Andrew Creese lives and breathes hospitality. If Malmaison’s Chief Executive Officer, Robert Cook (see Issue 3 of B4) has a protégé, Andrew would surely be a strong candidate. Everything about this impressive thirty one year old echoes premier customer service, standards and order. With a resumé that General Managers ten years his senior would bite their right arm off for, Andrew is more than capable of driving Malmaison Oxford forward and reinforcing it as the group’s flagship property, and Oxford’s number one hotel.

“I have spent most of my life in a hotel,” admits Andrew, “having worked my school summer holidays in part-time capacities, doing anything I could to learn the trade. I wouldn’t say I was soaking up experience to get to where I am today, but it has obviously helped to learn the ropes at many different levels.

“I then went to study hospitality at University, followed by a year in room service at The Balmoral, one of Edinburgh’s leading five star hotels. I then moved to The Caledonian Hilton, again five star, in conference and banqueting, co-ordinating events for up to three hundred. If you are going to cut your teeth in hotels, these are the properties you want to be doing it in.“

So, in his own opinion, has he always aspired to get the top job, or has he matured and evolved into the roles he has moved into? “I suppose when you are eighteen you have aspirations and look at General Managers you work for thinking ‘I could do that’. I was quite focused from a very early age.”

There is a strong argument that Andrew has achieved his aim already, but has much more to give. With an incredible portfolio of events under his belt – Andrew has looked after the likes of Nelson Mandela, Princess Anne, Prince Edward, Julia Roberts, Mel Gibson and Sean Connery – he nonchalantly admits that he is well versed in dealing with celebrities, royalty and politicians, and their expectations.

“The ‘glam’, I can assure you, ebbs away quite quickly! I have a job to do and I can’t be stood in awe of someone who is expecting me to do that job and to make them comfortable. People will always buy from people, real people.”

After three years at The Caledonian, and at the tender age of twenty one, Andrew was approached to join Malmaison in Edinburgh. This represented a major departure from what he had grown up with and was accustomed to. As a significantly smaller operation, Andrew was able to draw on his wide range of talents and shine in a smaller environment. “I relished the opportunity and the chance to spread my skills across more than one department. Whereas before I was an important cog in a massive machine, I was now marketing the hotel, meeting clients, selling them the rooms, setting up, serving, the whole package, and that gives you the full gambit of client service.”

Andrew then spent time working as Reception Manager, giving him more interaction with clients, as Rooms Division Manager and then Deputy Manager for three years. “I was thrown in at the deep end and I was expected to swim. As a one hundred bedroom property which went through a forty bed refurbishment, I had to learn how to cope with massive upheaval and still make the property deliver. It was invaluable to find out how a bedroom was assembled from scratch and what needed to be taken into consideration to ensure that bedroom contributed once it was ready.”

It is quite clear from talking to Andrew, that he sees every square foot of the property he is working in as an opportunity to drive income. At Malmaison, there has been an under-utilised gym in the basement for almost five years, and Andrew was quick to recognise that with a little imagination, this could be turned into a novelty suite which could add considerable value to his bottom line. It is this foresight and attention to detail which sets him apart from General Managers who are more concerned about accepting what they have rather than thinking laterally and getting more from their property.

After six years in Edinburgh, Andrew’s chief source of inspiration, Robert Cook, had seen Andrew blossom into General Manager material. “Robert’s philosophy is that if you are good enough, you are old enough, and so he gave me the opportunity to go and take over Malmaison Leeds, my first General Manager’s role, in July 2006. As a Deputy Manager, you always have the General Manager to fall back on, but everything stopped with me in my new role, and I had more responsibility than I had ever had before. It was terrifying and exhilarating, all at once!

“I knew I would make mistakes, but that’s the best way to learn. Leeds was great for introducing me to the importance of corporate networking, and as the UK’s second largest financial city, there was more than enough opportunity to perfect this aspect of my development.”

Being a shopping Mecca, combined with (then) Premier League football and the circus which surrounded it, plus being a huge venue for international singers, Andrew became indoctrinated in the ways of celebrity. He was a huge success in his two years in Leeds, winning Yorkshire Hotel of the Year and also an Acorn Award, given every year to thirty individuals to watch out for in the catering business by The Caterer Magazine.

Robert Cook then asked Andrew to open a new site, Hotel du Vin in Newcastle. Opening a new hotel for the group’s sister brand in a city which already boasted a successful Malmaison could have been perceived as an unfair challenge, but Andrew seized the opportunity, exercising his many talents to the full. He was also running alongside his guru, as Robert Cook, who, as a former General Manager of the local Malmaison, provided Andrew with the perfect link to get to know the scene in Newcastle.