Ramsey House

Date: Wednesday 14th May 2008

Suzanne and Shaun Ellison had experienced backgrounds working in the catering and hospitality industry, but had always worked for other people, putting in the hard hours for others to reap the rewards. They enjoyed working together, so in 2007 they made the decision to set up as partners in their own business, and bought Ramsey House, a guesthouse located in St David’s.

Working in a local hotel, both Suzanne and Shaun knew the potential of tourism in Pembrokeshire, but felt that they could provide a personal service, more tailored to the needs of individual guests if they could run their own small guesthouse. Shaun, an experienced chef, also wanted to cut back on the stresses of running a busy kitchen to get more hands-on with creating quality food for guests.

They approached PBI directly and enrolled on the Business Start-up Support Programme, which could provide support and advice prior to the start of the new business. With the support of PBI Start-up advisor, Peter Davies, Suzanne and Shaun worked on developing financial forecasts and a comprehensive business plan to satisfy the bank’s lending requirements, to help finance their new venture.

Peter’s support was important as he not only helped write the plans and forecasts, but liaised with the bank to successfully secure funding. As the business was starting to take shape, Peter was on hand for any queries and introduced Suzanne and Shaun to other support in PBI, including marketing advice to ensure the business could maximise visitors in its all important first year.

The newly refurbished Ramsey House opened to guests in February 2008 under the ownership of Shaun & Suzanne. Since then, Ramsey House has received 5 star accreditation from Visit Wales and the AA, and were awarded with an AA excellence award for breakfast and dinner, the only business in Pembrokeshire to receive such an accolade.

Suzanne commented; “Peter was invaluable to us in our setup and planning, and were it not for him and his undoubting confidence in us and our product, we may not have been brave enough to take the leap! Especially as our family grew - the month after we moved in to Ramsey House, we had a little boy.”

A few months on, Ramsey House has gone from strength to strength, with bookings being taken well into the summer months. Ramsey House is fulfilling the ambitions of Suzanne and Shaun, in giving them the personal satisfaction of running their own successful business and providing high quality accommodation and food to visitors to Pembrokeshire.