THE CONVERSATION
with Sir William Hastings Chairman, Hastings Hotels
The renowned Northern Irish hotelier started out with a handful of pubs, negotiated a turbulent and traumatic period for the country, and today has a family-run group of top hotels and a Knighthood to his name. Andy Hoskins meets Sir William Hastings
PROFILE
Sir William Hastings is Chairman of Hastings Hotels, a group of six four and fi ve-star hotels in Northern Ireland. It is the largest group in the country, with over 900 guestrooms in total and 2,000 full and part-time staff. His lengthy CV includes directorships of Northern Ireland Railways, Bass Ireland, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the Bank of Ireland, among others. He is a fellow or past president of the Irish Hotel and Catering Institute, the Chartered Institute of Marketing and another dozen associations. And his benevolent roles include past chairman of Help the Aged, Crimestop- pers and The Prince’s Trust in Northern Ireland, and positions with the Salvation Army, Men Against Cancer and many more local organisations. Sir William was awarded a Knighthood in 2009 for services to charity and industry. He married wife Joy in 1960 and they have four children – Julie, Howard, Allyson and Aileen – all of whom are directors at the hotel group.
apologise profusely and breathe a sigh of relief that he’s waited for me, but he appears unperturbed. I’m pretty certain it’s the first time I’ve kept a ‘Sir’ waiting, but my delayed flight did at least give me the chance to absorb his lengthy CV. It includes numerous directorships over the years,
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over a dozen roles with professional associations such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and a range of benevolent positions with the likes of The Prince’s Trust, Help the Aged and Crimestoppers. And then there’s his day job, Chairman of the eponymous, six-strong Hastings Hotels Group. All of which earned him a knighthood in 2009 for services to charity and industry. At the age of 85 it’s not surprising that Sir William
– as he is addressed by the hotel staff that buzz around us – is gradually stepping back from the helm and letting his son and three daughters steer the family business into new territories. “Work has been my life, though, and I can’t imagine getting up in the morning and not going to work,” says Sir William. He lives with his wife 20 miles south of Belfast and “tootles” into the office
ir William Hastings is sitting in the bar at the Culloden Hotel, Belfast, reading a newspaper when I arrive an hour and a half late for my meeting with him. I
by the group’s Stormont Hotel every day at 9.30am. His long career in hospitality began with pubs and
shifted to hotels, negotiating the Troubles, and has thrived ever since. He calls himself a “second generation man”, and considers himself lucky “because the first generation does all the work.” Even so, his father died when Sir William was 12
and his brother passed away a few years after he stepped into the business at the age of 18. And so at the age of 25, Sir William was left in charge of nine “working class public houses” in Belfast. Introducing lounge bars to his pubs at a time
when women were starting to frequent them was an early success, and it was not long before he bought his first hotel. He married at the age of 30 and started a family, and explains that “it was much better for me to go to church on a Sunday morning as a hotelier than a publican!”
“ I went through my career and never had to ask anyone their religion. It was never
an issue, not from a work point of view, nor from a friendship point of view
” 28 THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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