Episode 2 Inside the Merchant

This is the Merchant Hotel,

a luxurious landmark in a booming Belfast.

Once a bank headquarters, its grand facade now conceals

a sumptuous playground for the seriously wealthy.

Powered by a large staff committed to 5-star service...

-Hello.

-..and classic cocktails.

This week, the hotel is fully booked and functioning at full throttle.

There's a dinner for their peers, Northern Ireland's top hoteliers...

No pressure.

..a tricky new venture, gigs for kids...

It's a daunting departure for me.

..and a mammoth makeover.

It's one drama after the other but we'll be finished, it'll be perfect.

The hotel handbook is the staff Bible,

with strict rules for clothing and conduct.

With a hectic week ahead,

executive housekeeper Eve reminds her troops of the need to be

perfectly turned out.

OK. Shoes nicely polished.

OK.

And, Sophie, lovely hair today.

-Thank you.

-And, Ashton, very good.

Very good, everyone is keeping to the rules.

-Very well presented.

-Yeah.

If you were coming to stay in a hotel of this standard and you met

a housekeeper that wasn't presented in a professional manner,

that would already place something in your mind to think,

"Hm, is that what the housekeeper looks like?"

What's that going to say about the bedroom

or the toilets or the whatever?

So, therefore, I then try to instil that into my staff,

that they take a pride in themselves,

which is then reflected into their work.

We are going to start off with personal hygiene.

So, every day, you must have taken a bath or a shower and use deodorant

before you come into work.

Because even if you have had a bath or shower, we all get sweaty when we

are working and it's not nice for someone to come in behind you.

Your personal hygiene is extremely important and it

also is important for the people who work alongside you as well.

-OK?

-Change your shirt and your underclothing daily.

Regularly brush your teeth, ensure your breath is fresh, for example,

if a smoker is speaking to a guest,

it won't be nice if they are breathing smoke around...

smoke-filled breath around the guest.

Now, we will get to the hair.

So, hair must be a natural colour, that is blonde, black,

red or brown and nothing unnatural such as purple,

green and all the time needs to be kept neatly

and groomed all the time.

All shoes should be black and socks should be black or tan,

with no bare feet, you cannot wear our shoes with no socks.

So, black or tan.

-Yeah, that's all clear?

-Do we understand,

we're clear on everything?

It's the guests' first impression of us and we want to make a good one

and that's what this is all about.

Thank you.

This hotel prides itself on giving young people a foot in the door in

the hospitality industry.

18-year-old Sophie started on work experience

and is now employed three days a week.

I find it challenging at times,

but I like to make new goals for myself.

When I do something wrong,

I do always get it corrected and make sure I do it right.

It has to be up to high standards,

because they are very high.

I've only had a couple of really, really messy people,

but I think men are far cleaner than women.

When you go into a women's, it's the make-up, the hairbrush,

the hairdryer, the clothes.

One of our rooms had fake tan on the carpet from obviously the girls

getting ready.

Sophie really has grown in confidence, grown in skill,

grown in experience.

She's now really here near enough full-time with us,

so Sophie has been a real success.

Sophie's cleaning skills have impressed,

but she has fallen foul of dress code demands.

I've only one piercing and that's my tongue.

Eve told me to take it out, so I don't have it in.

No. Eve told me to take it out, she was like, "Sophie,

"get that silly tongue ring out again."

To command rates of over £300 per night,

owner Bill Wolsey and his wife Petra decided to source fine furniture and

antiques for all the rooms.

It meant a shopping spree in the markets of Paris.

All the antiques were all chosen by myself and my wife.

That mirror, my wife and I bought in France.

This material, this comes from Paris.

This was made especially for us.

There's a lot of thought has gone into this room.

A lot of expense has gone into it.

There was a degree of fun to it. If you speak to Petra,

she mightn't say that.

I don't speak French, so she did all the negotiating.

I would say a price and if the dealer agreed too quickly,

I would tell her to bring the price down.

He would tell me, "No, you've got to negotiate another £1,000

"off of that or 1,000 euros or whatever it was."

"Righto, here we go."

And we did it, we did it.

