Landmark celebrates 25 years
IN A time when budgets are stretched to the limit, and the accommodation industry, like many others, is also struggling to survive, it’s heartening to discover that the Fern Hill Hotel at Tweedie, in the Midlands, is doing very nicely, thank you.
Having just celebrated its 25th anniversary (under the ownership of Karen and Gion – John – Poltera), this three-star jewel of the Midlands, with origins dating from 1851, has become an institution in the area.
Conferences, parties, events, weddings – all help keep Fern Hill tills ringing, and its 80 staff/students fed.
Students? Well yes, because this is the only hotel in the area that also has a hands-on hotel training college. For the past 20 years, Fern Hill Hotel Training School, accredited with training authorities CATHSSETA and City and Guilds, and with membership of international bodies like Chaine des Rotisseurs, the oldest gastronomic society in the world, International Association of Gastronomy, has been producing up to 40 first class graduates a year in hotel management and professional cooking.
“We’re very proud of our school, and of the hotel, which we’ve literally built up from nothing over the past quarter century,” says owner, hotelier and restaurateur Gion Poltera, who with his wife, Karen, keeps the establishment running like clockwork.
The pair built up the hotel pretty much from scratch when they bought the run-down property in September 1989. The original farmhouse, built in 1852, had become a trading post and boarding house for the Voortrekkers who stopped off before descending the treacherous Umgeni Gorge. It went on to become a popular holiday resort until the late 1960s.
When the Polteras bought it in 1989, it was a dilapidated home with several long-term tenants.
“It was in a terrible state,” said Gion. “We had hoped to go into partnership with a builder from Johannesburg, but he took one look at the state of the buildings and fled. So Karen and I rolled up our sleeves, drew up our own plans, took on our own building team, and slowly rebuilt it the way we wanted it.”
The newly refurbished hotel opened in May 1990.
The husband-and-wife team are no strangers to the hospitality industry, Gion and Karen having started various well-known restaurants in Gauteng between 1980 and 1989, and Gion having run top hotels – Johannesburg’s Landdrost, the Balalaika and The Edward, in Durban.
Today Fern Hill has 27 beautifully appointed bedrooms (including the Nelson Mandela Suite, where Madiba himself spent a day), numerous function and conference facilities (that can host up to 400 people), an award-winning restaurant, and even a theatre.
“We raised R2 million for charity in the first 14 years after opening the theatre. Nowadays we use it mainly for wedding receptions, parties, and only the occasional concert and dinner dance – the Hairy Legged Lentil Eaters performed there recently for the hotel’s 25th anniversary.”
Getting the business established wasn’t easy, initially.
“It required blood, sweat and tears. We opened with six rooms, then built another 10 in 1991, and slowly underwent a metamorphosis, adding many new venues over the years. We also had to revamp the tennis court – arguably the oldest tennis court in the province – and build a new pool. We turned the original one into a septic tank.”
The Polteras do a lot for outreach communities, and helped launch a B&B initiative in the nearby township of Mpophomeni.
“Scandinavians, in particular, love it. We have trained many township residents on how to host guests, and they provide visitors with a total experience, including a sangoma throwing bones, dances around the campfire, visits to the Wall of Reconciliation and a shebeen. It is wonderful to assist community-based projects and the businesses are doing extremely well.”
Gion, who speaks seven languages, believes hard work and attention to detail, as well as tip-top customer service, are vital to success. The hotel’s management and staff, as well as the students, are outstanding examples of five-star customer service.
He adds an intriguing snippet of info: “When Nelson Mandela stayed here in 1996, we were sitting talking in the lounge and he told us he was captured right outside the hotel, where the railway tracks pass. The goods train used to stop here in the evenings (and still does, to this day) to allow the passenger train to overtake. His plan was to jump on the goods train and hitch a ride to Bloemfontein.”
Madiba was awarded the Freedom of Howick in 1996, and spent the night of December 12 that year at the Fern Hill Hotel. “It was an incredible experience sitting talking to him. He left an enormous legacy in this area.”
Although theirs is smaller, there’s no doubt the Poltera family have created a legacy of their own with the Fern Hill Hotel.