New hotel operator pledges to honour bookings and events hit by administration
Customers who booked weddings, parties and other events at a Liverpool hotel are celebrating after the new operator vowed to honour all monies paid before it went into administration over the Summer.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds had been paid to 30 James Street hotel leaving more than 200 events in the balance.
But now new operator, Legacy Hotels & Resorts, has worked out a deal with Moorfields, the administrators, to ensure 127 weddings and 95 spa days, as well as more than 660-bedroom reservations, have not been lost.
A letter to the hundreds of people who paid deposits, or in full, for their event has been sent out this week telling them of the good news.
It says that at the date of the administration, on June 25, all deposits and advanced purchase payments became unsecured creditors of the administration and that no deposit money previously paid to 30 James Street had been passed to the administrators, which left the huge shortfall for weddings, accommodation and events scheduled.
The letter’s signatory, Calum Colquhoun, regional operations manager for Legacy Hotels, wrote: “Whilst there is no obligation to do so, I am pleased to inform you that the new business will be honouring, in full, the value of any deposit paid to 30 James Street Limited on or before 15 April 2020.
“It has been a substantial task to address this financial issue, at the same time as planning for the reopening of the hotel. I would like to thank you for your patience and understanding at what must have been a difficult and unsettling time.”
For Jess Wallace, 29, a business administrator, and Lee Stanley, 31, a civil engineer of Childwall, the news comes as a huge relief.
The couple had planned to be married at 30 James Street on April 3, having chosen the venue because it was on the street on which they met for their first date in 2016.
They became engaged in 2018 and had saved and paid £9,500 for their big day.
Jess said: “When I heard the news that we hadn’t lost the money, that our wedding will go ahead, I was so happy and relieved, I just burst into tears.
“We were so close to being married originally that I was about to go for my final wedding dress fitting. Then lockdown happened, which was bad enough, and we knew we would have to move the date.
“But then we were left in limbo having to spend the last few months not knowing whether we had lost the money and I felt so low and upset. Organising a wedding can be stressful enough, but to have this on top of everything else, it was heart-breaking.”
Jess and Lee
Lee said: “I genuinely thought we had lost all of our money and if we had, it would have been years before we could have saved up enough again with buying a house the next priority.”
30 James Street hotel reopened at the end of July after the administrators appointed Legacy Hotels, which also operates the Pullman Hotel on the Liverpool waterfront and is opening a Novotel at the new Paddington Village.
Vicki Hanlon, general manager of the Grade II-listed four-star 30 James Street venue, said: “It’s amazing news and it has constantly been in the back of our minds whether this would be possible. It really is the best news we could have ever had.”
The 63-room hotel is themed around the White Star Line shipping company, the original occupiers of the building, which was designed by celebrated Victorian architect Norman Shaw and completed in 1896.
