London’s US embassy in Mayfair’s Grosvenor Square is to become a luxury hotel. The Grade two listed building will be transformed into a 137 rooms, five star hotel, according to plans that will be submitted to Westminster council in May, the development is estimated to cost around £1 billion. The development comes after plans to move the US embassy to a new home in Nine Elms next year.
The hotel will feature a ballroom with space for 1000 delegates, a spa, six high-end shops and five restaurants.
Developer Qatari Diar, controlled by the Qatari Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund, has appointed British Architect Sir David Chipperfield to draw up redevelopment plans, with a public exhibition on the scheme running from 11 – 16 April at 24 Grosvenor hill.
A Bristol venue has been named the best in the UK for the second year running. Engineers’ House in Clifton Down took the Specialist Venue and Overall Venue in BDCR Continental’s VenueVerdict Awards for the second consecutive year. The industry awards scheme is based on customer feedback throughout 2015.
EEF Venues, the group behind Engineers’ House, also walked away with ‘No 1 Small Group’ and ‘Best Value for Money Group’ in the same awards programme for the third year running. This year’s results are based on 20,003 individual responses throughout 2015 from event planners across a pool of over 375 participating venues nationwide.
Once the home of Charles Pinney, a former Mayor of Bristol, the venue has a conference and meeting business, with 14 distinctive meeting rooms, a highly specified IT system and private grounds for outdoor events.
The Coldra Court hotel, which is located a few minutes away from the Celtic Manor Resort has 148 bedrooms, taking Celtic manor’s bedroom count up to 600. As part of the £2m upgrade, the hotel will be updating its conference facilities. The hotel currently has nine conference and meeting rooms, all housed in the newly rebranded Springs Health Club. The Severn suite, the largest conference and meeting space, can seat up to 220 delegates for a dinner. Coldra court plans for the hotel to be 4 star in terms of facilities but run it with the 5 star service standards associated with the Celtic Manor Resort.
The Celtic Manor Resort, has recently opened its new Coldra Court Hotel, and plans to invest more than £2m in upgrades over the next three years. The Coldra Court Hotel has been trading as the Hilton Newport until contracts were officially exchanged on 31st March. They plan to complete a phased refurbishment of the bedrooms, and will also be introducing a new restaurant concept, and looking to update the conference and banqueting facilities in the near future.
The Coldra Court hotel, which is located a few minutes away from the Celtic Manor Resort has 148 bedrooms, taking Celtic manor’s bedroom count up to 600. As part of the £2m upgrade, the hotel will be updating its conference facilities. The hotel currently has nine conference and meeting rooms, all housed in the newly rebranded Springs Health Club. The Severn suite, the largest conference and meeting space, can seat up to 220 delegates for a dinner. Coldra court plans for the hotel to be 4 star in terms of facilities but run it with the 5 star service standards associated with the Celtic Manor Resort.
The Celtic Manor Resort and Coldra Court Hotel update
The Celtic Manor Resort, has recently opened its new Coldra Court Hotel, and plans to invest more than £2m in upgrades over the next three years. The Coldra Court Hotel has been trading as the Hilton Newport until contracts were officially exchanged on 31st March. They plan to complete a phased refurbishment of the bedrooms, and will also be introducing a new restaurant concept, and looking to update the conference and banqueting facilities in the near future.
The Coldra Court hotel, which is located a few minutes away from the Celtic Manor Resort has 148 bedrooms, taking Celtic manor’s bedroom count up to 600. As part of the £2m upgrade, the hotel will be updating its conference facilities. The hotel currently has nine conference and meeting rooms, all housed in the newly rebranded Springs Health Club. The Severn suite, the largest conference and meeting space, can seat up to 220 delegates for a dinner. Coldra court plans for the hotel to be 4 star in terms of facilities but run it with the 5 star service standards associated with the Celtic Manor Resort.
Village The Hotel Club have announced details of a £35m investment plan that incorporates significant refurbishment plans & new technology starting with 8 of their key UK locations & more to follow. The first locations are:
London Watford
Coventry
Manchester Cheadle
Manchester Bury
Warrington
Cardiff
Maidstone and
Bournemouth
To start, they are fully refurbishing all the bedrooms & bathrooms and both will have a new feature ‘stripe’ wall & new mattresses. Additionally, new 48’ wall mounted TV’s with their UpperDeck rooms featuring a 55’ inch wall mounted TV with Sky and Bluetooth sound bar.
All bedroom corridors will be refurbished and following that, investment in the health & fitness clubs, their pubs The Public House, restaurants and conference & meetings rooms is planned. They are on track for completion by the end of April 2016.
For their meeting and conference rooms, February sees the start of the installation of “click-share” wireless connectivity to TV’s and projectors, plus new 65’ TV’s in meeting rooms and new projectors in larger conference rooms. By the end of April 2016, all conference and meeting areas will have had a complete refurbishment in the 8 locations. Plans are also in place to then continue the meeting room refurbishment programme to the rest of the brand.
Village Glasgow’s guests have been giving great feedback on the new self-service check in facility that was launched when the hotel opened in Summer 2015.
Each kiosk, of which there are 4, allows you to search for your reservation by surname, allocates a room and issues you with a key. Their lobby hosts are on hand for any questions or any assistance required – shifting their focus from the computer screen to the customer.
Based on their success in Glasgow, on completion of the refurbishment to the current 8 locations, self-service check in will be available. The remainder of the hotels will all have self-service check in by December 2016.
Village has also recognised that good Wi-Fi is becoming a non-negotiable requirement when travelling on business or leisure and will have completed a wifi upgrade to all 28 of their UK locations by the end of March 2016 improving coverage and speed. Village continue to offer this free of charge to unlimited devices in each hotel.
It is looking to be an exciting year ahead for Village as they continue their refurbishment, investment and development.
Vienna congress centre achieves green accreditation
The Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center was recently awarded the official Austrian ecolabel for ‘Green Meetings’ and ‘Green Events’. Whereas previously the venue had taken responsibility for its own environmentally sustainable initiatives, such as drawing electricity from renewable energy sources, installing photovoltaic systems, 23 E-fuel stations in the car parks, waste avoidance and waste separation according to a comprehensive waste disposal plan, Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center is now officially empowered to license Green Meetings and Green Events on behalf of its customers.
The Green Award is an official scheme in Austria for M&E venues to provide accreditation and accountability for venues offering environmentally friendly meetings. The award helps solidify Austria’s leadership in the International events industry by ensuring that clients are confident in booking meetings that are green-friendly.
