Little bird thinks big
From a stained glass window, the bewigged figure of Sir Christopher Wren smiles benignly down at the train of workmen in overalls busy at the task of refurbishing the hotel which was once his home.
It may not be on the scale of St Paul's Cathedral, his most famous project, but nevertheless the Sir Christopher Wren's House Hotel in Windsor is being transformed into the flagship property of one of the latest hotel groups to be established in the UK.
The Wren's Hotel Group, set up by Croatian businessman Goran Strok, is less than three years old, but already it can count four properties in its portfolio. Strok has been living in the UK for about 25 years, but his only other hotel project before starting the Wren's group was ownership of the 160-bedroom Hotel Bonavia in Rijeka, Croatia.
The first of his UK properties, which gave the group its name, was the Sir Christopher Wren's House Hotel, acquired in December 1995. The 39-bedroom property had a price tag of about £4m and the refurbishment work, which will be completed this month, is costing about £2m.
His next acquisition came in November 1996 with the purchase, for about £2m, of the 30-bedroom Taplow House Hotel in Taplow, Berkshire, bought out of receivership. Last summer, the Auchterarder House Hotel, near Gleneagles in Scotland, with a price tag of £1.2m, joined the collection, to be followed at the end of the year by the Cringletie House Hotel, near Peebles in the Scottish borders, which cost less than £1m.
In total, and including the upgrading of its flagship, the Wren's Hotel Group has spent more than £10m on property in a relatively short space of time. The indications from chief executive Paul Phillips are that there is more money in the pot for further acquisitions as the company seeks to build up a nationwide chain of individually styled hotels.
"It is very exciting," says Phillips. "We have been able to start with nothing and, over the last two years or so, have acquired a new hotel virtually every six months, and we have been able to lay the foundations of a unique collection of hotels."
The work at the Sir Christopher Wren's House Hotel sees the number of bedrooms increase from 39 to 55, including five suites, and refurbishment of the public areas including the bar and restaurant. The new rooms are in a former office block next to the hotel, which the group bought.
While the hotel itself has meeting facilities catering for groups of between 12 and 120, Wren's has also converted a building across the street into a self-contained business centre with eight meeting rooms catering for meetings of as many as 40 people. This opened for business in April, with room hire starting at £250 a day.
Beside the business centre, and located directly opposite the hotel, is the 30-seat Café Wren, which opened in October. This operates as a stand-alone business although guests of the hotel will have a bill-back facility to their bedrooms. Its name, and use of the distinctive deep-blue Wren's logo, make it clear that it is part of the hotel complex which now dominates Windsor's pedestrianised Thames Street. In the summer months, the café will have tables and chairs outside, making the gap between it and the hotel still smaller.
The hotel itself makes much of its riverside location, and work is also under way to develop the terrace outside the bar, which looks across the boathouses belonging to Eton College.
Good location is a priority. According to Phillips, the Sir Christopher Wren's House Hotel is able to attract business from executives who need to be near the airport - Heathrow is 15 minutes away - as well as London and the Home Counties. Because there is such good access to the town from the motorway, meetings and conferences are the bread-and-butter business for the hotel.
Competitors
Surprisingly, given Windsor's position as a leading tourist destination, Phillips says that overnight leisure business is not particularly strong for the hotel. "There is a myth that Windsor is always full of tourists," he says. "It is full of non-residential visitors who come by the coachload, and their average stay is four hours." He adds that the hotel will be seeking to increase leisure-break bookings this year in a bid to fill the additional bedrooms. At present, the hotel claims to be achieving an average rate of about £100 and has average occupancy levels of 75%. He sees the nearby Runnymede Hotel and the Moat House Oakley Court in Windsor as the main competitors for the property.
Conference and meetings business is also extremely important for the Wren's group's Taplow House Hotel, which is currently achieving an average rate of about £80. According to Phillips, the Taplow also has very good weddings business. "Every Saturday this year has been sold out for weddings," he says. Phillips says the closest rivals for the Taplow are the Copthorne and the Courtyard by Marriott in Slough.
The scenic setting of the 15-bedroom Auchterarder House, on extensive grounds, means that the hotel attracts mainly leisure bookings. Phillips is looking at the options for extending the property by another 10 bedrooms. The hotel achieves an average rate of £150, but its average occupancy levels at present are about 45% because business dips so sharply in the winter. The company is looking to increase year-round bookings.
Phillips says that refurbishment work to upgrade Taplow and Auchterarder will be carried out this year, but he describes the group's latest acquisition, Cringletie House, as being in excellent condition.
Another task this year is finding a suitable vehicle for promoting the group in overseas markets. While the Auchterarder is a member of the luxury hotel consortium Small Luxury Hotels of the World as well as Best Loved Hotels of the World, none of the properties are bookable on global distribution systems (GDS) used by travel agents worldwide. Phillips says he is looking at the options for signing the group up to an international representation company in order to get a listing on GDSs. Earlier this summer, the group went on the Internet with HotelWorld but, so far, it has not proved very productive.
Phillips's own background in the hotel business stretches back to the early 1970s, when he was founder and managing director of Hotel Management International, a Coral Leisure-owned company which specialised in the operation of hotels under management contract. The company was subsequently taken over by Bass Charrington. He has also worked with Wimpey, managing resorts in the Canary Islands, and most recently was a consultant working on a number of assignments including a project for Vienna Hotels in London. It was through his consultancy work that he met Strok.
According to Phillips, we are likely to see more acquisitions by the Wren's Hotel Group in the near future. "We will be looking at quality hotels at all points between Windsor and Edinburgh," he says. "It could be Stratford or the Lake District. We don't want a whole bunch of hotels next door, as you end up competing with yourself. There is a shortage of good properties on the market, but we will look at anything that comes within our style and standard.
"If the opportunities come up, I would like to see us having a dozen hotels in the next five years."
