Multimillion-pound upgrade brings 15 jobs at historic Lincs hotel
An historic hotel in Lincolnshire has undergone a multi-million pound refurbishment, created 15 new jobs and joined Best Western Great Britain’s BW Premier Collection.
The move comes a year after hoteliers Ravi and Sanjay Kathuria of Talash Hotels bought Stoke Rochford Hall Hotel and Golf Resort.
The venue near Grantham is a Grade-I listed Victorian mansion previously run as a training centre by the National Union of Teachers. Devastated by fire in 2005, which took more than 120 fire fighters to put out and saw the west wing destroyed, the property underwent a £15m renovation programme before re-opening in 2008.
Set in 28 acres of award-winning gardens within the 1000 acre Stoke Rochford Estate, Stoke Rochford Hall Hotel and Golf Resort has 97 bedrooms, two restaurants, two bars and 15 function rooms catering for weddings, banquets and conferences for up to 700 people. Leisure facilities include a gym plus swimming pool and sauna and guests can now access the adjacent Stoke Rochford Golf Club.
Talash Hotels’ programme of improvements over the last 14 months has included the complete refurbishment of all bedrooms to four-star de-luxe standard and upgrades to The Pavilion glazed function room and The Venue, a conference suite with integrated audio-visual technology.
Ravi Kathuria said: “When Sanjay and I bought Stoke Rochford Hall last year we set out a clear ambition to build on both the standards of this beautiful property and levels of service provided to guests to create the luxury destination we believe it deserves to be. We’re on our way to achieving our goals and a key element of our strategy is bringing new general manager John McKitterick on board, whose experience of running successful four-star luxury hotels is already making its mark.
“John joins our area manager Naushad Busawon and business development manager Natalie Barton to build a winning team of hospitality professionals to take the business forward. We’re already seeing uplifts to forecasted revenues and with the support of Best Western Great Britain we can only see this growth continuing in the years ahead. We’re hopeful of adding two or three new properties to the Talash portfolio this year in our aim to have 20 hotels by 2020.”
Rob Paterson, chief exeucutive of Best Western Great Britain, said: “We are delighted to welcome the entrepreneurial Talash Hotels group to Best Western and the historic Stoke Rochford Hall Hotel and Golf Resort to our growing portfolio of brilliantly different independent hotels. Stoke Rochford is a hugely impressive property and we look forward to working in partnership with the Talash team to support them and their hotels to maximise their membership of Best Western.”
Formed in 2007, the Talash Hotels group currently includes 13 individual character properties. Other hotels in the Midlands include Risley Hall Hotel in Derbyshire, which has also recently joined Best Western Great Britain, Quorn Country Hotel in Leicestershire and Barons Court Hotel, Walsall.
