Recognised as one of the nation’s top hotels, in recent years the 93-bedroom Tewkesbury Park hotel, golf & wellness resort has become one of the UK’s most celebrated independent golfing destinations, known as ‘England’s mini Gleneagles’.

However, just a decade ago, the hotel’s prospects weren’t anything like as bright. After multiple previous ownership changes and failed management plans, Tewkesbury Park had faded badly.

Avid golfer Chris McIntosh sensed its potential and, after buying Tewkesbury Park in 2014, the family got to work on implementing a ten-year refurbishment programme which, to date, has represented an investment of £13m.

While the initial work was going on closure would have been the easier option, but the McIntosh family kept Tewkesbury Park open during the transition to save jobs, and to retain golf and wellness membership numbers.

Their eventual reward was a complete business turn-around for this charming, hilltop golf hotel with expansive views of the rural Cotswolds and Malvern Hills. A series of accolades have now propelled Tewkesbury Park to international recognition – and secured its status as one of the European golf industry’s latest success stories.

Professional hotelier Patrick Jones joined the business as general manager in November 2015 after writing a visionary business plan based on building a fresh, high-quality independent presence in the market.

One thing which attracted Jones to the property was its excellent location, within striking distance of both Bristol and Oxford.

“I’d heard that Tewkesbury Park had new owners,” said Jones, “so I went there for a look around. I saw immediately that it could become an outstanding facility, that the geography was superb, and that there weren’t many direct competitors in the area.

“However, it was obvious that significant investment would be needed. So I looked deeper into the UK golf market and found that there were plenty of ‘good golf, average hotel’ and ‘average golf, good hotel’ experiences out there.

“Putting it simply, my proposal to the family was to have a ‘good golf, good hotel’ strategy!”

Jones had previously been immersed in the hospitality industry at Swallow Hotels (now Marriott) and at Virgin Hotels (now Handpicked Hotels), before joining The Old Swan and Minster Mill in Oxfordshire, a de Savary family property, as general manager. The Old Swan was a former Hotel Of The Year, and quite similar to Tewkesbury Park with an emphasis on lifestyle and ambience.

“After meeting the McIntosh family, I realised that we had a significant meeting of minds,” said Jones. “In Claire White the commercial director – one of the McIntosh family members – I recognised a strong personality match and a shared vision.

“The family had shown great integrity in taking over and keeping Tewkesbury Park open, doing the harder thing and showing loyalty to the existing team rather than putting jobs at risk. I liked that.

“Many hotels have lots of front-end gloss, but are let down by a weak back-of-house setup, and I knew how to avoid that so in November 2015 I was lucky enough to join the business while it was still in an early evolutionary stage.”

Sharing the belief that mid-market hotels get uncomfortably squeezed from both sides, Jones and the McIntosh family started to implement changes which would not only reposition and rescue this historic property – built on the site of the 1471 Battle Of Tewkesbury – but which would also establish a new high bar in the UK to prove that a small, independent golf hotel can compete successfully with the giant corporate venues.

“Although things like COVID subsequently placed huge challenges in our path, we have more or less achieved that very same original plan and vision which Claire and I worked towards, when we started,” said Jones.

Early on, they invested in upgrading their largest asset – the golf course. Paul Hathaway was appointed as course manager, with a collection of new Toro machinery to use. “Paul is an amazing individual,” said Jones. “He and his team have transformed the golf course here at Tewkesbury Park, and continue to present it in amazing condition to this day.”

Working closely with two advisors – John Clarkin from Turfgrass and Peter McEvoy OBE – Chris McIntosh, Paul Hathaway and the Tewkesbury Park greenkeeping team began an extensive refurbishment plan on the golf course’s playing surfaces.

“We stayed true to the vision of our original golf architect, Frank Pennink, whose Vilamoura Old Course in Portugal is among the most revered in the Algarve. Our Par 72, 18-hole golf course, The Deerpark, is now acknowledged as being one of the best-conditioned golf courses in the West of England,” said Jones.

But away from the greens Tewkesbury Park faced an even greater challenge. Its hotel, health and conferencing facilities also needed to be transformed, or the whole project would be in danger of failure.

“Right from the start we decided to push the whole product well up-market, while still staying true to certain key business segments – golf, short breaks, weddings & events, and the conference market,” said Jones.

“Over a six-year period we refurbished all guest bedrooms, and all 93 are now beautifully-presented. Each has a stunning view; every guest is guaranteed a memorable stay.”

In a spectacular statement of intent, in spring 2019 the McIntosh family invested around £1 million in just nine rooms, creating Tewkesbury Park’s remarkable historic rooms collection, available in two levels – Opulence and Indulgence – with all rooms named after historic figures from the Battle of Tewkesbury.

These rooms, refurbished to an exceptionally high quality standard, helped to position Tewkesbury Park nationally at a whole new level, creating a reputation for a new level of luxury among English golf hotels.

“We also made major improvements to our Mint restaurant, to our health, swim and wellness facilities, and we also invested in an all-new sustainable combined heat & power unit, which now heats our resort. However, the summer 2017 opening of our Cotswold Suite meetings and conference centre was probably our biggest game-changer,” added Jones.

When Condé Nast Johansens named Tewkesbury Park as the UK and Ireland’s #1 Meetings & Conference venue in 2023, the team had its biggest reward yet.

“The awards had already been coming our way thick and fast,” said Jones. “When The Sunday Times listed us among their Top 100 British Hotels in 2019, Tewkesbury Park was one of only four golf hotels to make the list. The fact that the other three were Gleneagles, Roxburghe and Rockliffe Hall says volumes about how far we had come in just five amazing years.”

He continued: “From the moment that a golfer sinks into the Hypnos bed in their hotel room at Tewkesbury Park, they know they have made a good choice. Our independence works in our favour, and we can be quirky in our style, and individual in our levels of service – we are quite different.”

Delivering the vision has also delivered the required numbers. “Having broken our all-time record as regards golf bookings in 2023, we are on course to repeat it in 2024,” said Jones.

“We believe that Tewkesbury Park now occupies a unique position in the British golf market as the best small golf hotel in the nation, and we are hoping that many new friends will come to visit us – and to play The Deerpark – for the first time in 2025!”