Accor brings Suitehotel chain to the UK

France-based hotel group Accor is to bring its new Suitehotel chain to the UK as part of a development in London's East End next to the ExCel exhibition centre. The hotel, which will have about 140 suites, is included in a major project from developer Marylebone Warwick Balfour (MWB) that has just been granted detailed planning consent. MWB said it had pre-sold the two hotels in the first phase of the development to Accor. The second hotel will be a Novotel with about 250 bedrooms. The development will cost the French hotel company about £45m in total. Work starts this autumn and will be completed by spring 2003. Accor will own the hotels on completion. Suitehotel is a new mid-market chain, featuring larger-than-usual rooms and a living area. Aimed at the individual business traveller, the suites are equipped with microwave ovens to allow guests to heat up ready meals sold in the lobby. The third Suitehotel opened recently in Paris and Accor plans to have 50 of them across Europe within four years. Michael Flaxman, managing director of Accor UK, said the brand was suited to the ExCel site as visitors to exhibitions often had a longer-than-usual average stay. They could also use the larger rooms to meet clients. Accor plans to open a second Suitehotel in central London, followed by more in large provincial cities if these two are successful. MWB also said today that it had been granted planning consent for a major expansion of the Howard Hotel in central London, which it bought for £40m in April 2000. The five-star property, operated by Swissôtel, is to get two extra floors, taking the number of bedrooms from 141 to 187. An expansion programme is also underway at the group's Malmaison chain, with extensions being built to the hotels in Manchester and Edinburgh and new hotels being built in Birmingham and London due for completion by the end of 2002.