AN 85-room hotel only half-a-mile from York's city walls is expected to have £2 million spent on it over the next two years after changing hands. But the deal has left some staff uncertain about their future.

What was Ramada York Abbey Park Hotel, at The Mount, has been rebranded as the IBIS York Centre, one of 45 "economy" hotels within the IBIS group.

Accor, the giant hotel group under whose wing is both the Novotel and IBIS chains among many, has taken over the former Georgian town house on a lease contract, along with 54 staff.

But until a review is carried out, the future of some of their roles is uncertain.

Roger Smith, director of marketing and distribution for Accor Hotels, said: "It is not our intention to make wholesale redundancies, but we will review staffing. At the moment the hotel operates with its own room attendants whereas we use agency room attendants.

"But if we do have to reposition staff it should be borne in mind that we do run the nearby Novotel in York."

He said big investment was planned at the new IBIS York Centre. He said: "About £2 million will be spent over the next 18 months to two years. We will be looking to revamp all the public areas and refurbish all the rooms."

As there was already a Novotel in York - Accor's mid-market brand - it was decided to introduce an IBIS as "a good strategic move".

It would now be one of 600 "economy" IBIS hotels worldwide.

In the past 30 years, the Abbey Park has changed hands on numerous occasions. At first it was run privately by Alfred Gill and his wife.

Then, in the early 1970s, under the Myddleton Hotel Group, it had a huge growth spurt, with extensions built to create more rooms while main rooms were completely revamped.

The Ladbroke Group then bought the hotel for £4.6 million in November 1978 and 11 years later the hotel had a new master - Penguin Hotels, followed in quick succession by the Resort Hotels Group whose shares were suspended on the stock exchange in 1993.

Finally, it was bought by the Ramada Jarvis group which successfully ran the hotel until the takeover by the IBIS chain.

The hotel, which has wireless high speed internet access and on-site free parking, has standard IBIS room rates which range from £59.95 on weekdays to £61.95 on weekends, Friday to Sunday.

Updated: 09:36 Wednesday, May 03, 2006