Stirling’s Boutique Apart Hotel

Too many people treat Stirling like a quick photo stop: Castle, a coffee, then straight back on the road. We wanted to challenge that with a simple idea, build the kind of boutique accommodation that makes you want to stay the night and use the city as your base. Mark Wallace sits down with us at Studio King Street to unpack how King Street Apart Hotel came to life inside our 45 King Street development, and why we built something closer to big-city standards without pretending to be a full-service luxury hotel. 

We get specific about what an apart hotel actually is, where it sits between serviced apartments and traditional hotels, and how we deliver comfort with practical details like kitchenette areas, fridges, and in-room coffee, while partnering with brilliant local businesses for breakfast, dinner, and extras. We also share what we’ve learned from VisitScotland, tour operators, and the travel trade about international tourism demand, especially from the US, and why heritage features matter so much to the guest experience. 

From themed tours and the FIT traveller market to the Stirling Stay proposition and our digital concierge, we talk about turning overnight stays into longer, richer trips across Stirling and the Forth Valley. We also explore the bigger picture: how the hotel complements our co-working space, events offering, and recording studio, plus why corporate travel and the MICE market can help fill the quieter months. If you care about hospitality, destination marketing, or building a locally connected business, there’s plenty to take away. 

If you enjoy the conversation, subscribe to the Sterling Business Podcast, share it with someone planning a Scotland trip, and leave us a review with your favourite thing to do in Stirling.

Transcript

Welcome From Studio King Street

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Hi, welcome back to the Sterling Business Podcast from Studio King Street. Today, Mark Wallace is here to uh interview me and uh ask questions about King Street Depart Hotel, uh, which is a business that we have here uh that's been trading for about a year in uh number 45 King Street in Sterling. So, Mark, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

I'm all right. Thanks for inviting me again.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

You're more than welcome. You're becoming a permanent fixture here these days.

Why The Apart Hotel Exists

SPEAKER_00 0:37

I know, and the coffee's really good. You have to tell me where you're getting the beans from. I will another time. I can I can tell you it's part of this episode because it's very irrelevant. Is it well? I'll tell you what, we'll get on because we're talking about a part hotel. And my first question is it's straightforward. How did it come about and why?

What An Apart Hotel Means

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Uh so it's part uh uh the King Street Apart Hotel is part of a development. Uh we have about 20,000 square feet of uh space here uh in number 45 King Street, and uh it's predominantly kind of uh made up of four businesses now. It was originally two. We had uh the apart hotel, which I'll talk a bit more about, and working flexi spaces, which is our business center and co-working hub. Uh we've since added uh studio King Street, which is uh you know the recording studio that we're we're set in now, and our events business. So we had four businesses within the building. But specifically the apart hotel, um I was in the service accommodation business uh prior to uh taking on this venture. Um and I like the idea of uh you know providing hospitality, high-end boutique-level hospitality to the discerning traveler, if you like, who has a choice of where to stay. So we originally had some flats uh you know uh not too far from here that I used to kind of, you know, that were done up pretty nicely and uh I rented out on a per-night uh type basis. So that gave me the kind of uh the bug, if you like, to do something a bit more scalable. But I wanted the location to be more city center-centric and an area that wasn't um well, A had some gaps in the market in terms of a need, uh, but secondly, uh an area that wasn't overpopulated, like Edinburgh and Glasgow. So Joe Sterling. So what is an apartment hotel? Okay, um, it means many things to many people. So one extreme, it could be like my serviced accommodation I used to have, where you have a full facility with a kitchen, cooking facilities uh for the guests to use, um, as well as uh, you know, laundry linen capabilities to do their washing if they're there for you know more than one night, for example, multiple days. Uh the other extreme, you have a full-service hotel. So we're in a city center here. There's lots of full-service hotels where you you have an on-site bar, an on-site restaurant. You could probably get your dry cleaning and things like that done as well at that facility. We're neither of those. So what we are is something that is more akin to a hotel room. It has limited facilities. Uh we do have like a kitchenette area, but no cooking facilities within our suites. Um and if you want dry cleaning, we can we can facilitate that with uh with some local partners. We don't have a bar, we don't have a restaurant, but we can facilitate that by working with a lot of the uh local businesses that are on our doorstep. Um we can help provide breakfast, we can provide help provide dinner, but they're all separate businesses and they're not part of our establishment. So that's what how we define an apart hotel.

