Harry Cragoe, owner of Gallivant Hotels, has teased new details about the brand’s upcoming second hotel – The Gallivant Littlestone Beach.
Cragoe says he aims to “bring glamour back to the British seaside” with the 12-bedroom hotel, which will be home to a sitting room, orangery, dining room, library and Nordic spa.
The hotel is a short drive from the brand’s original property, The Gallivant Camber Sands.
At Littlestone Beach, bedrooms will not feature televisions, because the view from the rooms is “ridiculously spectacular”.
Speaking to Boutique Hotelier, Cragoe said: “We thought a lot about what the guest experience would be like in the bedrooms…we have designed the bedroom system with this notion of being able to sit in the bedroom and the furniture is designed in such a way so you can look out to sea. It’s better than just having a couple of armchairs or a sofa opposite a TV.”
The hotel will also have no formal dining room, with guests instead able to dine across the ground floor’s communal spaces, including the library and orangery.
Littlestone Beach will serve a concise, daily-changing menu based on what’s in season and each evening, guests will be called downstairs by a gong for a pre-dinner cocktail.
“We want everyone to come together and mingle,” Cragoe told BH. “Those that don’t want to mingle don’t have to, but we like that idea of bringing everyone together and guests being allowed to dine pretty much wherever they want across the ground floor.”
Cragoe also said he wants the dining experience to be “very relaxed” and that there will be little focus on turning tables, so that “if you want to spend four hours having a meal you can.”
Littlestone Beach will also be encouraging guests to swim in the sea, before using the Nordic spa for post-swim recovery.
“Being so uniquely close to the sea, it just seems obvious that we should be encouraging people to get into the sea, but then giving you a very hot refuge to get back to afterwards,” said Cragoe.
Monthly sea swim sessions are held at The Gallivant Camber Sands and Cragoe says this is something he is looking to expand at Littlestone Beach.
A ‘sauna on wheels’ will be located at the front of the hotel’s garden so that guests can swim in the sea, then “run 50 yards and get into the sauna.”
The Nordic spa will also feature a treatment room, chill out area, sauna and cold plunge pool.
Cragoe aims to create the feel of a private beach house at the hotel, in response to the growing consumer desire for authentic travel experiences.
He told BH: “I think people are reaching for real experiences. I recently had lunch at Bouchon Racine – it’s very interesting, delicious food, just a trendy real experience but it wasn’t flashy. I think that’s increasingly something people are reaching for.
“Obviously, there are very swanky restaurants in London that are full, they do their thing very well. I think that middle market that hasn’t got honesty behind it, will struggle.”
The Gallivant Littlestone Beach will open later this year
