Colin Farndon interview: Gleneagles director of leisure on why padel is central to its new sports offering

To mark its centenary, last August Gleneagles Hotel opened a new indoor facility – Gleneagles Sporting Club – designed to evolve its offering to meet the changing desires of its guests. Colin Farndon, the hotel’s director of leisure, tells Padel Business Magazine why padel forms a key part of the new facility, shares insight on the high demand for the courts so far, and assesses the prospects for the sport within the luxury hotel sector.

Spread across 850 acres in the rolling hills of Perthshire, central Scotland, Gleneagles Hotel is one of the UK’s most loved and well-known country estates.

Since opening in June 1924, the site has become synonymous with golf, and is the only European resort to have hosted both the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup.

Gleneagles, known as the ‘Glorious Playground’, has also had a long association with other sports, including tennis, equestrianism and archery as well as a variety of country pursuits such as fishing and falconry, and to mark its centenary last August the hotel opened a new indoor facility – Gleneagles Sporting Club – designed to mark a new era in its offering. 

As well as two hard surface indoor tennis courts – to complement the hotel’s five outdoor tennis courts – the new site features three padel courts: two doubles and a singles academy court, said to be the first custom built singles padel court in Scotland.

There is also a 7m high and 27m wide climbing and bouldering wall and a spacious lounge area, as well as a boutique with merchandise featuring the Sporting Club logo, and the site is home to Gleneagles’ equestrian facilities.

Colin Farndon, director of leisure at Gleneagles, says the intention was to evolve the hotel’s facilities to meet the changing desires of its guests, especially in light of the spectacular rise of padel in the UK over recent years.

“We wanted to elevate our existing offering, particularly our tennis services and with the evident growth in the popularity of padel and pickleball, it made sense to create a more complete racquets offering,” he explains.

“Pairing this with an ambition to elevate equestrian and extend our adventure offering we conceived the idea of creating a destination for sporting participation and to further develop our wellness portfolio. The Gleneagles Sporting Club was born.”

Padel courts hit 100% utilisation rate at peak times 

Farndon says “the interest and participation at The Sporting Club since opening has been fantastic – it really has exceeded our expectations in terms of engagement levels, court and facility utilisation and revenue targets.”

He reveals that since the padel courts opened five months ago, “interest in padel has gone beyond all forecasting”, noting that “both hotel guest and member usage are tracking well. We’re achieving around 80% usage on our courts as an average and at peak times we operate at 100% on the padel courts.” 

He adds: “What has proved interesting is that padel has been incredibly popular with hotel guests and so we have often found ourselves much busier than expected at traditionally ‘off-peak’ times of the day.

“That said, tennis has also been popular with hotel guests, and we have seen a significant uplift in interest, particularly in lessons and group-teaching – more than doubling year on year. The majority of our scheduled activities are also fully booked.” 

The padel courts, which were built and installed by the Edinburgh-based firm Padel Tech, are panoramic glass courts featuring the Mondo Supercourt XN surface, which Farndon notes was “laid atop a tennis court base so is incredibly true.”

He adds: “The whole construction was also conceived on a steel plate fixing system so that we have ease of re-configuration should we require it as the operation matures.”

Reflecting on the decision-making behind the layout of the courts, Farndon says: “We had an existing space to work with. We needed an efficient design that used the space well to deliver maximum use and created revenue opportunity. 

“The third padel court we couldn’t add without compromise, but we took the view that as many of our guests travel as a couple, we would create the third padel court as an academy/singles court. We thought this would be a good option. We were right. It has been an invaluable addition and often the utilisation of this academy/singles court can exceed the full-size courts.”

He adds: “The intention was always to extend and elevate racquets at Gleneagles, rather than choose one racquet sport over another, so it worked to create the three padel courts and have these alongside the two tennis courts.”

Sporting Club membership portfolio carefully managed

The padel courts are available to both hotel guests and Gleneagles Sporting Club members, with guests paying £70 per hour for a doubles court and £50 per hour for the singles court. 

Farndon says “with demand from hotel guests high, we are carefully managing our membership portfolio. We launched our new Sporting Club membership offering exclusively to our existing members and this has almost sold out. The plan is to release a small number of new external memberships early this year and this will tie in with the launch of new extended operating hours to ensure court and climbing availability.”

Gleneagles also provides padel coaching as part of its offering, and has appointed Richard Watkins as its new racquets manager to oversee its coaching proposition. Watkins joined Gleneagles in January 2024 from health club chain David Lloyd, where he was tennis manager. The hotel has also recruited a team of local coaches and built a network of international and professional coaches for high-end events, workshops and competitions.

Padel coaching is available in one-hour sessions priced at £100 for one player, £130 for two players, £155 for three players and £180 for four players.

Gleneagles has also run several competitions for corporate guests both with professional players and also its own coaching team. The guests have a coaching day and full competition day as well as having time to enjoy the wider Gleneagles experience. 

In addition, Box Leagues and members' socials have taken place, including with members of the Gleneagles Townhouse hotel in Edinburgh. “These have been a great success, and the wider facilities – the social area, lounge and courtside food and beverage, as well as a DJ, have created a fantastic atmosphere and are something we’ll be doing more of,” says Farndon. 

Potential expansion of padel facilities amid high levels of interest

Looking ahead, Farndon says it may consider a potential expansion of Gleneagles’ padel facilities given the levels of interest seen so far. “We are always looking to the future and certainly if we continue to grow at the current rates we will need to consider further resources and facilities, but it’s a little early to articulate that right now.”

He adds that the hotel has faced few major challenges as yet around its move into padel. “So far this has been a problem-free journey for us. We were fortunate to be able to convert a dedicated space and have been pleased with how the different racquet sports have aligned and co-existed. The space is so much more vibrant with padel and with the background music at times it creates an atmosphere that is different, energetic and inviting.”

Padel an attractive option for luxury hotel sector

Assessing the opportunities for the luxury hotel sector around adopting padel, Farndon sees many advantages given the sport’s accessibility as guests seek new experiences.

“Demand for pursuits and experiences whilst travelling remains high and continues to grow. Our guests want to come and try, come and ‘do’. Padel is a great example of offering the chance for guests to try something new and regular players to enjoy padel in a warm and inviting atmosphere. 

“People are engaged and playing. Participation among multi-generational families is a great sign of the appeal and this has been evident in the bookings, but more widely padel is now a key part of a large majority of our guest itineraries at the Glorious Playground.”

He adds: “For us, the exciting thing about padel is the breadth and diversity of interest, leading to fast growing participation levels. It is social, it is fun and like the best sports for participation it engages players of all ages, genders and abilities. 

“The format of the court is less exposing or intimidating to beginners and so we are finding that guests feed off the energy of a great rally, which happens much faster than it might in tennis for example. We are seeing padel bringing people together – there is no stereotypical player here, it really is a game that is getting everyone hooked.”

As padel’s growth starts to accelerate across Scotland and the UK as a whole, Farndon also sees many benefits for the sport more generally, and believes its expansion can be sustainable if the right approach is taken.

“There is no doubt this is a moment of opportunity. Early signs are strong that this is not a fad or a trend but a real shift in social participation sport. For me this is the key. Talent will out in the right environment. Having fun can be a massive driver in this and traditional pathways have significant drop outs after junior level when the focus is on development and achievement. As long as padel builds its community and increases participation across all profiles then the future looks bright.”

Not yet a PBM subscriber? Sign up here for exclusive weekly insights into the padel industry, delivered directly to your inbox