Shocked staff at Windsor's Harte and Garter Hotel are waiting to hear what their future is - after the company that runs it went into administration.

Begbies Traynor Ltd were appointed last week as administrators for Suite Hospitality Ltd which includes the historic Windsor hotel among its assets.

This week Lauren Collins, one of a skeleton team of five staff still working at the hotel during the lockdown, said the news had come as a double shock after they had kept it running as a refuge for front line staff working to help victims of the Coronavirus, as well as vulnerable and homeless people sent to them by the police and local authority.

She said: "We were here day and night to take in people who needed refuge.

"The last two weeks we looked after a group who had to completely quarantine themselves – meaning that staff had to be tested for the virus and stay in the hotel for two weeks with them. Looking after them twenty-four hours a day, not even allowed to step one foot outside. Cooking, cleaning, washing, serving, doing everything we could to make it feel like a home away from home. These staff stayed away from their families for two weeks, willingly working extra hours for absolutely nothing."

Lauren worked in the service industry since she was 14.

Now she has written to the Queen, asking for her help in keeping the Harte and Garter open as a hotel.

The Crown Estate actually owns the site and the future of the 25 or so staff who are employed at the hotel may depend on whether the estate managers can find another company to take on the lease.

Usually demand is high among hotel companies to take on prestigious assets like the Harte and Garter. But after more than three months of enforced closure the large hotel owners may not be in the same financial position they were a year ago.

In her letter to the Queen Lauren asks 'if there is anything you can do to help us keep the Harte and Garter Hotel in business I know this community would be forever grateful

to you'.

At the moment there is no question of the hotel reopening on July 4 when lockdown eases.

*Visit www.begbies-traynorgroup.com/rescue-options/company-administration