'Please keep going back' - Former Langham Hotel owner on his career, retirement and fundraising
The former co-owner of the Langham Hotel in Eastbourne has thanked all his guests and encouraged them to keep returning to the hotel despite his retirement after 21 years in charge.
Neil and Wendy Kirby sold the 113-year-old hotel in Royal Parade to Nova Star Hotel Group, headed by well-known entrepreneur Grant Bovey, in July and have since retired to Hailsham.
The Langham’s new owners pledged £1.2 million in refurbishment and confirmed that all members of staff would remain at the hotel under the new ownership.
Neil wished the new owners all the best and said he would miss ‘working alongside my staff, being with my customers and continuously bringing up new ideas to improve the hotel’.
He said: “We sent an email out to all our customers, Wendy and I, being honest and saying, ‘It's a retirement sale. We can't thank you enough for all your wonderful support to the hotel and to my staff and my wife.
“‘Thank you so much, and please keep going back to the hotel even though we're not there. The same staff are staying’ – I wanted to tell them that.”
Born on the Wirral in 1952, Neil grew up on a council estate in West Norwood, South London, and played youth football for Charlton Athletic and Crystal Palace.
He began his career in the hospitality business as a laundry boy in the Dorchester Hotel in London’s Park Lane in 1967, before moving across the road to the prestigious Grosvenor House as a 15-year-old washer up.
There he was promoted to laundry boy and then, just a year later, to valet where he greeted the rich and famous faces who flocked to the world-renowned hotel. He recounted looking after Princess Diana, renowned ballet dancer Margaret Fonteyn and meeting Prince Phillip at Grosvenor House.
Neil met Wendy at the hotel, and he became Back of House Manager in 1980 and then General Manager in 1993 to complete a remarkable rise from the bottom to the top.
Later managing other hotels in Berkshire, Surrey and West Sussex, the couple then invested in the multi-million-pound Langham in 2005.
Neil’s written two books about his experiences in the hospitality industry: Celebrity Hotel lifted the lid on his time at Grosvenor House, while Do Not Disturb detailed the trials and tribulations of running the Langham.
The historic Eastbourne hotel has welcomed many famous faces over the years, and Neil recounted the time then-Prime Minister David Cameron visited and met his father.
George Kirby (103) and his wife Doreen (91) earned a Guinness World Record when they became the oldest couple to marry in 2015, with a combined age of 194 years and 280 days at the time.
The former PM visited the Langham and congratulated George on his marriage, to which the 103-year-old replied asking who he was before lambasting him for wearing dirty shoes.
Neil is a keen runner and, like his father, holds world records – for the fastest marathon and 50k ran on a treadmill among the over-70s. Having already completed 57 marathons and 251 half marathons and raised an astonishing £412,000 for charity, he plans to run the Beachy Head half marathon on Sunday, October 25 for St Wilfrid’s Hospice.
After a remarkable career running one of Eastbourne’s most recognisable hotels, the 73-year-old now has time to spend with his children Nicola, Neil and David and his seven grandchildren.
While he will miss the ‘day-to-day involvement at the Langham’, Neil can now enjoy ‘the occasional lie-in’, but he is far more likely to be spotted out running or planning his next scheme to raise more money for charity.
He said: “People tell me I ought to take a break now I have retired from the hotel business, but that’s not on my agenda.
“My new neighbours in Hailsham and my many old friends in Eastbourne will still see me running and doing my bit for charity. It’s a huge part of my life.”