Living Wage Week 9-15 November, brings good news for Eddrachilles: we have been accredited as Scotland’s first hotel to meet the Living Hours standard.
We have been an accredited Real Living Wage employer since 2018, when we were among the first three hotels in Scotland to achieve that standard. Back then it took us a year to go from the 2017 aspiration to displaying our new plaque. Living Hours has been a longer journey: we began working towards it in 2024, having paid back our COVID loans and steadied our business once more. It has taken three years.
We learned a lot along the way, especially by talking with our team. Good working hours need to balance individual preferences about shift patterns with the need to deliver the high-quality hospitality service our guests expect. The final piece in the jigsaw was agreeing compensation for the rare occasions when we cancel a shift at shorter notice.
Living Hours asks employers to provide:
Contracts that reflect the hours people actually work
At least 16 guaranteed hours a week, unless someone wants fewer
At least four weeks’ notice of shifts, with guaranteed payment if a shift is cancelled by the employer within that notice period
That’s the minimum. At Eddrachilles, for example, our guaranteed contractual minimum is 35 hours a week not just 16. . We’re a busy seasonal hotel, so our challenge is often to make sure the team doesn’t end up working too much. Every business is different but where a standard feels easy, we want to stretch further, respecting the contribution each employee makes.
This award isn’t a destination. We want to keep building on the standards we’ve achieved. We’re grateful to Living Wage Scotland for its encouragement, and for the reminder that steady, cumulative small steps can take you a long way.
Of course, there are sound business reasons for doing this. Recruitment and retention matter in every hospitality business, and we’re fortunate to have a good number of returning staff, most of whom have worked more than two seasons with us. In a competitive job market, it also matters that we can say to candidates: “don’t just take our word for what it’s like to work here. An independent organisation has checked our practice against clear standards”.
And our guests can feel reassured, too. Nobody wants a holiday built on someone else’s exploitation. Hospitality doesn’t always have the best reputation for working conditions, and these are tough times for the sector. Accreditation gives us a way to show, beyond our own promises, our resilience and determination to build better.
That’s more than a logo or a point of pride. It’s a genuine win for the Scottish economy. We’re delighted to be Scotland’s first hotel to achieve Living Hours accreditation, but we sincerely look forward to being the first of many.
Read more on Living Wage Scotland
