A memorial event will take place in Perthshire to mark the life of Frank Chapman, who kicked off the UK’s timeshare era at a hotel in the county.
Frank purchased Loch Rannoch Hotel in 1974 and soon transformed it from a run-down two-star facility to an upmarket tourist destination that employed 100 people and was served by a private helicopter.
It was here that he kicked off the timeshare craze by offering year-round multi-ownership in newly constructed lodges, which were opened in 1976 by Scotland’s Minister for Tourism Alan Devereaux.
The concept was extremely successful and construction commenced at Forest Hills in the Trossachs following year.
In 1982, having added a third timeshare in Snowdonia in Wales, he sold his company for £4.5m to Barratt Developments, carrying on as managing director.
When he left the firm in 1988 it possessed nine timeshare resorts, some 23,000 owners and had achieved £80m of timeshare sales.
Frank passed away in June 2021 at the age of 91 and his extraordinary life will be remembered at an event in the Loch Rannoch Hotel early next month.
Baillie Mike Williamson will unveil a memorial and members of Frank’s family will be in attendance.
This feature tells the story of Frank’s life, how he transformed Loch Rannoch Hotel and the rise and fall of timeshare.
It is divided into the following headings:
- Smuggling cigarettes while at sea
- ‘Workaholic’ fell for Scotland
- Guests enjoyed ‘building site’
- Planning consent ‘extraordinary in itself’
- Helicopter transported rich from airports
- Why timeshare lost its sheen
- Curing cancer and working with daughter
- Frank ‘never judged people’
- Plaque to be unveiled
Smuggling cigarettes while at sea
Susie Gowenlock remembers her father as a self-made man who achieved considerable wealth from humble beginnings.
London-born, Frank spent his childhood in Wiltshire before joining the merchant navy at 15.
Over 17 years at sea he became a Master Mariner, sailing from London’s Royal Docks on the ships of the Royal Mail Line to South America and the Caribbean.
“He spent a long time at sea but got a lot of experience in learning to sell because it was the only way he could survive,” Susie says.
“He was on a very small wage so had to do deals on the side. For example, he was known to get a lot of cigarettes on to the ships because he was a friend with customs people. He was full of interesting stories.”‘
‘Workaholic’ fell for Scotland
Frank never saw Susie for the first year of her life, so his wife Wendy decided he should return to the family home in Sydenham, south London.
“It was very hard for him to come back but he carried on his selling abilities,” Susie says.
His first job on land was working for Radio Rentals.
“He very quickly started to make money because he was a workaholic,” Susie adds.
He formed Bahamas Properties and for several years sold properties on the islands.
Here was where Frank came up with the idea of bringing timeshare to the UK and saw an opportunity at Loch Rannoch.
Susie, 67, says: “He loved Scotland and I don’t know how he found this particular resort. Loch Rannoch was a very run-down building and he fell in love with it and created a vision of what he could do with the land.
“It was his first project and the one he held more in his heart than anywhere else.”
Guests enjoyed ‘building site’
The hotel was upgraded and planning permission sought for the construction of multi-ownership lodges at Loch Rannoch.
At this stage Frank had not heard of timeshare and thought that this was a novel idea that would enable him to open his hotels on a year-round basis, which is why he called it multi-ownership.
Frances Griffiths, current committee secretary of Loch Rannoch Highland Club, began staying at one of the lodges in 1976 having bought off-plan while living in Kuwait.
She recalls: “The resort was still a building site but that didn’t spoil our enjoyment.
“We met with Frank and socialised with him on a number of occasions in the early years and very much enjoyed his delightful company.
“He was an inspirational entrepreneur and a pioneer of the concept of multi-ownership in the UK.”
Planning consent ‘extraordinary in itself’
Nick Pattie began at Loch Rannoch Hotel as operations director in 1982, just before Frank sold to Barratt Developments. He is currently the hotel’s chief executive.
“Frank built the business up at Loch Rannoch to ultimately have 85 timeshare lodges,” he says. “The impact on the economy was massive, with huge employment.
