
For the last 15 years, Alex Polizzi has spent her career telling people how to run a hotel. Now she's putting her money where her mouth is - as she attempts to open one of her own. For years she helped run her mother Olga's two luxury hotels. Now for the first time they've gone into business together as equal partners. In 2019 they bought a 37-bedroom medieval coaching inn in east Sussex in need of a total overhaul. But what should have been a six-month project soon becomes an 18-month struggle. Olga and Alex are forced to deal with spiralling costs, building challenges and a global pandemic.
For the last 15 years, Alex Polizzi has spent her career telling people how to run a hotel. Now she's putting her money where her mouth is - as she attempts to open one of her own. For years she helped run her mother Olga's two luxury hotels. Now for the first time they've gone into business together as equal partners. In 2019 they bought a 37-bedroom medieval coaching inn in east Sussex in need of a total overhaul. But what should have been a six-month project soon becomes an 18-month struggle. Olga and Alex are forced to deal with spiralling costs, building challenges and a global pandemic.
Alex has spent the last three months in lockdown in Cornwall with her family, overseeing the work at The Star from a distance. All work at the hotel had stopped temporarily, but it's back up and running. When Alex is able to travel to Sussex to see the renovations, it becomes clear just how far behind they are. Because of delays and the possibility of now having a Christmas opening, Alex and Olga move the opening until Easter 2021.