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Britannia Hotels

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Britannia Hotels Limited
Company typePrivate
IndustryHotels & Hospitality
Founded1976
HeadquartersHale, Greater Manchester, England
Number of locations
64
Key people
Alex Langsam CEO
Robert Ferrari CFO
ProductsHotels and property development
ServicesConference room hire, banqueting functions, health club membership
RevenueDecrease £38.311m (2021)[1]
Decrease £6.192m (2021)
Decrease -£9.010m (2021)
OwnerAlex Langsam
Hawksford Trust Company Jersey Limited
Number of employees
12,000
SubsidiariesBritannia Adelphi Hotel Ltd
Birmingham International Hotel Ltd
Ambassador Hotels (Bournemouth) Ltd
Ambassador (East Cliff) Ltd
Britannia Hotel Bolton Ltd
Britannia Hotel Leeds Ltd
Britannia Country House Hotel Ltd
Britannia Hotel Edinburgh Ltd
Britannia Hotel Wolverhampton Ltd
Pontins Holiday Parks
Websitewww.britanniahotels.com

Britannia Hotels is a British budget hotel group with 64 hotels in Great Britain.[2] The company also owns the Pontins Holiday Parks. Since 2010 Britannia Hotels has been a subject of widespread criticism over the hygiene and maintenance of its locations; consumer group Which? repeatedly found the chain to be the worst in the United Kingdom since October 2013.[3][4]

The criticism has contributed towards the growing general perception of Britannia Hotels as "Britain's worst hotel chain".[5]

Overview

Britannia Hotels was founded in 1976 with the purchase of the Britannia Country House Hotel in Didsbury, Manchester. Its chief executive, founder, and largest shareholder remains Alex Langsam. Langsam is a non-domiciled UK resident, registered as living in Austria for tax purposes since 1999.[6] His net personal worth was valued at £90 million in 2013 by The Sunday Times.[7]

The company's head office is in the old town hall in Hale, Manchester. A large cluster of the company's hotels are located in and around Manchester.

Soon after its foundation Britannia began making a number of further acquisitions.

The Britannia Manchester Hotel, formerly Watts Warehouse, Manchester

The second purchase in 1981 was a derelict listed building in central Manchester (the former Watts Warehouse standing on Portland Street, Manchester). After redeveloping the unit it opened in May 1982 as the Britannia Hotel Manchester. At the end of 1982 British Rail sold off its hotel division, British Transport Hotels. From this sale, in 1983 Britannia bought the Britannia Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool.

The Britannia Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool

In 1987 Britannia Hotels converted an unused building in Manchester that had been the city's C&A department store - this became the Sachas Hotel.[8][9] Later in the same year Bosworth Hall, a country house style hotel in Market Bosworth Leicestershire, was purchased. Bosworth Hall was being converted from a hospital/nursing home into a hotel and Britannia took over the development from the builders who went bankrupt. In 1988 the company purchased and began development of the International Hotel adjacent to Canary Wharf in the London's Docklands. The hotel opened on 9 June 1992. A year later, Britannia took over a 187-bedroom hotel in Stockport. After a period of refurbishment the Britannia Stockport Hotel opened in 1993. In the summer of the same year the group also purchased the Europa Hotel situated close to Gatwick Airport.

In the following 10 years the group acquired 16 more hotels in locations such as Birmingham, Aberdeen and Newcastle. In November 2004 it acquired four hotels from the Grand Leisure Group: the Grand Hotel in Scarborough, the Grand Hotel in Llandudno, the Grand Burstin Hotel in Folkestone and the Grand Metropole in Blackpool. In January 2011, the company bought North West holiday camp business Pontins out of administration in an £18.5m deal which safeguarded about 1,000 jobs. Following the acquisition Britannia had to deal with a series of complaints.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

