STEPHANIE Booth's hotel empire has been placed into administration today with the loss of about 100 jobs.

David Costley-Wood and Brian Green from KPMG have been appointed joint administrators of Llangollen Hotels Limited and its parent company Global Investments Group.

Llangollen Hotels, comprises a chain of seven hotels in North Wales and Cheshire employing 177 people.

They include four freehold hotels, Bodidris Hall in Llandegla and The Wild Pheasant Hotel; The Chainbridge Hotel and The Bryn Howel Hotel in Llangollen.

Any bookings and deposits for these hotels intend to be honoured until the hotels are sold. No redundancies have been made at the four freehold hotels on appointment.

The other remaining hotels, which are leased are The Anchor Hotel in Ruthin, The Wynnstay Arms Hotel in Wrexham and The Chester Bridge Hotel, Chester.

The directors shut the Wynnstay Arms Hotel prior to the appointment of administrators yesterday while  The Anchor Hotel and The Chester Bridge Hotel have been closed today.

Global Investments Group also operates three children's soft play centres and McLarens, a wine bar - all leasehold properties. These were also closed by the directors prior to appointment.

The closures have resulted in approximately 100 redundancies.

David Costley-Wood, joint administrator and restructuring partner at KPMG, said:

"The Global Investment Group expanded rapidly into a range of leisure businesses and built up substantial debt in the process. The business is now no longer able to make payments as they fall due, necessitating the appointment of administrators.

"The four freehold hotels are trading well and we are confident of finding a buyer."