Dakota chain plans to revolutionise the budget hotels sector

Ken McCulloch's first Dakota hotel opens later this month. The 92-bedroom hotel, which opens in Sherwood Park in Nottingham on 29 June, is the first of 20 Dakotas McCulloch and his business partner, Formula 1 racing driver David Coulthard, plan to launch over the next two years.

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The pair will open a second 132-bedroom Dakota in Edinburgh later this year and plan to follow that with more hotels in Aberdeen, Chester, Newcastle and Leeds Dakota is described as a boutique-style "super budget" hotel, which aims to revolutionise the budget hotel business and take advantage of the demand for stylish, affordable hotels. McCulloch, chairman of Dakota, said: "I'm frequently amazed by the lack of variety and innovation in the hotel industry. Mainstream hotels have become like the bland leading the bland, and lack an understanding of customers' needs." He added that Dakota was named after the aircraft which revolutionised air travel for the masses in the 1930s. He promised that the new hotel chain would do the same to a "very sleepy industry". Rooms at the Dakota Nottingham hotel cost £79.50 (inc VAT) a night.