From 2005 to 2015 the Group had its most rapid period of expansion, acquiring 23 hotels, including the Palace Hotel in Buxton and the Basingstoke Country Hotel acquired from the Hotel Collection[18][19] and the Trecarn Hotel Torquay[20] and Cavendish Hotel in Eastbourne. In 2016, Britannia Hotels also purchased The Bromsgrove Hotel & Spa which had been owned and operated by Hilton. Later in 2017 Britannia Hotels acquired the Royal Hotel in Hull from the Mercure Hotel Group, expanding to 53 hotels.[21]

Britannia Hotels purchased nine hotels, reaching a total of 61, between 2017 and 2021, when it acquired The Grand Hotel Gosforth Park (formerly Marriott) in Newcastle, The Grand Hotel Sunderland (formerly Marriott), The Grand Hotel Blackpool (formerly Hilton), The Meon Valley Hotel & Country Club near Southampton, The Sprowston Manor Hotel & Country Club near Norwich, The Hollins Hall Hotel & Country Club near Bradford, The Coylumbridge Hotel (formerly Hilton) in Aviemore and The Royal Clifton Hotel in Southport.

List of properties

See also: Pontins Holiday Parks, owned by Britannia

As of December 2023, Britannia Hotels operated 63 hotels, all in Great Britain:[2]

Common brand names
Brand Locations Total Notes
Britannia Hotels 19 The Manchester location is Grade II* listed.
Airport Inn 2
Grand Hotel 5 The Scarborough location is Grade II* listed.
Total properties 26
Named hotels
Location Properties Total Notes
Aviemore Coylumbridge Aviemore Hotel 1
Basingstoke Country Hotel 1
Birmingham Bromsgrove Hotel 1
Blackpool 3
Bournemouth 4 The Royal Bath Hotel is Grade II listed
Brighton Royal Albion Hotel 1 The Royal Albion Hotel is Grade II* listed. Fire in 2023[22]
Buxton Palace Hotel 1 The Palace Hotel is Grade II listed.
Coventry
  • Royal Court Hotel
 1
Eastbourne Cavendish Hotel 1
Folkestone Grand Burstin Hotel 1
Gatwick
  • Europa Gatwick Hotel
  • Gatwick Lodge
  • Russ Hill Hotel
 3
Kingston upon Hull Royal Hotel 1
Leeds Hollins Hall Hotel 1
Liverpool Adelphi Hotel 1 The Adelphi Hotel is Grade II listed.
London International Hotel 1
Manchester 3
Market Bosworth Bosworth Hall Hotel 1 The Bosworth Hall Hotel is Grade II* listed.
Norwich Sprowston Manor Hotel 1
Peterhead Waterside Hotel 1
Prestwick Adamton Country House 1
Runcorn / Warrington Daresbury Park Hotel & Spa 1 Located in Runcorn though stated by the company as being in neighbouring Warrington.
Scarborough 2
Southampton Meon Valley Hotel 1
Southport
  • Prince of Wales Hotel
  • Scarisbrick Hotel
  • The Royal Clifton Hotel
 3
Stoke on Trent North Stafford Hotel 1 The North Stafford Hotel is Grade II* listed.
Torquay Trecarn Hotel 1
Total properties 38

Events

The 1988 Philip Saville film The Fruit Machine featured interior and main entrance scenes of the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool, including a vertical pan shot past the lit marquee at night.

In 2008 as part of the Capital of Culture celebrations, a musical based on the Adelphi Hotel, written and directed by Phil Willmott, Once Upon A Time At The Adelphi, ran at the Liverpool Playhouse from 30 June until 2 August.[23]

On Saturday 15 July 2023 a fire broke out[24] in one of the rooms in the Royal Albion Hotel, Brighton reducing most of the Grade II building to a shell.[25] It was made worse by the very high winds over the weekend which made fighting the fire very challenging. This left the façade unstable, requiring most of the exterior to be demolished.[26]

