A HOTEL in the Conwy Valley which has been providing emergency accommodation to asylum seekers will reopen to guests next month. 

The Hilton Garden Inn at Adventure Parc Snowdonia in Dolgarrog will welcome guests back from February 6. The Wave Garden Spa will also re-open its doors. 

Hilton Garden Inn Snowdonia posted on Facebook on January 11: "The time has finally come… we’re excited to get started on a new chapter in our Snowdonia story.

"The Hilton Garden Inn Snowdonia will welcome guests back from the 6th February 2023. On the same day, Wave Garden Spa] will reopen the doors to its sanctuary of wellbeing.

"Water fun will continue at Adventure Parc Snowdonia] from 1st April 2023 when we reopen the surf pool following our winter maintenance. We’ve spent the last few months planning some incredible packages, promotions and experiences for you to make the most of your next Snowdonia stay.

"Thank you for your endless support, we’re really excited to welcome you back again soon."

"Serious concerns" were raised when it became public knowledge that asylum seekers had been put up at the four star hotel. All were said to be men. 

Robin Millar, MP for Aberconwy, said: "I have taken every opportunity - in meetings with Home Office ministers and officials, in local meetings, on national media and in Parliament - to make clear that the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel is a wholly unsuitable location for accommodating asylum seekers, even on a temporary basis.

"The village of Dolgarrog lacks the basic public services and public transport connections have had to be supplemented so that asylum seekers could get to Conwy and Llandudno safely to carry out daily tasks like shopping.

"I have been working hard to see the closure of this facility by the end of January, so I am encouraged that the hotel is once again reported to be  accepting bookings from February 6.

"I have always sought to provide accurate and reliable information to residents as soon as possible. I am seeking urgent and formal clarification from the Immigration Minister and Home Office that the asylum seekers who have been housed there are being relocated - and where they are being moved to. As soon as I have this information I will pass it to the community council, local representatives and post it on my Facebook page."

Janet Finch-Saunders, MS for Aberconwy, told the Pioneer: "We learnt through rumour that the asylum seekers were arriving in Dolgarrog, and now we learn through rumour that they are going.

“When considering that I am also still awaiting a response from the Home Secretary to the urgent letter I sent her concerning the situation on 7 November, it is clear that there remains a real need for the Home Office’s communication to improve.

“At the end of the day the Welsh Government has provided £3.2m in funding to support the development of the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in as a hotel, so I will be delighted when the venue will be re-opening as a tourist destination.

“I hope that the asylum seekers who were placed in this most inappropriate of locations have now had their applications processed.” 

In November 2022, Mr Millar commented: "Originally the thought was they were all Albanian. They have come from Manston in Kent. They are all male but there are only very few of them. There are a lot of different nationalities there. They are not in family units and we don't believe there is any children.

"They have come from Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, there are some Afghans. There is a long list of different countries they have come from [the asylum seekers]. There are some from Egypt."

He added: "It is a hotel not a detention centre. It is isolated and unsupported by the appropriate services.

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“I am also very concerned about the lack of notice, the poor communication and - most of all - the impact on communities in Dolgarrog and along Dyffryn Conwy."

Cllr Charlie McCoubrey, leader of Conwy County Borough Council, said at the time that the local authority were not given advance notice that the Home Office intended to accommodate people at the Hilton Garden Hotel in Dolgarrog. 

Conwy County Borough Council, the Home Office and the Hilton will be approached for comment.