Bulldog starts hotel chain
Bulldog Pub Company has bought a 19-bedroom coaching inn in the Cotswolds as the first move in a five-year plan to build an estate of up to 20 hotel inns.
The company, which is headed by Kevin Charity, has spent around £1m buying the White Hart Royal in Moreton-in-Marsh from Greene King. The site has 19 bedrooms and Bulldog will close the hotel in a few months' time — once planning consents have been obtained — to undertake a £1m refurbishment that will see the number of rooms increased to 24.
Bulldog has two more coaching inns in the acquisition pipeline. It already operates the White Hart in Boston, Lincolnshire, with 24 bedrooms, the Chequers Hotel, Holbeach, Lincolnshire, with 10 bedrooms, and the Old Bridge Hotel, Holmfirth, Yorkshire, with 20 bedrooms.
Charity said: "Our long-term plan is to operate up to 20 hotel inns within the next five years. The aim is to offer four-star standards at three- star prices. Rooms will border on boutique-hotel quality and we aim to offer great food at sensible prices."
The expansion of Bulldog into hotel inns comes after it shed the majority of its tenanted leases in the past two years, and sold the freehold of Goodbarn's Yard in Boston to Enterprise Inns.
Bulldog has also launched a new environmentally-friendly initiative called Green Sleep. The company donates the cost of planting a tree for each bedroom it sells.
The move has already seen 12,000 trees planted since it was launched. "We would really like to see other hotel owners joining us in this initiative," said Charity.
