Cornish hotels baffled as rooms booked for G7 sit empty all week

Hotel owners in Cornwall have been left baffled as rooms booked and paid for to house media and security during the G7 Summit have sat empty all week.

The Caterer has spoken to two hotels that were booked out for the summit for the entire week but didn't see a single guest.

Adele Beare bought the four-bedroom Thirsty Scholar guesthouse in Penryn (pictured) last October and only had four weeks of operating before the business closed for lockdown. The hotel had been fully booked the week prior to the G7. She estimated that she has lost approximately £550 in restaurant revenue every evening.

"Every week is important to us at the moment, especially with social distancing and the guidelines," she said. "We're running at a loss, so to have a week taken off you, it's worse than going into Tier 2.

"There's no tourists around, so it's a knock-on effect on other businesses… normally, I could book those rooms 10 times over a night at the moment."

She added: "The only response I'm getting from Carbis Bay hotel is ‘you've been paid'."

Meanwhile, nine rooms out of 13 at the Trelawne hotel in Falmouth were booked out by Carbis Bay. Owner Emily Johns was expecting ITN and estimated she missed out on about £7,000 in extra revenue.

She said: "I phoned Carbis Bay on Monday morning because we still hadn't received a rooming list and names, and I was told, ‘there are no names, it doesn't matter who goes in what room, they might not all start arriving tonight, you'll see them as and when they start arriving over the next couple of days'. But no-one ever arrived. We tried to phone them several times and were told they weren't available and we couldn't be put through.

"The rooms were booked out for single occupancy, which was a loss to begin with, and then obviously we didn't have any bar sales or any meals sold at all. It just made for a very strange atmosphere here for what should be a very busy time of the year."

Johns said some staff were not paid last week as they were not needed.

She added: "It's a prime time for us for our bed and breakfast repeat guests – June is always so busy. To be let down like this was a double whammy.

"I just don't understand the point of it – for us that was an £8,500 bill for the week and I don't understand how any company has got money to throw away like that."

The Caterer has contacted Carbis Bay for comment.