Scotsman group buys Paris hotel

The Scotsman Hotel Group, owner of 42 The Calls in Leeds, has bought the 107-bedroom Hôtel de la Trémoille in Paris for about £14m.

Scotsman, which is also developing a luxury hotel in Edinburgh, is buying the property from a US-based investment firm.

It will close the hotel in December for five months for a £7m rebuild to bring it up to four-star luxe status, cutting the number of bedrooms to 93.

The Hôtel de la Trémoille was one of the founding members of the Leading Hotels of the World consortium and until two years ago was owned by Forte.

Scotsman's development director Jonathan Wix described the hotel as "a lovely old lady that needs a bit of loving care and attention again."

The revamp would be "comfort-led and service-led, but using design to create that comfort." He added: "Design for design's sake is something with a very limited life-span."

The new-look hotel will have a health and beauty club and a restaurant with about 60 seats. A well-known chef or restaurateur could be brought in to run the restaurant, Wix said.

Further targets for the Scotsman Hotel Group include Prague, where it is bidding to take over a property owned by the Government, and Budapest, where it has a property under offer. It is in talks about further sites in Lisbon and Athens.

"Europe is going to be the focus of our attention," Wix said. "We are also very keen on Milan, Frankfurt and Munich. We want to be the first pan-European, five-star townhouse group."

The Scotsman Hotel Group was also one of the companies seeking to acquire the Malmaison chain from Wyndham International, but is understood to have pulled out when bids topped £70m.

by David Shrimpton david.shrimpton@rbi.co.uk