The Specialist Leisure Group Enters Administration with 44 Hotels Under Three Brands…..Not to Re-Open
Main Photo: The recently refurnished Country Living Lansdown Grove Hotel, Bath
Date: May 2020
Location: UK
Name: Bay Hotels, Coast & Country Hotels and Country Living Hotels
No. of Keys: TBA
Owner: The Specialist Leisure Group, which comprised Shearings, National Holidays, Caledonian Travel and Wallace Arnold Travel shops and package operators, as well as the hotels: Bay Hotels operated 31 properties, while Coast & Country Hotels had 11 hotels.
What Happened: The Specialist Leisure Group has gone into administration and ceased trading due to the impact of Covid-19.
The Group entered administration on May 22, with a restructuring team appointed by the joint administrators.
A statement announcing that all tours, holidays and hotel breaks booked have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.
The Shearings coach holiday brand has been in business for 117 years, with the new Country Living Hotel group, comprising two hotels, the Lansdown Grove in Bath and St George In Harrogate, having launched in 2018.
It’s been reported that the group had 64,000 bookings and employed 2,500 staff.
Only two of the hotels were owned outright by Shearings (Exmouth & Bournemouth)...the rest were leased from a US-based private equity firm.
Price: TBA
THPT Comment: A great part of the UK’s heritage gone with these brands…a pioneer of the coach holiday business and they just did a great deal with Hearst Magazine to brand two of the hotels under the Country Living brand, to take the portfolio up-market. Anyone interested in taking these hotels on, should call Dev Anand at THPT.
First Seen: Boutique Hotelier
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