Marketing consortium Scotland’s Hotels of Distinction (SHOD) has been taken over by a new management partnership.

John Sloggie, owner of the Castle Venlaw hotel in Peebles, and Mark Forrester of internet marketing company Occupancy Marketing, have taken over the day-to-day running of SHOD.

Sloggie, who is a long-term member of the consortium that exists to promote quality, owner-run hotels north of the border, said: “There’s so much information out there that people can search these days it’s easy to get lost. This is why SHOD exists as a single point of contact to promote our members’ properties.”

Sloggie and Forrester have changed SHOD from a committee-run organisation to one managed by an executive team on the members’ behalf in a bid to drive it forward.

SHOD currently represents 28 hotels, and Sloggie said membership would not grow significantly beyond this in a bid to retain the strong community feel of the association.

By Chris Druce

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