Historic Hedge End country house, The Botleigh Grange Hotel & Spa, is back open to customers after a three-year-long refurbishment.

The hotel fell into administration in 2020 and was bought by international hoteliers, Grand Hotel Excelsior International Ltd.

Darren Williams, 42, director of operations for Excelsior, said: "Our goal when we came here in 2020 was to bring The Botleigh Grange Hotel back to life.

"It is a beautiful hotel with over 300 years of local history - we have been striving to maintain the hotel's connection to Hedge End and the local area.

"We employ local people and use local produce. The hotel is very important to the local area and we value that.

"We wanted to maintain the glory of this historic building but give it a much needed refurbishment - but we also wanted to restore faith back into the community as it was in a dire state when we arrived."

The refurbishment has maintained the traditional style of the hotel with the spa and function room still under renovation and expected to be complete by October and November respectively.

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The hotel has been operating as a bed and breakfast for the last 12 weeks, while the renovations are still being finished. As the majority of the refurbishment is finished, the hotel is now open for events, weddings and business launches.

Darren mentioned that the previous hotel operators left with unpaid staff, unpaid suppliers, dissatisfied customers and a broken reputation.

He continued: "It was very sad to see this great hotel's decline. Our team have got a big task of restoring the faith of this hotel back into the community.

"We have spend nearly 3 years taking our time getting this right. We want to be able to be able to offer something to everyone."

Grand Hotel Excelsior International Ltd has got hotels in Malta and Jamaica. 

The company also owns The Hunters Inn in Swanmore and has been operating the venue for over a year.