Archive for the ‘Manchester Hotels’ Category
Even more rooms with a view
Manchester is enjoying a booming visitor trade. Figures produced by the EuroCity Survey show occupancy rates have risen for the sixth year in succession, with a rate for 1998 of 75.8 per cent.
Demand is set to increase as the City prepares to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games and as Manchester’s profile increases, both within the UK and internationally.
A recent survey of hotel facilities reveals over 25 hotels within the City Centre ranging in size from five to over 350 rooms. Just over 2,400 bedrooms are available, with around 4,800 bedspaces. A number of Salford hotels are also within easy reach of the City Centre.
But there is a demand for still more hotels in the city, and this is being addressed by both new and existing hotel operators. Two new hotels are taking shape, both close to the Bridgewater Hall. Greenalls’ Premier Lodge, opposite the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Midland, will add a further 147 rooms to the hotel stock when it opens in 1999. Jury’s, being built on Great Bridgewater Street to the rear of the Bridgewater Hall will add a further 260 bedrooms.
Proposals are in hand for up to nine further hotels which could yield a total of 1,700 more bedrooms. Existing hotels are also looking at new opportunities. The Palace Hotel on Oxford Road has been gradually bringing more of the Refuge Building into use, and further expansion into the adjacent Excalibur Building could put the current total of 171 rooms up to between 220-260.
The Victoria & Albert on Water Street, next to the Granada Studio Tours complex, is to add around 64 new bedrooms, together with a leisure centre, while the Manchester Conference Centre at UMIST is planning an increase from 74 to 113 rooms.
The hotel market is also expanding outside the City Centre. At the airport, Radisson SAS will complete its 354-bed, five-star scheme later this year. The Holiday Inn Garden Court, opened in spring 1996, is already planning a 66-bed extension, while the Etrop Grange has recently undergone a £1.7 million extension which added 24 rooms.
Other recent hotel proposals include Parrs Wood in Didsbury, and Sharston and Atlas Business Parks in Wythenshawe