THE American owner of the Wood Norton Hotel, which closed its doors without warning last week, is due to chair a meeting of creditors at the hotel tomorrow.

Golf club owner Rick Hvizdak, who ordered the closure on Friday, November 25, following meetings in the US of the parent board and shareholders, is expected to give the reasons behind the decision.

Staff, from manager Mike Muse down, were laid off with immediate effect and guests staying at the hotel were asked to leave after insolvency experts from Cheltenham-based Findlay James moved in on Friday morning.

Since then, guests arriving for pre-booked stays have also been turned away - some as late as last Saturday, eight days following the closure.

Mr Muse, who had been in charge of the hotel since the beginning of the year, said he was "horrified" that guests who had booked had not been informed of the closure.

"It is outrageous," he said. "How can they just be allowed to turn up thinking there is a room there for them?"

Hotelier John Jenkinson of the Evesham Hotel, who provided accommodation for a number of Wood Norton residents the night the hotel closed, was still being asked for rooms a week later.

"I am surprised no-one contacted these people to keep them up to date with the situation," he said.

But Mike Durkan of Findlay James said: "It would be impracticable to keep someone on reception 24 hours a day to turn people away.

"In cases where people booked rooms online through an intermediary there is no away we can contact them in any case."

The closure has also hit a number of firms planning their Christmas celebrations at the hotel.

Darren Bunn, managing director of Magpie antique shop in Evesham High Street, said the 21 or 22 guests who planned to attend a Christmas dinner at the hotel this Saturday would have paid around £700 for the evening.

"Unfortunately, it is too late to find anywhere else now, so we will probably have an informal night out instead," he said.

Staff at Louise Jeynes florists, also in Evesham High Street, were slightly more fortunate. Pam Holder said they had been able to book an alternative evening at the Dormy House Hotel, Broadway.

"It is rather sad, though," she said. "We had been looking forward to our night out at Wood Norton."

Around 30 staff and partners at RBA, a financial consultancy in Uttoxeter, had been planning to pay around £200 a couple for a Christmas celebration and overnight stay at the hotel.

Principal Robert Brown said he was now taking steps to recover the deposit which had been made by credit card in October.

"We have been going to the hotel since 2001 and really enjoyed it," he said.

"We have managed to find another venue but we really feel for the staff at Wood Norton who have lost their jobs - and in some cases their homes - so close to Christmas."