Luxury Family Hotels: a new era

Luxury Family Hotels recently announced a multi-million-pound investment project into the Moonfleet Manor that will see refurbishments of the guest bedrooms, an updated lounge, and up-to-date technology. The announcement comes on the back of the group’s ongoing refurbishment at its South Cornwall property – Fowey Hall.

The Luxury Family Hotels is a 32-years-old hotel group founded by Nigel Chapman, having first opened its doors in 1989. The company was formed to bridge the gap within the hospitality industry due to a “limited offering” for family-focused hotels. In a bid to tackle this disconnect, Chapman gave up his London-based accountancy job and plunged his savings into creating this hotel experience by converting his then family home into the Woolley Grange hotel – a Jacobean Manor house set on the edge of Bradford-On-Avon.

Meanwhile, Moonfleet Manor was purchased by Chapman eight years later, representing the second property within the Luxury Family Hotels’ portfolio, which now comprises five hotels: New Park Manor, The Ickworth, Fowey Hall, Woolley Grange, and Moonfleet Manor. Simon Maguire, Luxury Family Hotels managing director, says: “We want to ensure our hotels are at the very best in terms of offering comfort, bringing the technology up to speed, making the hotel feel welcoming, and giving our teams the tools to give their very best every day.” Set on the Chesil Beach, Moonfleet Manor comprises conference rooms, daycare facilities, three indoor heated swimming pools, three treatment rooms, an indoor bowls club, tennis courts, a cinema room, library and electric car charging points.

According to Maguire, the hotel is being “completely stripped out” to incorporate new plumbing, new electrics, and completely redecorated new beds. Technology within the hotel will also be “brought up to speed”; all of the rooms will get “state of the art” televisions, Wifi is being “heavily invested in”, and the company is ensuring that all the USB and plug points are by the bed. “We’re making sure that we catch up and keep in time with everything that the modern day traveller has come to expect now,” Maguire shares.

Meanwhile, the ground floor of Moonfleet Manor underwent a renovation during the first Covid lockdown in 2021, which focused on two of the three lounges. Maguire says: “We were really pleased with how the first renovation was received by our customers in the summer, so we have decided to continue that refurbishment programme.” This new refurbishment will return to the lounges to complete the final lounge which the Luxury Family Hotels hadn’t done prior to the first renovation, and upgrades will be made to the lighting in the restaurant.

“We will also be doing all of the bedrooms, starting with the ones in the main house,” Maguire discloses. Moonfleet Manor has a total of 34 bedrooms split across three areas of the hotel; 28 rooms are in the main house, and there are two sets of outbuildings which have three bedrooms in each of them, which will also undergo renovation in the next stage of the renovation.

Moonfleet Manor is undergoing refurbishment as Luxury Family Hotels received positive feedback from the families that came to stay at the Fowey Hall hotel following its refurbishment in 2019, early 2020, ultimately leading to greater booking levels in the hotel. Maguire asserts: “That’s given us the confidence to continue bringing our portfolio of hotels in line with that new benchmarking, and Moonfleet was next on the list following the success of Fowey Hall.”

With the staycation business amplifying in the UK, Luxury Family Hotels has seen a “large shift” in family travel in the country with Brits “really focusing” on their family holidays, which Maguire shares that Luxury Family Hotels has been “lucky enough to benefit from”. “Not only have we welcomed many regular families back, but we’ve also seen lots of new families that haven’t experienced our hotels before. We’re making sure we capitalise on that and ensuring these customers return year in and year out with the renovation,” Maguire reveals. He continues: “Having a product that is in good condition and is appealing to families is so important so that customers return year-on-year. We felt that now is the right time to take that step and bring the hotels into a new era.”

According to Maguire, the company primarily considers the individual hotel’s current performance and “any opportunities that lie within that”, in terms of whether the company can “add value through sensitive upgrades” to the property. “When deciding to refurbish a hotel, we keep in mind our sort of core brand value and think how we can make this hotel even better for families,” he states.

Maguire imparts that the biggest challenge has been striking the balance between the new equipment and its traditional Georgian features. He says: “We didn’t want to turn it into an overly corporate property; we’ve been really careful to strike that balance. There’s been a large focus on the detail, and sourcing from local artisans as we want the hotel to reflect the nature of the Jurassic Coast. The challenge is just striking that balance of managing everything coming in that’s shiny and new while maintaining its sense of place.”

To tackle this, the company is striving to restore the Georgian “grandeur” to Moonfleet Manor and keep the “individual personality” of the hotel. Therefore, Luxury Family are sourcing amenities from a local furniture-maker based within 20 miles of the hotel who will make “bespoke” bedside tables and joinery to “keep in time with the era and pay a nod to the location”.

While the property has been closed since January, all hotel staff have remained employed, with several staff members being redeployed across the group to allow for cross training across the properties, while others have remained on site to assist with the renovation. Once the raucous works are complete, the first bedrooms at Moonfleet will start opening up to customers in mid-March, with the main house to be completed shortly after. With simple decorative work set to remain, which will be largely confined to individual bedrooms, the entire project is set to be completed in early May.

Furthermore, development works at the Fowey Hall Hotel are set for completion this spring. Along with surprise pop-up launches expected to be unveiled later this year, Luxury Family Hotels plans to see the return of its “popular” glamping site at Woolley Grange in the upcoming summer season. In partnership with the Pop-up Hotel Group, this comprises a small upscale glamping site with eight glamping units, which Maguire said was “a huge hit” last year. Maguire concludes: “We have three other hotels, the Ickworth Hotel, Woolley Grange and New Park, so we’re considering possibilities to refurbish all of those at present. We are always looking for opportunities to improve our offering and add value to our guests – we’re just yet to conclude where our next course of action is.”