Wolverhampton venue cancels weddings to host court hearings

Larger weddings at the Park Hall Hotel in Wolverhampton have been cancelled

A hotel has been branded "greedy" for cancelling some weddings in favour of a Ministry of Justice contract.

The Park Hall Hotel, in Wolverhampton, has been used as a Nightingale Court during the coronavirus pandemic.

Customers said they were told the hotel would resume service from March and accepted bookings, which it has since cancelled, leaving guests out of pocket as they try to rearrange elsewhere.

The hotel apologised to guests and said cancellations were "a deep regret".

Nightingale Courts opened in July 2020 to help clear a backlog of hearings caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Park Hall Hotel apologised to couples and guests

Ravi Sharma said his daughter had booked her wedding at the hotel, near to where they live in Penn, to take place on 5 June 2022. But the booking has since been cancelled by the hotel.

"My daughter is devastated," he said. "It hurts me to see my daughter in the state she's in."

Instead, the family has had to look further afield to find a venue that can accommodate hundreds of guests at just a few months' notice. The hotel said it was supporting families to find other suitable venues.

"We've got a lot of guests coming from India, Canada, Norway, Sweden... and they're all booked to stay in Wolverhampton," Mr Sharma said.

He added the ceremony was now likely to be moved more than 30 miles away to Coventry.

Finding them alternative accommodation, plus other additional costs such as transport and reprinting invitations, could cost him thousands of pounds more, despite getting a deposit back from Park Hall, he said.

'No consideration'

He told the BBC the hotel had said to the family its contract with the Ministry of Justice would end in March and weddings could resume.

However, the hotel said it had received notification from the government the contract was to be extended.

"It's sheer greed," Mr Sharma said of the hotel. "They have no consideration for anyone. They made promises they knew they couldn't keep."

A spokesperson for the Park Hall Hotel said the court occupied its ballroom, which is used for larger ceremonies, meaning those had to be cancelled, but its smaller venue was still available.

"We appreciate how distressing and upsetting cancelling a wedding is," a spokesperson said. It offered its "sincere apologies" and said couples had been invited to the venue to discuss the matter in person.