Raising Quality For International Guests

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Well, fortunately, I've been in an apart hotel before. And you mentioned Edinburgh and Glasgow, and that's where you're gonna see them. You're gonna see them places like like Edinburgh. So I've seen this this model work. In fact, I'll tell you what, it was it's Frederick Street Hotel in in Edinburgh on Frederick Street, they do the same idea as you. So I thought about how nice that was, and I've had a look around your rooms and yeah, it's more than the hotel, isn't it? I mean, these rooms are on par with your big city hotels, which is unusual. No disrespect, but you don't normally get that quality in a small city like Sterling. What made you go that extra level with the the quality?

SPEAKER_01 4:22

So a lot of it was down to feedback, you know, any good business thoughts with good market research. So, you know, talking to uh visit Scotland, talking to tour operators, uh we'll we'll come on to what our demographic and what our markets are. Uh, but a big part of our market is uh is is is international tourism, okay? Um and what we were finding from talking to some of these tour operators and some of the you know institutions like Visit Scotland were that uh people were coming to Sterling, um you know, significant amounts of visitors come into Sterling, uh almost five million visitors a year. Uh these are the 2024 figures, will come into Sterling. Uh but international overlike overnight tourism, 580,000 nights uh were booked in 2024, bringing about 188 million pounds worth of uh revenue uh into the Fourth Valley. Okay. Stirling's obviously a big part of that. But what we were finding is that a lot of travellers um from our research were coming for the afternoon, going to visit the castle, weren't staying overnight. The reason for that was that um the feedback, one of the main reasons was uh lack of quality accommodation.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

That that makes sense. And I've had a little bit of an insight into the tourist industry. And people coming from America and places like this, I'll say America, are coming for two or three weeks. They're on a tour of Europe. Now they're stopping in some real classy hotels on that tour. So yeah, they're looking for something just a little bit special. Yeah, and and you offer that.

Tour Groups And Themed Stays

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yeah, so what we've done is we've provided um we we think we've provided, and the feedback, certainly from our reviews, kind of tells us that. Um we've we've provided a quality product. So we've uh we've gone boutique. We never would use the word luxury in any of our marketing material because we would classify that as is as a full service hotel, you know, the Ritz-Carlons of this world and things like that. But we've gone for a very um particular finish, uh very high-end boutique. We've kept the heritage features. We're in a list of buildings, so we've retained the traditional corners, you know, around the ceilings, and and we've we've brought back a lot of those kind of features which the Americans in particular, the American market, which is probably our largest market from a tourism perspective, uh absolutely love because you know they don't kind of get the uh the history to the same kind of uh level over in the States than the um than we do in Scotland. Um and yeah, you know, as I say, probably from April through to October, that's our busiest season. And it's predominantly international tourists that have come to stay with us uh during that time. You've been gone for about a year now, is that correct? So we've been trading uh the hotel business for just coming up to a year now. So we managed to get the first full season in last year, uh, which was which was great. Um notwithstanding the uh the walls that are breaking out around the world, uh this summer also looks uh particularly strong in terms of existing bookings. Uh we've got more of the uh tourism trade uh signed up, uh more than we had last year. So we've got uh lots of tours kind of blocked out and we're getting a lot, a lot more kind of uh you know, day-to-day kind of bookings coming through uh to plug the gaps around those tours.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

And I think that's because people are starting to know where you are. Because I know uh a year ago you took a big risk putting this hotel in the middle of King Street, because it's not in your face as you walk up to King Street, you have to come into the building to see it. So it was a big risk, but it seems to have paid off because you've just said you've got the advanced bookings, etc. So you say tour tours, is that like from a a tour company uh or one company, or is it various companies approaching you?

