Revamped Eden House Hotel ‘heaving’ for its official launch in Grantham

Owners of the revamped Eden House Hotel will have to go a long way to better last week’s official launch.

Chris Duggan, who bought the hotel – formerly known as the Kings Hotel – with his wife, Theresa, back in September, admits he was stunned by how well the launch went.

The couple, who have run the Eden Wine Bar and Restaurant in the Market Place for nine years, are clearly continuing to set high standards.

Chris said: “The launch was absolutely tremendous. We expected about 400 or 500 people to turn up, but we had 1,800 through the doors between noon and midnight.

“It was absolutely heaving and we had such a tremendous night.”

The Duggans have spent £150,000 on renovating the 21-bedroom hotel and it is close to completion.

He added: “The refurbishments will be finished next month. We have eight more rooms to refurbish plus the outside parking and sitting areas.

“The plan was to give it two or three years before it really started paying off after all the money spent on refurbishing,

“We were aiming to break even in year two and make profit in year three, but it is going much better than expected.

“It was a gamble but Kings used to be such a good place – admittedly not since about 2007 – that we felt we could make it work.

“We are getting so many good reviews but we have to keep working hard to maintain the high standards.

“If we keep putting in the hard work it will pay off. We are working harder than ever but I couldn’t be happier with how things have gone so far.”