16
Park and glide
To make it a fixture on the high-end conference and wedding circuit, Heythrop Park, Oxfordshire, spent £50m on a build and refurb programme and teamed up with Crowne Plaza. Michael Willoughby assesses the result
H
eythrop Park and grounds are so grand that you fancy you are a house guest of Charles Talbot, 12th Duke of Shrewsbury in 1710 rather than a paying hotel guest
in the 21st century. It’s hard to stay in your era when you are being driven along a two mile long tree-lined drive, or reading the paper in a baronial hall next to an elaborate carved fireplace or gazing out over 440 acres of country estate. But glorious as is the main structure and gardens, designed
by Thomas Archer between 1707 and 1710, the lack of advanced guest facilities meant that the hotel and adjoining conference centre, bought by Firoz Kassam’s Firoka group in 2000, wasn’t attracting the right corporate crowd. “The reason was that the original property was three stars
and a lot of the blue chip companies want four stars as a minimum,” says Tracey Ractliffe, sales and revenue director. So, to improve both the quality of the hotel and its client base, Firoka embarked on a £50m plan to build leisure facilities and a new hotel on site. This was to be run as a franchise of Crowne Plaza, the division of the International Hotels Group (IHG) best known for meetings and conferences. Guests in both Heythrop and the new Crowne Plaza would have access to all facilities and be able to charge drinks and meals to their rooms wherever they were. The first stage was to create a spa, swimming pool, gym and
club house (serving the recently-opened 18 hole golf course) a small distance for the main house. This allowed the company to attract leisure guests when the conference market was quiet such as during the holiday season or at weekends. “We wanted strong trading periods throughout the whole 12
months, albeit with a different clientele,” says Ractliffe. The club house is just one of the more recent additions to
Heythrop’s estate during its long life as family home, Jesuit Seminary and NatWest training centre. Two large buildings adjoining the main house had been added by NatWest during their ownership. In 2009, Firoka appointed
Breakout area
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