Principal Hotel Company is a British hotel and conference venue operator whose headquarters are in Harrogate in North Yorkshire.The company was formed from a management buyout of a group of six hotels in 2006, backed by the private equity firm Permira.
In 2010 the company was taken over by Lloyds following financial
difficultly. In February 2013, the bank sold the group to the American
investment company Starwood Capital Group for GB£360 million.
The company presently operates 50 locations, mainly in the UK. In
2009, it expanded through the purchase of two venues from the collapsed
group The Real Hotel Company and opened two new venues in France and Spain.
In November 2016, Principal Hayley Group went through a major
rebranding and re-investment project, the group became known as the
Principal Hotel Company and split their portfolio between two groups of
hotels; Principal (a group up luxury city hotels) and De Vere (a group
of country estate hotels).In May 2018, IHG announced that 10 Principal Hotels in the UK
would be rebranded as its leading luxury boutique brand, Kimpton Hotels
& Restaurants, following a conditional agreement to acquire Foncière
des Régions (“FdR”).
