THE new addition to Basing View – The Village Hotel - was open for just a month last year before it was forced to close during the national lockdown in March.

Now, the general manager of the hotel is looking forward to welcoming back customers next month after a tough year.

There was much excitement across the town when The Village Hotel opened in February 2020, and the future looked bright as thousands of customers signed up to join the leisure club within the first few weeks.

However, the hotel has not had a chance to build on that initial success and popularity because of strict Covid-19 restrictions which prevented it from opening for much of last year.

General manager Nalin Daud said he is looking forward to re-opening on April 12, when customers will be able to use the leisure club including a gym and pool and enjoy drinks and a meal outside.

He said: “We are open for key workers now but we’re excited to re-open the leisure club for everyone and our outside area.

“We were only open for 25 days when lockdown was announced. We have opened and shut since then but for a brand-new business it’s been tough.”

The 153-bedroom hotel cost £1.65 million to build and Mr Daud hopes it will become the heart of the community.

It has been involved with the current filming on Basing View, thought to be new Amazon Prime action spy series Citadel starring Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra, and Ashleigh Cummings, with the production crew using the hotel car park and some staying at the hotel.

Mr Daud said: “We don’t know what they are filming or who’s in it other than it’s for Amazon Prime. Basing View hasn’t seen as many people since March last year I was so excited last night when there was a queue getting out of the car park!”

He said the crew, who have been visiting the hotel’s Starbucks which is open for takeaways, are expected to be using the car park until Monday or Tuesday next week.