Hotel du Vin puts new hotel in old Brighton

Boutique group Hotel du Vin has bought a building in one of Brighton's oldest areas in which to put its fifth property.

The 35-bedroom hotel in the historic Lanes part of the Sussex town is scheduled to open next September and have a 100-seat restaurant, a bar for 60 people, a function room to accommodate an extra 50 diners, and a private dining area in the cellar with seating for 20.

Managing director Robin Hutson, who with Gerard Basset started the original 13-bedroom Hotel du Vin in Winchester seven years ago, was optimistic about business prospects despite the current widespread gloom.

He said: "We're having a very buoyant time at the moment." He added that, as the group did not have any London hotels, it was not really affected by the decline affecting the capital in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the USA.

The group's hotels in Winchester, Tunbridge Wells, Bristol and Birmingham also escaped the effects of the foot-and-mouth crisis. "We just slipped through the middle," Hutson said.

The group expects a turnover of £13m this year, and is already hunting for a sixth hotel site, perhaps in Reading, Guildford or Cambridge, said Hutson.

He added that the expansion plan meant that the group would probably pause and draw breath after it had acquired its seventh hotel.

Hutson said: "We are conscious of the fact that expansion does get ever more difficult. We're taking it one step at a time."

by Samantha McClary