Boris Johnson’s politics may divide opinion but there will be general approval of his decision to whisk Carrie off to the Pig in the South Downs country-house hotel to celebrate Mother’s Day.
There will be a fair degree of envy too. It’s generally easier to find a No 10 official who understands what a party is than to nab a night at a Pig hotel. This collection of eight shabby-chic bolt holes is as popular as Peppa Pig World and they are already almost entirely booked until late September. That’s the kind of spring statement other hotel owners would give their general manager’s eye teeth for, so how do the Pigs do it?
It starts with the buildings. From the splendid grade II listed mansion above Harlyn Bay in Cornwall to the doll’s-house dimensions of the Pig at Bridge Place in Kent, the group likes nothing more than rescuing a big old country pile from a sorry state of dereliction and masterminding its spectacular resurrection. Not just any old mansion, mind. For the founder and chairman Robin Hutson conviviality is as key as character, so every property needs to have party-house potential, with generous amounts of communal space for socialising late into the night.
Take the Pig at Combe, for example, an Elizabethan manor in Devon. Pre-porkification, you lost the will to live crossing the threshold of its stuffy Great Hall. Now it has been transformed into a buzzy bar, with low-slung couches, shelves of coloured cocktail glasses suspended against the mullioned windows and an addictive playfulness that wouldn’t be out of place in the capital’s trendiest drinking dens.
That joie de vivre is due in large part to the trademark interior design, which is overseen by Hutson’s wife, Judy. She is all about quirky cosiness and her look (mismatched upholstery and furniture, dressers weighed down with trays of booze, old ancestral portraits and endless examples of taxidermy) will certainly have made up for the lack of £840-a-roll gold wallpaper for Carrie.
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The look is unpretentious and aimed at putting guests instantly at ease. The same ethos extends to the food, which is fuss free but high quality, celebrates local suppliers and sustainable practices and is as much about the “atmos” as the ingredients.
● The Pig at Harlyn Bay
● The Pig in the South Downs
● The Pig at Bridge Place, Kent
In truth, though, both dining and decor are not that difficult to replicate. What’s not so easy to reproduce is the service — it is the people who are the Pigs’ secret sauce. The teams are genuine, enthusiastic and knowledgeable because their management teams are empathetic and supportive and there are ample training opportunities and promotion pathways (I’ve watched several rise up the ranks from junior waiters to senior management).
The Pigs pay above the going rate too — junior waiters with little or no experience are on well north of £20,000 — so, unlike many competitors who are struggling to recruit, their properties are fully staffed. And while many hotel stays are being spoilt at the moment by slow service from staff who are tired and tetchy because they’re overworked, a friend who is an early riser told me how he got up at 5am while at the Pig on the Beach in Dorset recently and went downstairs to be greeted with a cheery smile and the offer of a cuppa.
That’s not to say I don’t have criticisms. For a start, it’s Pigs not Pugs, so Carrie must have left Dilyn the dog with Pen Farthing for the weekend. Surely anywhere of this calibre should have a few pooch-friendly rooms, at least?
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My biggest bugbear, though, are its room-only rates. I complain about this every time I see Hutson. He rolls his eyes — of course he can afford to, given their occupancy levels — but eating your own body weight in bacon and eggs at breakfast is an integral, and one of the most enjoyable, aspects of a country-house weekend and should be included in the lead-in advertised prices. Something tells me Boris wouldn’t object to being ambushed by a fry-up on holiday either. However, despite objecting to the extra charge for me to clog up my arteries, I still find the Pigs the safest recommendation when friends ask for suggestions for a weekend away. Now it seems they have the prime minister’s vote too.
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