Von Essen owner appoints administrators

The holding company of luxury hotel group Von Essen has gone into administration.

Ernst & Young was appointed as administrator last week after the company failed to make an interest payment on its debts of more than £250 million. Accounts for 2009 show that Von Essen made a £3.2m loss after surrendering £14m in interest payments.

With 28 hotels across the UK and France, the firm’s assets include the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath and Buckland Manor in Gloucestershire. The hotels themselves are not in administration and are operating normally.

The news comes in the same month that Von Essen’s Cliveden hotel in Buckinghamshire claimed to have launched the world’s most expensive afternoon tea.

Priced at £550 for two, the spread included white truffles at a £2,500 per kilogram, Beluga caviar at £4,000/kg and Da Hong Pao tea harvested from 1,000 year old plants at a cost of over £2,000/kg, washed down with a glass of Dom Pérignon rosé.

Von Essen was founded in the mid-1990s by Andrew Davies, a London property developer and investor. During the last decade the group embarked on an ambitious portfolio expansion and is thought to have struggled to regain pre-recession occupancy levels.

Gabriel Savage, 26.04.2011