History

The Epping family have been running a family business on the hotel premises for over a hundred years .

At the beginning of the last century, Mr  J. Epping started a bread and pastry bakery.

The bakery and store were later continued by his son, Cees Epping and his wife Annie. At the end of nineteen-fifties the business was at an all time low, since there were some fourteen bakeries in the small town of IJsselstein. Cees and Annie Epping decided to start a cafeteria. They kept on making pastry, but besides from that they also started selling snacks, coffee and drinks. In the nineteen-sixties IJsselstein built a new industrial area. Cafeteria visitors asked Cees Epping if he knew a place for them, where they could spend the night. Cees and Annie got their son Sjef to sleep in their room and made Sjefs room available for the guests. In 1967 they built the first five hotel rooms above the cafeteria and officially became a hotel. The cafeteria became a bar and restaurant and setting the fundaments for the current hotel and restaurant.  In 1978 the hotel building was extended and by then had 25 hotel rooms.

In 1986 the business management went from father to son again. Sjef and Martine Epping led the hotel restaurant from that moment on. In 1992 they opened a beautiful new wing of the hotel building. After the opening of the new wing the two-star hotel had 42 rooms. In the next couple of years the amount of rooms was reduced to 35 to make sure that all rooms met the required standards.

With a major renovation beginning in 2006, the hotel was upgraded to a three-star level and  the baton was passed to the fourth generation.  John and Simone Epping are now running the hotel, while Jos Epping and his wife Julitta are in charge of  the restaurant. They gave their restaurant the very appropriate name “de Vierde Generatie”(the Fourth Generation). Although the restaurant is connected internally with the hotel a separate restaurant entrance was necessary to make restaurant “de Vierde Generatie” more appealing  to local visitors. The Eppings decided that the historic entrance at Utrechtsestraat 44 would become the restaurant entrance. The hotel entrance moved to the Kapellestraat. John and Simone live opposite of the new hotel entrance and decided to make the hotel reception at their home. This way they can put the maximum involvement into the hotel and combine it with their private lifes.