A major hotel in Basingstoke has closed room bookings to the public for four months following what they describe as “a large group booking of their rooms”.

Apollo Hotel at Aldermaston Road Roundabout is telling their customers that it won’t be booking rooms for public for the next four months from Sunday, October 10.

However, the hotel manager confirmed that their health club and meeting rooms will be open and trading as usual.

Initially, the decision to close room booking sparked rumours that it might be converted into a quarantine facility for travellers coming from red list countries.

But Apollo Hotel manager Paul Fearon said the hotel will not be closing, and added they are “sold out because they have a large group booking of rooms”.

However, he said he could not provide any more details for data reasons.

He said: “We do not and cannot disclose any details of our clients, complying with GDPR, as well as business etiquette.”

The four-star hotel are also asking long-term residents of the property to check out before Sunday, October 10.

One of the long-term residents has confirmed to the Gazette that he has been asked to leave the hotel before Sunday.

Another customer who tried to book a room for October 16 was told that there are no rooms available for the next four months.

“I always book a room at Apollo when I visit Basingstoke,” said the 56-year-old, who did not want to be named. “But I was disappointed to know that they have closed the rooms for booking for public for the next four months.”

Apollo Hotel was revamped into a 125-bed facility to help support Basingstoke hospital in April 2020 when the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was dealing with the coronavirus. In July, Crowne Plaza Basingstoke was converted into a quarantine facility in a contract with the Department of Health and Social Care.