Matfen Hall: Hotel U-turn after weddings cancelled amid price hike

Greg Williams and Vickie Blood have been looking at alternative venues

A luxury country hotel heavily criticised for doubling the price of booked weddings has said it will honour the original agreements.

Matfen Hall in Northumberland brought in a minimum spend of £20,000, an increase of about £10,000 for many of the events.

It has now said it was "never our intention to cause any upset".

But one couple faced with either paying extra or finding another venue felt the "damage might already be done".

Greg Williams, from Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, said: "We still feel a little bit let down by them."

His fiancée Vickie Blood said the hotel had "literally turned our world all upside down and they're now going back on themselves".

If the pair decided to accept the offer, she would want "something in writing to state they're not going to do this again", she said.

Nurse Laura Roberts said the reversal was a surprise

Nurse Laura Roberts, who had called the original cancellation of her contract "a kick in the teeth", said the U-turn was "unexpected".

"We just feel there's a total lack of trust now," she said.

"If they can offer this now, why couldn't they have just kept it the same?

"They must be able to afford it, otherwise they wouldn't have offered it."

Matfen Hall was taken over by new owners last year

Matfen Hall was taken over last year by the Walwick Estate Group, which owns Walwick Hall near Hexham.

The hotel initially said it had incurred a loss of more than £1.2m by honouring 119 weddings at prices agreed by the previous management, and that it could "no longer continue to sustain" that commitment.

But a spokesman for the hotel has since said all the affected couples had now "been offered to have their weddings at the original price".

In a new statement, the hotel said: "We unreservedly apologise for the hurt this decision has caused."

It said it had "invested heavily" in its wedding provision but felt it had not explained to its guests how their weddings would have been "vastly enhanced" compared to their original booking.

However, some people commenting on social media on Tuesday - before the U-turn - complained the new management had offered less than originally agreed for an increased amount of money.

Zac Mavin said the hotel had "removed so many things that made Matfen special", including exclusive use of the East Wing and Grand Hall.

"Beer and wine with the wedding meal is now changed to tea and coffee," he said.

"What made it worse was that we were made to feel like second-class citizens because we could not afford a £20,000 wedding."