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 MARRIED COUPLE MANAGE TASMANIA’S FIRST LUXURY BOUTIQUE HOTEL AND FIRST LUXURY COUNTRY LODGE

“We always knew the industry was going to be our future,” say Nicholas Parkinson-Bates and Amy Henessy who met as students at Blue Mountains Hotel School, one of Australia’s leading private hotel schools, and both graduated in 1997.

Nicholas and Amy married in 2005 and today are joint general managers of the Islington Hotel in Hobart (www.islingtonhotel.com), an 1847 Regency mansion fully renovated by two Sydney developers into Tasmania’s first luxury boutique hotel, filled with a priceless collection of art and antiques. The property’s staff includes a butler previously employed at Buckingham Palace.

In 2006 the hotel was nominated by Gourmet Traveller as the only Australian hotel on its 20 ‘Best of the Best’ list and picked by Conde Nast for its Hot List 2006. In July 2007 the property won Gourmet Traveller’s “Best Boutique Hotel in Australia” award. Conde Nast praised the two GMs:“But a hotel is nothing without a decent manager. I suspect the Islington’s true worth lies in the couple who run it, Nicholas and Amy Parkinson-Bates.”

With the success of the Islington Hotel, Nicholas and Amy are now project managing The Priory, a luxury hotel and country fishing and hunting lodge located at Bothwell in the Central Highlands of Tasmania, and due to open in May 2008. Built in 1847 by Edward Lord, The Priory is currently undergoing a multimillion dollar refurbishment; staff will include a personal chef and houseman and a personal angler. The Priory will also have a close relationship with the region’s long-established Nant Whiskey Distillery.

Nicholas is the General Manager of the Van Diemen Hotel Group Pty. Limited, a hotel management services company offering project, start up and hotel management services to the luxury end of the market in both Tasmania and the Asia Pacific region.

Nicholas and Amy were the special guest speakers at the Blue Mountains Hotel School’s graduation ceremony at Peppers Fairmont Resort in Leura on 6 December 2007 and gave an amusing and insightful speech about their interesting careers overseas and in Australia. 

Nicholas: Born in HK, Nicholas had a classic ex-pat upbringing with moves every few years to places like Malaysia, Japan, Dubai, India and London. From Geelong Grammar in Victoria, he enrolled at BMHS and did his placements at Gleneagles, Scotland and the Oberoi, India.

On graduation from BMHS, Nicholas was a management trainee and then Assistant Manager with Amanresorts’ Amankila Resort in Bali, taking the same role at Hazlitt’s, a boutique hotel in London, and then night manager at the Perisher Hotel in the Snowy Mountains.

Following a corporate management traineeship with Grand Hyatt, Melbourne Nicholas headed off to work for the Amanresorts Group overseas. Starting in Singapore, he moved from Assistant GM in Central Java to GM/Project Manager opening a tiger camp in India and later a new resort in a royal residence in Cambodia. Back in Australia, Nicholas was Operations Manager/Guest Services for the new Golden Door Elysia, a $40M 74-villa health retreat in the Hunter Valley.

Amy: Born in Sydney and educated at Wenona School, North Sydney, Amy did her placements at BMHS in the Menzies Hotel, Sydney and the Grand Hyatt, Melbourne. On graduation, Amy worked for the Millenium Group in London and then in Front Office for the opening of the Park Hyatt, Melbourne. In 2000, she became a financial advisor for State Trustees, Melbourne, went into property management with First National, Sydney and later Guest Services Manager with Ivanhoe Wines in the Hunter Valley.