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New Hotel planned in Mansfield
Plans for a £12million regeneration project which will include a new hotel close to Mansfield town centre have been formally submitted to Mansfield District Council.
In addition to a 100-bedroom hotel and restaurant, the plan also envisages three other restaurants with ancillary retail facilities, parking and servicing areas, public realm and landscaping.
It is anticipated that planning permission for the scheme will be approved this summer, with construction work then able to start in Spring 2021.
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Wyboston Lakes Resort launches ‘Safe Events’
Wyboston Lakes Resort in Bedfordshire has launched ‘Safe Events’, a comprehensive plan to safeguard the health and safety of its staff, customers and clients post Covid-19 - and to ensure the conference and training complex is ready for a safe reopening.
The new policy includes an extensive range of measures, including physical barriers, signage, training and technology, such as self-check-in terminals and cashless payments only plus heightened and intensive hygiene. Every meeting room is now set up with social distancing measures in place for various room setups.
Wyboston Lakes Resort has already implemented a social distancing plan as the venue has been used as a training venue for frontline NHS workers during the UK lockdown.
Wyboston Lakes Resort includes the recently refurbished Woodlands Event Centre with 16 flexible event spaces, the largest of which is a 385sq-mt space plus 120 bedrooms. The Willows Training Centre has a combination of 40 training and syndicate rooms and 183 bedrooms.
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New Hotels planned in South Yorkshire
A new Radisson Blu Hotel will be at the centre of the Heart of the City II scheme in Sheffield. Thed development seeks to convert an existing Victorian building overlooking the city’s Peace Gardens. The new hotel will form a gateway to the district from the east and is one component in the city’s regeneration plan.
The Radisson Blu Hotel will have 156 bedrooms, flexible banqueting and meeting spaces and a rooftop bar and restaurant. It will sit alongside an old Odeon building which will be redeveloped into a mixed-leisure complex.
Building contracts will be awarded at the end of the year to be followed by a two year construction period.
Meanwhile, ten miles down the road in Rotherham, a new hotel is also being planned.
The new hotel will feature as part of a mixed-use scheme at the Forge Island site in the centre of Rotherham.
The scheme includes a new cinema, food and drink outlets, new leisure facilities as well as the new hotel - all connected by a new pedestrian bridge to the wider town centre.
If consent is granted it is anticipated that construction will begin in Rotherham in autumn 2021.
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Conversion plans for Manchester's London Road Fire Station
Further details have been released regarding plans for the conversion of Manchester's London Road Fire Station; plans which will include a new hotel.
The London Road Fire Station is a Grade II-listed building. It opened in 1906 in the city centre alongside Manchester Piccadilly station. In addition to a fire station, the building also housed a police station, an ambulance station, a bank, a coroner's court and a gas-meter testing station.
The converted fire station will also be a "hive of activity". The former Engine Room will be converted for commercial use for the creative industries. The Engine Room will retain the historic glazed-brick walled interior.
The former Police Station will be converted into a gym and wellness facility, whilst the Coroners Court will be preserved and fitted-out to host functions and events.
A 42-bedroom boutique hotel will provide accommodation in the north and east wings of the building centred on its ground-floor entrance in Whitworth Street.
The central courtyard will form the social heart of the development, with retail, leisure and wide-ranging food and beverage options.
Proposed opening dates await publication.
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Change is coming to UK Hotels
Global hotel consultancy HVS London is predicting a major change in store for hotels and their future operations resulting from the Coronavirus lockdown.
They predict that basic hygiene and cleanliness will be foremost in guests’ minds in future, at least in the short term. Global hotel operators Marriott, Hilton and Accor are already launching programmes designed to communicate and promote high standards of hygiene and cleanliness – not just in the bedrooms.
Hilton Hotels, for example, has teamed up with the makers of ‘Dettol’ to launch a new standard of hotel cleanliness and disinfection. The programme - Hilton CleanStay – is being launched worldwide from June 2020. Hilton CleanStay Room Seal will indicate that guest rooms haven’t been accessed since they were last cleaned. Extra disinfection will be applied to the top 10 high touch areas in guest rooms including light switches and door handles plus there will be an increased cleaning frequency of public areas.
Hotels will introduce new hygiene practices extending to screens at check-in, social distancing in public areas such as restaurants, controlling the numbers of people using lifts at any one time, as well as making safe the use of leisure facilities, pools, gyms and spas.
The buffet breakfast is likely to become a thing of the past. IHG has already dispensed with it offering an entirely a la carte breakfast option.
As far as the type of hotel is concerned one view is that budget hotels and aparthotels will more successfully adapt to the future because guests can self-isolate more easily, order take-away food rather than eating in hotel restaurants and not mix in the communal areas found in traditional hotels.
The major question concerns the future existence of hotels themselves with some commentators predicting that banks that have financed hotels will be stepping in and handing over the properties to new investors from different industries. Hence a possible big reduction in the number of hotels is one view of the future
Only time will tell what the future holds for the hotel and particularly the conference and meetings market.
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Planned upgrade of Mitre Hotel
New owners of the Mitre Hotel at Hampton Court - Signet Hotel Group - have published plans to upgrade the hotel from a three-star to a five-star property.
The Grade II-listed Mitre Hotel has 36 bedrooms and is set on the banks of the River Thames by Hampton Court Palace. The hotel also includes a 60-cover riverside restaurant, a 70-cover brasserie and bar, an 80-cover Orangery, a large riverside terrace, two conference rooms and private dining space.
The new-look Mitre Hotel is due to reopen in September 2020, government guidelines permitting.
The original Mitre Hotel building dates back to the mid 17th century when it was built as additional accommodation for guests of King Charles II. It was subsequently rebuilt in the mid-18th century.