Apex Hotels will monitor how activity recovers in Edinburgh and London as lockdown restrictions are eased further, and assess consumer demand, in deciding on when to reopen the six properties for which it has not yet set an exact restart date.
The Edinburgh-based hotels group said this week it would reopen four of its 10 properties across the UK to guests from July 20, “in time for staycationers to make the most of summer”.
The Edinburgh group, owned by the Springford family, plans to reopen its portfolio “in stages”.
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The Apex City Quay Hotel & Spa in Dundee, Apex Grassmarket Hotel in Edinburgh, Apex Temple Court Hotel in London and Apex City of Bath Hotel will open on July 20.
Chief executive Angela Vickers said: “Staff will be brought out of furlough to operate and welcome guests to each of our reopened hotels. With no properties currently open, we have fully utilised the Government’s job retention scheme with just a skeleton staff in place to work on reopening plans, and we will continue to make use of flexible furlough to ensure we best accommodate the ebb and flow of business across the four hotels reopening later this month.”
Asked about the other six properties, the Apex City of Glasgow, Apex City of Edinburgh, Apex Waterloo Place in Edinburgh, Apex Haymarket, Apex City of London and Apex London Wall, Ms Vickers replied: “Our plans to bring back our remaining hotels in waves are in progress, but exact dates are not yet confirmed. With a number of hotels in Edinburgh and London, much will depend on how these major cities recover as lockdown restrictions ease further, so we are continually monitoring business forecasts and customer demand levels closely in order to aid our planning.”
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Apex, which employs around 1,100 staff across its hotels and head office, has entered into a redundancy consultation with staff because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on trading.
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