I couldn't afford to stay in a room like this.

It's a risk for the hotel to have such expensive, opulent furniture

gracing every room.

And on her morning patrol,

eagle-eyed Eve spots a horror.

This was one of our first rooms that checked out this morning and,

unfortunately, the mirrored table has been broken in the room.

But, fortunately, the guest told us that he's accidentally

hit a glass bottle off the table so,

in terms of us having to get this fixed,

it would be around the £350, £400 mark.

So the guest has paid for that damage in advance.

If there was any other sort of damage in rooms that they're maybe

not honest about and don't tell us on checkout,

we would look to seek payment for damage and things,

because it's not acceptable if something does get broken

and left just for us to discover.

We will take this table away now

and we have a spare table.

Brilliant. We don't want the rooms to look any different for the next

guest coming in. This is obviously a weekend, so the hotel is completely

full, so we wouldn't be in a position

not to be able to let this room or anything.

Yeah, that's grand. Yeah, this one's back from repair.

We'll get it cleaned up when we're cleaning the room

and nobody'll know any different.

In this choice city centre location,

space is at a premium, so the hotel has created a roof garden

to host private events.

Today, it is getting a seasonal makeover

and a brand-new wardrobe for winter.

Every year, we theme the roof garden for winter and summer.

Some of our themes have been very successful.

Others have been not so much.

With high hopes of success,

this year's theme is inspired by a children's classic -

The Chronicles Of Narnia by CS Lewis.

We've been selling this space and

we've been promising to our guests,

"It's going to be like this, this, this and other thing,"

so it's just making sure that that's all carried out.

So I'm sure it's going to look fab. It already does.

So far, so good.

With only 24 hours of transformation time,

it's no fairy tale for the task force.

Perfect.

They also hope to recreate the Kingdom of Narnia,

complete with an entrance through wardrobe doors.

Then are you drilling holes through that door?

The problem with the door is that it's so heavy.

It's quite a large doorframe.

We would really love it at the entrance to the roof garden,

because naturally that's where it should go.

That's the entrance to Narnia, through the wardrobe door.

So it's just proving a bit tricky to get it where we would like it.

The central panel came off as one big panel.

-Yeah.

-So, that's definitely findable.

-And then the other ones...

-It's one drama after the other,

but it will be finished. It'll be perfect.

If they can sort the closet crisis,

the hotel hopes to launch a new venture

in the Narnia-themed roof garden.

A new idea we're working with at the minute now is for children's

parties. It has become a bit of a phenomenon in recent years,

but it's a very different marketplace.

We hadn't really looked into much before.

That's almost overkill on the big ones.

We're using the space whenever it's not being used during the

daytime and then we can sort of use

that space again in the evening time so we are using dead space, yes.

We're creating dreams and also maybe keeping the owner happy too.

Do you want to just put the kids' stuff up?

No kids' party is going to work without some decent nosh.

And today, some tantalising titbits are under scrutiny.

Sampling the tasty treats are lucky grown-up managers Marco,

Gavin and Rachel.

Chicken goujons, a little bit of chips, ham and cheese quiche,

cheeseburger, and then just little chocolate doughnuts.

Would you put the sauce on the side with these, then?

-Or would you...

-Yeah,

we'd put it on the side and then the children can just come along and

-take a dip.

-It is quite dry.

-Yeah.

-What about some onions, maybe?

A lot of children eat plain, you know, I would imagine.

I know from my children, after they eat sort of one or two things,

that's them, they want to move on to try something else, you know?

With the crumb on, it's really...

-Yeah.

-Light.

-Right.

-This is on the sweeter aspect of things.

The only thing I've got to say on this one is, are those the best

things for it?

Cos you can't get down. I think you can get all three layers,

whereas now you find yourself going through cream...

-Johnny, this is heaven.

-It's fantastic.

It's amazing. I was going to say, is this strawberry and champagne?

I hope it's not. It's not strawberry and champagne?

-No, no champagne in this one.

-Keep that away from the kids.

-Yeah.

Beautiful.

You kind of fool yourself into thinking it's healthy as well.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-You know, sort of?

