Match fit – golf courses at some of the
Wear region’s fantastic hotels and country
halls are back open for business.
SWING
BACK THE
Wear region's top hotels eyeing
green shoots of recovery
BY GRAEME ANDERSON
Re-opening – protection is paramount as the region’s
hotels, including the beautiful Lumley Castle near
Chester-le-Street, welcome back guests.
20
As autumn approaches, hotels across
the Wear region are quietly coming
to terms with the ‘new normal’ and
looking to make it work.
Life after lockdown is a slower, more staid
form of trade with far less footfall and fewer
bookings than they would normally expect at
this time of year.
But it is offering a lifeline to a hotel industry
which faced an unprecedented challenge when
the Covid-19 lockdown on Monday, March 23, left them
with all the overheads but none of the revenue
“It was horrendous,” says Ian Gray, general manager
of the George Washington Hotel.
“It was like nothing the hotel industry has ever faced
before and it’s no surprise that many of the smaller
hotels simply haven’t made it through.
“That said, even the biggest hotel chains have faced
huge challenges and we’re only just beginning to see
the way forward now as the hotel industry re-opens in
a way that factors in the best possible safeguards from
potential infection.”
Gordon Cartwright, general manager of the iconic
Lumley Castle, says that having steered their hotels
through a crisis of income, this next stage presents its
own unique challenges as guests are welcomed back into
a very different environment, as protections from the
pandemic become the paramount priority.
“I personally think that the future of hospitality
belongs to the brave, the courageous and the
imaginative,” he told Wear Business.
“If you don’t have those qualities and if you can’t
reshape your operation, then you have real difficulties.
“The real winners in this won’t be known next week