Forte is being sued for alleged bad management of its Posthouse hotel in York by the owners of the land and premises.

Landlord Burford UK Properties Ltd, whose rent depends on how much money is made by the Tadcaster Road hotel, is seeking damages against Forte Hotels UK Ltd.

The High Court writ is based on a list of alleged failures at York, including allowing the premises to become dated and low grade, having poor sales techniques and failing to maximise revenues from bedrooms. The writ is signed by Burford UK chief executive Randolph Anderson.

Trusthouse Forte has countered saying: "The matter is in litigation and Forte is vigorously defending all the claims made. Because proceedings have been issued, we can make no further statement at this stage."

Burford UK argues that a yet-to-be agreed rent review for November 1999 would set the annual rent at £65,635 - an increase since the previous rent review in 1985 of £3,655. That, it calculates, represents just 0.8 per cent increase in room revenues at the hotel in 14 years.

And it alleges that had Forte tried harder to maximise bedroom revenues, the final rent for the November 1999 review would have been fixed at £859,172 per year for 14 years. The landlord accuses Forte of charging a £69 room only rate which, it alleges, was at the bottom of the regional tariff band for other Posthouse Hotels in Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield.

Among other claims in the writ are that:

* The hotel suffered from unsatisfactory levels of staff training and service, while "presentation standards were poor in the public areas and in the bedroom accommodation"

* Forte failed to refurbish all the bedrooms or the conference and banquet rooms to a uniform standard by late 1997 - early 1998 in time for it to have an impact on the 1999 rent review

* A failure to refurbish the entrance and reception areas in time resulted in "a low quality appearance" and nothing was done to address "the dated image" of the exterior or to develop leisure facilities

* The majority of the bedrooms "had the appearance of dated and low grade accommodation" and were "below the image and quality standards that would have been associated with a high profile national UK brand in 1998 and 1999"

* What improvements were made to the conference and banquet suites in about 1995 appear to have taken place "as a limited low cost exercise"

* There was no satellite television or adequate telecom-information technology systems for guests in time for it to have made an impact on revenues in the run-up to the rent review, nor at the time was there proper signage.

Updated: 12:07 Thursday, February 08, 2001