-I thought it was.

Might have another one.

So, doughnuts.

-It's really rich.

-It's very rich, that.

-Yeah.

-Almost a little bit too rich.

We can't do all chocolate, because then parents are worried about their

clothes. It goes everywhere.

-Yeah.

-You are bringing a whole new level of logic into this.

Yeah. The next one will be...

Have to think about these things. "Not on your white dress!"

Time is running out for the roof garden transformation team and the

hotel's storeroom is plundered for some last-minute imposing props.

Well, we'll just get it all on the cage for the minute

and then stores can run it up there.

GLASS SMASHES

-Whoops!

-Minus that bit of glass.

-Not to worry.

Event designer Rachel is at the helm of the challenge.

A scheduled photoshoot piles further pressure on the team.

In under four hours, the room will be revealed on social media.

I am now going to spray.

Please, please, put those lights onto static.

Happy with a bit of flash.

Sorry, they just look like they're in a supermarket.

Then we're just going to do what I would call a whirl of snow

-around the top.

-OK.

So, right, listen up, everyone,

we have got to be out of here by four o'clock.

And we have got four hours left.

We did have an issue with the Narnia wardrobe doors,

they were supposed to be going on entry,

as we come into through the glass, so we've compromised

and we've put them on this wall

and exposed a snowy Narnia scene.

It's just trying to get any form of attachment.

Just to hide those modern-day screws.

A few finishing touches,

place the trees and then really clear up and then that's

us, we're finished - hopefully.

Before completion, Petra pops in to give her seal of approval.

-50 roses.

-Oh, super! What we'll do is...we'll snow up the gap.

-OK.

-And just have the snow spilling out of the wardrobe onto the floor.

Yeah. Delighted, I think it looks really lovely.

People have got to walk in and go...

-SHE GASPS

-Wow!

That's the reaction you want and, you know,

that is the reaction we get as well, so it's great.

We're confident that we're on the right track.

While Petra appears happy with her rooftop Narnia,

events manager Rachel has one lasting regret.

The doors... I just thought walk into the wardrobe

and there's Narnia, but the doors were on the other side,

but there's some things that we just can't do

and you just have to let it go, Rachel.

Despite Rachel's reservation,

the hotel's homage to CS Lewis completes just in time

for the photoshoot.

Today sees an important event in the hotel's calendar.

They're hosting their peers and rivals

for the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation annual gourmet dinner.

All Northern Ireland's top hotels

and restaurants are on the guest list, which means great pressure in

the Great Room for food and beverage manager, Marco.

It's 140 guests attending the dinner this evening,

all of them from the hospitality industry.

No pressure.

It's much different to a normal day in the restaurant.

On top of everything, the whole restaurant is full of hoteliers so

certainly will be watching us how...

on our skills and ability, but we love it.

One, four, five, six, eight, nine,

12, 14.

To give the event added culinary cachet,

the hotel has flown in London's hottest Michelin-starred chef -

the sizzling Ollie Dabbous.

With these events, you know, we're doing plates of 150 people.

I think it's six courses. It's a lot of organisation that goes into it.

So yeah, yeah, this is the kind of fun bit, getting,

you know, getting stuck in.

As well as overseeing the food,

Guest Chef Dabbous has insisted on his own table adornments,

complete with cabbages.

The table decoration, they are specific...

Ollie's, the chef this evening.

Normally, we wouldn't put a cabbage on the table, no.

However, not everyone is enthralled by Ollie's table centrepiece.

I think it looks disgusting.

In a garden, yeah.

It's beautiful on the garden table, but definitely not in the beautiful,

elegant dinner table.

But it's not up to me.

I'm just a dust in the system.

With a staff of 350 to inspire,

owner Bill Wolsey has a rather unorthodox management technique.

It's up to you how much...

You know what? Family's overused in business.

Bigger companies are always twittering on about families.

We have an environment where we have the highest staff retention in our

industry. Not by a small way,

but by a mile and that's because we empower people.

That's why people stay.

Not all this rubbish about sending them a birthday card

and ringing up and saying, "It's your wedding anniversary."

We're not that sort of company.

