In October 2009, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced its plans to develop a luxury hotel in Westminster, London. IHG owns the Holiday Inn, Indigo and Crowne Plaza chains. The company has signed a management agreement with Splendid Hotel Group to develop the hotel and operate it for 20 years.
The total cost of developing the hotel is estimated to be £100m. The agreement signed with IHG is considered to be the largest acquisition to date by Splendid Hotel. Splendid Hotel is an IHG franchisee that operates Holiday Inn chain and budget hotels such as Comfort Inn and Easy Hotel in Manchester and London.
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The new InterContinental hotel in Westminster is expected to open ine arly 2012. IHG is developing the hotel in time to coincide with 2012 Olympics Games. Once completed, the new hotel will be the second five-star luxury IHG hotel in London.
IHG already operates a luxury hotel on Park Lane, which first opened in 1975. It was renovated and reopened in 2006 to mark the hotel’s 60th anniversary.
The new Westminster hotel is one of the many luxury hotels opening in London before the Olympics. Several other chains have also started developing new hotels in the region. These include The Strand at Marconi House, hotels on Northumberland Avenue and a Shangri-la at London Bridge.
Westminster hotel development
The InterContinental London Westminster hotel will be located in the former Queen Anne’s Chambers, which were built in the 19th century. It will be spread over a 120,000ft² freehold site located next to the New Scotland Yard police headquarters, occupying four buildings across three streets.
The new hotel will be an eight-storey building housing 256 rooms in central London. It will have a triangular shape with the entrance at Broadway, and other parts of the hotel along Tothill Street and Dean Farrar Street.
The site where the hotel is located is also home to several ex-government buildings. Tothill Street, for example, is one of the main back streets that connects the Houses of Parliament.
Central London hotel location
The InterContinental hotel is located close to many of London’s famous attractions. It is situated right next to St James’s Park tube station and is five minutes from Victoria. In addition, it is very close to Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square and the Thames.
IHG brand vision
IHG has hotels in almost all major cities of the world. The company owns 4,300 hotels in approximately 100 countries. Around 250 of these are in the UK. The hotels include luxury five-star, and Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands. Despite a slump in the hospitality industry due to the recession, IHG has gone ahead with its plans to build new hotels all over the world.
The InterContinental London Westminster is the latest addition to the company’s portfolio of five-star brand luxury hotels. The company operates 158 luxury InterContinental hotels and resorts in 60 countries around the world.
With new hotels planned across the world, the number of InterContinental hotels is expected to increase from 158 to 225.
IHG is planning to open another hotel in Edinburgh, UK, in 2013, which will have 192 rooms.
IHG plans to invest around £250m in the development of the hotel. The hotel group will be adding 5,000 rooms in the UK. This expansion will take place in the next two to three years.
