Falling trade and growing competition has led to a hotel’s decision to close its business and convert its building into flats.

The Kingswell Hotel in Harwell has applied to turn its site and outbuildings into 19 residential apartments.

The hotel near Didcot is no longer “a viable business”, according to planning agents Pegasus Group, due to rampant inflation and energy costs.

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The business is surviving on a “skeleton staff” and the owners have “vastly reduced” their operations.

Most of the hotel rooms have been closed off to keep costs to a minimum – while only the bar, dining room, meeting room, and a small number of bedrooms remain open.

A viability report found that years of under-investment had left the hotel in “desperate need of substantial refurbishment just to stand still,” and, even with a refurbishment, “the return on investment would in our view not make commercial sense.”

The recent increase in other hotels – with 1,420 hotel rooms added or consented across the borough since 2014 – has also left the business  “uncompetitive”.

Due to the poor trading conditions, it was judged that the owners would make a “substantial loss” were they to sell the hotel as it is.

Therefore, the owners have applied to convert the building into a mixture of three-bed, two-bed, and one-bed flats, as well as a selection of one-bed studios.

The hotel owners were contacted for comment but did not respond.