We’re looking forward to hosting Christmas in Invergarry this year and spending time with family. Our last guest is arriving on Christmas Eve in time for dinner, we hope!
Brexit has loomed large this year. We think that the uncertainties around it have already had an impact on us during 2019 (just like other tourism businesses we’ve spoken to). The usual patterns of who visits the hostel, and when, have definitely been less predictable than in past seasons. Looking forward, it’s hard to imagine that the final version of Brexit (whatever that is) is going to be good news for us.
The weather has also proved challenging in 2019. It wasn’t a great year for the winter mountaineers, with little snow, and it was a wet summer too. Our drying room did a good job getting wet hikers and campers ready to brave the elements again!
On a positive note, we have been pleased to welcome back many of our regular guests. Congratulations to those of you who have completed a round of Munros this year and to those who are getting ever closer to doing so.
We were absolutely delighted to be shortlisted in The Great Outdoors Awards 2019 for Hostel or Bunkhouse of the Year and The Extra Mile Award. We want to thank the guests who nominated us in these categories and for anyone who voted for us. We really appreciate your support. We have worked very hard since taking over the hostel to make it a place we’d want to stay in ourselves and we’re glad that we seem to have succeeded.
We’ve continued to make improvements to the hostel during 2019. This November when the hostel was closed we upgraded the kitchen. We’ve removed the old gas cooker, washing machine and tumble dryer and replaced them with a new cooker and cooker hood, extra fridge space and additional cupboard space.
We’re really pleased with it. It’s been put through its paces now by a couple of groups and we look forward to many more meals being prepared and cooked in the future. In fact we’ll probably be using it for our own Christmas meal this year. Well, we need to know how it all works before our New Year guests arrive!
However you’re spending the festive season we’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas.
