Our mid-month news updates feature new developments in London and Liverpool:
Virgin Hotels open their 17th hotel and first London hotel – Virgin Hotels London Shoreditch - on 1st August in the heart of Shoreditch. The 120-bedroom hotel in Curtain Road will include a Spanish restaurant, a rooftop bar, pool, private members club, gym and treatment rooms. It will have seven meetings and events suites with the largest room – The Great Room – seating up to 300 delegates.
Maybourne Group has just opened The Emory - its fourth hotel in central London. It joins Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Berkeley. The Emory has 61 suites over nine floors including a 300sqm wraparound glass penthouse, restaurants, bars and a private members club - plus a complimentary helicopter transfer for guests arriving by private jet at London Luton and London Stansted airports.
Sircle Hotels Group will open its first London hotel - Sir Devonshire Square hotel - later this year in Shoreditch. It will be located in a former textile warehouse building on London’s Liverpool Street. The hotel will have 81bedrooms including 11 suites, a cocktail bar and restaurant, a private members’ club, a gym and a yoga studio.
The ibis London Earls Court Hotel has joined with Mercure to become a co-branded hotel following the completion of a multi-million-pound refurbishment programme. It is now Mercure and ibis London Earls Court Hotel. It has 226 ibis rooms and 282 Mercure rooms plus a new restaurant - Barnaby’s. Additional bedrooms under the Mercure brand will be added later this year. Mercure and ibis London Earls Court Hotel features meeting spaces for up to 1,200 delegates, a ballroom plus five smaller meeting rooms all equipped with state-of-the-art technology. The hotel is located in Lillie Road, a short walk from a range of London tube stations.
YOTEL has just opened its first YOTELPAD property in Europe with the official opening of YOTELPAD London Stratford. It has 61 bedrooms, referred to as ‘PADs’ - compact, living areas with a bathroom, kitchenette, super-fast wi-fi, SmartTV and a work desk. The hotel includes a 24-hour ‘Mission Control’ – YOTEL’s version of a traditional reception, a Grab & Go area stocked with refreshments, laundry facilities and storage space. It is located in Stratford High Street close to mainline stations and local transport hubs.
The Southgate Hotel is a new hotel which opened this summer in Southgate, North London, in what was formerly the Ever-Ready Battery headquarters close to Southgate tube station. The four-star hotel has 98 bedrooms, a restaurant and bar plus an on-site fitness centre. There is an air-conditioned ground floor meeting room to seat six delegates.
Last month The Peninsula Hotel opened in London’s Belgravia. Described in the press as London’s ‘first £1bn hotel’, the Peninsula Hotel is located alongside Hyde Park Corner and Wellington Arch. It includes 190 bedrooms and suites, restaurants and bars plus a range of 12 meeting and events suites with a cinema and the St George Ballroom, seating up to 450 guests.
Finally in London, The Wesley Hotel – a 3-minute walk from Euston Station, is offering a 50% promotional discount off all meeting room hire from now until the end of August
Moving north to Liverpool - Dalata Hotel Group has just opened its first hotel in Liverpool. The four-star Maldron Hotel has 268 bedrooms and suites, a Grain & Grill restaurant, bar and a gym. Three fully equipped meeting rooms will seat 90, 70 and 30 delegates theatre style. It is in Park Lane, 15 minutes from Liverpool Lime Street Station.
Two new waterfront hotels are planned in ‘Liverpool Waters’ - a 30-year plan to transform the city’s northern docks to create a world-class, mixed-use waterfront along the banks of the River Mersey with the aim of bringing life back to Liverpool’s historic docklands. The site will also be home to Everton Football Club’s new 52,000 seat stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock which will have meeting and events facilities. We will monitor its development.
Group news includes:
Bespoke Hotels, the UK’s largest independent hotel group with 70 properties has announced a ‘transformative rebranding’ – featuring a refreshed website, new brochures and a more prominent identity. The group is also planning two new Gotham Hotels this year in Newcastle on Tyne and Bristol.
Village Hotels group with its 33 properties is now owned by Blackstone Real Estate who also own Haven Holiday Parks and Warner Hotels.
Radisson Hotel Group continues its expansion across the UK with the signing of Victorian country manor venue -Stanhill Court Hotel in Charlwood, Surrey. It has 56 bedrooms plus a range of meeting and events spaces. It is 10 minutes from Gatwick Airport with good access to the motorway. It joins the Radisson Individuals brand.
Unusual story of the month comes from The Old Bell Hotel in Malmesbury, Wiltshire which claims to be the oldest hotel in England dating back to the 1200s. In their grounds they have just unearthed at least 24 human skeletons dating from 670 to 940 AD.