Controversies

Which? customer scores (hotel chains)
Year BH
score 		1st
score 		1st
chain 		Ref.
2013 36% 78% Q Hotels [4]
2014 33% 83% Sofitel [27]
2015 — 83% Premier Inn [28]
2016 44% 83% Premier Inn [29]
2017 33% 79% Premier Inn [30]
2018 35% 79% Premier Inn [31]
2019 39% 79% Premier Inn
Wetherspoon 		[3]
2020 37% 86% Sofitel [32][33]
2021 49% 79% Premier Inn [34][35]
2022 56% 78% Premier Inn [36][37]
2023 48% 77% Hotel Indigo [38]

Britannia Hotels has been subject to widespread criticism on many issues, most notably in hygiene and maintenance. In October 2023, consumer group Which? declared Britannia Hotels to be the worst hotel chain in the United Kingdom for the 11th consecutive year, in last place with an overall score of 48%.[38] Britannia Hotels had been last place in the Which? hotel chain rankings since October 2013, when the editor Richard Headland warned that other chains (such as Premier Inn) were undercutting Britannia with better service at similar prices.[4]

Hygiene and maintenance issues

In 2005 and 2006 the Grand Hotel in Scarborough and the Britannia Adelphi were investigated by the BBC over theft and hygiene.[39][40] In November 2014, an undercover investigation by the Liverpool Echo found issues with the upkeep of both the exterior and interior of the Adelphi, warning that the ageing interiors and basic service placed Britannia Hotels at a disadvantage in the fast-evolving "cut-throat" tourism industry.[41] In 2019, Which? journalists found the Britannia Lodge near Gatwick airport to be in a worse condition, reporting smells of damp because of a clogged ventilation fan, a bathroom affected by mould, and stains revealed under ultraviolet light.[3] In the following year, Which? reported that the situation had not improved, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the renewed interest in luxury hotels for staycations.[36]

Hotel research and booking site Oyster.com has reviewed a number of Britannia Hotels. The website commended most of the reviewed locations for their proximity to city centres or public transport hubs[42] and efforts to renovate some rooms in the Manchester location,[43] but raised concerns about outdated interiors, inconsistent maintenance, and Wi-Fi access fees,[44] the latter generally considered inappropriate in a country where internet access is a major part of daily life.

Planning issues

In the mid-1980s, Alex Langsam acquired the Grade II* listed London Road Fire Station in Manchester for the group. Proposals to redevelop it into a hotel and offices were delayed and in 2006 it was placed on English Heritage's register of "at risk" historical buildings.[45] The city council's attempt to compulsorily purchase the building was rejected on 29 November 2011.[46][47] In 2015 Britannia sold the building to Allied London which began redevelopment as a mixed-use leisure and hotel facility.[48]

Social issues

Amid increasing pressure on Britannia Hotels over poor cleanliness, the Home Office temporarily rented rooms in three Britannia locations (two in Bournemouth, one in Folkestone) to house asylum seekers because of overcrowding at the detention centres.[49] The Home Office also rented rooms for new refugees who were waiting for long-term housing.[5]

In December 2018, the Britannia Royal at Kingston upon Hull cancelled a charity reservation for rough sleepers on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day without giving a reason. The incident led to a significant escalation of general criticism against Britannia Hotels, which then temporarily removed its presence from social media.[50]

Evictions and sackings in response to COVID-19

In March 2020, Britannia Hotels attracted widespread condemnation for its response to the coronavirus pandemic: on 19 March, the Coylumbridge Aviemore Hotel sacked and evicted approximately 30 staff who lived in the hotel without notice or redundancy pay, leaving several homeless.[51][52] Britannia Hotels later reversed the decision under widespread political and public pressure, but claimed that the sackings were due to an "administrative error".[53][54] Staff were also dismissed and evicted at the Britannia-owned Pontins holiday parks.[55]

On 24 March, Manchester City Council reported that Britannia Hotels evicted homeless people from Britannia's two city centre hotels (Britannia Manchester and Sachas Hotel), despite an agreement between Britannia and Manchester council to accommodate them.[56]

