Stephanie Anne Booth was a transsexual British businessowner and hotelier, based in Llangollen. She starred in the reality television series about her businesses Hotel Stephanie for BBC Wales in 2008 and 2009.
In 1984 Booth decided to create a business catering to the transgender and transvestite 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. Other business ventures included a transgender mail order catalogue, and a contact magazine. This was followed by a transgender hotel in Manchester, and a second shop in London opposite Euston railway station. 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.
Hotel Stephanie
In 2008, Mentorn Cymru began production of reality television series Hotel Stephanie for BBC Wales. The series focused on Booth 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. On 7 July 2011 Booth's hotels went into administration. Administrators closed the Wynnstay Arms, the Anchor in Ruthin and The Bridge Hotel, Chester with immediate effect and the funhouses in Mold, Wrexham and Oswestry, as these premises were rented and default on rent payment could not be avoided. All four hotels, which had been trading well, were put up for sale.
Wrexham F.C.
In 2011, Booth announced her intention to take over Wrexham A.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.
Death
On the evening of 18 September 2016, Booth was killed in a tractor accident at her smallholding farm on the outskirts of Corwen, Denbighshire. She was aged 70, and survived by her husband, David.
