Harbour Hotels' Simon Maguire joins Luxury Family Hotels

Simon Maguire has left his role as regional general manager at Harbour Hotels to take up the newly created role of managing director at Luxury Family Hotels.

Due to join the five-strong hotel company on 6 August, Maguire will oversee an "extensive" refurbishment programme across the group's estate, starting with the "imminent" refurbishment of its 36-bedroom Fowey Hall hotel in Cornwall.

The property will remain open during the phased refurbishment, which will start with the bedrooms before moving onto the public areas and see the hotel's two-AA-rosette relaunched as a new concept. The full refurbishment is expected to complete in February 2020. Subject to gaining planning permission, the group also hopes to add extra accommodation to the property in the form of treehouses within the grounds.

The investment programme is part of wider plans to bring the portfolio to "luxury lifestyle" standard, similar to that of Harbour Hotels, Firmdale and Hotel du Vin, where Maguire has previously worked.

"With its rapid expansion across the south, my time at Harbour has proven invaluable; growing a lifestyle brand, alongside five-star service," said Maguire, speaking to The Caterer. "It is these skills that I will take forward in my role as managing director for Luxury Family Hotels.

"An exciting time for the highly respected group, I'm excited to lead the way in delivering an exceptional product and hotel experience; as we begin a significant refurbishment programme across all properties, further establishing the group within the luxury market."

Maguire joined Harbour three years ago to oversee the group's expansion from five hotels to 13. Having begun his career with Firmdale Hotels, he has held general manager positions at the Atlantic hotel in Jersey, two Hotel du Vin properties and the Kensington hotel in London.

Luxury Family Hotels' management team bought out the group from property investment company Patron Capital for an undisclosed sum in 2017. At the time chief executive Nigel Chapman told The Caterer the plans were to "considerably expand and develop the hotels".

"These things take quite a while," said Maguire, "they wanted to make sure that before they pressed ahead that they had a plan for the next five years on what they're going to do with all the hotels. That's all taken time to get right."

He added that there are currently no plans to expand the group further and that the focus for now will be on "refurbishing, increasing their keys, and then once that's all in place then we would reassess".

As well as Fowey Hall, Luxury Family Hotels operates Woolley Grange in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire; the Ickworth in Bury Saint Edmunds, Suffolk; New Park Manor in Brockenhurst, Hampshire; and Moonfleet Manor in Weymouth, Dorset.

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