The Crest Hotel, South Mimms, 1980 - geograph

Crest Hotels Limited was a

Bass-Charrington The Bass Brewery () was founded in 1777 by William Bass in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The main brand was Bass Pale Ale, once the highest-selling beer in the UK. By 1877, Bass had become the largest brewery in the world, with ...

subsidiary operating the hotel interests of the brewery company in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Crest's headquarters were in the former Hunt Edmunds brewery premises in

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshir ...

, Oxfordshire.

History

In 1969 Bass transferred all its hotels, which had previously traded under the Bass, Mitchells and Butler's and Charrington's brands, into the Crest Hotels portfolio. Bass bought the European hotel interests of the Esso Petroleum Company in 1972. These were modern, purpose-built hotels located in the United Kingdom, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. The deal involved 18

Esso Motor Hotel Esso Motor Hotel was a Swedish subsidiary of the American oil company Esso, for running hotels in Europe. History In the 1960s, with the rise of the numbers of travelers by car, the Scandinavian governments asked for dormitories for motorists a ...

s, of which ten in the United Kingdom, three were in the Netherlands, two in Belgium and three in Italy. There were also nine German hotels and one Austrian hotel which were leased from Esso. The hotels in UK were absorbed by Crest and the European hotels were supervised by a senior management team based in

. In 1976 Crest rebranded their hotels in EuroCrest and decided to expand in Germany. In 1990, the group was bought by Trusthouse Forte and rebranded as Forte Crest before later being absorbed into the Posthouse chain.

References

Defunct hotel chains Hotel chains in the United Kingdom {{Europe-hotel-stub