New owners talk about the future of Lybster's Portland Hotel

A handover of keys outside the Portland Hotel in Lybster signalled the moment the iconic NC500 building was taken over by its new owners.

Steven Swan, who had run the hotel along with his sister Sharn from April 2018 until recently, talked to the paper about his reasons for moving on and the new owners divulged their plans for the spectacular location.

"When I was going to miss my daughter's first day at school I realised that the hotel trade was just too many hours," said Steven. "I just didn't want to miss those important milestones in her life so my sister and I decided that it was time to sell and move on."

Before completely breaking ties with the hotel, however, he says he is planning to get married there on Saturday (April 8). "It'll be the first wedding held here by the new owners but we'll do a lot of the planning and show how it's done. It'll be a gentle learning curve for them." Steven said the Portland Hotel is especially popular as a wedding venue anyway and that there are a lot of nuptial events already booked for this year which the new owners will take on board.

"We have no immediate plans and will be around for a while," he added. Steven worked alongside other family members to transform the ailing, run-down hotel when he took it over on April 11, 2018. "There were four rooms usable and we opened with ten rooms in the first year. We had 12 rooms the following year, the next year we had 16 rooms, 18 the next and this year it will be open with 22 rooms. It was completely dilapidated at first. There were ceilings down everywhere, dozens of birds getting in, leaks all over when the water was turned on – it was diabolical."

Years of hard work have obviously paid off as the new owners, Jeff Harling and his wife Sam Mofttah, were looking for the perfect Highland location to purchase. "I came up here in October last year to have a look at the place and shared some pictures with my wife who was in Canada," Jeff recalled.

"I said this is an absolutely lovely place – what Steve had done with the establishment is very, very good. We put in an offer and on March 17 the hotel became Sam's as it was her dream and ambition."

The couple say that Sam will be the owner of the hotel and Jeff will be operational manager. Sam, who is of Egyptian heritage, is a hotelier to trade and runs another hotel at Niagra Falls. "My full [first] name is Ebtesam which means 'smiling face' in Egyptian," said Sam "I come from a background in hospitality. I love the Highlands and it was always my dream to come here. I fell in love immediately when I saw the building for sale."

The couple say they will keep many of the key elements introduced over the last few years by Steven and Sharn but say they have plans to improve the external façade of the Portland Hotel. "We will preserve the heritage and give it a beautiful new look. Our plans include increasing employment options for the locals."

Jeff and Sam also talked about growing organic produce at the back of the hotel to add quality and variety to the dishes available.

Sam wanted to reassure local people that "nothing crazy will happen" with the Portland Hotel. "If any changes happen it will be for the sake of improvements. There will be opportunities for staff to have more earning hours as well."

After Steve has had his wedding at the hotel and checked out, the owners will prepare it for its official opening on Saturday, April 15.

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