In September 2007, Manchester Crown Court fined Britannia Hotels £39,486 for food hygiene offences at the Britannia Hotel in Stockport, shortly after TripAdvisor rated it as one of Britain's dirtiest hotels.[57] In December 2014, magistrates at the Nuneaton Justice Centre fined Britannia Hotels £25,400 for food hygiene offences at the Royal Court Hotel in Coventry.[58]

Britannia Hotels was prosecuted for breaking health and safety laws after a student drowned in the Adelphi's swimming pool in 2006.[59] In November 2015, the Liverpool Echo investigated a guest's complaints about the Adelphi.[60] In June 2017, the Adelphi was prosecuted for breaches of food safety and hygiene regulations.[61] Further issues with the Adelphi have been reported since.[62][63][64] The Liverpool Echo visited the company's headquarters in June 2019 to interview a spokesperson about the complaints, but no-one would speak to the journalists.[65]

In 2013 in Canterbury Crown Court the chain was ordered to pay £200,000 in fines and costs for putting guests and construction workers at risk of exposure to asbestos at the Grand Burstin Hotel in Folkestone.[66]

In 2021, the chain was fined £86,000 after an employee fell through rusted railings and suffered life-changing injuries at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Southport. Sefton Council also issued an improvement notice after no attempt was made to make the area safe after the accident occurred.[67]

On 10 September 2022, a 21-year-old woman was crushed to death by a wardrobe whilst staying at the Britannia Adelphi hotel.[68]

See also

References

  1. ^ Britannia Hotels Ltd, Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2021
  2. ^ a b "Search our hotels". Britannia Hotels. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Kollewe, Julia (28 October 2019). "Britannia Hotels rated sector's worst chain for seventh year in a row". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022.
  4. ^ a b c Coldwell, Will (30 October 2013). "The UK's best and worst hotel chains". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013.
  5. ^ a b Gill, Oliver (6 January 2020). "Sales at 'Britain's worst hotel chain' surge past £100m". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Hotel boss Alex Langsam loses appeal over 'non-dom' payout". Manchester Evening News. 11 October 2012.
  7. ^ "The Caterer - Latest News on the Hospitality Industry". The Caterer.
  8. ^ "Sachas - Former C&A Clothing Store". manchesterhistory.net.
  9. ^ O'Leary, Abigail (8 August 2016). "Manchester's lost shops: Readers share their memories of Lewis's and more". Manchester Evening News.
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  55. ^ Hughes, Owen (24 March 2020). "Britannia Hotels re-hires Pontins workers and Government will pay their wages". North Wales Live. Colwyn Bay: Reach plc. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  56. ^ Griffiths, Niall (25 March 2020). "Hotel slammed 'for evicting homeless people that were supposed to stay' there amid coronavirus outbreak". Manchester Evening News. Reach plc. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  57. ^ Taylor, Paul R. (13 September 2007). "'Dirtiest hotel' fined £36,000". Manchester: Reach plc. Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
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  60. ^ Samuelson, Kate (22 November 2015). "Liverpool Adelphi Hotel guest 'disgusted' by £150 a night room".
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  62. ^ McMullin, Kate (2 November 2017). "Bloodied syringe and dried up vomit - couple lift the lid on Adelphi horror stay". Liverpool Echo.
  63. ^ Bona, Emilia (30 December 2017). "100 Scottish line dancers disgusted at 'nightmare' Adelphi stay". Liverpool Echo.
  64. ^ Parry, Josh (14 March 2018). "Adelphi Hotel gym to shut - as members share pictures of 'filthy' changing areas". Liverpool Echo.
  65. ^ Bona, Emilia (30 June 2019). "Bosses at The Adelphi and Pontins never respond to our questions so we turned up at their offices to demand answers". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  66. ^ "Britannia Hotels slammed over asbestos case - TheBusinessDesk.com". 5 April 2013.
  67. ^ "Britannia Hotels fined £86k after employee fell through railings suffering life-changing injuries". LancsLive. 10 April 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  68. ^ "'Kind and caring' daughter, 21, crushed to death by wardrobe in Liverpool Adelphi Hotel". Manchester: ITV. ITV News Granada. 5 October 2022. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
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