Hotelier born and raised in Grantham bought and transformed the Angel & Royal during lockdown

An award-winning businessman bought the town’s oldest hotel during lockdown and transformed it.

Dean Harrison, owner of the Angel & Royal Hotel in Grantham’s High Street, won Businessperson of the Year at last month’s Journal awards ceremony.

After purchasing the historic hotel in 2020, Dean has taken a hands on approach to restoring the hotel to its former glory.

Dean, who is Grantham born and bred, discussed the risks of buying the hotel during the pandemic and what it took to make the Angel a success.

What did it mean to you to win the award?

It was a lovely recognition of all of the efforts that I have personally put in over the last two-and-a-half years. I bought The Angel & Royal during lockdown and invested a substantial amount of money refurbishing a closed business when most people were working out how to cut costs and save money, so it was a huge risk from the offset, especially as I am a sole owner and not part of a group or larger company.

But the investment choices I made have resulted in the Angel & Royal coming back to life in my opinion and this award, for me, is the icing on the cake of everything we have done in our first 18 months of re-opening.

Why do you think you stood out to the judges?

My height [at 6ft 3ins]? No, seriously, I think they were impressed with the transformation of the business, not just from the huge refurbishment of the whole of the hotel last year, but the food offering we now have with five chefs working in the kitchen and the fantastic team of staff we have built in food and beverage, the reception team and the housekeeping team.

When I took over, the team were only around 20 and I am now employing around 35 staff and this was needed due to the huge increase in business we now have and in order to offer the great service we now pride ourselves on.

Tell us a bit about what you do in your role?

My role right now is supporting the fantastic team I have here. I have always thought that if you give somebody a job, you should allow them to do it and you should give them the tools to do the job properly. By the tools, I do not just mean the actual tools like ovens or hoovers etc, but the proper training , encouragement, leadership, feedback and communication that is sometimes lacking in businesses.

The only physical shifts I do are cooking the breakfasts Mondays to Wednesdays and I enjoy doing this, not just because I am a qualified chef, but it gives me a chance to meet the guests, get feedback on our breakfast offering and see how the staff are coping on the morning shifts first hand.

How have you adapted or changed in your role/the way you work over the last few years?

My role has changed completely. The first year, the hotel was closed and my days were spent going through the huge building that the Angel encompasses and making decisions on interior design, new furniture for the 31 bedrooms, how the new bars would be built and banquette seating in the bars and bistro would look, not to mention planning how the once empty courtyard would look with seating for 70 people and lots of greenery.

I was involved in every aspect of the hotel refurbishment. We literally had around 100 skips to throw everything away and start again. I did not employ any interior designers, so everything you see at the Angel from the bedroom colour schemes, beds, furniture, lounge and public rooms, new toilets and bars have mine and my partner, Mariusz’s, names on them.

We then opened a year last June and initially I was very hands on and heavily involved in interviewing and training so that we got the right kind of people here and the basis to make the Angel into something really special. Over the last 10 months, the team are now running the day to day operations at the hotel.

I was very lucky to have found a wonderful lady called Teresa. She was already employed at the hotel as housekeeping manager but she has now been promoted to duty manager. She and the fantastic team here make my life so much easier and allow me to concentrate more on the business side of things and driving the business forward, marketing and advertising.

What are your plans for the coming year(s)?

I currently have a local architect making drawings to convert the disused cottage at the end of the courtyard into two more bedrooms, along with a third bedroom in another unused building off the courtyard. I am hopeful that the plans will be submitted after Christmas and we will be in a position to begin the work by June next year.

I then have more potential space to use in the four stables and will be looking at how best to utilise that area next year also.

How have your staff/team contributed to your successes?

My team are the only reason the Angel & Royal is enjoying the success it is as a business. As much as I have enjoyed refurbishing the hotel and feel it is a wonderful place to spend time for our lovely guests, if the people inside this building, meeting the guests, serving them and cooking and cleaning for them were not as professional, helpful, intelligent and actually as caring as they all are about the Angel & Royal.

It would just be another average hotel and we all know there are enough of those around these days, so I am not only proud of the team we have here but so grateful for everything they do and continue to do to make the Angel & Royal the place it is today.

To find out more, visit: https://www.angelandroyal.co.uk/