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Charlotte Weatherall, General Manager of Corinthia London, on Authentic Leadership and Why Kindness Wins
- Emily Goldfischer
- 3 hours ago
- 8 min read
Charlotte Weatherall became General Manager of Corinthia London in July 2025. She talks to hertelier about her unconventional route to the top, coming out in hospitality, motherhood, and what the industry still gets wrong for women.
Walk into Corinthia London on a weekday afternoon and the city falls away. Bright blooms from the in-house florist FLOWERBX grace the entry; beyond it, the Lobby Lounge glows under the Full Moon chandelier, with 1,001 Baccarat crystals suspended beneath a glass dome, while guests linger over afternoon tea in no apparent hurry. Downstairs, there is a four-floor ESPA spa; in the dining rooms, Tom Kerridge's first London restaurant sits alongside the recently opened Mezzogiorno by Francesco Mazzei. On paper, it is a checklist of Five Star credentials. What you remember is smaller and harder to fake: service that is warm and genuinely personal, attentive without tipping into overbearing.
Corinthia London helped spark a luxury renaissance in this stretch of Westminster, and more than a decade on, new five-star arrivals are still chasing the standard it set. That warmth is not an accident. It starts at the top, with General Manager Charlotte Weatherall.
With more than two decades of luxury hospitality experience across the UK and UAE, Charlotte has held senior roles at Rocco Forte Hotels, Mandarin Oriental, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and The Langham before stepping into Corinthia London's top job a year ago via the less-travelled route of sales and marketing. But what makes Charlotte compelling is not just her CV. She comes to work through the colleague entrance, in leggings and sneakers, and gets changed alongside everyone else. It is a small detail, but a telling one: a reminder that leadership does not have to fit a certain mold to be effective.
I have known Charlotte for several years, but we had never sat down one-on-one, and Pride Month felt like the right moment. She began her career while still figuring out what it meant to be a gay woman in hospitality, at a time when bringing your whole self to work was far from guaranteed. That experience runs through the way she leads today.
We talked about the mentors who showed her another way, how motherhood reshaped her ambition, what hospitality still gets wrong for women, and why kindness, in Charlotte's view, may be one of the most powerful tools a leader has.
What first drew you into hospitality?
I had a slightly unusual route in. I studied sport at university, because my parents had always said, do what you love and you probably won't go far wrong. I loved sport, but I also loved travel and staying in nice hotels. So alongside sending my CV to sports brands, I sent it to hotel companies too.
I'd accepted a job with Reebok as a marketing executive when I got a call from Starwood. I didn't even know what Starwood was. I thought I'd applied to Sheraton. They invited me to an assessment centre at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane, and I thought it would be a great experience, a nice overnight stay.
When I arrived, there were paparazzi outside and I joked, "Is someone special coming?" The training and development director said, "Of course, that's for you." Then I got to my room and there was a welcome note and an amenity, and I remember calling my mum and saying, "This is amazing." Everything about it gave me this sense of being seen, of feeling special. There's something completely magical about hospitality, and I just loved it. I was offered a place on the management trainee programme at the Sheraton Grand in Edinburgh. I let Reebok know I wouldn't be joining, and off I went.
What were those early days really like?
Tough. I often talk about it in our orientation now. I arrived in Edinburgh, a city I didn't know, into a flat share with colleagues I'd never met. On my first day, I asked my mum whether to wear my hair up or down, flats or heels. She said, "Wear your hair down and wear heels, you won't be on the floor on your first day." Within thirty minutes, I was in the restaurant working as a breakfast waitress. By the end of that day, my feet were red raw. I'd had this idea that I was a management trainee, that I might be running the hotel. In reality, I was doing the jobs nobody else wanted to do. That's why I talk to new colleagues about how lonely the beginning can feel.
What's your leadership philosophy when it comes to training the team to connect with guests without being too much?
One word I keep coming back to is empowerment. I want people to feel they can make decisions and do what feels right in any given situation. That builds genuine trust, and I believe everyone here wants to make a real difference to the people they interact with.
Authenticity matters just as much. It's important to me that people can show up as themselves, whether that's saying "I had a horrible night, I feel shattered today," or talking about a medical issue, or something difficult outside work. We talk a lot about neurodiversity, where people haven't always felt comfortable speaking up. I want them to feel they can, because there are wonderful skills and qualities that come with it. When people feel respected, trusted and cared for, guests feel it too. That's when the team delivers something genuinely warm.
You came to the GM role through sales and marketing rather than operations. Has that been an advantage?
When I was being considered for this job, some people saw the lack of an operational background as a weakness, and that perception still exists, generally. But my sales background has been a real strength. You understand the customers, the commercial levers, how decisions ripple through the business: budget planning, P&Ls, brand positioning.
