Niche Hotels plans spa for Wyck Hill House Hotel

Niche Hotels has revealed that its £3m expansion programme at Wyck Hill House in Stow-on-the-Wold Gloucestershire will include the addition of a spa as well as 27 new bedrooms, for a total of 59.

The 1,700sq m (18,300sq ft) spa will include four single treatment rooms and two couples treatment rooms, a sauna, steamroom, rasul experience, spray tanning, nail bars and a relaxation area.

A product supplier has yet to be chosen but treatments will include deep relaxation, holistic therapies, detox and aromatherapy massages.

It will be open to the local community on a membership basis as well as to guests.

A spokesperson for the group explained why the decision had been taken to add a spa to the Wyck Hill House hotel: “As a country house hotel we felt that with our proximity to the local community of high earners – with disposable cash and time – and our popularity as a venue for corporate away days and weddings, the addition of a spa fitted into these markets.”

Both the spa and the new bedrooms – including a penthouse room with panoramic views on three sides – have been designed by Gibberds architects and built by Rydons.

The property is scheduled to be relaunched in late October.

Elsewhere, the group has sold The Queensgate hotel in South Kensington, London, to a group of private investors which also owns the Concorde El Salam Hotels in Egypt, for in excess of £6m.

The property was the first hotel acquired by Niche Hotels, for £4.4m, when the group was founded in 2002.

Following the sale, the company operates four hotels, The Royalist and Wyck Hill House in Stow-on-the-Wold, The Grey Street Hotel in Newcastle and The Royal Hotel in Cardiff.

The spokesperson said the group plans to operate no more than nine properties ‘so we can maintain our contact with the hotels and keep each hotel developing in both services and facilities’. Details: www.nichehotels.com