A leader in the city’s hotel industry is back for title

Graham Usher has been general manager of York’s Best Western Monkbar since March 2012 and, in that time, has overseen a total transformation of the venue, achieved through a significant £3 million programme of investment.

Since the last York Press Business Awards in 2016, hotel giant, Hilton, signed a franchise agreement with the Monkbar’s owners, Leisurepoint, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shiva Hotel, to open the city’s first DoubleTree by Hilton York.

Mr Usher is now supervising a further refurbishment and expansion of the city centre hotel as in May a £3 million scheme to ensure the hotel meets the exacting DoubleTree began – 18 months after a previous £3million programme of investment of expansion at the Monkbar Hotel was completed.

The 40-year-old is one of the leading lights in the city’s burgeoning hospitality industry, is a ‘Champion’ of York BID and last year was elected on to the Leadership Group of York and North Yorkshire Chamber.

In addition to his “day job”, Mr Usher owns and run The Drovers Arms public house in Skipwith, which last year was named as one of Yorkshire’s 30 best pubs by Welcome to Yorkshire.

Mr Usher is also at the forefront of a national campaign aimed at stamping out modern slavery and sexual exploitation within the hospitality industry.

Owned by Shiva Hotels, the Monkbar is taking a leading stand on the issue, which is seeing its staff being trained on how to identify victims of trafficking and or sexual grooming.

Additionally, the hotel will also be engaging with its customers, colleagues across the city and former victims to join in the fight.

In December 2015, Graham was reappointed as chairman of York Hoteliers’ Association. As part of this role, he and Jo Burgess, Visit York’s SME Growth Manager, jointly chaired a summit at the Monkbar Hotel to find ways of staving off a looming jobs crisis in the city hospitality industry.