Industry news for the Hotel and Conference business

Welcome to our website for the savvy hotel and conference professionals. We provide business news, newsletters, extensive reference material, and free to enter competitions. Venuebooking offers insights to the industry from a new perspective to keep you in touch of the world out there.

Mercure Leeds Centre opens September

Mercure Leeds Centre opens September

Mercure Leeds Centre is set to open this...

Indigo coming to Chester

Indigo coming to Chester

Construction has started on the new...

Dalata plan new Manchester Hotel

Dalata plan new Manchester Hotel

Dalata Hotel Group is planning to open a new...

Dalata plan new London Hotel

Dalata plan new London Hotel

Dalata Hotel Group will be the operators of a...

New Hotel opens in Glasgow

New Hotel opens in Glasgow

  A new hotel has just opened in...

  • Mercure Leeds Centre opens September

    Mercure Leeds Centre opens September

  • Indigo coming to Chester

    Indigo coming to Chester

  • Dalata plan new Manchester Hotel

    Dalata plan new Manchester Hotel

  • Dalata plan new London Hotel

    Dalata plan new London Hotel

  • New Hotel opens in Glasgow

    New Hotel opens in Glasgow


Work on a new £15million extension at the Grand Hotel and Spa in York has just started. 100 additional bedrooms plus new conference and banqueting space will be created at this Grade II-listed hotel.

A new restaurant will be created on a former terrace area at the Grand Hotel and Spa York. The hotel’s spa will be enlarged. The existing 107 bedrooms will also be refurbished.

The planned extensions to the Grand Hotel and Spa York will take place in stages. Phase one will see the opening of the new restaurant scheduled for early 2017. The new bedrooms should be opening shortly after.  The existing bedrooms will be refurbished during 2017.

The Grand Hotel and Spa is the only five star hotel in York. It is housed in the former headquarters of the North Eastern Railway Company in the centre of York.

Details: http://www.thegrandyork.co.uk/


Devonshire Club is the latest private members club to open in London. It opens this week in a renovated 19th century warehouse close to Liverpool Street Station.

Non-members can book one of Devonshire Club’s 68 bedrooms and suites.

Facilities at Devonshire Club include a 120-seater brasserie restaurant and four private dining rooms, a champagne bar, a cocktail bar and a library bar.

Devonshire Club has its own private garden and a winter garden. Leisure facilities include four treatment rooms, a Pilates studio and a beauty salon.

Devonshire Club also offers valet parking. It is located in Devonshire Square, a few minutes’ walk from Liverpool Street station.

Details: http://www.devonshire.club/


The former Midland Bank headquarters in the City of London, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, will reopen as the new 252-bedroom flagship five-star Ned Hotel in spring 2017.

Ned Hotel will be operated by Soho House and will join their portfolio of 17 members’ clubs worldwide. Non-members will be able to book accommodation.

The Ned Hotel gets its name from the architect who designed the building - Ned was Sir Edwin's nickname.

The Grade 1-listed building will be redesigned in the style and decor of a 1930s transatlantic ocean liner. The Portland stone facades will be restored and the banking hall's marble columns and walnut panelling preserved.

The banking hall will be converted into the main food and beverage space. It will include seven bars and restaurants including an American cafe, a New-York-style deli, a Parisian cafe, a Grill Room and a branch of Cecconi's.

The former offices on the upper floors will be refigured as 252 bedrooms and suites.

Ned Hotel will also feature a members-only Ned’s Club featuring a rooftop bar with landscaped terraces, a health spa and gym.

The former safe deposit vault in the basement beneath the banking hall will become the main leisure area and will include a swimming pool, gym, boxing ring, sauna, steam room and a ‘Cowshed Spa’.

Ned Hotel will be located at 27 Poultry in the City of London, within walking distance of a range of tube and DLR stations.


Signature Living, the Liverpool-based hotel group, has been given the go-ahead to develop the Old Post Office building in Preston into a boutique hotel.

The three-storey Grade II-listed building in the centre of Preston has been unoccupied for the last six years.

Signature Living are the developers behind the Shankly Hotel and 30 James Street Hotel in Liverpool. Both hotels have 63 boutique-styled bedrooms and suites and both

have been created from architecturally attractive properties in the centre of Liverpool.

Expect to see a similar style development at the Old Post Office in Preston.  Details: http://www.signatureliving.co.uk/


Around half a mile from the Old Post Office is the former Park Hotel in Preston. This could be reopening. 

Plans have been published to redevelop the council-owned former hotel which overlooks Miller Park in the city centre.

The old hotel, which opened in 1883, was formerly a hotel for rail passengers. More recently it has been a Lancashire County Council office.

Plans include creating a hotel and spa in the historic building overlooking the park. The new 1960’s office block alongside would be demolished and replaced with a new building extending the hotel as well as providing conference and office facilities. 

A replacement park bridge is also planned plus the construction of a new link to Preston station.
Details: https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/preston-park-hotel-could-reopen/#utm_source=Place+North+Wes


Carmarthenshire County Council has just unveiled proposals to convert Parc Howard museum and art gallery into a conference and banqueting venue. 

The Council is proposing a sensitive commercialisation of the 19th century building which could include the addition of an outdoor marquee and the reintroducing of the Parc Howard café.

Parc Howard lies half a mile north of Llanelli town centre in South Wales.