New owners of Seahouses hotel consider using it for staff accommodation

The Links Hotel in Seahouses was recently bought by the Inn Collection Group, which also owns the Bamburgh Castle Inn just a few hundred yards away.

An Inn Collection Group spokesperson said: “We are currently evaluating how it is going to best fit into our portfolio.

“Using the site for staff accommodation purposes is a possible way that we are going to look to use the site, particularly when current labour shortages put into question the viability of The Links to trade as a hotel at the moment.”

Staff shortages have become a perennial issue for many hospitality businesses, especially on the coast given the well-documented lack of affordable accommodation locally. Brexit has also played a part.

The Inn Collection Group still has several hurdles to overcome should it take a decision to use The Links for staff accommodation.

"If we were to look at housing members of our teams at the site, there are many processes that we would need to go through and many considerations to address, so the ultimate decision on what The Links’ future looks like maybe some time to come,” said the spokesperson.

“Should we look to pursue staff accommodation as the future use of the site, we would likely use our experiences gained in the Lake District to guide our decisions.

“Providing high-quality, affordable accommodation for workers in the hospitality industry has been a real challenge in the past over there, but one that we have been addressing and will be communicating further details on in the near future.”

The Inn Collection Group also said it had made no redundancies at The Links Hotel since its acquisition.

The previous owners, Julie Dawson and Malcolm Sutton had owned the 10-bedroom hotel for 22 years and decided to sell to pursue other business interests.

The Bamburgh Castle Inn, the Inn Collection Group’s flagship pub overlooking Seahouses harbour, was refurbished and expanded last year.

It created 14 new rooms with the redevelopment of neighbouring Coble Cottage, increasing the total number of bedrooms to 60.

The group also own The Hog’s Head Inn in Alnwick, The Amble Inn in Amble, The Lindisfarne Inn at Beal and the Commissioner’s Quay Inn in Blyth.