30 Years on and what a wonderful journey it has been

A Corporate move for Kevin brought our family from Pretoria to Cape Town. A new chapter for us all. The girls moved schools while I delved into a new venture. The Start of Little Scotia!

We opened our doors 15th December 1995 with only three rooms. With no experience I jumped and swam. The beginning was tough, but I worked on building a solid foundation of customers. After two years of working day and night I employed my first manager, Nicky. With her and 2 housekeepers (Gladys and Hazel) we were able to grow to 7 rooms. Soon after and with much consideration we moved to a separate home and add 3 more rooms to Little Scotia.
The girls where both in high school and we needed space to be a family.

The Guest House was doing well, and we had a good system with mangers providing much needed relief. In 2001 Nicky and Gretha moved to Potchefstroom (where they had the opportunity to start their own Guest House) and I felt their loss. Kevin left corporate and the two of us worked together to keep the business growing. In 2003 we employed our second manager Adel. Again, what a relief to have help and provide family time for us.  July 2002, we brought a 2nd adjacent property. This brought our family back home to the business and allowed us to add 4 more rooms. AS the girls finished school and started their studies they moved out, and we added 2 more rooms to the ever-growing business. We had grown from 3 rooms to 15 in 8 years.  

In 2003 we bought a smaller property up the road and moved again, adding 4 more rooms to Little Scotia. 19 rooms! Staff grew too, more responsibilities and more guests.

End of 2009 we signed a lease with our neighbour and started a full renovation of her house (Pink Palace) as we called it. In February 2010 we had all 11 rooms done and had our first guest group from the UK. We now had 30 rooms and more staff.

The world economy took a dip but we “vas byt” and kept going. Michelle and Kim were working in UK.  Michelle returned from UK and joined us in the business which made it much easier. 
Little Scotia was running well we had wonderful guests and enjoyed our (not so little) Little Scotia.
Kim also joined business and now the 4 of us worked side by side.

In 2013 we bought our very dear neighbours long time family home. Dora and her Husband Owen raised their 3 boys in this home. They retired in this home. Dora’s mulberry tree still stands in our driveway as a memorial to the wonderful neighbours they were.

We did extensive renovations to this new addition and added 6 rooms. 36 rooms!

Little Scotia is a part of our family story. Our girls grew up in it. Now they are married with children of their own who are also a part of this wonderful place.
We have had our ups and downs (Covid was a particular low) We persevered and made it through.
Kevin and I have semi-retired, and Michelle and Kim are running the Guesthouse. With 18 staff members most of whom have been with us for 10 years and longer. This year we say goodbye to Faniswa who has been our supervisor of 20 years.

This December marks 30 Years. We love our guests and what we do. Thank you to all our loyal guests we look forward to many more years. Our next chapter is loading, and we look forward to sharing more soon.

 

xx Mariehette