Q A The hotel business grew, so much so that the


pubs were now playing a mere supporting role, but “the big move”, as Sir William calls it, was the purchase of a further six hotels in 1971 with mixed results. With violence and bombings escalating in Northern Ireland, internment was brought in just after the deal was closed. “I was left with six hotels and no customers,”


says Sir William. “I was unlucky in that intern- ment came in five months after I’d written the cheque. That was 1,000 rooms for £440,000.” He adds, casually, that “one or two of the


hotels were blown up”, two were offloaded and another was converted into offices, leaving only the Slieve Donard, south of Belfast. “It was nicknamed the Titanic because I thought we were all going to sink with it. Now I’ve rechristened it. It’s a beautiful hotel, doing terribly well and I call it the lifeboat because it’s going to rescue us all,” he laughs. But back then it was the Culloden Hotel –


the group's flagship property today and where I meet with Sir William – that proved to be a saviour. He bought the then 16-bedroom hotel for £100,000 and quickly expanded the former bishop's palace to 30 rooms. Today it has 105. Sir William explains, “Belfast was devastated


and no one stayed in the city except journalists and they stayed at the Europa. People had to stay somewhere so this hotel, on the outskirts of Belfast, was full. The cash cow of the pubs was falling away and I was spending money on the hotels instead.” The Europa hotel in central Belfast is widely


known for being 'the most bombed hotel in Europe' – it was hit nearly 30 times – and was the subject of a BBC documentary called Bombs, Bullets and Business as Usual. It had opened in 1971 to great fanfare and was base camp for the press during the Troubles, but lost money under two owners during turbulent times for Northern Ireland. So there were raised eyebrows when Sir William – recovering from a quadruple heart bypass at the time – eventually bought it from the receivers in 1994. “Everybody thought I got it for a good price


but it was £4.5million and I had to spend another £4.5million and since then another £5-10million on it,” he says. He also confesses that he'd been used to being the first in Belfast to fill his hotels before the Europa came along and took that mantel. “That was annoying.” As a prominent business figure trying to run


a business during the Troubles there were, not surprisingly, “difficulties galore”. Sir William was apprehended at gunpoint by the Ulster Volunteer Force and held on another occasion by the IRA but came to no harm either time. “I’m one of the few people that have been


apprehended by both sides,” he chuckles. “I was targeted because I had money and I was in business. People thought if you were in pubs and hotels you were a millionaire but that’s a big misconception.”


“ I was targeted because I had money and I was in business.


People thought if you were in pubs and hotels you were a millionaire but that’s a big misconception


” “The Protestant and Catholic business,” as


Sir William refers to it, “was never a problem. I went through my business career and never had to ask anyone what their religion was. It was never an issue, not from a work point of view, nor from a friendship point of view.” The group threw its weight behind the Good Friday Agreement referendum in 1998, unfurling an enormous ‘vote Yes’ banner on the Europa hotel – the idea of Sir William’s son, Howard, the group’s managing director. Appealing to both the leisure and corporate


market, Hastings Hotels has flourished and today numbers six properties in Northern Ireland: the Stormont, Europa, Slieve Donard and Culloden hotels, plus the Everglades and recently renovated Ballygally hotels. “I’ve been spending on my properties all my


life. The motive has never been to make lots of money and go away and spend it all. The motive has been to grow the business, and make it better year after year,” he says. The most recent purchase is a 50 per cent


stake in Dublin’s highly-regarded Merrion Hotel, but further additions are inevitable, says Sir William. “It doesn’t have to be in Northern Ireland, because I don't think there’s much space left other than in Belfast, perhaps, but then you end up competing against yourself.” The rude health of the business is something


he is very proud of. “It still gives me a lot of pleasure to look at the balance sheet. What we do is reinvest, develop and grow, not in a mad sense, but in a slow sense,” he says. Sir William has worked hard to get where


he and Hastings Hotels are now, but that's not quite how he sees it. “My theory is that I’ve never really worked a day in my life because I’ve enjoyed it so much,” he says. His outstanding contribution to tourism and charity was recognised in 2009 when he was awarded a Knighthood, a gesture he was “hugely honoured and slightly amazed” by. One wonders if Sir William might have


reduced his golf handicap even lower than an impressive seven were it not for such a busy and colourful career, but the sport remains a passion for him, even at his advanced years. “I’m no use these days,” he says, “but I’m


just as competitive as I ever was.” He is a supporter of Downpatrick Golf Club in the town where Saint Patrick is said to have been buried. “If it’s good enough for him it’s good enough for me,” he jokes, as we wrap up our meeting.


five


minutes with...


…Sir William Hastings


How involved are you now with the day-to-day running of Hastings Hotels? I’m at the stage now that I try not to interfere too much. All four of my children are very good at what they do [as directors]. They’re irreplaceable and they are moving the business forward. The world has changed since I started out. That’s why they are better at it than me – but I wouldn’t tell them that!


Known as 'the most bombed hotel in Europe', was your purchase of the Europa hotel in Belfast a gamble? I don't think so. I had a feeling for what was going on in Belfast and all of a sudden you could see the green shoots.


How diffi cult was it running a hospitality business during the Troubles? If you gave in, went soft and paid into all sorts of funds you were going to go out of business. People knew they weren’t going to get anything from me. They either shot you or liked you, and I guess they ended up liking me.


Are you looking to expand the business with new additions to the group? We have been looking at various propositions in the south of Ireland. There are lots of opportunities and financially we’re capable of taking on something substantial.


Have you ever considered selling up and moving into something different? I have been approached on a few occasions to sell out – big money, all that sort of thing – but I wouldn’t be the slightest bit interested because I’d end up with a whole lot of money, on a board on which I’d not have the slightest bit of interest and the whole rationale of what I’m doing would have gone.


THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 29


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