Member Article

Hotel celebrates successful first year

A leading North East hotel is celebrating a successful first year in business, which led to a three-fold rise in the number of staff.

As well as tripling its employee numbers from 20 to 60 in the past 12 months, the Mercure Darlington King’s Hotel, at Darlington town centre, has also enjoyed an average 10 per cent increase in revenue month on month.

The Priestgate property, owned and operated by Newcastle-based Cairn Hotel Group, launched in October 2012 following an £8m refurbishment of the former King’s Head Hotel, which had been ravaged by fire five years earlier.

Since then it has been operating successfully under Accor Group’s Mercure brand and has enjoyed consistently high occupancy rates, with its 83 en-suite bedrooms fully booked on average two to three nights every week.

The hotel, which houses a variety of function rooms and its own restaurant, has also hosted a wide range of events including awards ceremonies and corporate dinners, as well as a number of weddings following the granting of a civil ceremony licence earlier this year.

This success has allowed the hotel’s management team to recruit a number of apprentices from Darlington College’s catering department and offer free training to 30 unemployed young people, leading in some cases to permanent posts.

General Manager, Dale Needham, said: “The past 12 months have been a whirlwind for us here at the Mercure Darlington King’s Hotel and it’s been fantastic to see such high numbers across the board.

“The hotel has always been famous for its restaurant and now, following the refurbishment, bookings for special meals for couples and groups, private dining, and corporate meals continue to increase, while both our Sunday and weekday lunch menus have also proven to be a hit with the local community.

“In fact, every aspect of our service is performing well, from meals to overnight accommodation and events, and this has allowed us to not only increase our staff levels but to offer additional training opportunities to a number of young people.

“We hope that this success will continue and look forward to an equally positive year ahead.”

For further information about the Mercure Darlington King’s Hotel, or to make a reservation, call 01325 380222 or visit www.mercure.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Cairn Hotel Group .