Careers FAQs

We have staff accommodation properties located in Braemar, Ballater and Crathie. Our properties range from houses, to ex-B&Bs, to converted inns. Most of our rooms are single-occupancy and many are ensuite. If you are eligible for staff accommodation, your specific location and room type will be communicated to you at the onboarding stage. All of our staff accommodation properties are served by our staff shuttle bus to get people who cannot drive to and from work and home. Those in Braemar are in walking distance of the hotel, and the village has been named one of the best places to live in the UK by the Sunday Times.

We have some of these available but will always encourage employees to bring their own for comfort purposes. We will let you know the size of your bed at the onboarding stage.

In Braemar, we have a local convenience store as well as a butcher, chocolate shop, post office, gift shops and a pharmacy.  This is where many people will get their essentials.  In Ballater, there is a medium-sized co-op, as well as other local stores. Crathie is our most remote staff accommodation which means residents need to travel to Braemar, Ballater or elsewhere for shopping. Our closest large supermarket is in Banchory and is accessible by car or public transport. Alternatively, most major supermarkets deliver to Braemar, Crathie and Ballater.

Eligibility is dependent on role and where an individual is currently based or relocating from.  If a role is eligible for staff accommodation, we will advise of this in recruitment adverts and at recruitment interview and will discuss with individual candidates if they are personally eligible.

This is varied depending on property.  Some staff accommodation properties have only 1-2 people, some have less than 10, others have 20+.

We can signpost you to relevant agencies and community groups to get advice.  If any local properties become available for private rent, we also share these with all employees.

All residents are asked to sign a Staff Accommodation Charter which outlines the Company expectations of behaviour and conduct in staff accommodation.  As our properties are classified as “houses in multiple occupation”, there are strict regulations that must be followed.  However, we balance this by making sure employees are able to make their rooms their own and their houses as homes away from home.

Room charges depend on property and room type but are approximately £330-£450 per month for single occupancy rooms.  These costs are all inclusive of council tax, WiFi and utilities.

Unfortunately, only employees are permitted in staff accommodation.  No animals are permitted (with the exception of service animals).

Once you have submitted your application, one of our managers or members of our People Team will get in touch with you to let you know if your application has been successful.  This will be via email. If successful, you will be invited to the next stage of the process which is usually a screening call or virtual interview. For some roles, the final decision is made then. For other roles, we may ask for you to come to visit the hotel and participate in a face-to-face selection process.  Candidates are kept fully informed throughout the process as to what is expected.

Make sure you come prepared with some research about our hotel and our location. We love it when people know about us and about our beautiful part of the world. Make sure you also come prepared with examples of the work you have done before as well as your achievements to date. Most importantly, be relaxed and be yourself.

Most roles at the hotel require the right to live and work in the UK. For a small number of roles, we offer visa sponsorship but this will be clearly outlined on our job adverts.  If a role is not open to visa sponsorship, we will not proceed with any applicants who require this.

You can apply for our vacancies here: The Fife Arms – Hotel Jobs & Careers | Harri

Many of our roles are full-time at 40, 42.5 or 48 hours per week unless otherwise advertised but we are always open to discuss part-time or flexible working, please just reach out. Please note, however, that only full-time roles are eligible for staff accommodation due to the costs involved and minimum wage requirements.

Yes, we regularly recruit for casual workers.

Yes, we often recruit for seasonal positions for peak periods, particularly for Christmas and Hogmanay or for the summer season (May/June to September).

Our hotel is open 24/7.  This means hours can be varied.  Some support roles work Monday to Friday such as administrative or People Team roles.  However, the majority of roles work across seven days.  Employees work to rotas which are managed by heads of department and employees will mostly work 5 days per week with two scheduled days off.  During busier times, some employees may work for more than 5 days at a time but will always get their compensatory rest breaks.  Most full-time roles are 40 or 42.5 hours per week. Chef roles are contracted to 48 hours.  Overtime is also sometimes available during busy periods.  For every 6 hours worked, employees are entitled to an unpaid 30-minute break.  Most employees won’t be required to work nights, as this is often managed by our dedicated night team, our Front of House team and Duty Managers.  Night working requirements will be made clear to you at interview and the onboarding stage.

This will depend on your role and department. For most roles, uniforms (with the exception of shoes) are provided by our People Team. For some roles, only a t-shirt is provided. With the exception of our kitchen team, we ask that all employees bring with them black shoes, black trousers or skirt and a white shirt or blouse as a back-up.

This varies day by day. Every week, a menu is provided in the staff canteen so employees know what to expect. Meals can range from sandwiches, soups, curries and casseroles.  Vegetarian options will be made available and we try our best to accommodate all dietary requirements when they are made known to us.

The Company has a dedicated Learning and Development Team who provide training and development across all sites.  All employees get access to an online learning portal which has both mandatory as well as optional training for employees to complete. As the hotel is assessed by LQA (Leading Quality Assurance), we provide training to meet their standards.  We offer all required ongoing operational training to make sure we are always growing in our roles.  We also offer art training, whisky training, and various qualifications such as WSET courses for team members depending on role and interest.

Usually, our hotel closes for 2 to 3 weeks in January. This allows for any redesigns or maintenance.  Many of our team members will take annual leave during this time and we also have a few set days of all-staff training.

Full-time employees get 30 days’ holiday per year and this is pro-rata’d for part-time employees.

During your personal time, employees can access our restaurants, bars and our spa with employee discounts available. This must always be pre-approved, uniform is not permitted and these can only be accessed up to 2 hours after your shift ends.

Yes, we have our staff canteen, staff bathrooms, staff changing and locker rooms, staff showers and staff welfare area.

This number changes depending on the time of year, but we have approximately 130-150 members of staff.  We proudly have a diverse workforce across with many nationalities and languages spoken.

Braemar is a nature-lover’s haven. We have many forest, hill and loch walks in the area to enjoy, as well as dedicated cycle paths. We are close to castles such as Kindrochit Castle, Braemar Castle and Balmoral Castle. We have distilleries nearby such as Royal Lochnagar. Many of our employees enjoy activities such as wild swimming, camping and staying in bothies. We have many local coffee shops and cafes in the area, as well as gyms, golf courses and independent shops.

In Braemar, we have Gordon’s Tearoom and The Invercauld Mews Pub.  In Ballater, we own award-winning restaurant and fishmonger, Fish Shop.  Staff discounts also apply in these businesses.