Mixed fortunes as winter hits industry
By Gillian Drummond
This winter's relentless bad weather has had a dramatic impact on the UK's hotels, with cancellations for many and boosts in business for others as snow, floods and high winds have swept the country.
The Dryfesdale Hotel in Lockerbie, Dumfries & Galloway, lost an estimated £4,000-worth of business during this month's heaviest snowfalls after private functions, an all-day conference and a wedding were cancelled.
The hotel, which was surrounded by two-and-a-half feet of snow, was also without electricity for two days. Angela Coward, general manager at the hotel, said: "We have got the bookings back, but everything we had in that week is now spread over the next six months. It's going to take six months to recuperate what we lost in three days."
The 26-bedroom Hetland Hall Hotel in Carrutherstown, near Dumfries, was at one point surrounded by 22ins of snow and lost three days' conference business. Mary Allen, one of its owners, said it had "devastated" business.
In Kent, which saw some of the heaviest snowfalls last week, hoteliers made up some of their lost business through tourists stranded on this side of the Channel.
The Churchill Hotel in Dover filled 25 extra rooms on Tuesday last week, but lost five through cancellations. With many of the extra residents also having dinner, it found its resources were stretched.
"We have always had a good conversion rate from sleepers to diners, but it was 90% that night. There were several staff who couldn't get into work and for us that makes a lot of difference," said general manager Les Pennington.
Neil Sheppard, deputy general manager at the Beauport Park Hotel in Hastings, estimated that the hotel had lost about £800 worth of business on the same night.
"Some parties and functions cancelled, but most of our residents stayed over so it wasn't so bad. And we picked up one or two because of the snow," he said.
The bad weather also brought last-minute guests to the Chase Hotel in Whitehaven, Cumbria. It was fully booked for two nights after workers from the nearby Sellafield power plant were left stranded. "The weather cut off the town for two days," said owner Brian Proctor.
