North East leisure firm The Apartment Group is investing in luxury glamping cabins within the grounds of one of its hotels as part of moves to create a number of five-star venues in the region.
The company behind As You Like It in Jesmond, The Palm in Sunderland, The Collingwood Collection in Newcastle and other venues in the North East, has taken time in lockdown to develop new ideas.
The company’s chief operating officer Debrah Dhugga says the 'outdoors is the new indoors' for the hospitality sector, which has led to the firm investing heavily in its outdoor areas across the region.
And with more people that ever exploring the countryside and coastal areas closer to home amid travel restrictions, she said the firm is also putting plans into action to create a range of five star glamping cabins in the grounds of one of its two Northumberland hotels, Newton Hall.
Work is under way on 22 Scandinavian-style cabins, which will replaced around 50 outdated and empty caravans at the site, at Newton-by-the-Sea, with plans to open them to first guests in June of this week.
Mrs Dhugga, whose career has seen her launch Newcastle’s Malmaison and manage the luxury Seaham Hall, The Samling hotels and luxury hotels in London and Dubai, said: “In Northumberland we have a series of caravans that are around 50 years old and in a bit of a state, so we are looking at building some beautiful luxury cabins.
“Newton Hall and 海角视频 Cabins will have 22 cabins which are being built now, in a very Scandi style, and there will be nothing like them in the North East.”
“We have been in lockdown for just over a year and as we look to open
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“I think for businesses in hospitality in general outdoors is the new indoors, which is why we are investing in outside venues to give us some return, and help us to grow.
“And when I think about ‘outside’ I also think about glamping, like we are doing in Northumberland with the luxury cabins.
“People want to be out in Northumberland but there’s no real five-star experience there. There is a lot of caravans, and there’s nothing wrong with caravans, but I definitely think we can up our game.
“Everyone talks about Cornwall and its hotels, beaches and foodie scene, but people don’t see Northumberland as ‘luxury’ and it’s one of my ambitions to make that happen.
“After all, people used to say we’d never get a five-star hotel in Seaham, but we did with Seaham Hall. It’s what the North East needs.”
Last Summer The Apartment Group had unveiled plans to invest millions of pounds into Whitworth Hall Hotel & Deer Park and Jersey Farm Country Hotel, both in County Durham, to turn them into luxury boutique hotels.
Those plans were put on hold for some time during lockdown but are now firmly back on track, with Jersey Farm - now called Runa Farm - set to be the first to open.
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She added: “We bought the Jersey Farm Hotel but had to put those plans on the back burner, but will be opening that next Spring. That fit-out is going on now and we just need to get that open.”
News of the group’s luxury accommodation plans come during a recruitment drive to fill around 400 posts as it prepares to reopen venues, having lost around 400 through redundancies during the Covid-19 crisis.