Hilwood Resorts arrive in Bath

Hilwood Resorts and Hotels have acquired their third exclusive property, Bailbrook House in Bath. The purchase of the eighteenth century, imposing listed property from previous owners, the Sundial Group, is part of Hilwood's vision to create a portfolio of premium luxury resorts and hotels providing personalised service, and sited in desirable and individual destinations throughout the UK.

The Sundial Group have owned and operated Bailbrook House for the last 5 years, completely refurbishing in 2002, to provide a superb residential training and conference centre and a benchmark for UK meetings venues. Bailbrook retains its beautiful period features and offers state-of-the-art conference, meeting and banqueting facilities to accommodate up to 160.

In addition to the 78 executive double bedrooms, Bailbrook currently offers extensive gardens and grounds, a spa bath, sauna, fitness room and floodlit all-weather tennis courts, as well as an excellent base from which to explore the delights of Bath.

For the remainder of this year, Hilwood led by respected industry figures Gregor Ritchie and Arvinder Walia, will continue to operate Bailbrook as it is now, whilst plans are finalised for its reincarnation into a world-class premium luxury hotel and spa. The purchase will not result in a reduction in the number of staff employed at Bailbrook.

When the new development work at Bailbrook House is completed it will sit alongside the multi-accoladed Bovey Castle on Dartmoor National Park and the Grand Jersey in St Helier, Jersey where the GBP15 million refurbishment is almost complete, both offering an impressive mix of luxurious guest accommodation and meetings and conference rooms matched with top class food and wines and leisure facilities.

Hilwood's Joint Managing Director, Gregor Ritchie, commented: "It was clear that the greatest potential for this superb property was for it to be developed into a luxury resort hotel. Business will continue as normal for the remainder of this year and all new and existing bookings can look forward to receiving Hilwood's extremely high standards of hospitality. We will then undertake an extensive two year refurbishment and development programme creating a very exciting new hotel concept that will strengthen Bath's already strong popularity as a tourist destination."