Peterborough's historic Great Northern Hotel is cutting its ties with Best Western brand

Peterborough’s historic Great Northern Hotel is to sever its ties with the international hotel brand Best Western, it has been announced.

The 41 bedroom hotel, in Station Approach, which stands opposite the city’s train station, is currently part of the Best Western Hotel Group brand, which provides a bookings service for the venue.

But customers seeking to book a room at the hotel towards the end of this year and beyond will no longer able to make a reservation through the Best Western booking website.

Best Western has revealed that owners of the 170-year-old hotel have decided to split from the brand.

A spokesperson for Best Western said: “I can confirm that as of last month the Great Northern Hotel in Peterborough served their notice as being part of the Best Western brand family.

“And they plan to leave the brand later this year, which is why they are not able to be booked on our brand channels.

But she added: “In terms of their operational plans thereafter, the hotel team has asked me to relay that they will not be making a comment at this time.”

The move to leave Best Western come by the 19th century hotel comes at a time when many hospitality venues are facing a challenging time after coming through the Covid-19 pandemic only to be faced by soaring food and energy costs.

According to financial statements submitted by the hotel to Companies House for the year to June 29 last year, its accountants, Cartwrights, say: “The directors have a reasonable expectation that the company will continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.

“The validity of this assumption depends on the continuing support of the director and shareholder.”

The statement shows that Micheal Chittenden is the ‘person with significant control of the business’ and that he was then owed £66,886 by the Great Northern Hotel.

In addition, the business owed £35,863 to Accounts RealTime, of which Mr Chittenden is also a director.

The statements also show that the average number of employees at the hotel had fallen to nine from 50 in the previous year.

Just last year, the hotel secured planning approval from Peterborough City Council for a major extension to the building.

The development involves demolishing an existing extension and replacing it with offices and retail units on the ground floor while a new route into the city centre will feature shops and cafes.

The hotel is also at the centre of the Station Quarter regeneration area, which it is hoped will benefit from £48 million of Government funding through the Towns Fund scheme to revamp the train station and the surrounding land.

The plans include a new western entrance to the train station, a new office park and surrounding retail facilities plus new green areas with biodiversity, community spaces and better connections to the city centre to make it safer and more attractive for bikes and pedestrians.

The owner of the Great Northern Hotel has been approached for a response.