The Scores Hotel in St Andrews has closed for a major refurbishment.
The new owners said the decision to completely close the hotel was not “taken lightly”.
A redundancy process has taken place for all staff at the 36 room property, located near the 18th green of The Old Course.
Most staff have found alternative employment in a hospitality sector currently desperate for workers.
The hotel closed today (Wednesday) and will remain shut for the whole of 2022.
Investment plans for Scores Hotel
Links Collection Capital and Wirefox purchased the hotel together in June.
Joanne McBurney, director at Wirefox, said the owners want it to become a “world class destination”.
She said: “When we acquired the Scores Hotel, we did so with the clear intention of significantly investing in the building.
“We want to unlock its full potential and create a world-class destination to complement the existing offer in St Andrews and the site’s location overlooking golf’s most famous course.
“The process began when we closed the hotel to commerce a full refurbishment.
“Although closure of the hotel wasn’t a decision taken lightly, we believe it to be the right one for the long-term future of the hotel.”
The refurbishment work will take around 18 months.
This means it will miss out on trade when The Open Championship returns to St Andrews next summer.
The owners hope St Andrews will have a post-Open boost and be a sought after destination in 2023.
“This is the first phase of our vision to return the hotel to its former glory,” Ms McBurney said.
“We very much look forward to sharing our plans and our future ambitions over the coming months.”
Scores Hotel’s long history in St Andrews
The Scores Hotel opened in the 1930s. It combines a fine 1864 Victorian House, Seaton House, with a boys’ school built in the 1880s.
Seaton House was designed in the Jacobean style by George Rae, the first St Andrews citizen to become an architect.
It was then home to an institute founded in 1919 by prominent London heart specialist, Sir James Mackenzie.
It traded under the Best Western banner until it was sold four months ago.
Links Collection Capital also owns The Dunvegan Hotel in St Andrews.
Wirefox is a real estate investment and development company.
It has spent around £500 million in the UK commercial property sector. Of this sum, £150m has been in Scotland.
