Nadia Whitcombe
General manager
Ran a thirty room house in Rye for eight years before opening this one. Answers the phone when reception is busy.
The hotel
Built in 1824. Put back together in 2014.
Numbers 14 and 16 Regency Square were a pair of bedsit houses when Michael bought them. It took two years, one structural engineer and a long argument with the conservation officer to make them one hotel again.
What we kept
Everything original that could be saved, and nothing that could not.
The sash windows were repaired frame by frame rather than swapped for units, so the rooms still have the glass that has looked at that water for two hundred years. Behind them sits secondary glazing, which is the compromise that lets you sleep. The staircase, the plaster cornices and the basement vaults are original. The wiring, the plumbing, the lift and the insulation are not.
18rooms, no two the same
21people on the payroll, all on contracts
62%of bookings come direct
How we run it
An owner on the floor, and a rate card with nothing hidden in it.
No resort fee, no charge for the spa, no charge for the cot, no service charge added at the end. If it is going to cost you money it is written down before you book. Breakfast is cooked by the same kitchen that cooks dinner, and the tips go to the people who earned them, in full, on the payslip.
Check in
From 15:00, earlier if the room is ready, and we will take your bags either way.
Check out
By 11:00. A late checkout at 13:00 is £25 when we have the room free.
Parking
Regency Square underground car park sits under the gardens, forty metres from the door, £18 for 24 hours. We cannot hold spaces.
Dogs
Two rooms take dogs at £20 a night. They are welcome in the bar and the hall, not in the dining room or the spa.
Children
Any age in the Regency Twin and the Suites. Cots are free, an extra bed is £35, and the spa is over sixteens only.
Access
Lift to the third floor. One ground floor room has a level entrance from the side street and a wet room. The Attic is stairs only.
The people
Four of the twenty one you are most likely to meet.
Tomas Reyes
Head chef
Buys off the Newhaven boats twice a week and writes the menu after, not before.
Ruth Okonjo
Spa manager
Trained in Bath. Runs the four treatment rooms and the therapist rota, and will tell you honestly which treatment you want.
Michael Barr
Owner
Bought the two houses in 2014 and spent two years putting them back together. Still works the Saturday breakfast service.
AA four red starsVisit England GoldGreen Tourism SilverSustainable Restaurant two stars
The next bit
What we are doing about the things a Georgian house is bad at.
Old buildings leak heat. Since 2023 the roof and the basement have been insulated, the boilers replaced with two air source heat pumps, and the lighting swapped throughout. Energy use per room night is down thirty one per cent on 2022 and we publish the figure every January whether it moves the right way or not.
Laundry is done on site rather than trucked to an industrial plant. Bathroom products come in refillable ceramic, not miniatures. The kitchen buys fish from the Newhaven day boats and vegetables from two farms on the Downs, which is less about a story and more about the fact that it turns up fresher.
Come and look at it in person.
Reception will show you a room if one is free, any afternoon, without an appointment.