Launch of Boutique Hotel Company delayed by owner's illness
The launch of the Boutique Hotel Company, a new online reservations business and consultancy, has been put on hold after its managing director suffered a serious heart attack.
Jeffrey Crockett is still in a critical condition after being taken ill on 11 September. He had intended to build a brand which offered online representation and reservations coupled with asset management and consultancy.
Crockett has had a long career in the hotel industry, having worked at the Savoy, Claridge's and the Connaught in London, as well as in five staff hotels in Geneva, Paris and New York.
He has been the general manager at Hambleton Hall in Oakham, Rutland, and developed Fawsley Hall, near Daventry, Northamptonshire, into a luxury hotel, as managing director of Obelus Hospitality.
It had been Crockett's vision to create a online booking engine run by hoteliers rather than publishers, with the option of searching by town, country or coast, with a highly visual and interactive website. He had already begun to built a collection of many of the UK's leading boutique hotels in the UK and Ireland in time for the now delayed November launch.
Crockett is a member of the regional board of the British Hospitality Association, regional vice-chairman of Hospitality Action and a Master Innholder.
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By Janet Harmer
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