After four decades welcoming guests, and once boasting occupancy rates above 80%, one of Jersey’s most distinctive hotels has put forward plans which could pave the way for it checking out of the tourism industry for good.
A planning application has been submitted to change the use of Château La Chaire in Rozel from visitor accommodation to a single private residence, months after the Grade 2 listed property was placed on the market for £4.5 million.
What would change?
While the hotel remains still up for sale, approved plans would mean that any future new owner will be able to start converting it into a home right away, rather than having to submit their own application.
No extensions or physical alterations to the building or its historic gardens are proposed. Instead, the application is described as the “first stage” in securing the long-term future of the property.
Plans show the three-storey house would have 13 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, two additional toilets and 21 habitable rooms, with more than 1,000sqm of internal floor space.
The financial pressure of running a hotel
Documents submitted with the application also reveal the financial pressures behind the proposed end of Château La Chaire’s life as a hotel.
The current owners have operated the property since 1986 and extensively refurbished it after purchasing what was then a 26-bedroom hotel, transforming it into a 14-bedroom luxury country house hotel.
It went on to achieve AA Three Red Star status and two AA Rosettes before becoming a four-star hotel.
However, the owners said annual occupancy has fallen from the “mid 80%” range to, at its worst, the “mid 50%”, while income has remained almost static for 25 years as costs have risen.
The documents state: “Due to the Chateau’s size – only having 13 bedrooms it cannot make enough income throughout the summer trading season to make this viable.”
The owners added that “what was a profitable and successful business is now loss-making”.
The application also revealed that the owners approached luxury boutique hotel group The Pig about taking on the Château, but the operator concluded it was not commercially viable – with Jersey’s short tourism season cited as the main concern.
Planning documents also point to higher staffing costs, recruitment difficulties, transport and delivery costs and other Island overheads.
The owners argue that the difficulties are therefore “structural rather than management-related”.
The application argues that turning the Château into a home would also dramatically reduce activity at the site, ending daily movements from hotel guests, staff, deliveries and servicing along the surrounding narrow lanes.
“Conservation through continued occupation”?
Central to the plans is what architects describe as “conservation through continued occupation”.
Château La Chaire and its gardens are Grade 2 listed, while the site sits within the Coastal National Park and Protected Coastal Area.
Its historic terraced gardens were established by Victorian horticulturalist Samuel Curtis, although a heritage assessment notes that his exotic plant collection has since been lost.
The heritage report acknowledges that converting the hotel into a home would reduce public access to the building and gardens, describing this as a “minor negative impact”.
However, it argues this would be balanced by returning the Château to its original use as a private residence.
The application concludes that securing a sustainable use would give future owners the opportunity to invest in restoring and maintaining the house and gardens rather than allowing the historic property to “gradually decline”.
