Assured Hotels (AH) were appointed by Quantuma Advisory to assist in the management and trading of the DoubleTree by Hilton in Cheltenham (DTH). The business had been placed into administration by its UK lender, due to some overseas investment linked to geopolitical events which breached loan covenant.

The DTH is a full service 149-bedroom hotel with extensive facilities including a restaurant, several bars, meetings & events space, with spa, swimming pool and large gym facilities with a local membership of over 500.

Whilst the hotel was trading well, with a very commercial approach adopted by an experienced onsite management team, the physical property was tired. Additionally compliance standards were not to regulatory requirements. This conflicted with the brand standards set out in the inherited franchise agreement.

Cheltenham enjoys a strong hotel industry, with presence from most major brands with year-round high occupancies and average rate, across a diverse market mix. This is further buoyed by the affluence of the Cotswold town and regular annuals events, for example the horse racing calendar and in particular the Gold Cup festival which creates uniquely high demand.

In this congested and highly competitive market it was therefore agreed with the stakeholders that the DTH brand was significant to the marketing process. Both in terms of value on exit to interested parties and to avoid the onerous termination clauses, as the business has breached this agreement and pushed patience with those stakeholders.

Our role was therefore to ensure we at least maintained commercial results and at the same time engaged with the central team at Hilton to start to address the shortfall to the longstanding property improvement plan.

Due to the wider financial challenges and its effect on securing debt in the sector the administration went on far longer than expected. However, this allowed us a bigger window of time to address more of the physical property challenges and bring the compliance up to date.

The business was sold out of administration in the autumn of 2023 with the DTH brand in situ to a new investment company backed by a new funder, with the UK Bank paid back in full. The previous 3^rd party management company were also re-introduced by the new investor, free of any conflict during the administration as AH had replaced them partly for that purpose.

For further information or to discuss support in any area of hotel & hospitality please contact us on:
e. mgriffin@assuredhotels.co.uk t. 0203 916 5658

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