A BOUTIQUE hotel which only opened in Dumfries eight months ago is no longer taking bookings and will instead be used to house asylum seekers.
Rumours first emerged about the Mercure Hotel’s change of use on social media earlier this week.
Now a spokesperson for the Splendid Hospitality Group, which owns the hotel on New Abbey Road, confirmed yesterday that the 61-room hotel will be closed to the public from August 13.
They said: “Mercure Dumfries, like many hotels in the UK, was approached by the Home Office to help support the asylum seeker initiative as it was identified as a suitable accommodation partner.
“As a company we made a decision to support the government in this initiative by providing accommodation, and thus the hotel will be temporarily closed to other business as of the 13 August 2023.”
The news has been met with a mixed response from the community as one Dumfries resident said: “It actually had the potential to be a really good hotel in the right hands, filling it full of migrants will line someone’s pocket but is going to do nothing positive for Dumfries.”
Whereas another person commented: “I’m sure these people will be a great benefit to our community.”