No general manager arrives having done every job in the hotel. Someone who came up through food and beverage or rooms might not know how to secure a corporate account. There's always something to learn, or an expert to ask. No one discipline is superior. You simply come at it from a different perspective. And you build the right team around you to complement your strengths.
You've spoken openly about being gay. How has that shaped you as a leader?
When I moved to Edinburgh for my first job, I was going through a very confusing time. Just before I left, my mum found a letter from a girl I'd met that summer. It was the first thing that opened my eyes to potentially being gay. My parents' immediate reaction was shock and upset, because they hadn't seen it coming, and I didn't want to disappoint them. So I arrived in a new city, in a new job, feeling lonely and unsure of who I was.
That experience has stayed with me. You never know what someone is carrying, whether it's a guest walking through the door or a colleague on their first day. For a long time, the worst question anyone could ask me was what I'd done at the weekend, because I didn't want to talk about my personal life. People didn't know I was gay, and I worried how it might affect my career and what they'd think of me. I think if you've been through that, it makes you more empathetic. It's one of the reasons it matters so much to me that people can show up authentically.
Were there mentors who helped you see what leadership could look like?
For me, they were mostly men, not because I didn't want female mentors, but because I didn't work for many women along the way. The women I did work for were phenomenally successful, but many struggled to balance anything beyond their professional life. In some ways that put me off, because I thought, if that's what it means to be a highly successful woman in hospitality, I'm not sure I see myself like that.
Frank Arnold, my general manager at The Balmoral, showed me something different. He lived in the hotel with his young family. I remember him coming into my office carrying his son's computer, saying he'd had to confiscate it. He went off to a golf day at Gleneagles on his Harley Davidson with a handful of clubs strapped to the back, while everyone else turned up in pastels and khaki golf gear. He was the first person who showed me you could be a brilliant leader and still be fully yourself.
Bob van den Oord at The Langham gave me real encouragement too. Early on, he invited me and my wife Emily to The Wigmore for a drink, one of the first times a partner had been included like that. From the beginning, he made me feel he liked me for me. All of me.
You're a mother of three young daughters. How has motherhood changed the way you lead?
I love it. I have a very supportive wife, and we talked carefully about what this role would mean for our family. My daughters make me make different choices. They're very young, and that time is completely disconnected from work, because practically it has to be. If I try to open my laptop, they all want to press the keys. If I pick up my phone, they want to look at the pictures. And because I enjoy that time so much, I don't want to sacrifice it.
I still think a lot of ambition is about showing up at the right moments. But I question every decision now. Every evening event, every weekend away from home. Is this important, or could I be at home? It's a constant recalibration. When I stepped into this role I was given an executive coach, and I kept thinking we should be talking about something more strategic than diary management and boundaries. But so many of our conversations came back to exactly those things.
What leadership habit has served you best?
Authenticity. When I first got the job, I thought I'd really feel like the GM the day I walked through the front door, suited and booted, because in my head that's what general managers did. Then I realised that wasn't me. I have a long commute, and I'm far more comfortable travelling in my leggings and getting changed when I arrive.
My ability to do this job, to lead and drive results, isn't determined by whether I come through the front door. So now I come in through the colleague entrance, say good morning to everyone the same way, get changed and step on stage like everyone else. I think that shows people what leadership actually looks like. It looks like all of us.
What still needs to change for women in hospitality?
Our industry isn't set up well to support women who want a family and also want to be ambitious. When you talk about becoming a GM, you're often asked whether you're willing to travel, relocate, work weekends, sacrifice family life. Those are real questions I've been asked, and I know others have too. My own circumstance is a little different, because I didn't carry our children. I'm a woman with a female partner who had them. But if I'd been the one having the babies, being asked whether I'd relocate, work the hours, sacrifice that time, knowing the impact on family and schools, that's quite a big ask. So what needs to change is some genuine thoughtfulness around presence.
And women need to stop apologising for being women, including for the realities of perimenopause and menopause: brain fog, forgetfulness, feeling anxious. I love that we've normalised those conversations here. Some of the best things in my workplace are happening because women feel safe talking about what's really going on.
What should women ask for more often?
Progression. Women often won't ask, they wait to be asked. Studies suggest women will rarely put themselves forward for a job, a promotion or a pay rise, and I've seen that many times in my career. So women need to advocate for what they want. Yes, someone might say no, or not yet, and that might be perfectly fair. But you have to have the confidence to ask.
When you look at your daughters, what do you hope they learn from watching you lead?
Kindness. A hundred percent kindness. I ask them all the time, "Are you kind? Are people kind to you?" Because kindness should go both ways. Spend more time with the people who are kind to you, and be kind to others. It doesn't mean avoiding difficult conversations or difficult decisions. You can do hard things with kindness, holding people's feelings as you go. That's what I hope they see.
