Rupert Grint’s hotel losses show money doesn’t solve everything

“If only we could get a cash injection, things would improve.” Such a common sentiment among small business owners, and what seems irrefutable logic when under the kosh with tight cashflow.

But Harry Potter star Rupert Grint is a prime example of how, in hospitality, it’s not just money that does the talking. The actor’s boutique hotel and restaurant businesses are widely reported to have lost £200,000 in the last two years.

The story originally came from The Sun, so it’s important to resist the temptation to join the ‘celebrating other people’s failure’ clamour. But I think it is reasonable to suggest that a child film star with no experience as a hotel operator is not a likely candidate for a successful hotel business. A saving grace might have been that Nigel Grint, the actor’s father, is a director of the company, but he is a memorabilia dealer by trade, so no hotel experience there either, then.

One imagines that the venture will be kept afloat for some time, given Grint’s fortune from the movies is estimated at over £40m. And there is of course the possibility that the ‘losses’ on the accounts actually represent exceptional items: construction or renovation investment. After all, improved premises could transform what is currently a money pit into a more profitable outfit in the long term.

Nonetheless, the first two years of trading look like clear-cut evidence that you cannot just ‘have a crack’ at hospitality. Cash is king, but experience and passion are key ingredients, too.