Brown's £15m facelift will mean a year's shutdown
Brown's hotel in central London is to close for nearly a year to allow a £15m refurbishment to take place.
The hotel, which was bought by Rocco Forte Hotels from Raffles for £51.5m last year, will undergo a complete makeover by Olga Polizzi, Sir Rocco Forte's sister.
Key members of the 140 staff, including general manager Matthew Dixon and food and beverage operations manager Franco Maresca, will stay on during the refurbishment and will be deployed to other hotels in the group. Other staff will be made redundant.
Forte had originally intended to trade while work was going on, but decided the disruption would be too great. "To justify the purchase price we have got to raise Brown's in terms of room rates and occupancy, and we can't do that in its present state. We want to compete with the likes of the Dorchester and Claridge's and it's easier to close to do that and then reopen with a splash," he said.
The hotel, which will close in April, will have 120 rooms when it reopens in February 2005.
Rack rates will be in the region of £400 for a double, compared with £280 currently, with an average achieved room rate of more than £300 compared with today's figure of £175.
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper, 12 - 18 February 2004