WHC set to be runway success
Booming demand for bedrooms at London's Heathrow has persuaded the Whitbread Hotel Company (WHC) to build its biggest Marriott to date at a site on the perimeter of the airport.
The £34m project, due for completion by autumn 1998, will see a 390-bedroom hotel constructed close to the Sheraton Skyline on the A4 Bath Road.
WHC snapped up the site against competition from at least six other companies. It was sold by Skandia, the Swedish insurance giant which also owned the freehold to the Sheraton property until the end of last year.
Alan Parker, managing director of WHC, told Caterer the success of the 350-bedroom Heathrow Marriott Hotel at Langley, on Junction 5 of the M4, had encouraged him to build the property.
"The number of bedrooms coming on stream at Heathrow is not keeping up with the growth in passenger traffic. This will continue even without a fifth terminal being built," he added.
Figures from hotel consultancy Pannell Kerr Forster Associates demonstrate the high demand for bedrooms near the airport. They show that in the year to the end of March 1996, bedroom occupancy was running at almost 80%, more than five percentage points higher than the previous 12 months and almost three percentage points better than London as a whole.
The new hotel will feature two restaurants and a Costa Coffee outlet, the coffee shop chain now owned by Whitbread. Other Whitbread brands such as TGI Friday's may be installed.
It is the first greenfield development of a full-service Marriott since Whitbread took on the brand last August. Once completed, the existing Heathrow Marriott will be renamed.
