Swindon’s Menzies Hotel has been closed down with the loss of all 49 jobs following the sale of its parent company.
The town centre hotel, is one of three that are not being taken over by the hotel chain’s new owners Topland Group. The other hotels to be closed are at Gatwick and Luton. Christmas party bookings at the hotel have been cancelled. Guests were moved to other hotels on Friday when the sale took place. 
The four-star hotel opened as The Wiltshire in the 1970s and remained the town centre’s largest hotel until Jurys Inn opened in 2009. It is perhaps best known as the hotel where, as a teenage runaway, writer and broadcaster Stephen Fry was arrested for using a stolen credit card.
Derby-based Menzies Hotels group went into administration on Friday and 12 of its 15 hotels were bought by Topland within hours in a ‘pre-pack’ deal.
However, because the hotels in Swindon, Gatwick and Luton were operating under shorter-term lease agreements these hotels did not form part of the sale. The 12 hotels bought by Topland are freehold.
Rob Croxen, partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said: “Following our appointment in May 2013 as administrators to the non-trading parent companies of Menzies Hotels Group, we have worked closely with stakeholders to secure the best possible outcome for creditors. After reviewing a number of options, it became clear that a pre-pack sale of the business and the freehold properties would provide the greatest return to creditors, while also preserving the majority of jobs across the business.
“Unfortunately, however, the terms of the three leasehold properties proved to be unattractive to potential buyers. We will be assisting those affected employees in claiming redundancy payments from the Redundancy Payments Office.”
