Owners of Great Victoria in Bradford call in administrators

10:00am Thursday 2nd September 2010 in News Photograph of the Author By Chris Holland, Business Reporter

The Great Victoria hotel, whose owners Tomahawk Hotels Ltd have gone into administration The Great Victoria hotel, whose owners Tomahawk Hotels Ltd have gone into administration

The company that owns Bradford’s historic Great Victoria hotel and two others has gone into administration, putting about 150 jobs at risk.

Bradford-based Tomahawk Hotels Ltd, which has lavished millions of pounds on the Great Victoria since buying it in 2005, is understood to have called in the administrators about a week ago.

Tomahawk also owns the Woodlands in Leeds and Aston Hall in Sheffield.

All three hotels are continuing to trade under the management of BDL Hotels, a Glasgow-based company which is expert in dealing with banks and their hotels in administration. The company is now managing 15 hotels in administration.

The company says it has an established reputation of being able navigate through the complexities of a hotel group in administration, while keeping the hotels trading profitably. It also runs hotels on contracts.

Tomahawk Hotels Ltd was founded by Rob Foulston and Tom Horsfall, who had plans to expand the group to ten hotels over ten years. The partners said they had been attracted by Bradford’s regeneration plans.

They changed the name of the former Victoria Hotel, which originally opened in 1867, to the Great Victoria and embarked on a major investment programme. Later that year the hotel said it was filling most of its 70 bedrooms on most nights, with a 100 per cent occupancy rate on three nights of the week.

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Ned Basic, who owns the Dubrovnic Hotel in Oak Avenue, Bradford, said hotel operators were facing a tough time. He said: “It is really bad news about Tomahawk and the Great Victoria in particular.”

Comments(17)

Moon on a stick says...
11:23am Thu 2 Sep 10

Eh what, we keep being told Bradford needs more hotel rooms. Then again did anyone really believe that?

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Joedavid says...
11:54am Thu 2 Sep 10

Moon on a stick wrote:
Eh what, we keep being told Bradford needs more hotel rooms. Then again did anyone really believe that?
Too many hotels chasing for customers now in Bradford, is it about £35 per room per night for 2 people.

Report this post »

the Laird says...
12:48pm Thu 2 Sep 10

Joedavid wrote:
Moon on a stick wrote: Eh what, we keep being told Bradford needs more hotel rooms. Then again did anyone really believe that?
Too many hotels chasing for customers now in Bradford, is it about £35 per room per night for 2 people.
Puts into perspective that hotel on sunbridge road which is trying to blag investors into "buying a room" with wild promises of 80% occupancy rates and £85 a night and rising rack rates!

Report this post »

Moon on a stick says...
1:08pm Thu 2 Sep 10

the Laird wrote:
Joedavid wrote:
Moon on a stick wrote: Eh what, we keep being told Bradford needs more hotel rooms. Then again did anyone really believe that?
Too many hotels chasing for customers now in Bradford, is it about £35 per room per night for 2 people.
Puts into perspective that hotel on sunbridge road which is trying to blag investors into "buying a room" with wild promises of 80% occupancy rates and £85 a night and rising rack rates!
It's the new investor scam, now apartments can't be sold. Out of town investors are being parted with their pounds to invest in hotel rooms based off some very optimistic figures.
.
For each cheap hotel that is hailed as a success for Bradford the risk is another established and more expensive hotel could suffer.

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Avro says...
3:53pm Thu 2 Sep 10

The crazy thing is that the proposal for the Odeon's replacement also has a hotel as part of the plan!

The worry has to be what the Great Victoria might end up being turned into!

At the end of the day who right in their mind wants to pay silly money to stay in Bradford?

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obi wan kanobi says...
4:21pm Thu 2 Sep 10

£20 says it become a massive Curry house... another one... and like Akbars employes illegal immigrants.

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webess says...
5:37pm Thu 2 Sep 10

Moon on a stick wrote:
Eh what, we keep being told Bradford needs more hotel rooms. Then again did anyone really believe that?
peoples jobs on the line here and all you can do is trot out your usual stuck record ramblings. At least you haven't brought bassline into your latest rentapost...

