Hand Picked Hotels

Hand Picked Hotels, set up by financier Guy Hands and his wife Julia, owns and operates a collection of individual and historic country house hotels in Great Britain. Julia, a former lawyer, now runs Hand Picked Hotels.

Timeline

• 1999: the Hands purchases seven hotels from Virgin for around £20m and name their new company Hand Picked Hotels. In November, they buy 11 Arcadian hotels from Wyndham International for £75m.
• September 2001: A refurbishment programme, costing over £50 million, begins.
• October 2003: The refurbished estate is relaunched as "Hand Picked Hotels" and the Arcadian name disappears. By this time, 12 hotels have been awarded two AA rosettes, seven have improved their star rating and four have won Red Star status, putting them in the AA top 200 hotel bracket.
• December 2007: Major extensions completed to Rookery Hall (adding 24 bedrooms, spa and banqueting suites), Rhinefield House (adding 16 bedrooms, meeting rooms and health club), and Norton House (36 bedrooms, banqueting suites and leisure spa)
• February 2008: Audleys Wood, Hendon Hall and New Hall bought from Bridgehouse Hotels, adding 190 rooms to the group

Size

• Number of hotels: 21
• Number of bedrooms: approximately 1357

Locations

• Audleys Wood, Basingstoke, Hampshire;
• Bailbrook House Hotel, Bath, Somerset;
• Brandshatch Place Hotel & Spa, Fawkham Green, Kent;
• Buxted Park Hotel, Uckfield, Sussex;
• Chilston Park Hotel, Maidstone, Kent;
• Crathorne Hall Hotel, Crathorne, North Yorkshire;
• Ettington Park Hotel, Stratford-upon-Avon;
• Fawsley Hall Hotel & Spa, Northamptonshire;
• Grand Jersey Hotel & Spa, St Helier, Jersey;
• Hendon Hall Hotel, Hendon, London;
• L’Horizon Beach Hotel & Spa, St Brelade’s Bay, Jersey;
• New Hall Hotel & Spa, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands;
• Norton House Hotel & Spa, Edinburgh;
• Nutfield Priory Hotel & Spa, Redhill, Surrey;
• The Priest House Hotel, Castle Donington, near Derby;
• Rhinefield House Hotel, New Forest, Hampshire;
• Rookery Hall Hotel & Spa, Nantwich, Cheshire;
• Seiont Manor Hotel, Snowdonia;
• St Pierre Park Hotel & Golf Resort, St Peter Port, Guernsey
• Wood Hall Hotel & Spa, Linton, Wetherby, West Yorkshire;
• Woodlands Park Hotel, Cobham, Surrey.

Personnel

Chairman and Chief Executive: Julia Hands

Key Directors:

• Commercial Director: Ken Arkley
• Operations Director: Douglas Waddell
• Finance Director: Stewart Fairs

References

• The Times February 5, 2008: Hands-on approach puts hotel chain among the nation's star performers
• Caterer & Hotelkeeper September 5 2002: A hands-on approach / Rosalind Mullen
• Caterer & Hotelkeeper October 2, 2003: A Show of Hands / Karl Cushing
• The Daily Telegraph October 9 2004: Hotel boss wins award without helping Hands / Kate Rankine
• Caterer Interview with Julia Hands July 29 2011

External links

• Hand Picked Hotels website
• Caterersearch data on Hand Picked Hotels