Accor takes control of eight Holiday Inn Express hotels

Accor has signed an agreement to operate eight former Express by Holiday Inn hotels in the UK. They are to be renamed as Ibis hotels immediately.

Accor UK Economy Hotels, the UK division of the French-based group, will run the hotels, which are owned by a private property company. All the staff will keep their jobs.

The hotels are in Barlborough, Derbyshire; Bradford Shipley, West Yorkshire; Cardiff Gate; Chesterfield, Derbyshire; Lincoln; Preston North; Rotherham, South Yorkshire; and Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.

They have a total of 660bedrooms and bring the number of Ibis hotels in the UK and Ireland to 34.

Three more Ibis hotels are being built and are due to open later this year in Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. They will open in October, November and December respectively.

Accor operates six hotel chains in the UK. They are: Formule 1, Etap, Ibis, Novotel, Mercure and Sofitel.

The eight new Ibis hotels bring the number of Accor hotels in the UK to 64.