Five-star hotel’s new service for high-flyers

WHEN YOU are about to check into Yorkshire’s only five-star hotel, it pays to arrive in style – which may explain why York’s Grand Hotel and Spa has just launched its own helicopter transfer service.

Allowing guests to be whisked from their homes and back again, it is the latest initiative from the hotel which, in March, will almost double in size with the opening of 100 new guest rooms.

The £15m expansion began last year and has also seen the opening of a new purpose-built restaurant, The Rise, which now sits alongside the fine-dining eatery Hudson’s.

Philip Bolson, the hotel’s general manager, said: “As a luxury hotel we try to accommodate all of our guests’ requests to ensure an unforgettable stay and recently we have been asked about helicopter landing spots and transfers.

“To fulfil this we have teamed up with a local aviation company which can provide transfers in two types of helicopter depending on how many guests will be staying with us.

“Where possible, our helicopter will pick up guests from the grounds of their homes, or land nearby, and fly them to York where our chauffeur service will collect them from the drop-off point just a five-minute drive away.”

The Grand Hotel and Spa opened in 2000 and is housed in the former historic headquarters of the North Eastern Railway Company, which date back to 1906.