A selection of the latest hotel and conference news items this week include:
Plans to extend the Principal York Hotel have been approved. Plans include construction of a new four-storey extension adding 41 bedrooms. A new reception would also be created to link the extension to the existing conference facilities. Conference facilities at the hotel include the main Events Centre seating 400 delegates theatre style with ten additional rooms seating between 20 and 160 delegates theatre style. Principal York Hotel is located in the centre of York opposite York station.
Plans to convert Denton Hall, a Grade I listed stately home near Ilkley in North Yorkshire into a hotel have been approved. Plans would see it become a 28-bedroom hotel, with a restaurant, bar, games room and gym with the former stables and coach house converted into four suites. We will monitor progress.
Apex Hotels have acquired the Pine Trees Hotel, a Scottish country house hotel in Pitlochry. Set in a Victorian mansion, the Pine Trees Hotel has 29 bedrooms, a restaurant and bar. Apex currently has eight properties in its portfolio including three in Scotland.
1 Hotels, operated by Starwood Capital, is the group’s nature-inspired luxury lifestyle hotel brand. It has just opened its first hotel in London. 1 Hotel Mayfair includes 181 bedrooms and suites, a restaurant, bar and first floor wellness area. It has been created from two existing buildings and has been designed to reduce CO2 emissions. The hotel features over 500 sq-mt of living green-trellised exterior walls, along with 1300 individual plants and shrubs. The hotel has six meeting and events suites seating between 8 and 80 guests. 1 Hotel Mayfair is located in Berkeley Street overlooking Green Park in central London.
Plans have been approved by Oxford City Council to convert the Odeon Cinema in the city centre into a 145 room aparthotel with community space on the ground floor and apartments on the upper five floors. A 2027 opening date is currently envisaged for the project.
Rochdale Borough Council and Hilton have signed an agreement to open a new Hampton by Hilton hotel in Rochdale’s revamped town centre. The seven-storey property will house 146 bedrooms, a restaurant and a fitness suite. The Hampton by Hilton will be next to the new Rochdale Riverside retail and leisure development.
Development work is expected to start this September at Portrush in Northern Ireland to transform a former hotel and artisan bakery on the site into The Marcus Hotel Portrush - Hilton Hotels’ first Tapestry Collection hotel in Northern Ireland. It will have 83 bedrooms, a café, restaurant and bar. Further details and opening dates to follow.
Plans to build a year-round entertainment and leisure destination at Manchester City Football Club’s Etihad Stadium have been recommended for approval. Plans include a 391-bedroom hotel with conference facilities plus a TV studio, a club shop and museum plus workspace units.
And finally, congratulations to Millennium Point here in Birmingham. The venue has just won ‘Most Versatile Venue’ of its size, for meetings of up to 1000 delegates, at the Conference & Events 2023 Awards.