Hotel Cateys 2021: Spa Professional of the Year: Amanda Hardy

Our winner has risen through the ranks from spa receptionist to spa manager in just nine years. Along the way she’s picked up a clutch of awards and is now ensuring her team of 30 are given similar opportunities to progress.

Under Amanda Hardy, the Serenity Spa at the five-red-AA-star Seaham Hall hotel in Durham has held its five-bubble luxury status for four years. It took Spa Team of the Year in the North East Beauty Awards 2019, and North East Spa of the Year in the Professional Beauty Awards in 2017 and 2018. The team also won the Good Spa Guide’s Best Customer Service award for three consecutive years and achieves consistently high TripAdvisor ratings.

The spa has 17 treatment rooms, a swimming pool, outdoor hot tubs, spa garden with immersive infinity pool, herbal sanarium, salt sauna and hydrotherapy pool. In the past 18 months, Hardy has added a waterbed relaxation zone and a cosy corner hideout, pre-empting the interest in holistic health and wellbeing following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Her efforts to retain and attract customers throughout the pandemic saw her initiate a programme of video sessions, as well as running competitions through partnerships with local brands. And when the hotel reopened, she created an in-room spa products and services menu for guests. She also organised Summer at Seaham Hall, a series of events featuring local artists and performers.

During the pandemic, she mobilised a team to support local charity the East Durham Trust and pursued personal development through a world spa and wellness mentorship programme, securing Christine Belnser of the Four Seasons Dubai as her mentor. She has also enrolled in a diploma in hotel management.

In turn she has mentored several members of the Seaham Hall hotel team through to promotion and actively encourages cross-departmental training to help with managerial progression across the hotel.

It’s little surprise that the Cateys judges described her at a “true spa professional”, who has achieved excellence in both in the spa environment and the wider hotel.

What the judges said

“Seaham Hall’s spa is a huge business to manage and Amanda is clearly ensuring its continued success. Her progression from spa receptionist to spa director over nine years
show her commitment and loyalty.”

Cathy Ball

“Amanda has gone from strength to strength in her career and I love all the work she is doing outside of the spa, to improve not only her own knowledge but passing that onto others.”

Lucy Mingo

“In my eyes Amanda is a true spa professional across all areas of her role. She clearly runs a hugely successful business and really stepped up to the recent challenges that Covid-19 threw at her, still coming out on top. She leads by example and is keen not only to develop herself but also her team, growing from within by giving everyone exciting opportunities in their roles.”

Anna Thomas

The shortlist

Amanda Hardy Seaham Hall

Kerry Service Devonshire Arms

David Taylor Leonardo Royal, London City

Past winners

2019 Sally Pedder, the Dorchester

2018 Lesley Bacon, Hand Picked Hotels

2017 Leon Trayling, Principal Hotels

2016 Cathy Ball, the Calcot Collection

2015 Lucy Mingo, Headland Hotel and Spa, Newquay

2014 Kerry Hudson, Chewton Glen Hotel & Spa, New Milton

2013 Anna Williams, Stoke Park Country Club, Spa and Hotel, Stoke Poges

2012 Gemma Hulme, Cottons Hotel and Spa, Knutsford

2011 Liz Holmes, Rockliffe Hall, Darlington

2010 Hannah Henley, Donnington Valley Hotel & Spa, Berkshire

2009 Kerry Hole, Spa SPC, Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire

2008 Nicola Williams, Birmingham Malmaison and HDV

2007 Nicki Kurran, Marriott Hanbury Manor