The Business Travel Magazine December/January 2018/19

UK HoTELS UPDATE
[ LEADING UK HOTEL BRANDS ]
APEX HOTELS
UK hotels: 10
Apex Hotels is a family-owned collection of ten
upscale hotels in London, Bath, Edinburgh,
Glasgow and Dundee.
rural properties. Most hotels have facilities for
meetings, incentives and conferences, while
Macdonald runs The Club loyalty scheme for
guests and Club Corporate to reward PAs,
event organisers and corporate bookers.
Travelodge
corporates actually choose to book,
but meets the desire for more choice.
Content is a key request from corporate
customers at the moment.”
Newns continues: “Direct advertising and
inducements to book direct are impacting
many companies’ adherence to their travel
programme. This means that tracked
volume may drop even if actual travel
spend has increased or stayed the same.
This makes it harder to negotiate ongoing
rates and benefits.”
HRS’s Chris Crowley acknowledges the
“consumerisation” of business travel but
adds that the move by the OTAs into the
market has forced the managed travel
industry to “up its game”.
“While leisure sites still facilitate plenty of
business travel bookings, the change we see
today is that the travel managers and
procurement leaders overseeing managed
programmes have a better understanding
of the ramifications when travellers book
outside of appropriate channels,” he says.
Whatever Brexit brings in the coming
months, these distribution debates and
strategies will carry on regardless.
Meanwhile the trend for smaller hotel
rooms at UK properties looks set to
continue, although this shrinking process
may not necessarily help to bring overall
room rates down – at least, not if you
believe the predictions of the various 2019
hotel industry forecasts.
DE VERE
UK hotels: 17
De Vere Hotels (formerly De Vere Venues) runs
a series of country house hotels around the
UK, as well as conference and event centres
such as De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms
in London and De Vere East Midlands
Conference Centre.
GLH HOTELS
UK hotels: 17
Operates five brands – Amba, Guoman, Thistle,
Thistle Express and Hard Rock London –
primarily in London where it has more than
5,000 rooms. The big move in 2019 will see
giant Marble Arch property The Cumberland
being converted into London’s first Hard Rock
Hotel with 1,000 rooms – it is scheduled to
open in spring 2019.
GRANGE HOTELS
UK hotels: 17
London-based independent hotel group with
all of its upmarket properties in the UK capital
except for one hotel in Bracknell, Berkshire.
Grange offers Club Service upgrades for
business travellers to access its business
lounges, as well as an Executive Club
loyalty scheme.
JURYS INN
UK hotels: 38
The mid-range chain with around 8,000 rooms
in its portfolio was purchased by Swedish firm
Pandox and Israel’s Fattal Group in December
2017. Jurys’ UK operations now include seven
properties under the Leonardo brand. Jurys
Business Booker is an online booking service
offering negotiated rates for companies
booking direct.
MACDONALD HOTELS & RESORTS
UK hotels: 45
This upscale group has hotels across England
and Scotland, including both city centre and
MALMAISON/HOTEL DU VIN
UK hotels: 34
Frasers Hospitality Group acquired these sister
boutique-style brands in 2015 with plans for
further expansion in the UK. Currently there
are 15 Malmaison and 19 Hotel du Vin
properties. Malmaison plans to open new
properties in Edinburgh, York and
Bournemouth in the next couple of years.
PREMIER INN
UK hotels: 795
Premier Inn continues its rapid expansion with
another 13,000 rooms in its UK pipeline on top
of its current stock of 74,000 rooms. The
budget brand also operates ten Hub by
Premier Inn hotels in London and Edinburgh
with smaller bedrooms and is trialling even
smaller rooms at its new ZIP brand, which is
due to make its debut in Cardiff in March
2019. The brand also operates its Business
Booker online tool for the corporate market.
TRAVELODGE
UK hotels: 550
Fellow budget brand Travelodge currently has
around 42,000 rooms. Aggressive expansion
has seen 20 properties opening in 2018
including its new flagship 395-room Travelodge
London City which debuted in July.
With an eye on the corporate market, the
company is offering an enhanced product
through “premium economy” SuperRooms and
its Travelodge Plus “budget chic” format
which has been rolled out at six
hotels so far.
VILLAGE HOTELS
UK hotels: 29
This group of contemporary UK hotels has a
strong presence in UK cities outside London
including four properties in Manchester and
two in both Birmingham and Leeds. Village
Business Club offers meeting spaces, hotdesks,
wifi, food and refreshments, and is available
at eight hotels.
44 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com