SPEAKER_01 8:10

It kind of varies. So within the uh travel trade as it's defined, uh Visit Scotland define it as travel trade, um, we have a number of different operators uh that uh you know provide tours and um and and uh organise tours for they call it the FIT market, f frequent individual traveller. So that could be um couples, it could be families uh on a self-drive type uh tour. Uh at the other at the other extreme, we have large coach tours. Now we're not big enough to take the large coach tours because we've only got 15 rooms and suites, but we have that kind of middle section of uh tours um where you know we'll bring uh you know they'll bring a 16-seater coach or a 24-seater coach uh full of tourists from the US. They'll tend to be themed in some sort of way. So uh we had a guest on previously who talked about Scotland folk tours. And uh, we've been very fortunate to look after those American guests that are here to predominantly listen to folk music and doing their kind of tour around Scotland over a two-week uh period. And we get always uh we're lucky enough to get them on the last night. They had they come here, they stay for the evening, they take the whole hotel about 30, 40 times a year. And um and and then they they listen to some folk music uh with their uh favoured artists, and then you know, we whisk them back to Edinburgh Airport and send them back to um you know back of the States. So we have lots of themes, theme tours uh like that this year, hiking tours, walking tours. We've got lots of uh nice walks around here in Stirling. So it's not just about the history and the heritage. We've actually got uh quite a lot to offer as it happens.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

So if someone was looking to come to Stirling, because it it's got lots of history, but it has got cycle tracks and walks, and we've got mountains down the road. We've even got a safari part down the road with lines and such like. What would you rec how would you recommend they they contact you for a specifically, you know, a Pacific tour, a Pacific room and type of room, etc.?

The Stirling Stay And Concierge

SPEAKER_01 10:18

So well the the the obvious place to go to is our website, which is Kingstreetdeparthotel.com. Uh so we have a couple of sections on that website uh about things to do. Uh while you're here in Stirling, as an example. Uh we can custom build um small tours for you if you are interested in that. We can help provide uh transport through our uh network of uh you know contacts that we have. If you want a minibus, for example, to go on a tour around the Fourth Valley. Um we've got some interesting things coming up that we're going to announce at uh the Visit Scotland Connect event in uh uh in mid-April um in terms of kind of how we can kind of you know build on the on the proposition. Uh we started with a proposition last year called the Stirling Stay. The whole objective of the Stirling Stay, uh we we've got uh material on our website that talks about this, but the whole idea is to try and get um people to stay in Stirling for longer or in the Fourth Valley for longer instead of just one night stays, you know, as a transient kind of pass-through to you know, get to the Highlands, for example. Uh because there's so much to offer here, not just in Stirling, but in the Fourth Valley. You can do everything from, you know, yes, visit the castle or the National Wallace Monument uh or the Kelpies in Falkirk or Dune Distillery. Um and whilst you're up in Dune, you can you know you can check out the you know the um uh some of the kind of kind of films and and and and uh you know that associated kind of stuff up there. But then um you can go and weave a tart and scarf at Radical Weavers. So as an American tourist, I'm sure you'd love to be able to do something like that and spend a couple of hours with us to do that. We can facilitate all of that with our digital concierge that you can get access to through our website, uh through uh or giving uh Laura a call, our house manager, and she'll uh help you guide through what what you can do to make the most of your time here in Stirling.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

What a great location. I mean, you've just mentioned Dunecastle, Game of Thrones, Monty Python and the Holy Grail Grail. I mean, we're only 25, maybe top 30 minutes from Loch Lomb in Balmaha. I mean, Stirling is the place to come. It is, isn't it? It really is.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah, and but it kind of almost gets kind of passed through. Um you get a lot of visitors, as I mentioned earlier, nearly 5,000 visitors. Uh sorry, five um five million visitors. But you know, how many of those visitors actually dwell and stay overnight and see what um Sterling and the Fourth Valley have got to offer? Very few of those. Um and uh it's you know, there's the the the you know there's so much to see here and so much to do here uh in a very historic city. So um hopefully more and more people will spend more time here going forward.

