AN OXFORDSHIRE resident is urging the new owners of the Randolph Hotel to reconsider their proposal to change the world-famous name.
Last month Graduate Hotels, owned by Adventurous Journeys (AJ) Capital Partners, announced that it has acquired the Macdonald Randolph Hotel in Beaumont Street.
In a statement the Chicago-based new owners said: “This marks the second Graduate Hotels property to launch outside of the United States, following the announcement in July 2019 of the forthcoming Graduate Cambridge.
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“Renovations will begin in fall 2020, and the 151-key hotel will open as Graduate Oxford, part of the Graduate Hotels collection, in early spring 2021.”
But Stephen Fry, of Bletchingdon Road, Kidlington, said switching the name would make the hotel 'a laughing stock' across Oxford and said the new owners should review the decision.
He added: “Everyone in the Oxford community from first-week undergraduates to super postdoc PhD professors will cringe, recoil in shame and embarrassment, at the idea that anyone should name a hotel ‘The Graduate Hotel’ - right at the centre of the town and in perhaps its most prestigious space.
“This screaming snobbism will be a source of shame to everyone in Oxford for generations - lowering the level of the whole city by incorporating this false component into the culture.
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“I know it is only a symbol but subconsciously you exclude most of your market. In any year, most of the graduates have left. The very concept is subliminally wrong.”
Mr Fry added that most people he knew would be ashamed to go to a hotel called the Graduate Hotel.
He said: “I appreciate that the American way is to be upfront proud about what you have achieved, earned and created - and blazon your achievement in media and brand names as soon as you can - and I can like and respect that but the Oxford ethos will never be like that."
The hotel has a four-star rating on reviews site Trip Advisor but reviews from guests in recent months have been mixed.
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James H from London who stayed last week said: “Room great, bed comfortable, bathroom worked, staff lovely and I thought breakfast was fab.”
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