Cateys 2022: Special Award: Robin Sheppard

Robin Sheppard wins the Special Award, sponsored by CH&Co

Gritty, entrepreneurial, charismatic, with a fabulous sense of humour – the attributes of this year’s Special Award winner would do well on a dating website.

But this year’s award is about acknowledging the hard work and charitable achievements of one of the most engaging hoteliers of our time, someone with an unwavering, entrepreneurial quality that has guaranteed success for the 55-plus years he has worked in hospitality.

After more than two decades working at some of the country’s finest hotel properties, at the turn of the millennium Robin Sheppard joined forces with Hadyn Fentum to create a business that would inject value into the often-overlooked regional mid-market sector. Today, Bespoke Hotels has flourished into a business that now has an international division and comprises more than 120 properties, manages over 5,000 hotel rooms, 6,000 employees and £525m of assets.

Yet, while building the business into the thriving group it is today, Bespoke’s president was struck down with a virulent illness which, at one point, left him paralysed. He was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, which affects the peripheral nervous system, and Sheppard had to relearn how to sit, stand and walk. He lost all fine motor controls and now has restricted mobility.

Despite a two-year recovery period, the strong-minded hotelier was never going to let the illness hold him back from continuing to work in an industry that he loves and resulted in him campaigning on behalf of disabled guests who he believes are often treated like second-class citizens by hotels.

In addition to using his new world to help shape the guest experience for all, it led him to write A Solitary Confinement, first published in 2007 and republished in 2019, which raises funds for the UK Guillain-Barre Syndrome Support Group. Sheppard describes the book as one man’s attempt to chronicle the reality and the challenge presented to anyone unlucky enough to be struck down by the syndrome. On reviewing the book, Jill Parsons of The Daily Mail commented: “A remarkable book which vividly portrays the tragedy, the tumult and the tortuous route back from such a catastrophic illness... with lashings of black humour.”

To encourage a more “joyful experience” for disabled guests, Sheppard played an instrumental role in launching the Bespoke Access Awards in conjunction with the Royal Institute of British Architects, and later went on to co-found the Blue Badge Access Awards alongside Fiona Jarvis, chief executive officer of Blue Badge Style.

Such work led him to win the Outstanding Contribution awards at the 2016 Hotel Cateys, and the following year he was recruited by the government’s Office for Disability Issues as a hotel sector champion, joining a network of “champions” across various sectors to drive the campaign forward.

Sheppard’s unrelenting dream is that everyone feels welcome in every hotel, both within Bespoke Hotels and the wider sector. This goal, coupled with a long and glittering career, make him a truly worthy winner.