Report this post »

Moon on a stick says...
7:44pm Thu 2 Sep 10

webess wrote:
Moon on a stick wrote:
Eh what, we keep being told Bradford needs more hotel rooms. Then again did anyone really believe that?
peoples jobs on the line here and all you can do is trot out your usual stuck record ramblings. At least you haven't brought bassline into your latest rentapost...
Where have you been for the last few weeks?
.
Do you think these new investor trap hotels are a good thing then, do you think Bradford needs 100s and 100s or more hotel rooms, if so please explain why? I'm all ears.
.
Bassline is doing good things for Sheffield I hear, only 5 stabbings in the last single incident outside Niche. There you go I've mentioned it, happy now?

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Moon on a stick says...
7:47pm Thu 2 Sep 10

P.S. With all these new hotels surely all the people will be employed again soon, Bradford after all is the city with endless potential and growth, or so I keep being told.

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Windyass says...
8:04pm Thu 2 Sep 10

Moon on a stick wrote:
webess wrote:
Moon on a stick wrote:
Eh what, we keep being told Bradford needs more hotel rooms. Then again did anyone really believe that?
peoples jobs on the line here and all you can do is trot out your usual stuck record ramblings. At least you haven't brought bassline into your latest rentapost...
Where have you been for the last few weeks?
.
Do you think these new investor trap hotels are a good thing then, do you think Bradford needs 100s and 100s or more hotel rooms, if so please explain why? I'm all ears.
.
Bassline is doing good things for Sheffield I hear, only 5 stabbings in the last single incident outside Niche. There you go I've mentioned it, happy now?
Great Scott, is Niche still open down sarf Yorkshire way? That was known as the stabbing club 12 years ago at least.

Report this post »

Tinybantam says...
9:09pm Thu 2 Sep 10

Bradford needs more hotel rooms like it needs a stupid lake in the city centre. Again, the likelyhood is that we lose a beautiful Victorian building as if it is left empty it will just go to rack and ruin. Lets face it....who the heck wants to come and invest in or indeed just stay in the dump that is now Bradford. I used to be proud to say that i came from Bradford...now i just say that i am from near Leeds in Yorkshire.

Report this post »

Moon on a stick says...
11:06pm Thu 2 Sep 10

Windyass wrote:
Moon on a stick wrote:
webess wrote:
Moon on a stick wrote:
Eh what, we keep being told Bradford needs more hotel rooms. Then again did anyone really believe that?
peoples jobs on the line here and all you can do is trot out your usual stuck record ramblings. At least you haven't brought bassline into your latest rentapost...
Where have you been for the last few weeks?
.
Do you think these new investor trap hotels are a good thing then, do you think Bradford needs 100s and 100s or more hotel rooms, if so please explain why? I'm all ears.
.
Bassline is doing good things for Sheffield I hear, only 5 stabbings in the last single incident outside Niche. There you go I've mentioned it, happy now?
Great Scott, is Niche still open down sarf Yorkshire way? That was known as the stabbing club 12 years ago at least.
It was closed again by the police weeks since following the latest stabbings, but was allowed to reopen as "members only" yeah right that'll adhere to that rule for all of one week.

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spanglishbull.uk says...
12:25pm Fri 3 Sep 10

Came back to Bradford recently,my wife said it would be nice to hear some Yorkshire english again so we went to the Retail Park in Forster Square and after about ten minutes realised we were the only English there.What ever happened to the town where we were born and lived and loved until we moved here.So sad to see it now.

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matacaster says...
12:52pm Fri 3 Sep 10

Fix two problems at once

1. Family with 10 kids+ want a bigger place.

2. Victoria Hotel empty

Solution!!!!

For Bradford Council's information, I am joking.

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turbodiesel says...
3:00pm Fri 3 Sep 10

The Victoria should be converted in to a conference hall.

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steveinbradford says...
7:17pm Fri 3 Sep 10

Ok so let's build some more! No one wants to come to Bradford for gods sake, Maud Marshall and the council have killed it. Well done for trying - I've been in a few times and it was ok. Even thought of having our wedding reception there 2 years ago. But it was way too expensive compared to the bankfield and facing the courts or a bus station in a ruined city centre..... We did as others have done and gone elsewhere. Shame, because I used to be so proud of our city. Now it embarrasses me and I say I come from Leeds.

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mikado85 says...
2:12pm Tue 7 Sep 10

ive been saying i come from leeds for quite some time now

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