Awards And Local Partnerships

SPEAKER_00 13:07

I definitely think they will because you've you've had a great year by all accounts, because I don't know, rumour control. I just keep looking at my phone and my media, and this little face pops up from Jordeland. Am I allowed to say that? Where are you from originally? Can I ask? I'm from Gateset. Gateshead. Ah, well, I know Gateshead. Um so basically your picture keeps popping up and your hotel keeps popping up and your business because you've you've been winning a few reward awards, haven't you?

SPEAKER_01 13:29

We have, yeah. We've been uh we've been good fortunate this year. Uh so started the yeah um we you know I won a property developer uh award for the uh for the work that we've done here in number 45 King Street. And uh we've just recently been awarded the uh best accommodation in Sterling. Wow. You must you must be proud.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

No, it's fantastic. So hopefully we'll go from strength to strength and keep building. Well, you've got a great team here, because from coming into this building, I've been in a few times, you're always welcomed in. As you mentioned earlier, in an earlier podcast, you've got parking facilities, etc. What I love about the whole concept of this is yes, you've got all the businesses, but it's your engagement with the people of Stirling. And I think that's fantastic. Down to a local a local um food beverage company, you you buy your coffee beans from them, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yeah, so we we've we've got uh quite an extensive community engagement plan. Um so you know, food and beverages obviously uh we don't provide that on site, but we want to offer our guests the best coffee. Um so the local coffee roaster makes the coffee pods for us for the rooms, for the pod machines. Uh he also provides the coffee beans for our business lounge for the uh for the flexible workspace business that we have, um, as one example. Uh we work with the with uh some local businesses to provide um breakfast for our guests uh because we we're not in a position to be able to uh cook or or provide breakfast uh on site because we don't have a bar, we don't have a restaurant. Um and then you know the partnerships that we then have with all of the kind of local hostelies around the the city are pretty strong. So that's on the food and beverage side, but we extend our kind of community engagement uh further than that. So if you walk around our building, you'll see lots of artwork. Um that's working with uh local artists that actually have their studios in King Street. So, you know, they we've become a an art, uh, an art uh gallery. So you can actually buy some of the paintings that you can see uh in in when you're staying in one of our suites or one of our rooms. Um and you can get some kind of inspiration from some of the kind of murals and some of the work that uh you know that's been done by uh by another artist uh based here in King Street as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

So do you know it's fantastic. And and uh you're getting visitors from abroad. Are the rooms themed? Do you have names for the rooms?

Linking Hotel Workspaces Events Studio

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Uh we have several of uh several of those rooms, uh which are named or several suites, and we'll probably increase that. So the naming of some of the rooms came about through some of the kind of uh charitable work that we're doing and some of the kind of giving back. So uh we have uh we've chosen four charities for this year. Um and uh one of them is uh the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders Trust, which is uh you know very much associated with Stirling Castle. It was the garrison for the for the Argyle and Sutherland Highlander Regiment for many, many years. So we've we've named one of our rooms uh after their mascot, uh the little Shetland pony called Krugin. So every time somebody physically stays in that room or that suite, we donate a percentage of that uh room booking to the trust, to the charity. And uh we've named three others. We've got Maggie's, so they're Maggie's cancer, um, we've got Strathcaren, uh, the hospice, and we've got the coronation room, which is named after the uh the Church of the Holy Rood, the location where uh the the only monarch outside of Westminster Abbey in the UK was was crowned many, many years ago. Um so you know we give back to local charities for when people stay in those rooms, and we'll probably do more of that going forward as we uh as we expand our footprint.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Do you know what really amazed me, Neil? I spoke to you over the last few days about the various businesses, and you've got various businesses. How do these businesses all complement each other? What part does a part hotel play in all the other stuff you do?

