The Lanesborough Hotel in London will reopen as an Oetker Collection Masterpiece Hotel. Oetker, a hotel management company, now has nine Masterpiece hotels with the Lanesborough the only one in the UK.

The Lanesborough closed for a complete renovation in 2013 and will reopen spring 2015 with 93 guestrooms and 43 suites. Expect ‘dining with discreet elegance with vintage cognacs in the Withdrawing Room and Havanas in the Garden Terrace’.

Lanesborough House was built by Viscount Lanesborough as an elegant country house in 1719. It was rebuilt in 1827 as St Georges Hospital and became the Lanesborough Hotel in 1990.

The Lanesborough is a landmark building overlooking Hyde Park Corner in central London. It is a two minute walk from Hyde Park Corner tube station although the hotel we will send a limousine to greet guests from Heathrow and London City Airports.

Details:  www.oetkercollection.com

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Published: 14 November 2014

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Owners of Barton Grange Hotel just north of Preston have submitted plans to develop a £6million leisure development at their Barton Grange Garden Centre site. The development would feature a four-ice sheet curling rink, a cinema, a ten pin bowling facility plus indoor and outdoor crazy golf courses. There would also be a kayak shop selling and renting boats for use on the neighbouring Lancaster Canal.

Barton Grange Garden Centre was situated alongside Barton Grange Hotel until recently. It is now housed on its own stand-alone site around a mile north of the hotel on the A6.

If planning permission is granted, work will likely begin in late 2015 with the hope of opening in summer 2017.

Details - plan: www.bartongrange.co.uk

Details - hotel:   www.bartongrangehotel.co.uk

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Published: 13 November 2014

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Owners of Oddfellows, the 18-bedroom boutique hotel in the centre of Chester, have acquired Bruntwood Hall in Cheadle, Cheshire for their second site.

They plan to convert Bruntwood Hall into a 23-bedroom hotel named Oddfellows On The Park. It will feature a restaurant and bar, treatment rooms and event space. Bruntwood Hall is set in more than 100 acres of parkland, which includes ponds, waterways and mature woodlands. It is a building with an interesting past. It was formerly a Town Hall and then a racehorse stud farm. More recently it has been used by a film company.

Oddfellows on the Park is scheduled for a late summer / autumn 2015 opening.

Bruntwood Hall is located just off the A34 south of Manchester, five minutes from the M60 at junction 2 and with good access to Manchester Airport.

Details: www.oddfellowschester.com

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Published: 14 November 2014

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Shire Hotels is investing over £200K upgrading its free unlimited wi-fi offering across its six UK hotels.

The new technology will deliver a tenfold increase in bandwidth and provide stable, secure and high quality superfast wireless internet access in all meeting rooms, guest rooms and public areas - with no upgrade fee to access the higher bandwidth.

For specialist meetings and events a dedicated bandwidth of up to 80mbps can be provided and for this there would be a setup charge.

Shire Hotels include: Kettering Hotel and Spa in Kettering; Solent Hotel and Spa in Fareham; Aztec Hotel and Spa in Bristol (pictured); Cottons Hotel and Spa in Knutsford; Thorpe Park Hotel and Spa in Leeds and North Lakes Hotel and Spa in Penrith.

Details:  www.shirehotels.co.uk

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Published: 13 November 2014

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