“He was an extraordinary entrepreneur. Building the first timeshare lodges here at Loch Rannoch was incredibly brave and very much pioneering.
“Loch Rannoch is an area of special scientific interest and a conservation area so getting planning for this was an extraordinary feat in itself.
“Kinloch Rannoch is a fairly remote village with limited employment opportunities so to suddenly create 100 jobs in the local area is quite extraordinary.
“Although it proved to be ultimately very successful, in the early days the actual construction of the lodges was tricky.
“They were very impressive lodges that were difficult to build on the side of a hill. They were incredibly expensive to build at the time so it was a really big and brave move.”
Helicopter transported rich from airports
In its early days timeshare was popular with the wealthy, including heads of industry.
Loch Rannoch’s remote location was one of its draws but also a potential flaw.
Frank’s solution was to purchase a helicopter to fly guests in from Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.
“It was extraordinary,” Nick says. “It had quite a big impact on Scotland’s tourism.
“Frank was a terrific salesman and a visionary but he was also an extraordinarily warm person. He was very much a people person. People liked him and felt confident buying from him.”
Why timeshare lost its lustre
Timeshare’s popularity waned during the 1980s, often due to unscrupulous selling methods.
In 1987 Frank was instrumental in the founding of the Timeshare Developers Association, of which he was the first chairman.
This organisation sought to redress the balance and give the consumer a better deal. He remained chairman until 1988 when he left Barratt and was subsequently appointed honorary vice-chair until the organisation’s cessation at the end of 1990.
Curing cancer and working with daughter
Frank went on to form a medical research company, Biocure, which sought a cure for cancer.
He also teamed up with Barratt colleagues to purchase the internationally-renowned health resort Champneys, with Frank owning 40% of the company.
In 1991 Frank became a partner in the luxurious Clowance Estate and Country Club in Cornwall, eventually selling to Seasons Holidays in 2006.
In March 2012 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the US-based American Resort Development Association (ARDA) at its Las Vegas conference attended by more than 2,700 delegates.
One of Frank’s final big projects was working with Susie to restore Highbullen, a hotel in north Devon, to its former grandeur.
Susie says: “He was very, very proud of us but the love of life was his work. You have to be incredibly committed to achieve what he did in such a short space of time after leaving sea-life.
“He was a loyal husband but we didn’t see a lot of him. Food to him was his work. That’s what sparked him and made him strive.
“He had a huge sense of humour, sense of fun and sense of adventure, which made him a very interesting man. He looked after all of his staff really well.
“He was a completely self-made man having come from a very ordinary background to becoming this great entrepreneur who saw the visions of things he could do.”
Frank ‘never judged people’
The memorial is being organised by Ann Blyth, the managing director of Perth-based UK Resort Exchange. Ann first met Frank in 1986 when she joined Barratt Dalfaber Golf and Country Club in Aviemore.
“My first encounter with Mr Chapman was standing in a buffet queue that was moving slowly,” she says,
“He asked about a scar on my arm caused by a car accident and I told him I had a better one on my other arm caused by a snake bite which enthralled him and every time I met him thereafter he would ask me to repeat my story.”
She later worked for Frank as an in-house manager while he was in charge of the Clowance resort in Cornwall.
“He never made judgement and he met all his staff,” she recalls. “I never saw him angry; he was always polite and down to earth, and I always felt safe when under his wing.
“I always called him Mr Chapman, never Frank. He deserved that. I had total respect.”
Plaque to be unveiled
A plaque in Frank’s memory will be unveiled at the memorial, which will be attended by Frank’s children Susie and Tom, 59, and his widow Wendy, 90. Local politicians and international businessmen will be present.
Ann adds: “His achievements through his life deserve recognition by way of this memorial and Loch Rannoch Club and Hotel was his favourite place to be, and where multi-ownership began in the UK.
“So it is fitting to place a plaque to remember him by and it is so well-deserved. It was a privilege to have known him and his achievements.”
The event will take place at Loch Rannoch Hotel on Wednesday, September 7 at 3pm.
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