Franchise agreement launches Days Hotel brand in Wakefield

The UK's first Days hotel will open next week (Tuesday) in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. The 100-bedroom property is the first franchise agreement between hotel operator Kew Green Hotels and Cendant Europe, which franchises the Days brand in the UK. Cendant announced that it was to introduce the Days Hotel brand to the UK earlier this year. It also franchises budget sister brand Days Inn.

Rates at the Days Hotel Wakefield start at £49.50 for a standard room and £59.50 for a business room. Roy Murray, managing director franchise services, Cendant Europe, said the Days Hotel brand had been developed to allow partners to develop in more expensive urban locations.

"When Days Inn was first introduced into the UK it was mainly a roadside product. As more of our development partners choose to build in urban locations we have evolved the brand to provide them with more flexibility on rates."

Unlike Days Inn, the Days Hotel brand offers a restaurant, bar and meeting rooms. The £4.1m Days Hotel Wakefield is the first of seven Days Hotel-branded properties that Cendant Europe is developing with Kew Green and other partners in the UK over the next few months. Other sites include Belfast (opening next month) and South Ruislip, Middlesex (July). They will join the existing portfolio of 17 Days Inns.

The hotel division of Cendant Corporation, based in Parsippany, New Jersey, USA, is the world's largest lodging franchisor with more than 6,600 hotels worldwide.

In the UK, Cendant franchises 23 hotels and serviced apartments under the Days Inn and Howard Johnson brands. Worldwide, there are 1,934 Days-branded inns and hotels.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 10 - 16 April 2003