Prince Hall recovers after foot-and-mouth

The Prince Hall hotel on Dartmoor, which was closed last year for four months due to foot-and-mouth, has increased its advertising this year and is confident of reaching its pre-closure annual occupancy of 55%.

Owner Adam Southwell said: "We're taking bookings rather than cancelling them. We've got 150 bookings from a two-for-one dinner offer which runs until 11 April, and 30 individual bookings from adverts placed in the Daily Mail and Radio Times. We are hopeful it will be a good season. Like any other, it's dependent on the weather."

Prince Hall hotel was forcibly closed when the foot-and-mouth disease ravaged neighbouring farms' sheep and cattle last year. Mass culls took place 200 yards from the hotel. Adam and Carrie Southwell and their one-year-old son were virtually prisoners in the eight-bedroom hotel.

Looking back now on the ritual of showering, donning protective clothing and disinfecting every time they went out, Southwell said: "It was a bit like a 1950s sci-fi movie. When you're stuck in the middle and can't see the end, it's frightening. Luckily it finished, and we were able to claw back some of the season. You have to take the rough with the smooth in this business."

The hotel lost £80,000 in turnover during the closure. The Southwells received a grant of £15,000 from the regional development agency, which they have used to refurbish three bedrooms and improve the kitchen and decor.

Southwell, who has been made acting chairman of the Dartmoor Tourist Association, said that no hospitality businesses in the area had gone bust because of foot-and-mouth.

The hotel was closed for four months during the outbreak

by Ben Walker

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 21-27 March 2002