Newcastle hotel-chain acquires new premises in Scotland

A Newcastle hotel group is further expanding across the UK after acquiring a new hotel in Scotland.

The Cairn Hotel Group, which owns 22 hotels across the UK, has purchased the freehold of the Queensferry Hotel, Fife, which was previously in administration.

The firm, which already operates hotels in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, now plans to invest around £3m in refurbishing and re-branding the 77-bedroom property over the next 12 months.

The hotel was previously run by Delight Hotels, who were ousted by the former owners Mountain Capital earlier this year.

The Cairn Hotel Group has now purchased the property outright and will operate it directly.

Aran Handa, Director at the Cairn Hotel Group, said: “The Cairn Hotel Group has a proven track record of rescuing and restoring struggling properties like the Queensferry hotel.

“We are now looking forward to not only returning the property to its former glory but introducing the high levels of customer service and staff satisfaction which operate in all our hotels across the UK.”

Previous re-branding projects carried out by the Cairn Hotel Group have more than doubled the workforce at Hotel Indigo Kensington Earls Court, London, the Holiday Inn Newcastle Jesmond hotel, Newcastle, the Doubletree by Hilton Newcastle Airport hotel and the Holiday Inn Darlington A1 Scotch Corner hotel, County Durham.

The firm’s directors now hope that similar successes will be achieved at the three-star Queensferry hotel, as well as safeguarding 40 existing jobs.