People in Business - Paul Gill Managing Director, Claregalway Hotel
Paul Gill’s business life, so far, could be summed up as: learning and doing; learning more and doing more. The managing director of the Claregalway Hotel is currently studying for an MBA at NUI Galway and says that he has already implemented some ideas generated as part of his studies.
‘It’s important to attract high-calibre graduates to work with us,’ he says.
‘To do that, I need to go through a similar education path so that I can better understand their perspectives.
It also has some very positive immediate benefits for the business, for example giving Paul an appreciation of the importance of IT systems to the operation.
‘A good IT infrastructure won’t give you a competitive advantage on its own but can give you easier access to data which can do that,’ he says.
Born in Kenya and raised on the Aran Islands, Paul studied hospitality and hotel management at GMIT and Shannon, rounded off by a 15 month placement in Switzerland.
Following a year in Southampton he spent 18 months at the Connemara Coast Hotel before moving to the Ardilaun House Hotel for eight years.
‘I learned a lot in those hotels, particularly at the Ardilaun where I had a number of management roles starting with the back office before moving to front of house,’ he recalls.
In 2001 Paul was asked to become general manager of a planned new hotel but after months of planning the project didn’t get off the ground.
‘I spent a lot of time at weekends and nights researching and planning this project,’ Paul remembers.
‘Although it didn’t work out I learned a lot from the process which was invaluable when the Claregalway opportunity came up.
Sitting on a main artery into the city with a population of 15,000 people living to the north and east and with no new hotels planned in North Galway at the time, Claregalway had a gap in the market for hotels.
It also helped that his wife, Nora, is from the area.
Nora had also worked in the industry in Eyre House and Park House where she received ‘the best training you could get anywhere,’
They worked closely with the developer for 18 months, all the time planning, researching and making advance sales, and in mid-2004 took up the lease and opened the doors of the Claregalway Hotel.
‘We had specified turn-key three star or four star hotel and the developer delivered the project to our requirements,’ he says.
They identified that weddings would be key to their success and targeted this market carefully and successfully with almost 600 catered for in the past nine years.
They established a strong and loyal local trade which has stood to them during the recession and also secured corporate business from nearby Parkmore as well as businesses in Galway city and Tuam.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.