OWNERS of a second city hotel have announced plans to close because of increasing competition in a matter of weeks publishing plans to convert their property into housing.

Owners of the Adastral Hotel in Westbourne Villas, Hove, have applied for planning permission to convert the 21-bed guest house into eight new flats.

The application follows hot on the heels of a bid by the owners of the 34-bed Preston Park Hotel to convert their struggling hotel into a block of 25 flats because they could no longer compete with Travelodge.

The Adastral Hotel applicants claim that the family-run four-star hotel is no longer “financially viable” with the hotel losing more than £60,000 in the past three financial years.

The owners blame the hotel’s location away from the city centre on its struggles as well as increasing competition brought on by recent openings including Ibis Hotel in Queen’s Road, Jurys Inn in Stroudley Road and the Indigo Hotel in the New England Quarter.

The company said the hotel’s fortunes had continue to waver despite almost £80,000 of investment in the property in the past four years and an “aggressive pricing strategy”.

Previous plans to convert the hotel to residential property in 2007 were rejected as the site fell within the council’s designated hotel zone.

But with the hotel falling outside of a smaller hotel zone designated in the City Plan, the applicants are hopeful that now might be the time to convert the 19th century property that lies within the Sackville Gardens Conservation Area.

As well as the conversion of the building, permission is being sought for a single storey rear extension.

The new two and one bed flats and maisonettes would range in size from 89sqm to 51sqm – all would be larger than government minimum standards.

The application states: “The hotel is no longer financially viable and therefore requires a new use to be secured in order to preserve the building in the long term.

"The property is located a considerable distance away from the main tourist attractions and conference facilities in the city centre and so hotels within easy walking distance of central Brighton are more popular in comparison.

"The proposed development would result in the conversion of a hotel which has been loss-making for at least three years to urgently required residential units."