We seem to attract... We attract a nice personality,

you know, and they quickly gel no matter what department it is and

everybody... There's not a lot of cross words I've come across.

Yeah, there's lots of cross words.

-Well, yeah, from you!

-Yeah.

Well, he would argue with me,

but then I can't tell him a little white lie,

cos he completely knows you're doing that stuttery thing

and I just don't it anyway.

If I'm trying to buy myself a bit of time maybe.

And I try to admit to my mistakes.

-Do you want me to put together a meeting?

-Yes.

Just as you grow, you need to learn, and I'm really open to

all of us learning and me particularly.

Right, OK.

As a successful, self-made businessman,

Bill is keen to help inspire the next generation.

Today, he's on the road for a series of motivational talks.

The first is in Bangor, where he attended technical college

and started his first business.

We bought a pub in Bangor.

I there had a sort of year, which was like a nightmare.

So it was a difficult period.

I was actually stabbed in the bar,

but we held firm to our beliefs. So everything I learnt

in that first year, I've kept with me for the next 39 years, in fact.

Yeah, I used to come here when it was Bangor Tech.

To say I was a failure is probably speaking too highly of me.

You know, it's good to come back to school where I was a failure and if

you can talk openly and give them an understanding that, you know,

life is all about work, applying yourself.

You know, there's not that many people that I know, you know,

who have perceived and moved on in life and it was easy.

It's all, you know,

in there, rolling your sleeves up and working hard.

We're off to Start360, which is an organisation which looks after

vulnerable adults and kids who have had,

you know, a particularly difficult start.

My message is, you know, the same that I'm not particularly talented,

but I work hard.

I display a certain tenacity and that sometimes is enough.

My reason for coming up here is not to show you lot how clever I am

or how talented I am. It's the exact opposite.

It was a sort of unusual background I came from.

At school, I was a disaster.

Nobody could get my interest and because of that you were sort of

getting into minor scrapes.

You ended up, like, a top, successful businessman

-in Northern Ireland now, right?

-Yeah.

-So you went from being,

-like, feeling like that - that you were useless, to that.

-No.

You made all these businesses and money and stuff.

You're obviously not useless, like.

I wasn't useless, but I didn't find anything that motivated me.

Once you find something that motivates you,

then, you know, that gets your concentration.

Then all your energies go towards that, but until you get that,

you're lost and what you need is to be able to put food on your table.

Our society is completely arse about face.

Who deserves the most praise?

Me for getting paid well, doing a job that I love, or my father,

who worked every day of his life to fix machines that he hated?

Or my mother, who worked in laundrettes or took on crap jobs

to put food on our table?

Who deserves the most praise?

-Your ma and da.

-Exactly.

So you remember that. Not everybody wants to climb the greasy pole.

Getting a job and staying in a job and enjoying what you're doing,

putting food on a table, says a lot about you, and you lot,

some of you will climb up the greasy pole,

but the others who don't and don't want to

deserve every bit, and I think more, praise than people like me.

Bill's talks seems to have gone down well.

One boy is keen to find out more about working in hospitality.

Are there, like, experts on wine?

-Sommeliers.

-Sommeliers? Cos I enjoy wine,

so I'd like to become more knowledgeable about it.

Genuinely, if you're interested,

we'll look at where you are and we can give you a path.

If someone like me can do it, anybody can do it.

I think it went well. They were really good young men.

They seemed to be interested.

So, yeah, I'm pleased with that.

The hotel has its first children's party booking.

It is 11-year-old Caoimhe's birthday and she's come to discuss the

detail with events manager Rachel.

I wanted to talk through the food options.

I think I'd like to go with the children's finger food,

because the parents will probably be expecting

them to have eaten a fuller meal than just sandwiches.

Good idea, Caoimhe. So I also want to talk about party activities.

So they have things like hair braiding...

You know, I have a ten-year-old daughter myself,

so I know that they love the Merchant,

so it's going to be really, really fun, hopefully.

And the birthday girl, I hope, will really, really like it.

So I was thinking about colour scheme.

What's your favourite colours?

-Purple.

-Purple.

Dark purple or lilac?

