Achray House Hotel: The Scottish hotel with 'better than Michelin' food that's succeeding as a members' club

Or you may think of a well-known brand such as Soho House with its famous guests and creative persona.

While Scotland is home to the traditional and more modern members’ club - hello, Gleneagles Townhouse - and is yet to be updated on whether on not Soho House will ever open in Glasgow, one Perthshire hotel, which has become known for its fabulous food, has taken on a variation of this business model - with surprising results.

Achray House Hotel, which overlooks Loch Earn in Perthshire, launched its ‘members’ club late last year for regular guests - and the concept has been a roaring success.

Guests pay £195 per couple per year for their membership and when they visit they only pay for either tasting menu for two or three courses or a la carte for two and any drinks.

There are no weekend supplements or anything extra to pay for dogs. The couple gets the best room available when they book and just pay for dinner and drinks. Members can come as much as they want in the 12 months and can come for a few nights at a time.

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Laura Muirhead, director at Achray House, said of devising the members’ idea: “The last four to five years have presented a lot of challenges for hospitality, not least the last couple of years where the cost-of-living crisis has made people seek the best value they can get, at the same time as making it harder for business to survive let alone grow. We saw that we had a growing number of familiar faces who kept coming back for the fantastic quality food and accommodation and wondered what we could do to both reward this loyalty and encourage more.

“My husband is an entrepreneur and has done a whole host of things and suggested that a membership/subscription model could be something to try. It began late August 2024 as a way to offer guests an affordable way to enjoy this standard of food and drinks more regularly, at the same time cutting out high commissions, voucher sites and more importantly building a following and community of people that truly value what you do and who you are.”

Mrs Muirhead and her husband were not sure what to expect, but after only a couple of months they had surpassed initial expectations.

“In mid September, early October 2024 when we started, we set a goal to get ten couples to join by the end of the year,” Mrs Muirhead said. “By November we had doubled that and now we have close to 170 with people asking about it every day and more and more joining each week. I really can’t believe it.

“The closest members we have are in Crieff and Callander. But the vast majority drive anywhere between one and six hours to get to us and they come anything from four times a year to once every three weeks, which really blows me away. With so many options out there, it’s really flattering that guests want to come so often and also travel so far.”

Part of the draw is the stunning location. Mrs Muirhead said it is “beautiful, quaint and scenic”, but the food served at Achray House has also been a selling point. The venue is a four-star gold restaurant with rooms and has 2 AA Rosettes.

Mrs Muirhead said: “The growing base of loyal, regular visitors come back for the food, the wines, the really relaxed, informality of the place and a real ‘foodie destination’.”

She said the team of just three, including herself, were “really pleased to have retained our two Rosettes for the last few years, especially given that it is often only David [the chef] in the kitchen”. But they are not resting on their laurels and hope to get into the Good Food Guide as well as the Michelin Guide, with a star.

Mrs Muirhead said: “I would love to get into the Michelin guide and would also love to make it into the Good Food Guide.

“We would love the validation that those things bring, but if getting a star meant that we would have to adapt to what we are and what we do in order to meet the expectations/requirements of that, then we would lose our USP.

“If we could get a star now, and didn’t have to change at all, then we would be over the moon, but for us maintaining the atmosphere and approach to service is far more important to us and our members.”

Having worked and travelled all over the world, including Tokyo, Holland and London, Mrs Muirhead, whose grandparents ran pubs and mother hosted students and ran a B&B, “wanted to get back to Scotland and open a ‘wee B&B’”. She admitted Achray House was not wee, but it was the location that sold it to her and her husband.

She said: “My husband and I came up from London several times to look around at places to buy in 2018/19. Although not a ‘wee B&B’, I decided Achray House was the one for its location on the water and its position in the heart of Perthshire which is pretty accessible, yet feels like you’re away from it all. It’s had a long history of being an ‘inn’ and I thought it had the potential to become something special. I wanted to make it into something a bit different with a real focus on great food and drinks, something different to what other similar style Highland hotels offer.”

There are no plans to make the hotel a members’ only club, with Mrs Muirhead saying: “As much as we really love seeing familiar faces and it feels like a real ‘home from home’ or family coming to visit, it is also nice to have the balance with new faces coming, new stories, and to see new friendships being made.” She also had this advice for any other businesses considering the members club idea. “As this business is a combination of food, atmosphere, service, accommodation, people and price you need to get the balance right and keep it right,” she said.

“Work out what your concept is and be prepared to stick to it long term. Don’t start without a really good core team who are on board with what you are and where you’re going.

“Members come for all of those elements and for consistency. It’s a challenge to keep the balance and also to stay relevant in changing and challenging times.”

It might be challenging times, but this Perthshire business, with its great food and lovely location has proved that thinking out of the box can lead you to great new things.

To find out more, visit Achray House’s website.