Bath seems to be in line for yet another new hotel with a planning application being lodged with B&NES to demolish the former Ralph Allen – Bath College building in the city centre – and replace it with a 206 bedroom unit with bar and restaurant.
The college buiilding was acquired by the Dominvs Group – a real-estate investment, development and asset-management company – back in June and planning permission given for change of use from educational to office space.
Bath College had said the complex – opened in 1991 – was now surplus to requirments – with courses lodged in the building having moved elsewhere – and that money earned from its disposal would be invested in the College.
They thought selling the building would ‘present an opportunity for sustainable office development to support growth’ but since then there appears to have been a decision to change direction and replace what is there with a purpose-built, Bath-stone covered boutique hotel. Something developers consider more appropriate for the area – which was heavily bombed in the last war.
The application is now open to consultation and you can access it via
What is the room occupancy rate like in the hotels like for the ones we have already have? A new hotel on South Parade is due to open where Pratts was, in spring. Are we in any danger of overcapacity?…
Bob Draper
A “boutique hotel” with 206 rooms?! A friend who runs a real “boutique hotel” tells me that, when looking at hotel room capacity before granting permission to the recently opened Apex hotel, the Council took the advice of a “consultant” who based his assessment solely on the number of rooms offered by large hotels. B&bs, guesthouses, small family hotels were not taken into consideration. If you add to that the increasing popularity of AirB&b accommodation (real or purpose-built), it seems clear to me that Bath will soon suffer from over-capacity, and those who wil suffer most will be, as usual, the small hoteliers and guest-house owners, as the “tourist offer” will focus on attracting the large parties of one-night visitors on package tours, who will spend very little money on anything else.