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Private Notes
Ruth heads to the East Sussex coast to tackle a hotel whose owner is actively opposed to her ideas before he has even met her.
Ruth is in Hastings to visit the Grand Hotel, a seafront establishment with 17 rooms that is rapidly losing business to the new budget hotels elsewhere in the town. Owner Peter Mann, who has been running the hotel for 18 years, is keen to reverse his fortunes, but is wary of Ruth’s infamous no-nonsense approach even before her arrival. “If she’s going to come here a cross between Darth Vader, Genghis Khan and Gordon Ramsay, then that’s not going to work at all,” he warns.
Unfortunately for Peter, his worst fears are confirmed when he meets Ruth. She is deeply unimpressed by his hotel the moment she sets eyes on it.
Ruth attempts to change the fortunes of a hotel in Reading, whose owner is resistant to the idea of altering his prices.
Beech House is a 15-bedroom hotel in Reading, owned by businessman Michael Bissell. Michael converted the hotel from a care home four years ago and invested around half a million pounds in the facilities, but so far he has failed to attract guests in Reading’s competitive market. The hotel has lost huge amounts of money and Michael has even had to cash in his pension to keep it afloat. “Because of the losses that I’ve made, it’s been me paying the guests to stay here,” he says. Months away from bankruptcy, he has called in Ruth Watson to help avert disaster.
Ruth meets Vincent and Lidy Van Nuyk, the Dutch owners of the 14-bedroom Safari hotel in Bournemouth. Drowning in debt and unable to carry out vital renovations on the hotel, Vincent and Lidy desperately need help if they are to turn their fortunes around.
Vincent and Lidy took on the Safari after 13 years spent running a successful restaurant in Ireland took their toll on Vincent’s health. However, their hopes of a quiet life are unfulfilled: the hotel has failed to turn a profit and they have been driven to the brink of bankruptcy. The lack of money is reflected in the shabbiness of the hotel, which is in dire need of renovation. “We feel defeated,” sighs Lidy. “We want to improve, but we have no cash for it.” To save money, Lidy and Vincent do all the work themselves –including cleaning the 14 bedrooms and doing all the cooking –and are forced to live in one room. Overwhelmed, they have no idea how to pull themselves out of this hole and need someone to show them how to improve things.
Tonight, Ruth visits a bed and breakfast establishment housed in a beautiful medieval priory. The owner is reluctant to share her home with guests, but needs to boost her income to avoid losing the property altogether. Can Ruth persuade her to focus the business on weddings and fashion shoots?
Butley Priory is a six-bedroom B&B in a converted 14th-century priory, just a stone’s throw from Ruth’s own hotel in Suffolk. The owner is musician and former model Frances Cavendish, who opened her home to paying guests to make ends meets after her divorce eight years ago. Unfortunately, the rooms often stand empty and Frances is on the brink of selling up. “If we don’t get more guests through the door I’m going to have to call it a day,” she tells Ruth.
Renowned hotelier, restaurateur and author Ruth Watson continues her mission to reverse Britain’s reputation for poorly run hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs. In tonight’s instalment, Ruth tackles the oddly named Weyanoke – a large hotel on the Eastbourne coast currently suffering from something of an identity crisis.
Three years ago, after a stint running a small B&B, Mark and Heidi Cowderoy bought the Weyanoke – a beautiful, 33-bedroom Victorian hotel situated on the Eastbourne seafront. In the past, the hotel has catered mainly for coach parties of pensioners paying as little as £20 for a room, but this business is quickly dying out. Heidi and Mark decided to refurbish the hotel to take it upmarket, but their spending has meant that they have failed to make any profit since the beginning of their venture. Since buying the hotel, the couple have spent in excess of £1 million on what Mark calls a “Victorian money pit”. Now deep in debt, Mark and Heidi are in dire need of Ruth’s help before their business collapses.
In tonight’s instalment, Ruth visits the heart of Greenwich, South-East London, to meet actor hotelier Robert Gray and assess his three-bedroom B&B.
Actor Robert Gray turned his home into St Alfeges B&B five years ago to maintain the cashflow between acting jobs. A former antiques dealer, he has filled his house with unusual art and objects and decorated with flair and personality – but he is the first to admit that the ‘shabby-chic’ look is starting to look just “shabby”. “I think we need a facelift,” he confesses.
Ruth comes to the aid of a pair of novice hoteliers in Great Yarmouth, who desperately need a crash course in the hotel business if their guesthouse is to stay open. To see how a hotel should be run, they visit a five-star hotel in their town, before Ruth takes them to her own establishment in Orford.
Ruth heads to the Woodlands Lodge, a 16-bedroom country hotel set deep in the heart of the New Forest. The Woodlands' restaurant has recently lost its coveted AA rosette and a new hotel in the area looks set to ruin the business. Can Ruth help transform the hotel's faded decor and put owners David and Jenny Norbury back on track?
Ruth finds out if Brian and Gill Scott, owners of the Key West hotel in Newquay, took her advice when she visited them a year previously.
Ruth returns to the Tasburgh House hotel near Bath to see if owner Sue Keeling - a retired air hostess - has managed to turn her fortunes around. Will the business be flying high, or has it been grounded?
