Stephanie Booth is a British business woman and hotelier, based in the Welsh town of Llangollen.
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Born Keith Hull[1] her parents were Jehovah Witnesses. Based with his family in northwest England, Keith began gender reassignment through a specialist psychologist at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, and surgery at Charing Cross Hospital, London.
Stephanie decided in 1984 to create a business catering to the transgender and tranvestite community. She was persuaded that a massage service that offered prostitution services was both legal, and could quickly solve her financial difficulties. She was arrested for running a bawdy house and pleaded guilty.[2]
She launched a transgender mail order catalog, and a contact magazine. This was followed by a transgender hotel in Manchester, and a second shop in London opposite Euston railway station.[3]
Unable to open a shop in Scotland due to Scottish law, the company opened a site in Newcastle upon Tyne. They also expanded their mail order business to cover both Germany and mainland Europe, and the United States.
She founded the Albany Clinic as a centre for transsexuals to seek specialist medical advice and guidance on their condition.
In 2008, Mentorn Cymru began production of reality television series Hotel Stephanie for BBC Wales.[4] The series focused on Stephanie and her running of her hotel chain, based mainly on activities around Llangollen. The programme was commissioned for a second series in 2009, which focused on the couples takeover and refurbishment of The Wynnstay Arms hotel in Wrexham.[5]
On the 7th July 2011 Stephanie Booth's hotels went into administration [6] Administrators KPMG have closed the Wynnstay Arms, Anchor in Ruthin and The Bridge Hotel, Chester with immediate effect and the funhouses in Mold and Wrexham as these premises were rented and default on rent payment could not be avoided. All other hotels currently remain unaffected.[7]
Bookings and deposits at the four freehold hotels will be honoured until the hotels are sold and there have been no job losses at these hotels as yet. All four hotels have been trading well and the administrators are confident that buyers will be found.[8]
In 2011, Stephanie Booth announced her intention to take over Wrexham F.C., with an interest-free loan to save it from going into financial administration and the plan to raise £5 million to purchase the club in a community-based venture.[9][10]