why scarlet?
Scarlet is our baby. We dreamt up this hotel to be the place we would most like to be and want to share. Somewhere to escape to for a few days and recharge.
Our hotel would remind us why we cherish our husbands and friends and love their company. It will be somewhere to laugh and enjoy simple pleasures. Where we have time for each other; rarely achieved in our chaos of work, life and family.
So our vision for the hotel was surprisingly easy: really delicious food, Cornish art and quirky stuff to make us smile. A warm welcome that comes from the heart of our team and a spa that restores well being and inner calm, where the ahhhh of a treatment would last for days not hours.
Our challenge was to be luxurious without costing the planet. Can a hotel be really eco-friendly and still fantastic to stay at? We think so; thanks to our huge team of helpers, advisors and friends who care about the earth and have guided us on the way.
So our plan for the hotel was clear and came with much joy. It was almost too easy, when, unaware, we were caught by unexpected pain. Three sisters, all mothers, trying to name their infant hotel. The naming process started politely and soon felt like a Cornish wrestling match.
1000 Cornish words were searched for inspiration and that quality of ‘rightness’. We learned a lot along the way. Amari is a beautiful Cornish word for a cupboard. Our Cornish vocabulary expanded and our list of names we couldn’t agree on grew longer. James and Simon, who bring masculine balance to our team, sat quietly, despairing as we tried to reduce the list to something shorter than the census. The summer ’08 will be remembered for arguing, sulking and tactically voting others’ favourites off the short list. How could we open a hotel with no name? We reflected and remembered our parents’ motto “dare to be different”.
Scarlet reflected our boldness, perhaps madness, in trying to build a hotel that might change perceptions of what was possible. We also wanted this hotel to be warm, deeply comfortable and welcoming, very different to the slick but elitist hotels that pass as luxury. We loved the contrast of a rich red colour with our green ethos. But I guess more than anything, somewhere deep within three ‘oh my God, we are middle aged’ sisters, the Scarlet is about us living our dreams of daring, love and life before we hit our nursing homes.
Emma, Debbie and Rebecca.
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Scarlet Hotel Ltd
tredragon road, mawgan porth, cornwall, tr8 4dqcall
01637 861800