Some welcome good news for the UK hotel market as the team behind Watergate Bay Hotel in Cornwall and Another Place, The Lake acquire Amport House in Hampshire for their next venture.
Previously run by the Ministry of Defence as a British Armed Forces Chaplaincy College, the property will become the group’s second Another Place hotel and will open as Another Place, The Garden in early 2022.
Ben Harper, managing director at Watergate Bay Hotel and Another Place said about the acquisition: “Amport House was a place of learning and a retreat for the air force, navy and army. There is a lot of history to the building and locally, it’s of great importance. A lot of ex-service people will be hugely interested by it and end up being our guests as it’s well known within the MoD as being a haven where people went.
The key to the building is that it has the most magnificent gardens, designed by Lutyens and Jekyll, and everything will hang off the garden. We always look for a very focused positioning when we look at potential sites for Another Place and this concept of bringing lifestyle, modern, innovate, relaxed hospitality to a country house environment is something that we’re really excited by. Amport House is 60 minutes from London and allows us to bring our style of hospitality to the South East.”
Speaking about how the business is adapting, Harper said: “We’ve been calm. The best decision we made in the early stages was to stop trying to predict. The idea of trying to read the minds of politicians, economists, health care professionals and scientists was never going to happen. We run hotels.
"Everyone is talking about pivoting and doing things differently. We don’t look at it that way. Everything that we have re-prioritised and re-jigged within our pipeline opportunities was there anyway, this has just changed the priorities. Space and privacy will be highly sought after by guests and we’re able to offer that.
"It’s hard to be positive but I do sit here positive. Our business is set for a good bounce back. We’ve had two months to step back, look at every area of our business and re-set. The four directors have talked together daily and spent time working on the business, rather than in the business. We’ve gone line by line across each of the businesses and had some fantastic, strategic moments. We’re in a good place to come back.”
As reported earlier this month, Watergate Bay and Another Place, The Lake are edging close to 90% occupancy for July. On re-opening, Harper said: “We will open with an experience that is as close to what we deem to be the full package, notwithstanding the fact that there will be some restrictions in place.”
Another Place is the business for growth within the portfolio that also includes Watergate Bay Hotel and self-catering agency, Beach Retreats, targeting five sites in five years. Amport House marks the second site with the first, Another Place, The Lake, opening in 2017.