Lockdown Leader: The Pig
If your favourite UK hotel has a power shower or fresh milk in the fridge or a kitchen garden, then Robin Hutson is probably the man who originally set that in motion, and “revolutionised the British hotel experience.”
The founder and chief executive of UK hotel business Home Grown Hotels, and formerly co-founder of Hotel du Vin and the chair of the Soho House group, Hutson has been called “Britain's Most Influential Hotelier” and nine years with Creative Director wife Judy, yet again reshaped the UK hotel landscape by launching the first of their country retreats known as The Pig. In locations across the south of England, the seven bucolic bolt holes provide luxury in the most modern way - less bling here, more nurture. The Pig is all about local produce, relaxed interiors and kicking back, “luxury for the soul” as one impressed critic said recently.
Currently, like most restaurants and hotels, they’re closed but to mark their grand re-opening (at whatever date that may be), they’re giving away the first 190 overnight stays in any one of their six hotels to NHS workers from within a 25-mile radius of their premises. There will also be an “NHS house party” for medical workers at each respective Pig hotel, lavishing them with a delicious feast including veg and fruit from the hotels' kitchen gardens, along with bed and breakfast.
This new promotion is part of the #treatournhs initiative, founded by Sarah White, in which holiday letting companies are giving their cottages over to NHS workers for a week or two once they open again. More than 150 holiday homes, from Scottish castles to French chateaux have signed up to it. The Pig was the first hotel group to come on board.
Said Pig Hotels chairman Robin Hutson, "I think it’s true for most people in this country that in the past we have perhaps taken our NHS and care workers for granted… not so now! At this time when we really need them, the whole country is showing their deep appreciation and respect in many ways for how they put their lives on the line every day to keep us all safe. This initiative, to use our hotels to give some of them a treat when eventually we can re-open is really the least we can do. And with , THE PIG at Harlyn Bay in Cornwall (where the much anticipated opening has been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic) key workers will be the first guests ever to stay.” Hospitality at its finest.