Owners signal new era for luxury hotel (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Owners signal new era for luxury hotel

A MAJOR £1 million-plus development which will create nine new bedrooms at the showpiece Lygon Arms Hotel in Broadway has been announced this week.

The move marks the first major investment by new owner Paramount Hotels, which bought the Lygon and two other country house hotels from the Furlong Group in a £41 million deal in December.

The proposal will involve using some existing space in the hotel and re-siting the offices in one of a number of houses currently used for staff accommodation.

General manager Andrew Buchanan also revealed he is to launch a drive to recruit more local part-time staff ahead of migrant workers.

He is already in talks with the local Jobcentre and plans to hold a jobs fair in the village.

"There are a lot of part-time jobs available and there are quite a few people living in and around Broadway who could fill these posts," he said. "I would prefer to see local jobs going to local people."

The hotel is seeking to reposition itself at the hub of village life and a committee is to be formed shortly with a view to returning the annual North Cotswold Hunt Ball to its former home.

The hunt's kennels are in the village and before this year's annual meet, the stirrup cup was passed round in the courtyard outside the hotel.

The new development, for which a planning application has been submitted to Wychavon District Council, is expected to start quite quickly, although no timetable has yet been established.

The Lygon currently has 69 bedrooms and a conference capacity of 80. Charles I is reputed to have stayed there during the Civil War.

It has a master suite named after the king and there is a secret passage to the lounge where the monarch met his troops.

Oliver Cromwell is also believed to have stayed at the hotel on the night of the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

Shortly after his company acquired the hotel, Charles Prew, chief executive of Dawney Shore Hotels, Paramount's parent company, said: "We're sure we can improve the profits of all three, for example, by introducing many new reasons for staying in them.

"There also seems to be considerable scope to improve the operation performance of the hotels."

At that time he said there would be an immediate investment of £1.5m in refurbishment across the three properties and there was also an immediate opportunity to extend the hotels.