Anger as hotel will not honour bookings

PEOPLE who were due to stay at Plymouth’s luxurious Duke of Cornwall Hotel – including those who have put down deposits for postponed weddings – have been angered after being told that the new managers will not honour existing bookings.

The historic hotel closed in early February, with all staff being made redundant, following the impact of repeated lockdowns. Mounting costs made the venue financially unviable.

Cheshire-based Bespoke Hotels, which operated the Duke for the past two years, had planned to reopen the hotel on February 19, but the continued lockdown saw them shutter the hotel. Around 65 staff were told by a Zoom call they were being made redundant.

However, just a few weeks later, Singapore-based Fragrance Group signed a deal with the hotel management company RBH to take over the venue. It saw previous general manager, Peter Adams, appointed to the same post with the new company, and it was expected that a number of other staff who were made redundant when the hotel closed in February would also be offered jobs with RBH as soon as the hotel was allowed to re-open.

However, a post on the Duke of Cornwall Hotel’s Facebook page has now left many people shocked and angry. Signed by ‘Team Duke’, it confirmed the Grade II listed hotel was under new management but added: “As a result of this, we are sadly unable to honour existing bookings”.

The post stated that the hotel had been “assured by the appointed liquidators that all guests have been contacted, and we apologise if this is not the case” before urging those who were unaware to email Bespoke Hotels with their booking details and amount of deposit paid.

The post continued: “Unfortunately, we do not have access to the data of all previous guests, or guests who have deposits for future or postponed reservations.”

One person who commented said they had paid £2,000 for their daughter’s wedding and was unsure if they would get a refund.

A Facebook post read: “Why would existing bookings not be honoured? It literally makes no sense. We have paid £2,000 towards wedding packages that will likely in total net the venue another £7,000-plus or so, by the time the event is over, but that is being turned away.”