News items you may have missed this week include:
New Openings: The Holiday Inn Manchester Airport has just opened. It has 280 bedrooms, a restaurant and bar plus the group’s signature open lobby. There are three ground floor meeting rooms with a pre-function lounge. The hotel is located directly opposite Terminal Two, and just a few minutes' walk from both Terminals One and Three.
The Birch branded hotels group is expanding. Birch Cheshunt was its first, now Birch Selsdon is taking over what was the Selsdon Park Hotel in Croydon. It is opening this spring, with 181 bedrooms, two restaurants, three bars, a lido and a wellness space plus eight event spaces – ranging from 10 to 200 delegate capacity. It is all set within 200 acres of rewilded landscapes.
The Dower House Hotel and Spa in Knaresborough, Yorkshire will reopen this spring as The Knaresborough Inn. The Grade-II listed building has been renamed by its operators, Inn Collection Group, following completion of a major refurbishment. The Knaresborough Inn will have 57 bedrooms including 16 new additions plus new-look ground floor food and beverage spaces.
This week has seen the Pride of Britain Hotels relaunched as PoB Hotels still with 54 independent luxury and boutique hotels but now with a new website and a host of initiatives.
At the planning stage: Plans are afoot to convert the MFN (Miles From Nowhere) Club, the former biker bar set up by Showaddywaddy drummer Malcolm Allured into a boutique hotel and events venue complete with an artificial lake. The venue, on the Nottingham/Derbyshire border, would see 21 shipping container glamping pods added plus a catering area inside a refurbished train carriage. We will follow progress and report any positive news.
Plans for a new boutique hotel – The Dean - with a rooftop pool and restaurant in Belfast city centre have just been submitted to Belfast City Council. The hotel would have 91 bedrooms and would be located next to Ulster Hall in the city centre. The Dean is one of Ireland’s leading boutique, design-led hotel groups and now has properties in Dublin, Cork and Galway. Plans for the new hotel have been submitted by Irish Hospitality Group.
Planning approval has been granted by Liverpool city council for a new food hall and events space with BOXPARK its operator. BOXPARK will be located in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle. The 21,000 sq ft venue will include 10 internal units on the ground floor seating up to 400 guests inside and 200 on its alfresco terrace.
Carlowrie Castle in Scotland, dating from the 1850’s, currently includes 21 bedrooms plus meeting and events facilities. A planned £3million investment will see a derelict stables block in the castle grounds restored to house seven bedrooms plus five modern cabins and a sauna to accommodate a further 10 guests in the castle’s 32 acres of grounds. Carlowrie Castle is located on the outskirts of Kirkliston, around 10 miles from Edinburgh.
The Guildford Pavilion is taking steps to raise its profile and has recently joined Venue Directory. The event space at Guildford Pavilion includes two floors accommodating up to 120 delegates for an indoor event plus outside space for marquees and larger festival style events up to 4500 delegates. Its location in the centre of Guildford is its unique selling point.
We finish with a story which has nothing to do with hotels or the meetings market, but it could possibly influence your selection of a post-event ‘relaxation spot’ in central London because Bierschenke, the LondonGerman beer hall brand, is opening a 12,000 sq-ft site in London's Covent Garden this spring. It will serve a menu of German beers, sausages, Schweinshaxe and Schnitzel all served by staff wearing traditional leather lederhosen. Sounds to us like the perfect end to a successful day.