Who Owns the Bell Hotel in Epping?

The Bell Hotel in Epping is owned by Somani Hotels Limited, a small Essex family business. Companies House records Mr Hassanali Karmali Alibhai Somani as holding more than 50% but less than 75% of it. The hotel was used as asylum accommodation from April 2025 under a contract between Somani Hotels and a Home Office contractor — not with the Home Office directly — and that contract has since been terminated. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns Bell Hotel Epping today?

SOMANI HOTELS LIMITED (03929881), incorporated 21 February 2000 and registered at Bell Common, Epping — the hotel’s own location.

Its sole person with significant control is Mr Hassanali Karmali Alibhai Somani, resident in England, holding more than 50% but less than 75% of the shares, notified 21 February 2017. This site covers the wider group separately on its Somani Hotels profile.

The register carries an immediate trap. THE BELL HOTEL LIMITED (06764488) is a different company, registered in Wickford, Essex, and controlled by Howard Lee Newport and Georgiana Newport, each at more than 25% but not more than 50%. It has no connection to the Epping hotel.

Anyone searching Companies House for “The Bell Hotel” would find the Newports’ company first and could easily attribute the Epping hotel to the wrong owners. The Epping hotel’s company is 03929881; the similarly named company is 06764488.

Ultimate parent and corporate structure

There is no parent. Somani Hotels Limited sits at the top of its own structure — no holding company, no fund, no offshore vehicle — and the group runs a small number of hotels in Essex and Hertfordshire, some under franchised international brands.

The company files as a micro-entity, the smallest accounts category available, which means its published financial information is minimal by design rather than by concealment.

That is worth stating plainly, because the hotel became nationally known. The owner is a family business, not a large contractor or an investment fund.

Major shareholders or controlling persons

One named individual holds a majority, and the register says so directly. There is no institutional investor and no corporate group.

The contractual position is a separate question from ownership, and the two are routinely conflated. The chain reported for the asylum accommodation ran:

1. the Home Office, which contracts for asylum accommodation nationally
2. CTM (North) Ltd, one of the companies contracted to provide it
3. Somani Hotels Limited, which contracted with CTM to make rooms available

So the hotel’s owner had a commercial contract with a Home Office contractor, not with the government. The Home Office did not own, lease or run the building, and the owner was not a party to any government contract.

Official records and evidence

The company numbers, the 2000 incorporation, the registered office at Bell Common and the PSC entries for both companies are Companies House records and can be checked directly. The ownership here is register-verified, including the controller’s name and country of residence.

Two limits. The register gives a band, not a percentage — the holding is between half and three-quarters. And Companies House records nothing about the building: whether the group owns the freehold, holds a lease, or has charges over the property is a matter for HM Land Registry, a different register, and the right one for that question.

The contracting arrangements are not on any companies register either. Home Office accommodation contracts and their subcontracting chains are matters of government procurement disclosure and parliamentary answers.

Ownership history and changes

The ownership has not changed. Somani Hotels Limited was incorporated in 2000, and its controller’s PSC entry dates from the start of the register in 2017.

• 21 February 2000 — Somani Hotels Limited incorporated.
• April 2025 — the hotel begins accommodating asylum seekers under the CTM contract, reported at up to 138 people.
• August 2025 — Epping Forest District Council obtains an interim injunction on planning grounds, arguing the use had changed without permission. The decision was subsequently challenged on appeal.
• 2026 — the Home Office confirms it is terminating the accommodation contract, with the hotel to cease that use and occupants relocated elsewhere in the asylum estate.

The planning point is the one with the widest application, and it is genuinely a question about property rather than politics: a building’s lawful planning use is fixed by its permitted class, and a hotel operating as long-term accommodation may constitute a material change of use requiring consent. The Epping case was the first of several such challenges by local authorities.

None of it changed who owns the hotel. Throughout, the owner has been the same Essex company and the same individual.

Related companies and brands

Somani Hotels Limited operates alongside Somani Hotels (Stevenage) Limited, Somani Hotels (Croydon) Limited and Somani Hotels (St Albans) Ltd — one company per location, a standard arrangement in the trade that ring-fences each property’s liabilities.

Several of the group’s hotels trade under franchised or affiliated international brands. As this site’s Somani Hotels profile sets out, Best Western is a membership organisation rather than an owner, so a hotel carrying that name is generally owned by an independent operator — the name over the door and the name on the title deeds are routinely different.

The Bell Hotel is not connected to Bell Hotel Burgh Ltd in Skegness, The Bell Hotel & Restaurant Ltd in Monmouthshire, or the many other unrelated companies using the name. “Bell” is among the commonest pub and hotel names in England, and the register reflects that.