Post-War development
The years that followed the war brought great changes to Bermuda's visitor industry, and to The Princess Hotel.
Prior to the war, visitors arrived almost exclusively by sea. Although air service to Bermuda began in 1937, two years before the declaration of war, the flying boats that operated to Darrell's Island were few, and their seats were limited. Tickets for the hours-long flights from the US were expensive, and ocean liners continued to play a major role in passenger transport to and from Bermuda. Holidaying in Bermuda (catering to which, for hoteliers, had expanded into a year-round business, no longer focused on the original Winter season) remained a prerogative of the wealthy.
The war had resulted in the development of two American airstations on Bermuda, the Naval Operating Base, serving US Navy flying boats, and the US Army's Kindley Field, as well as the establishment of a United States Army garrison of artillery and infantry defences to re-inforce the British Army's Bermuda Garrison. Bermuda's use as a forming-up point for trans-Atlantic convoys meant that numerous ships carrying American soldiers to the North African and European theatres of war, as well as a working up area for Allied Naval vessels deploying to those theatres or escorting convoys, also brought vast numbers of Americans from all levels of society to Bermuda during the war. This both exposed Bermuda to America's working and middle classes, and exposed those classes to Bermudians. Following the war, the air transport industry went through rapid development, with piston, turboprop, and then jet-engined landplane airliners of increasing size and speed serving Bermuda from ever more North American cities, flying into the US Army's new airfield (flying boat air service to Darrell's Island ceased in 1948). This led to larger numbers of air arrivals, and falling ticket prices, opening Bermuda to short-term holidays by the average American family.
These new visitors were less interested in attending balls, hunting aristocratic husbands, or Bermuda's other traditional genteel and wintry leisure activities. New hotels had sprung up in Bermuda even before the war, such as the Castle Harbour Hotel and the Elbow Beach Hotel, which offered visitors direct access to the beach in more natural surroundings, and better catered to sun-seekers and hedonists. More beach resorts were built after the war, including the Carlton Beach resort, the Grotto Bay Hotel, and the Princess' own sister hotel, the Southampton Princess (currently dubbed the Fairmont Southampton), built in 1972 on a 100-acre parcel near to the most popular public beaches, with its own private beach club and golf course. Cottage colonies, such as the Cambridge Beaches, also became a popular alternative to traditional hotels, with visitors renting discrete cottages on a resort property, usually with its own private beach, and served by a common building with guest services and a restaurant or dining room.
The Princess was able to cater to a degree to these new holidaymakers with a cottage colony of its own on the headland at the Pitt's Bay side of the hotel, which had formerly been the site of the Bermuda Coal Company's wharf. The hotel was rebilled as The Princess Hotel and The Cottage Colony. Its location simply did not allow it to compete directly with the new beach resorts. Although tourism visitors have remained an important part of its clientele, with Bermuda's post-war development as a financial centre (it has long been the global centre of the Reinsurance industry, and international business, not tourism, has been its primary source of revenue for decades), the hotel has taken full advantage of its proximity to the City of Hamilton, and its modern, business-friendly features (from internet connectivity in guest rooms to facilities suitable for business conferences), to cater to the numerous business travellers who have little time for sunbathing or golf (its only competitors for this business would have been the Hamilton Hotel),[12] which burnt down in 1955 and was replaced by the Hamilton City Hall, and the Bermudiana Hotel, which also was destroyed by fire in 1958.[13] Although replaced by a new Bermudiana Hotel, the long decline of Bermuda's visitor industry led to its closure (it was sold in 1993 and levelled, the site being redeveloped as office space, including the ACE and XL buildings).
In January 1948, British holiday camp mogul Billy Butlin purchased the hotel for £300,000.[14] In November 1952, Intercontinental Hotels, the lodging division of Pan American World Airways, assumed management of the Princess,[15] though Butlin retained ownership. Intercontinental announced plans to add air conditioning and a larger swimming pool.[16] They managed the hotel until December 1, 1954.[17]
In 1959, American tanker billionaire Daniel K. Ludwig purchased the hotel. As part of the deal to build a new luxury hotel - The Southampton Princess - The Princess was renovated: the last parts of the original wooden structure were replaced with masonry in 1962,[18] and the cottage colony was levelled and a new Pitt's Bay wing built and lounges added. Affluent neighbours of the hotel objected to the original plans to match the height of the existing structure, and approval was granted only for the resulting three-storey wing. Ludwig made The Princess hotel (after 1972 often referred to as the Hamilton Princess to distinguish it from the Southampton Princess) the flagship of a global chain, Princess International Hotels.
The Princess Hotels Group passed to Tiny Rowland's British conglomerate, Lonrho Plc (originally the London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Company Limited), between 1979 and 1981 for US$200 million.[19]
Both Bermudian hotels were sold as part of a seven-property deal by the Lonrho Plc subsidiary, Lonmin plc, which transferred the Princess Hotels Group on 11 June 1998 to the Canadian Pacific Railway for a combined price of GBP 331.75 million. This was part of the final expansion of Canadian Pacific Hotels, which also included the 1999 purchase of the San Francisco-based Fairmont Hotel chain. The seven hotels of the Princess Hotels Group at first continued as a wholly owned subsidiary of CPH, but were later merged into the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts group, as Canadian Pacific Hotels and Resorts was renamed in 2001.