SPEAKER_01 17:34

So as I mentioned, uh the the predominant market for us is is the uh is the tourist sector. Okay. Whether that's domestic tourism, people coming from other parts of the UK or people coming from abroad, namely American Americans and also kind of mainland Europe. Um so that that's our kind of stable business, if you like, for the uh for the summer season from just after Easter, typically through to the end of October. The shoulder season, however, so the the the months out with uh April to October um are particularly quiet time is a particularly quiet time in Stirling, unless there's other you know major events going on. Um you know, that obviously kind of bring people to the area. So what we're very much pivoting to now is the corporate market, which is an all-year-round business. Okay. Um we're looking to see what the composite offers or the offers we can put together which incorporate our events business with our co-working business slash workspace and the hotel accommodation. And uh there's something called the mice market meetings, incentives, conferences and events. Um so that's going to be a pr a big focus for us going forward so we can try and uh you know bring more people to Sterling out with the kind of main tourist season from April through October.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

That makes sense because they are lean months traditionally. However, I know the seasons are extending to the end of October. So you've got the the flex working flexi spaces is the the sort of the offices being rented. You've then got the King's. I want to come back, you've got the Part Hotel, you've got the the King's events section. King Street events.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Yeah. Uh we've got working flexi spaces, which is a combination of the private offices and the uh co-working hub. And we also have Studio King Street, so the recording studio. So again, you know, not necessarily corporate, in some cases it is, but having people uh stay over uh and recording um podcast or other audio video content in in this recording studio here. Uh so we have four businesses on site.

Suites Layouts And Room Facilities

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Yeah. I mean that's amazing because literally you can offer accommodation, you can offer the place to do the to do the work, to actually do normal work, they can come and do entertainment. And I mentioned a previous podcast, you you're actually the hotel you mentioned earlier on, you're gonna get corporate people in. So literally they can bring their whole team to Sterling, do what they need to do, have a good time, have a good sleep in a in a boutique hotel, and literally find out a little bit more about our our lovely city.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

What we have here is 15 rooms and suites. So our suites are defined as um a lounge area with with sleeping area. Uh we can accommodate a minimum of four people in our suites. We have two family suites that can accommodate up to six people, and then we have five rooms that will accommodate couples. We can configure the beds as a twin configuration uh if if needed, uh particularly in our suites. We have small kitchenette areas with um uh no cooking facilities, but the mean it is to be able to bring food and drink in. So we have crockery, glassware, etc. Sinks, coffee pod machines, fridges uh in all of our rooms. Um so we've done them to a particularly high standard. Uh certainly feedback that we get on our reviews. And uh yeah, uh as we say, we uh we work with um local businesses to complement the offer that we uh we offer in our hotel rooms.

Expansion Plans And What’s Next

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Well, I can say I've seen the rooms, they are they are absolutely lovely. And I recommend if you're watching this podcast or you're listening, you need to get yourself to Sterling. You need to get along to a part hotel. If you've got some work to do, because you're away from home, we've got a Wii office desk there that you can use. And if you want a bit of entertainment, we've even got um an entertainment section here at um 45 King Street. Neil, I've got one last question I've got to ask you. Where do you see this all going? What's going to happen to a part hotel in the future? Is it just gonna be a national chain?

SPEAKER_01 21:44

We're just gonna keep building a skyscraper. I don't know. Uh if only we're in a listed building that wouldn't allow us to do that. But uh but watch the space. We are uh looking to expand uh sometime very soon. And uh we're looking to uh kind of build Build more of the same here in Still.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

So when Neil, so I've got to ask you this question. Where apart hotel is great, you've got the Flexi office. It just does everything this building 45 King Street. I'm really impressed. And I have one last question. Where do you see all this going? Is it going to expand? Are you going to be international, national?

SPEAKER_01 22:19

I don't think we're quite at that uh stage yet, but we're we'll probably build a skyscraper on the top of this room. It's a lifetime building, so I'm sure that uh Stirling Council would never allow us to do that. But uh no, we are looking to expand. Uh more of the same here in Stirling. Uh so high quality boutique accommodation. Um, not a million miles away from number 45. That's what I have to say to you at this stage.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

It sounds really fantastic, but you do need to have a word with your marketing team because when they asked me to come along, they sort of suggested a rider, and I said, Well, can I have a bottle of proseco and a Marx Spencer's, you know, turkey stuff sandwich? And I'm not really happy with a bottle of ginger and a Greg's pasty to be quite honest. Well, I'll probably get you next time. Thank you.