Metropole position

George Westwell is attached to his mobile phone. He snaps it open and shut with fierce efficiency, relaying messages and giving instructions as he marches through the corridors and around the function rooms of the hotel.

As general manager of the four-star Hilton London Metropole hotel in Paddington, he needs a mobile phone more than most, for this hotel is now enormous: the £100m extension to the hotel, called the Stakis Metropole until Hilton bought Stakis 18 months ago, was completed last month, on time and on budget, to create the capital's largest single conference hotel.

And in fewer than two weeks' time it will be put through its paces when it hosts hoteliers from around the world for the prestigious International Hotel & Restaurant Association (IH&RA) conference.

The work is phase two of a development that means the previously 700-bedroom hotel can now sleep more than 1,000 people, cater for 2,000 and comfortably accommodate 3,000 day conference delegates at any one time. Many bedrooms are "double doubles" and every room in the new wing has sophisticated security, a PlayStation and a television that can double as a computer monitor.

There are rooms that can sleep up to seven, several apartments and the hotel's top-floor restaurant, Aspects of London, is the capital's highest.

Westwell, general manager for the past 10 years, refers to the hotel as "his baby". He is clearly overjoyed by the development, having overseen it since planning applications were first submitted in 1991: "It's been a long gestation, but the challenges of creating and opening a hotel are very invigorating."

Exciting, too, are the profit forecasts. Westwell is coy about figures but says the extended hotel will provide the biggest contribution to Hilton International's bottom line of any property in its UK and Ireland portfolio. Within a few days of opening the new wing, the hotel achieved record revenue and there are conference bookings (not all confirmed) to the value of £20m over the next 12 months.

For Grant Hearn, Hilton International's managing director UK & Ireland, the development puts London on the conference map: "It will allow London to compete in the world-class conference market in a way it was unable to previously," he says.

Both he and Westwell are keen to work with Ken Livingstone, the new mayor of London, in promoting London to an international business audience. And, on a more local scale, the project is part of the Paddington Regeneration Partnership, aimed at revitalising the area (see panel).

Size makes the difference here. Hilton is positioning the Metropole as a one-stop shop for conference organisers, a venue that is big enough to accommodate all delegates for any but the very largest conferences. Westwell cites one client's experience: "They used a non-hotel venue before and had to book 26 hotels. This time the client is dealing just with us and they've got 800 rooms [the maximum guaranteed block booking] here and rooms in five other [Hilton] hotels, not 26. They have one point of contact here and one contract. They think we're manna from heaven."

The Metropole caters for evening functions and short events but its primary market is exhibition-led large-scale residential conferences lasting three or more days. The cost? Westwell says it's "competitive", with the 24-hour delegate rate at around £255.

Hilton started the selling globally two-and-a-half years ago. "There are about 430 events that travel the world looking for destinations. They go to Tokyo or Frankfurt but many still want to come to London and now they can," says Westwell.

Versatility is the other thing. Westwell recalls events he hosted recently: "The room was set up one day for a 600-delegate conference translating simultaneously into 24 languages and the next day it became a Turkish bazaar complete with smells, flavours and belly dancers."

The two new conference rooms (the Monarch Suite and King's Suite) can adapt to pretty much anything, too. A podium at one end can be a stage for speech-making, home for a production crew, or grand entrance to a ball. A sophisticated lighting system can project logos, spotlight tables, or change mood with computer-generated light shows. It can be a dining room (up to 1,000 meals can be served from an inter-connecting kitchen and service area) or a ballroom. And if your business is not a mega-conference, there is a maze of smaller rooms.

The bedrooms should appeal to the weekend market too, says Westwell. Business bedrooms on the top five floors of the original tower will be sold as "rooms with a view"; double doubles will become family rooms; and the executive rooms will be sold as a celebration package. The 30 rooms that can sleep seven are obvious family choices, as are the eight apartments.

The 2000 IH&RA conference will be held at the Metropole from 16-20 November. For more information go to www.ih-ra.com.