Crazy Bear hotels close in second administration and are sold to Brakspear

Crazy Bear has gone into administration for the second time in under two years, The Caterer reports, and its two hotels have been sold to Brakspear.

What happened - BDO was appointed administrator to the hotels' parent companies on 27 October. - Both hotels, in Stadhampton and Beaconsfield, closed immediately and all bookings were cancelled. - The freeholds were sold to Brakspear, which plans a refurbishment. The hotel operations themselves could not be saved. - The two sites employed about 130 people; most have been made redundant, with a few kept on to help the administrators. - The administrators cited challenging market conditions and a quieter than expected summer.

The backstory: the business first went into administration in December 2024 and was bought back by its directors in a £6.5m pre-pack in January 2025. Crazy Bear launched a new restaurant concept, Fable, only a week before this latest collapse, and an earlier 14-cover chef's table, Bear by Carlo Scotto, closed after just three months.

So what for groups: a pre-pack clears debt, not the trading problem. Two boutique hotels with large event spaces lived on summer and celebration demand, and one soft season was enough. The property still had value to a pub group with a refurbishment plan, which is worth remembering when judging what a distressed site is really worth.