Fife’s Balbirnie House Hotel is celebrating after being named ‘Best Wedding Hotel on a Global Basis’ by the international Haute Grandeur Awards.
In addition to securing the acclaimed global title, Balbirnie claimed the titles of ‘Best Classic Hotel in Europe’, ‘Best Country Hotel in Europe’, and ‘Best Function Venue Hotel in Europe’ at the annual awards, which relies heavily on the positive feedback of guests.
The clutch of award wins come as a well-received reward for the hotel’s brigade, who have overcome numerous challenges resulting from the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.
Nicholas Russell, Balbirnie House Managing Director, has said of the achievement: “Our wedding planning team was faced with apparently unsurmountable obstacles when hospitality was closed due to the global pandemic. As 2020’s events continued to unfold, we saw many wedding clients needing to change their intended wedding dates up to five times, and successfully managing that timeline was the single biggest hospitality challenge we have ever seen in our 3 decades as a hotel. I pay tribute to our wedding planning team, their hospitality and ongoing combined efforts to assist all clients was truly remarkable’.
The Haute Grandeur Award wins have come at an important time for the hotel, which has continued to book weddings and large-scale future events throughout the lockdown periods. With over 330 future weddings confirmed, couples who have chosen the venue can be safe in the knowledge that their celebration will be world class.
Indeed, the facilities at Balbirnie House Hotel in 2021 are better than ever thanks to numerous renovations which took place during the enforced closures. Guests can enjoy several refurbished guestrooms and bathrooms, whilst the hotel’s four kitchens have undergone nearly £250,000 worth of improvements.
Nicholas Russell has dedicated the 2021 awards ‘To the boys, girls, men and women who have made up our hotel brigade over the 3 decades. We are once again so very proud to have been invited to represent Scotland in the global awards, and we are so very humbled once again by the results.’
The achievement is one of the first to be enjoyed in post-lockdown trading and follows the hotel’s success at the 2020 Scottish Hotel Awards, where Balbirnie House became Scotland’s Wedding Hotel of the Year, for the 14th time in sixteen years.
When asked to comment on the hotel’s continuing achievements, Russell attributes it to there being something in the Markinch drinking water.
