Staycation nation: why these are halcyon days for the rural hotel market
Staycation nation: why these are halcyon days for the rural hotel market
Paul Wells, Partner at Studio Moren, shares his latest opinion piece for Green Street News
Pendley Manor, Hertfordshire
As demand for distinctive domestic escapes grows, the opportunity lies in creating experience-led destinations that give guests a reason to visit, stay longer and return throughout the year.
For investors, developers and operators, this means looking beyond room numbers to unlock value through design-led masterplanning, compelling experiences and multiple revenue streams.
From Uncool To Cachet
There has been a change in the British psyche since the Covid-19 pandemic forced a widespread re-evaluation of the domestic holiday. It used to be that if you had money you went abroad. Now there is a certain cachet in spending a week at the likes of Estelle Manor in Oxfordshire, The Newt in Somerset, or Beaverbrook in Surrey.
What these destinations have in common is that they are not simply hotels. They have been carefully designed around a clear vision of the guest experience, bringing together accomodation, wellness, food & beverage, events, and leisure offers to create year-round destinations.
The real opportunity is to unlock value through experience-led destinations and design-led masterplaning, transforming underused rural assets into commercially resilient businesses with multiple revenue streams.
Pendley Manor, Hertfordshire
For country house hotels and rural estates, the opportunity lies in identifying undertulised assets and reimagining how they can contribute to the overall guest experience. Rather than focusing solely on expanding hotel accomodation, investors should consider how overlooked areas of an estate could accomodate wellness facilities, event spaces, woodland retreats or other uses that strenghten the offer and broaden revenue generation. Importantly, these can activate overlooked parts of estates while remaining sensitive to landscape, heritage and planning constraints.
Pendley Manor, Hertfordshire
This was achieved by submerging the existing swimming pool and positioning a new ballroom above it., enabling the established footprint to be utilised far more efficiently.
Additional accommodation is proposed within underused structures across the estate, unlocking latent value without expanding the built envelope.
By strengthening an already successful weddings business and shaping a more versatile, year-round destination, our interventions position the hotel for improved trading performance and sustained, long-term value growth.
At Pendley Manor in Hertfordshire, the opportunity extended far beyond increasing capacity. The redevelopment centred on elevating the estate's events offering through the creation of a permanent events and leisure building.
Increasingly, the greatest opportunity lies in creating destinations that offer guests a compelling reason to visit, stay longer, and return throughout the year. For investors, developers and operators, that means thinking beyond room numbers.
Right Experience, Right Place
The most successful schemes also recognise that today's guests want more than the traditional country house hotel experience.
In rural hospitality, long-terms value is rarely created through expansion alone. More often, it comes from designing the right experiences, in the right places, for the right guests. That's what turns a hotel into a destination - and a destination into a successful business.
Welcombe Stratford-upon-Avon
At the Welcombe Hotel Stratford-upon-Avon, we are developing a more immersive wellness destination by integrating additional guest accomodation into the spa complex and introducing a dedicated food and beverage facility. These enhancements are deisgned to encourage longer stays, increase revenues, and maximise the velue of existing assets.
While every site is different, demand for experience-led domestic tourism has remained strong since lockdown, and there is a significant opportunity for investors willing to take a strategic approach. They key is to start with a clear understanding of the asset, its market and its audience, and then shape the destination accordingly.