A MULTI-million pound hotel complex in Evesham has been closed down without warning on the orders of its American owners.

Dozens of guests were ejected and others were refused entry to the Grade II listed Wood Norton Hall when insolvency specialists moved in last Friday.

General manager Mike Muse and his 40-plus staff were laid off with immediate effect as the hotel closed its doors less than five years after it was sold by the BBC to US businessman Rick Hvizdak.

Insolvency specialist Mike Durkan of Cheltenham-based Findlay James said the decision to cease trading had been taken after meetings of the board of directors and then the shareholders of the Cayman Islands-based holding company RCH Enterprises. Both meetings were held in the United States.

Mr Muse, who claimed the company had been trading at a break-even level, said the move had come like a bolt out of the blue.

"I had absolutely no idea this was on the cards," he said. "The insolvency people arrived and told us that our jobs no longer existed. They just told us to grab our belongings and leave."

Overnight guests, many of them strangers to the area, were out sightseeing in the Vale and Cotswolds when the accountants moved in.

Mr Muse said that as they returned to the hotel they were escorted to their rooms, ordered to pack and then escorted from the premises.

Clients arriving to book into the hotel were not even allowed into the building.

Former Round Table member Jim O'Donoghue arrived with his wife Valerie in the middle of the afternoon, having driven from their home in Guildford, Surrey.

"We weren't even allowed to get out of the car," he said later. "Someone told us the hotel was closed and we would have to go somewhere else."

The couple were due to meet five friends for a regular once-a-year get together of former members of the de Montford Round Table in Leicester.

"We were looking forward to our usual celebration weekend, but it all went wrong right from the start," he added.

However, the group were able to take advantage of an offer made by another local hotelier, John Jenkinson, owner of the family-run Evesham Hotel.

When he heard what had happened, Mr Jenkinson opened up 12 rooms to people booked into Wood Norton Hotel on the Friday, offering free bed and breakfast to those who had paid in advance and were stuck for money.

"I was delighted we were able to help quite a few of them," he said. "The whole thing came as a bit of a shock to everyone."

This week, staff from the hotel, many of them were foreign nationals, began to make their way home to their countries of origin.

"One or two are returning to South Africa, others to Spain and two have left for Poland," said Mr Muse, who remained to help some of the others prepare benefit claims.

One of the hardest-hit is hotel wedding co-ordinator Natasha Hancox, who is due to marry boyfriend Brett Brining in two weeks.

Few of the staff at the hotel knew much about their American owner who paid £7.5million to the BBC for the hotel and conference centre five years ago. Mr Muse did not take over as manager until January.

"At that time there was a deficit of around £150,000 but Mr Hvizdak said he would clear that so I was starting on a level playing field. However, that was never sorted out.

"We were trading at a break-even figure so the events of last Friday came as a total shock to everyone including me."

"We've just received an award from The Times newspaper.

"We have been taking bookings leading up to Christmas, but now these will all have to be cancelled."

Mr Hvizdak, who comes from the Pittsburgh area, is described as chairman and chief executive officer at the National Real Estate Information Services which has an address on Beecham Drive, Pittsburgh.

Calls to that address over the past week have gone unanswered.

It is not known whether he intends to appear at a creditors' meeting due to be held at Wood Norton Hall next Friday at 3pm.