Industry news for the Hotel and Conference business

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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


Planning permission has been granted for a new mixed-use development in Edinburgh which will include a new hotel at its centre as well as a variety of restaurants and leisure activities. It is the St James scheme and is located in Edinburgh’s St James Quarter.

The five-star hotel will include up to 210 bedrooms, as well as a 41,000 sq-ft apart-hotel with up to 70 suites. The new development will replace the existing St James Shopping Centre and the King James Thistle Hotel currently on the site.

Construction work is expected to begin later this year, with completion scheduled for 2020.

The St James development will overlook St James Square in Leith Street. It is a short walk from Edinburgh Waverley station.

Details: www.edinburghstjames.com

Swinton Park - the castle hotel, spa, cookery school and events venue in North Yorkshire - has opened Lake Island, a Georgian-styled, secluded summerhouse designed for brainstorming sessions for smaller groups. Lake Island is situated on one of the five lakes to be found on the 20,000-acre Swinton Park estate.

Swinton Park is promoting Lake Island as a venue for ‘blue sky thinking’. Bean bags can be arranged for an informal meeting with blankets and an outside fire pit available when the days draw in. Lake Island is available for hire by the day or half day.

Swinton Park itself has event space for up to 120 delegates plus 32 luxury bedrooms with free wi-fi and free parking. Swinton Park is located just north of Ripon in North Yorkshire.

Details: www.swintonpark.com


The Dalmeny Hotel in Lytham St Annes is undertaking a £2.5million upgrade of its facilities. 80 of its 125 bedrooms are to be refurbished.  A new restaurant and bar will be added as well as new atrium events space.

The new restaurant will be called Indigo Bar and Grill. It will feature a new à la carte menu using fresh, locally sourced ingredients.

The Atrium Suite will accommodate up to 200 guests and will have its own mezzanine bar and will have direct access from the car park. The Atrium Suite will be available from spring 2016.

The Dalmeny Hotel is located on the South Promenade in Lytham St. Annes Lancashire. It is a short drive from the M55 motorway.

Details: www.dalmenyhotel.co.uk


Contractors are in place and construction is expected to begin this summer on the new 85-bedroom Southampton Harbour Hotel & Spa to be built on headland that was used to moor the region’s exclusive yachts and the cross-channel ferries coming into the marina at Ocean Village.

The hotel will also include a spa with a gym and swimming pool and incorporate a restaurant and champagne bar on the top floor, with views across the Solent and the Isle of Wight.

Southampton Harbour Hotel & Spa is scheduled to open in June 2017.

Harbour Hotels currently operate five hotels around the south coast of England. The group has a further two hotels in development in Brighton as well as the one in Southampton.

Details: www.harbourhotels.co.uk


Safehands Holidays have launched the Esplanade Hotel, a new hotel in Llandudno created for disabled people and their carers and families.     

Esplanade Hotel Llandudno has been fully renovated and modernised over the past year. The bedrooms now include modern access shower facilities with shower chair/commodes. Most rooms have an electric profile bed with built-in bedsides and either overhead tracking hoists or electric manual hoists. A variety of room configurations are available, singles, twins, triples, family rooms and suites.

Esplanade Hotel features a modernised ground floor area with a fully accessible restaurant and a sea-view lounge and bar. The hotel also includes a changing places room situated on the ground floor level of the hotel, which has a changing table/shower trolley, a power shower, an accessible toilet, a shower chair commode and an X/Y ceiling track hoist system which provides full room manoeuvrability.

Esplanade Hotel is operated by Safehands Holidays, a Blackpool-based company which launched the Mayfair Hotel in the Lancashire resort, its first fully-accessible hotel, in 2009.

Details:  www.safehandsholidays.co.uk