Hand Picked Hotels, set up by financier Guy Hands

Guy Hands

Guy Hands , is an English financier and investor. He is most notable as the founder and chairman of Terra Firma Capital Partners, one of the largest private equity firms in Europe. Hands also previously served as Chairman of the U.K...

 and his wife Julia, owns and operates a collection of individual and historic country house hotels. Julia, a former lawyer, now runs Hand Picked Hotels.

TIMELINE

• 1999: Early in the year, the Hands purchase seven hotels from Virgin for around £20m and name their new company Hand Picked Hotels. In November, they buy 11 Arcadian hotels from Wyndham International for £75m.
• September 2001: A refurbishment programme, costing over £50 million, begins.
• October 2003: The refurbished estate is relaunched as "Hand Picked Hotels" and the Arcadian name disappears. By this time, 12 hotels have been awarded two AA rosettes, seven have improved their star rating and four have won Red Star status, putting them in the AA top 200 hotel bracket.
• December 2007: Major extensions completed to Rookery Hall
  Rookery Hall
  Rookery Hall is an Elizabethan-style mansion located off the B5074 road near the village of Worleston in Cheshire, England. Dating originally from 1816 but extensively altered in the late 19th century, the hall is listed at grade II...
  
   (adding 24 bedrooms, spa and banqueting suites), Rhinefield House (adding 16 bedrooms, meeting rooms and health club), and Norton House (36 bedrooms, banqueting suites and leisure spa)
• February 2008: Audleys Wood, Hendon Hall and New Hall
  New Hall Manor
  New Hall Manor is a medieval manor house, now used as a hotel, located in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, England.It is claimed to be one of the oldest inhabited moated houses in Britain, dating from the 13th century when the Earl of Warwick built a hunting lodge on the site...
  
   bought from Bridgehouse Hotels, adding 190 rooms to the group

Number of hotels: 17

Number of bedrooms: approximately 950

• Audleys Wood, Basingstoke, Hampshire;
• Brandshatch Place, Fawkham Green, Kent;
• Buxted Park
  Buxted Park
  Buxted Park is a 83.43 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, located in East Sussex, England. The site was notified in 1989 under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The site is an old deer park, which consists of large amounts of unimproved grassland areas...
  
  , Uckfield, Sussex;
• Chilston Park, Maidstone, Kent;
• Crathorne Hall, Crathorne, North Yorkshire
  Crathorne, North Yorkshire
  Crathorne is a village and civil parish in Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. The River Leven flows through the parish. The A19 used to run through the village before a dual carriageway was built in 1975...
  
  ;
• Ettington
  Ettington
  Ettington is a village in Warwickshire, England. It is located eight kilometres south-east of Stratford upon Avon and is less than a mile west of the Fosse Way...
  
   Park, Stratford-upon-Avon;
• Hendon
  Hendon
  Hendon is a London suburb situated northwest of Charing Cross.-History:Hendon was historically a civil parish in the county of Middlesex. The manor is described in Domesday , but the name, 'Hendun' meaning 'at the highest hill', is earlier...
  
   Hall, Hendon, London;
• L’Horizon, St Brelade’s Bay, Jersey;
• New Hall Manor
  New Hall Manor
  New Hall Manor is a medieval manor house, now used as a hotel, located in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, England.It is claimed to be one of the oldest inhabited moated houses in Britain, dating from the 13th century when the Earl of Warwick built a hunting lodge on the site...
  
  , Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands;
• Norton House, Edinburgh;
• Nutfield Priory, Redhill, Surrey;
• Priest House, Castle Donington, near Derby;
• Rhinefield House, New Forest, Hampshire;
• Rookery Hall
  Rookery Hall
  Rookery Hall is an Elizabethan-style mansion located off the B5074 road near the village of Worleston in Cheshire, England. Dating originally from 1816 but extensively altered in the late 19th century, the hall is listed at grade II...
  
  , Nantwich, Cheshire;
• Seiont Manor, Snowdonia;
• Wood Hall, Linton
  Linton, West Yorkshire
  Linton is an affluent village south west of Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England and in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough.The village is situated between Wetherby and Sicklinghall, on the River Wharfe. Collingham lies immediately to the south on the other side of the river...
  
  , Wetherby, West Yorkshire;
• Woodlands Park, Cobham, Surrey.

CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Julia Hands

KEY DIRECTORS

Commercial Director: Ken Arkley

Operations Director: Douglas Waddell

Finance Director: Mandy Newton

External links

• Hand Picked Hotels web site
• Caterersearch data on Hand Picked Hotels