Redundancies expected across Claridge's, Berkeley and Connaught hotels

Redundancies are expected at the Maybourne Hotel Group, which owns Claridge's, the Berkeley and the Connaught hotels in London.

It is unknown how many roles could be lost at this point. The group would be the latest business cutting jobs across its five-star portfolio, with the furlough scheme coming to an end this month, to be replaced by the Job Support Scheme.

A statement from the Maybourne Hotel Group said: "Like everyone in the hospitality industry, our hotel business levels have been dramatically affected by the global pandemic over the last seven months. We are constantly reviewing and assessing our commercial business however we don't comment publicly on issues regarding our staff."

Since the hospitality sector reopened in July, hotel occupancies in London have lagged behind all other UK cities and with London now in Tier 2 and people told to work from home, negligible domestic and international corporate business, few overseas tourists and limited events, occupancies are likely to remain squeezed and revenues reduced.

STR's preliminary September 2020 data for London hotels showed average occupancy of 29.7%, the lowest occupancy for any September on record in London.

Following the Covid outbreak in the UK, groups including Firmdale, Macdonald and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) have entered into redundancy consultations with staff or made redundancies; while last month Premier Inn operator Whitbread said it will be axing up to 6,000 jobs.