Coronavirus: Jobs under threat at five Scottish hotels

Crowne Plaza EdinburghIHG

The Crown Plaza in Edinburgh is among the hotels which are facing redundancies

Hundreds of jobs are under threat at five Scottish luxury hotels run by the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) as the impact of the Covid-19 crisis hits.

IHG has started a redundancy consultation process with staff at its hotels in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

They are the Kimpton Charlotte Square, InterContinental The George and Crown Plaza in Edinburgh, and Grand Central and Kimpton Blythswood Square, Glasgow.

The hotels have been closed since the lockdown went into effect in March.

Most of the hotel staff have been furloughed.

IHG has not confirmed how many redundancies it will be seeking. The five hotels employ well over 500 staff between them.

There are 38 IHG branded hotels in Scotland, most of which are operated by franchise owners.

The five hotels in question are directly managed by IHG.

'Difficult time'

A spokesman for the group said: "This is a very difficult time for our industry, and we have done everything to protect and retain jobs for as long as possible.

"These hotels are currently closed and while we are looking forward to welcoming guests back when we can reopen, it will take time for travel and tourism to return to pre-coronavirus levels.

"As a result, we have launched a consultation to resize and restructure our hotels teams, which unfortunately is likely to involve some redundancies."