Lilac. But maybe that kind of blue might be nice.

-You like that blue?

-Yeah.

I've probably got a max of 25 people coming.

They're all girls and I've got at least 13 people from my class.

Say you had it at your house and then you

would have to tidy up after yourself.

If you have it here, everyone else can do it for you!

If you get what I mean.

In the Great Room, it's less than an hour to the hotel's federation

dinner and although everything seems to be in place,

general manager Gavin casts his critical eye over every detail.

So we're going to have a concierge here from seven?

Yes, sir, seven o'clock, car park concierge welcoming all our guests.

Can you give this a little sweep?

Just all the steps right to the bottom of the pavement.

Yeah. Will do.

So, champagne served.

Champagne served on trays in the bar area.

We have to put how many people in here?

136.

-Canapes...

-Canapes all served here.

-Yes.

Can you get someone to go around and just make sure they're

sitting all exactly the same at all tables?

And maybe get someone with a pair of scissors to just

snip any wee bits that are...

-Yes, a bit loose.

-Again, especially there,

-there is a bit of a lopsided heather going on.

-Yes.

No, very happy, the room looks well.

It's good to see the room being used

for something so entirely different.

Good to go.

It's a big night for us.

There's a lot of attention sort of focused on us.

I know there's a few hoteliers that

come into your hotel and you certainly

make sure that you try and have everything just as it should be.

No, I'm very happy. I think it's going to be a great night.

Above in the roof garden,

it's time for the Merchant's first non grown-up gig.

Gavin and Rachel summon their inner child over last minute preparations.

Gavin's now an expert on which way children like their sweets!

I would not have any child have something to eat in the Merchant

that I haven't tried.

It's not really how we've seen the room before.

It's not usually the catering we would normally do either.

Rachel, leave some for the kids.

SHE LAUGHS

I have never eaten as many sweets in my entire life.

-It's so nice.

-I can't... I actually can't eat any more.

The girls are going to arrive at reception.

We've got a sign there.

Tray service for their non-alcoholic mojitos.

Then the girls will come in.

They're going to play about and eat the sweets.

The food is going to come on afternoon tea stands.

The Wi-Fi code is because you know this generation,

they're all about the Instagram.

-I can't get over that.

-I know.

Have you ever been to an 11-year-old birthday where the main detail was

make sure you've got Wi-Fi code ready?

It's a daunting departure for me.

It's not just a world I would know a lot about.

So, Rachel has a daughter around about the same age,

so I handed everything over to Rachel, really,

so it's her responsibility

to make sure that everything goes according to plan today,

-which I know it will.

-Yeah, I love it.

I've loved chatting with Caoimhe about all her plans and

what she wants for the day.

I just want to make sure it's fun.

So it'll be a steep learning curve for us, I think, today,

-but they will tell us what they want.

-Yeah, I can't wait.

By the time they arrive tonight, it'll be dark outside, so the fairy

lights and everything will have taken over in the patio area.

We'll just turn Justin Bieber up a little bit

-and that'll filter out the rain.

-Oh, dear.

-Taylor Swift.

-A bit of Taylor Swift.

-Will you be dancing, Gavin?

Totes.

Sweet, but forget Gavin and Rachel,

this is all about the birthday girl.

Her guests, their moves,

and those celebrated cocktails at the Merchant.

Fresh mint, fresh lime,

apple juice, and shaken up and served over ice.

Let me know how it goes.

Nice.

Quite different. You keep forgetting that they're all children,

but, yeah, they all seem to be having a brilliant time.

It's so funny seeing them, they're so into the Wi-Fi

and posting on Instagram and they're just

taking constant selfies so it's really funny listening to all their

conversations, but they all seem to be having a really nice time, yeah.

THEY CHEER

Aw!

Job done. Kids' parties may now turn into a regular feature.

But how did Marco fair with the great and the good

of the Northern Irish hotel industry?

It went very well.

Very happy. Guests being all from the hospitality industry, obviously,

you're always a bit concerned with the feedback that you're going to

get. Delighted. At the end of the night,

lots of people paid compliment to the service. Very pleased.

Very proud.