business as the Irish agent for a firm that sold toaster bags.

She maintained her interest in the hospitality sector, however, and when the opportunity to buy the Marine Hotel came up, she and Colum were immediately interested. At that time, they were joined in the venture by a third person – John McConnell – a former GM at the Roe Park Hotel near Limavady (now the Roe Park Resort) who acts in a consultative capacity.

Claire, who comes originally from Dunmurry, was nominated for the business award by a PR friend and she didn’t know that she was in the running for the title until a few weeks before the gala presentations.

But she declared herself “delighted” with the award, accepting it on behalf of the all the staff at the hotel. She also thanked her husband, Brian, and her business partner:

“Getting the award is great, but I couldn’t have done it without the team both inside and outside the hotel,” she added. “When I first saw the Marine hotel, I instantly saw its potential and Colm agreed. However, it took us two years of negotiating to buy it and then months of hard slog and worry to finally get it open. But we did it and I take great joy in having got to this stage – being open a year and receiving this award.”

As for the future, Claire said that because of a reported shortage of bed space along the north coast, she believed there was potential for the Marine to do very well as the year progressed:

“We have 62 bed spaces here in the hotel and there are a lot of events coming up, including the Giro d’Italia, which goes right past our front door, and the Lammas Fair, and so it’s a busy summer and we’re going to be filling the hotel at every available opportunity,” she added.

The Marine Hotel also has a country club with extensive facilities located in an adjacent building. These include a 25-metre swimming pool, a sauna, Jacuzzi, a gym and three treatment rooms. The club is in a poor state of repair, however, and it isn’t yet open to the public. The bill to renovate the facilities is likely to run to around £150,000 and despite an offer of limited funding from Moyle District Council, Claire confirmed that this element of the project is still on hold:

“We really need to make sure that the hotel itself is sustainable before we open the country club again,” she added. But we will be doing that at the first available opportunity.”