The iconic Cottage in the Wood hotel set to be upgraded with the support of Christie Finance
The Cottage in the Wood, a boutique hotel situated in the picturesque Malvern Hills, was successfully financed three years ago by David Ward, Senior Director at Christie Finance. Owners Nick and Julia Davies recently approached Christie Finance again, after their incumbent lender could not support their future development plans. David worked with Nick and Julia to successfully refinance their current debt, whilst securing additional funding as part of a multi-million refurbishment programme focused on enhancing the hotel.
The 30-bedroom hotel is set within the hills with panoramic views of the Cotswolds and Worcestershire landscape, comprising of three buildings and a staff house. The hotel historically had a three-star rating, including a two-rosette restaurant award. Aspirations to increase the overall ratings of the hotel, are likely to become a reality with extensive improvements being made, which are already well progressed.
There has already been a substantial programme of improvement undertaken at the hotel including the introduction of new IT systems, improvement of hotel management systems, restructuring of departments and the procurement of new products. Physical refurbishments have involved the complete refurbishment of all public spaces, restaurant and bar areas, an overhaul of kitchen equipment, a new driveway and upgraded sound and WIFI systems.
All rooms in the main house and Beech Cottage have been completely redesigned by specialist interior design studio, Nelson Design with work starting on the Coach House in January 2020, before they move onto the Orangery, which will result in 30 additional covers and planning for a new parking area.
Nick and Julia Davies were awarded a place in the ‘Top Ten Business Leaders 2018’ category by Boutique Hotelier. The award celebrates the figureheads managing some of the prominent boutique hotels in the UK market. They comment on their experience working with Christie Finance for the second time “Working with Christie Finance once again has been a great experience, David really has gotten to understand our business well, which has made finding the correct finance partner and levels of finance needed to finish the hotel; a straight forward process. We can now finish the hotel over the next 12 months and really take the business forward.”
David Ward, Senior Director at Christie Finance, comments on the funding process “It was an absolute pleasure to work with Nick and Julia again to secure the funding they needed. Having worked with them both before, I had an excellent knowledge and understanding of their business and what their aspirations are for improving the hotel. This scenario is an excellent example of how we can work with clients to source the funding they need, when their incumbent lender is unable to support their business growth aspirations.”
